A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c16.74

c16.74

The king was thus thrown into the hands of the betrayers of his late minister and had to make it up with them, instead of punishing them as he had intended. Malik Hasan became lieutenant of the kingdom and his son Ahmad governor of Daulatabad in the place of Yusuf, who took the fiefs formerly held by Mahmud Gawan—Belgaum and Bijapur. Muhammad went to Belgaum hoping to conciliate Yusuf Adil Khan. When he heard that Narasimha of Vijayanagar was preparing to attack Goa, he wanted to go there, but his nobles would not accompany him. He therefore sent Yusuf Adil Khan to its relief, and himself returned to Firuzabad where he drowned his humiliation in drink. He formally nominated his young son Mahmud as his successor and died at Bidar on 22 March 1482, crying out that Mahmud Gawan was slaying him. He was only twenty-nine at the time.