After this event* the power of Islem Shāh lasted barely two years. It was in fact an exact counterpart of the affair of Sulān 409. Jalālu-d-Dīn Fīroz Shāh Khiljī after the execution of Sīdī Maula,* save that the decay of the kingdom of Salīm Shāh was even more rapid than that of Jalālu-d-Dīn. People considered Mulla ‘Abdūllāh, who was always vexatious to the holy men, to be the cause of all this heart-burning, and this was really the case.
This event took place in the year 957 H. (1550 A.D.) the writer of these pages was at that time ten years of age, and invented the two following chronograms: The first is Ẕākiru-llāh, the second Saqāhum rabbuhum sharāban.*
Among the events which happened in the reign of Islem Shāh was the murder of Khawāṣṣ Khān, of which the following is a brief account. When Khawāṣṣ Khān, after the battle with the Nīyāzīs fled to the foot of the hills, Islem Shāh appointed to that district Tāj Khān Karrānī who was the brother of Suleimān Karrānī, and the most learned and able of the whole Afghān line, and wrote a command from his camp at Bin Bāū, that they were to induce Khāwaṣṣ Khān, even if it were by means of treaty oaths, to come down from the hills, and put an end to him. However Tāj Khān was unable to effect* anything owing to the impregnability of that mountain retreat, and accordingly sent Khawāṣṣ Khān the message of Islem Shāh promising him safety.* He, relying upon the word of a Muslim, came* and had an interview with Tāj Khān, who instantly* had him put to death and sent his head* to Salīm Shāh at the township* of Bin (Bāū), and after burying his body* at the township of Sarastu, in the neighbourhood of Sambal, transferred it thence to Dihlī. This event happened in the year 959 H. (A.D. 1551). As a chronographical record they invented the words Muṣībat ba‘ālam shud,* that is to say, A calamity for the world.
One of his magnanimous acts was the following. On his arrival 410. at Kalpī in the company of Shīr Shāh he gave two laks of rupees to the sweetmeat sellers of that city so that they might send sugarcane to Rautanbhor without intermission. In the same way also he gave money to all the mango gardens of Baiāna, so that they might send mangoes day after day* to the halting-places for the poor and necessitous.
In the meantime Shīr Shāh died, and Salīm Shāh appointed persons who recovered the sum of twenty-four thousand rupees* which remained of that money, and on receiving it put it into the treasury.
In this same year Shaikh ‘Abdu-l-ḥaiyy, the son of Shaikh Jamālī Kanbāwī of Dihlī,* who was adorned with excellencies of science and poetry,* and was a devout man,* and the boon companion and specially favoured intimate of Islem Shāh, delivered up the life entrusted to his keeping, and Saiyyid Shāh Mīr of Āgra invented the following chronogram:— He said —
My name in itself would furnish the tārīkh
At such time as ‘abd (the slave) was not in the midst of it.*
Among the events which happened during the time that Islem Shāh was encamped at Bin was the following. One day in the interval between two times of prayer Islem Shāh was sitting at ease upon his roadster,* and was proceeding with a small escort from the camp to visit the fort of Mān Gaṛh,* which lies at a distance of five or six krohs or thereabouts, in accordance with his usual custom, when suddenly a man sprung up in front of him and blocking the road, holding a sword concealed in his armpit like the proverbial Taabaa Sharran,* under pretence of seeking redress (for some grievance) came forward and aimed* a blow at him. Salīm Shāh, however, with great adroitness caught the blow upon the head of his whip. The handle of the whip was cut through and a slight wound was inflicted upon his face. When the man raised his arm to strike a second blow Salīm Shāh sprang forward and hurled himself upon that ruffian, and wrested the sword from his hand. At this instant Daulat Khān Ajyāra, the son of Saẓāwal Khān, who was the chosen intimate and bosom friend of Islem Shāh, galloped up and dealt a blow at that 411. miscreant. Others also came up and enquired from him the reason for his action. Salīm Shāh did not approve of this* and said: ‘This wretch will destroy the houses of numberless people, lose no time in taking due vengeance on him.’ However he recognised that sword as the one he had given to Iqbāl Khān. This Iqbāl Khān was one of the scum and off-scourings of Hindustān who had rendered Shīr Shāh several services. He was so exceedingly ill-favoured,* mean-looking, and oafish in appearance that they used to call him Raḥmatu-llāhī, which in Hindustān is the term applied to a weaver.* Islem Shāh himself* had raised him from the very lowest of the low, and had given him a position of intimacy with the highest, so that he made him the envy of the noble Amīrs,* and would not permit him to be out of his sight for one moment. From that day forward, when he recognised that sword, he deprived him of his rank, so that* he made him an example* of the saying: Everything returns to its original state; but in spite of the incitation of the Amīrs of the Afghāns that he should put him to death, he replied, “I am heartily ashamed to destroy the man of my own training.*
Verse.Water cannot swallow down wood, knowest thou why?
It is ashamed* to destroy that which it has reared.
Islem Shāh, who had for this same reason become distrustful of Afghāns, now became afflicted with complications of his disease, and increased the opium in his wine,* and the snake-bitten one drank a draught of poison,* and thirsting for the blood of the Afghāns, became more than ever* set upon eradicating them. The crisis was as though it was saying to him:
Verse.Thou hast laid a foundation, which will destroy thy family,
Oh, thou whose family is destroyed, what a foundation thou
hast laid!
After these events Islem Shāh returned* towards Gwāliār, which he had made his metropolis, and had arrived at Dihlī* when tidings arrived that Muḥammad Humāyūn Pādshāh had reached the banks of the Indus, with the aim of conquering Hindustān. Islem Shāh just at the* very moment when this tidings arrived, 412. had applied a leech* to his throat, but instantly took it off, dashed some water upon his head,* and binding up his throat with linen rags* ordered his army to proceed, and* the first day covering three krohs, encamped, and the rank and file of his army who were at the last gasp from drunkenness, involuntarily followed him as though led by a halter round their necks. Certain of the Vazīrs who were well-disposed to him* represented that inasmuch as a powerful foe had come against him, and his soldiery were worthless, it would be just as well if orders were given for their pay to be issued to them. Islem Shāh replied that if* he were to give them money at that particular time they would attribute it to his being weak and in straits, so I will wait, said he, till my return after this victory,* when I will give them, with one stroke of the pen, two years pay. The soldiers had patience and without a murmur awaited what fortune Providence would bring them, at the same time expecting some sudden calamity,* and in spite of their state of unpreparedness arrived at the encampment. When it was reported to Islem Shāh that the artillery was ready, but that, as the bullocks* for the gun-carriages had been left at Gwāliār, they awaited his orders, he replied, ‘What possible use are such a crowd of thousands of infantry and cavalry, are they to get their monthly pay for nothing?’ accordingly he made them all do the work of bullocks,* and ordered them to drag the gun carriages, thus proving the truth of the following:—