EXTRACTS.*

Mahmúd of Ghazní.*

Mahmud having thus settled his affairs in India, returned in the autumn to Ghizny, where he remained during the winter. In the spring of the year A.H. 399 (A.D. 1008) he determined again to attack Anundpal, Raja of Lahore, for having lent his aid to Dawood, during the late defection in Multan. Anundpal, hearing of his intentions, sent ambassadors on all sides, inviting the assistance of the other princes of Hindustan, who now considered the expulsion of the Mahomedans from India as a sacred duty. Accordingly, the Rajas of Ujein, Gwaliar, Kalunjar, Canauj, Dehli, and Ajmir, entered into a confederacy, and collecting their forces, advanced towards the Panjab with the greatest army that had yet taken the field. The Indians and Mahomedans arrived in sight of each other on a plain, on the confines of the province of Peshawur, where they remained encamped forty days without coming to action. The troops of the idolaters daily increased in number. The Hindu females, on this occasion, sold their jewels, and melted down their golden ornaments (which they sent from distant parts), to furnish resources for the war; and the Gukkurs, and other warlike tribes joining the army, surrounded the Mahomedans, who were obliged to entrench their camp.

Mahmud, having thus secured himself, ordered 6000 archers to the front to endeavour to provoke the enemy to attack his entrenchments. The archers were opposed by the Gukkurs, who, in spite of the King's efforts and presence, repulsed his light troops and followed them so closely, that no less than 30,000 Gukkurs with their heads and feet bare, and armed with various weapons, penetrated into the Mahomedan lines, where a dreadful carnage ensued, and 5000 Mahomedans in a few minutes were slain. The enemy were at length checked, and being cut off as fast as they advanced, the attacks became fainter and fainter, till, on a sudden, the elephant upon which the prince who commanded the Hindus rode, becoming unruly from the effects of the naphtha balls,* and the flights of arrows, turned and fled. This circumstance produced a panic among the Hindus, who, seeing themselves deserted by their general, gave way and fled also. Abdulla Taee, with 6000 Arabian horse, and Arslan Jazib, with 10,000 Turks, Afghans, and Khiljis, pursued the enemy day and night, so that 20,000 Hindus were killed in the retreat. Of the spoil, thirty elephants (besides other booty) were brought to the King…

* When Param Deo, and the Raja of Ajmir, and others, had assembled a large army and taken possession of the roads, in order to oppose the Sultan, the latter found it impracticable to face them, and therefore marched to Multan by way of Sind. On his journey thither, owing to the scarcity of forage at some places, and of water at others, his army experienced great trouble and distress. It was with considerable difficulty he at length reached Ghizny in the year 417 A.H. It is said that when the Sultan was proceeding to Multan through the deserts of Sind, he gave orders to procure a guide to conduct him on his journey. A Hindu offered his services, but treacherously led the army through a path, which brought them to a place where no water could be procured. When the army had passed on for a whole day and night, and found no water at any place, they were sore set, and everything wore the appearance of the horrors of the day of judgment. The Sultan then asked his guide the reason why he had brought them to such a fearful pass: the Hindu replied that he was a worshipper of Somnath, and had conducted the King and his army to the desert, with a view to their destruc­tion. The Sultan being exceeding wroth, ordered his men to put the Hindu to death.

On that very night the Sultan retired from his camp to a neighbouring spot, and prostrating himself on the earth, offered up prayers, mingled with lamentations, to Almighty God, im­ploring deliverance from the danger in which he was placed. After the first watch of the night had elapsed, a light was seen towards the north. The army, according to the Sultan's com­mand, directed their march towards the light, and by the morning found themselves in safety on the borders of a lake. Thus the piety of the Sultan rescued him from the brink of destruction.* ^{* *}

It is mentioned in the Jama-ool-Hikaiat, that when the Sultan on one occasion saw an idol in a Hindu temple poised in the air without any support, he was much surprised at the sight, and inquired of the philosophers of the times the cause of the pheno­menon. They answered that the roof and walls of the building were entirely made of magnet, and that the idol, which was made of iron, being equally attracted from the different points of the magnetic edifice, was thus naturally suspended in the middle of it. On one of the walls being destroyed by the orders of the Sultan, the idol fell to the ground.

Fíroz Sháh Tughlik.*

At* the time of the death of Mahomed Toghluk, his cousin, Malik Feroze Bárbek, nephew of Gheiasu-ood-deen Toghluk, was in the camp. Mahomed Toghluk having a great affection for him, inasmuch as he had paid the most devoted attention to the King during his illness, proposed making him his successor, and accordingly recommended him as such on his death-bed to his nobles. On the King's demise, the army fell into the utmost disorder; to remedy which, Feroze gained over the majority of the Indian chiefs to his party, and prevailed on the Mogul mer­cenaries to remove to some distance from the camp, till he should be able to compose the differences which existed in the army. Malik Fíroz Bárbek thought it expedient, with reference to Altún Bahádur and the nobles who had come from Amír Kazghan as auxiliaries, to bestow dignities and honorary dresses upon them, according to their respective ranks, and to give them their dismissal, remarking that it was not improbable, that dissen- sions might arise between them and the soldiers of Hindústán, which would lead to disturbances, and therefore that it was bet­ter, before he marched, that they should break up their camp and depart. Altún Bahádur concurred in the propriety of this recommendation, and immediately striking his camp, pitched it at a distance of ten miles. Amír Nowroze Kurkín, the Mogul chief who commanded the troops of his nation in the army, son-in-law of Turmesharín Khán, who in the time of Muhammad Tughlak Sháh had come to India, and been enrolled among the chief nobles of the land, now acting a most ungrateful part, quitted the camp on the same night, and joined Altoon Tash, the leader of the auxiliary troops, to whom he suggested that the King of Hindustan was dead, that the army was without a leader and totally disorganized, that the time was favourable for them, and that it was their business as soldiers, to plunder the late King's treasure on its march the next day, and then to retreat to their native country with all the money and jewels they could possess themselves of. Altoon Tash being persuaded to enter into this scheme, the Moguls returned next morning to the camp, which was still in disorder, to the army which was moving on like a caravan, without a guide, and without system or arrange­ment , and after a sharp shirmish, loaded several camels with treasure, plundering several treasure-chests which were laden upon camels, took captive many children of both sexes, and were not sparing in their pillage. In order to secure himself from further depredation, Feroze (the Umrás of Sultán Muhammad, oppressed with a thousand fears and alarms) led the army to Sevustan, commonly called Sehwan, and during the night took every possible precaution to defend himself (themselves,) against the Moguls, and thought rest and sleep a forbidden indulgence. Meanwhile the officers of his army, Makhdúm-záda 'Abbásí Sheikh-u-Sheiyúk Násira-u-dín Mahmúd, and Údhí, better known as Chirágh Dehli, and other wise and holy men, grandees and chiefs, all with one accord having waited on Malik Feroze Bárbek, represented that the late King had constituted him his successor, and that no other nobleman was more worthy of the honour, and entreated him not to reject the cares of state, but to ascend the throne, to which, after some hesitation, and declaring that he would proceed on a pilgrimage to the two holy cities and Hijáz, when he could no longer resist their importunities, he gave his assent, and was accordingly proclaimed King on the twenty-third of Muharram, after he had passed through more than fifty stages of his illustrious life. On the same day he gave orders to ran­som the prisoners, who during the late disorders had fallen into the hands of the turbulent people of Tutta and the Moghuls, and on the third day he marched against the rebellious people of Tutta (Thatta), and the Mogul auxiliaries, whom he defeated, that he might take any of them prisoners wherever they might be found, or that he might slay them, and took many of their chiefs prisoners, in short, many of the Moghul chiefs were seized and put to death. Amír Nauroz Kurkín and Altún Bahádur, seeing no further advantage in delay, hastened to their own country with the utmost precipitation, and even the people of Tutta (Thatta), who had proceeded to the greatest extremities in their insubordi­nation and rebellion, placed their feet within the boundary of allegiance. The accession of Sultán Fíroz Sháh was hailed as a blessing by the people, and they prayed for his health and wealth with all earnestness. Shortly after, he marched by uninterrupted stages from Sewastán to the fort of Bakar.* ^{* * *}