The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c15.s2.t5.48.3

v2.c15.s2.t5.48.3

Unable to withstand their attack, he rallied his troops and retreated in haste towards Dēvagiri.¹ Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, who came to India some ten years after the conquest of Teliṅgāṇa, attributes the disaster to the miscarriage of the ambitious designs of Ulugh Khān himself, and represents 'Ubaid as the unfortunate victim of his treachery. Ulugh Khān who, according to Baṭṭūṭa, was planning to stir up a rebellion against his father, instigated 'Ubaid to spread in the army the false rumour of the Sulṭān's death, expecting that the leaders of the army would swear allegiance to him as their sovereign; but his plan miscarried. The *amīrs* rose against him and would have killed him; but Malik Tīmūr, one of the principal *amīrs* in the army, offered him protection and helped him to flee to Delhi. Though the Sulṭān was aware of the treacherous designs of his son, he accepted the false accusations which the latter levelled against the *amīrs*, and not only punished them severely but also sent him back with men and money to Teliṅgāṇa to retrieve the disaster.² Though Ibn Baṭṭūṭa visited India within a decade after the fall of Warangal, he actually wrote his Risāla from memory in the last quarter of the fourteenth century, after his return to his native Morocco. The accuracy of his account is not free from doubt; for it not only contradicts the evidence of the contemporary Indian Muslim historians but also runs counter to the character of the Sultān.