A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c16.52

c16.52

The Gujarat war exhausted Ahmad, and Hushang of Malwa, who knew this, captured Kherla and killed Narsingh. Ahmad marched north to avenge this insult, but Nasir Khan intervened and made peace between them on terms by no means favourable to Ahmad. Kherla was acknowledged to be a fief of Malwa, while the rest of Berar remained a province of the Deccan. Ahmad then punished some of the petty chieftains of Telengana and restored order (1424-5) in the province ruled by one of his sons. He died in 1435 aged about sixty-four. Unlike his brother Firuz, whose learning had imparted a touch of scepticism to his outlook on life, Ahmad was a superstitious Muslim, with a tinge of fanaticism, apt to show too much reverence to any long-haired ‘saint’. But he was not altogether incapable of enjoying wit and learning, and at his instance the poet Āzarī of Isfarāyin in Khurasan composed the Bāhman-nāmā, a versified history of the dynasty, now lost. From such quotations as have survived, we know it to have been a rather poor imitation of the Shāh-nāma. Āzari retired to his native place before Ahmad's death, but continued writing his history up to his death in 1462; it was added to regularly by other hands till the end of the dynasty.