A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c16.57

c16.57

Ala-ud-din’s character degenerated with age and he began to indulge in gross sensual pleasures to the neglect of public business. The Deccanis took advantage of this to compass the destruction of the foreigners’ party. In 1446-7, an expedition against the Konkan was organized, with Malik-ut-Tujjar Khalaf Hasan appointed to the command. The intrigues of the Deccanis with two Hindu princes, one of them the rāja of Sangameśvar, brought about the defeat of the army and the slaughter of large numbers of the foreigners including Malik-ut-Tujjar himself. The survivors gathered in the fort of Chākan to the north of Poona, but the Deccanis followed up their game by bringing false accusations of treason against them and persuading the sultan to agree to their assassination. They then contrived to murder all the officers at a banquet, and to slaughter 1,200 Sayyids and 1,000 other foreigners besides numerous children, appropriating to themselves the wives, daughters and goods of their victims. The few who escaped, Quasim Beg and two other officers among them, managed, to convey to the sultan a true account of what had happened. Ala-ud-din was overcome by remorse, executed the leaders of the Deccani party, and reduced their families to penury. Quasim Beg became governor of Daulatabad, and his two companions were promoted to high rank. The foreign party regained its ascendancy, and in 1451 the king got a letter from the poet Āzarī of Isfarāyin urging him to abandon the use of wine and dismiss all Deccani officials. He did both and began to take more interest in state affairs.