Account of his early life — embraces the Sheea persuasion — engages the Raja of Beejanuggur to assist him in the war against the King of Ahmudnuggur. — After a successful cam­paign, Ally Adil Shah consents to accept of terms of peace. — The war renewed by the King of Ahmudnuggur in conjunction with the King of Golconda. — Ally Adil Shah and the Raja of Beejanuggur again take the field. — Peace concluded. — The Mahomedan kings of the Deccan unite against the Raja of Beejanuggur, who is slain in the battle of Talikote, and part of his kingdom wrested from his family. — Exertions made by Ally Adil Shah to occupy the dominions of Beeja-nuggur partially frustrated by the jealousy of the King of Ahmudnuggur. — Many Hindoo chiefs on the south rendered tributary. — The King marches against the surviving member of the house of Beejanuggur. — His Hindoo cavalry desert Ally Adil Shah, and act against him, which compels him to retreat — he cuts off the Hindoo officers by treachery — his death.

ALLY ADIL SHAH, from his childhood, was re­markable for his ready wit and various accom­plishments. While yet a youth, his father Ibrahim, one day in his presence, praised God who had given him grace to abandon the heretical precepts of his father and grandfather, and embrace the orthodox religion. The Prince humorously remarked, that as his Majesty had thought proper to depart from the faith of his parents, it was incumbent upon all good children to follow so excellent an ex­ample. The King, displeased at this sarcasm, asked him what sect he admired; to which he replied, that at present he was of the same opinion with his Majesty, but hereafter God must direct him. Ibrahim Adil Shah, from this answer, conceiving him to be inclined to the Sheea per­suasion, disgraced his preceptor Khwaja Inayut Oolla Shirazy, and in a few days after put him to death, in conformity with the sentence passed on him by the Soony doctors at Beejapoor; and Moolla Futteh Oolla Shirazy was nominated preceptor to the Prince in his stead. This learned man was also secretly a Sheea, though for his own safety he outwardly professed the doctrines of Mahomed Huneef, and was much beloved by his pupil. Not long after this event, a party of the nobility having entered into the schemes of Boorhan Nizam Shah, proposed, by bribing the clerk of the kitchen, to poison Ibrahim Adil Shah, after which it was intended to raise his brother Abdoolla to the throne, and to restore the public exercise of the Sheea worship. The clerk of the kitchen, who had at first favoured the design, no sooner heard that the intention was to change the form of re­ligion of which he was a strict follower, than he revealed the plot to the King, who put all the con­spirators to death; but the Prince Abdoolla es­caped to the port of Goa. Ibrahim Adil Shah, from this moment, became suspicious of his son Ally, and sent him with his tutor to the fortress of Mirch, giving strict orders to the governor, Si-kundur Khan, to watch him closely, and to prevent any persons of the Sheea persuasion from ap­proaching his person, or allowing their doctrines to be mentioned in his presence. It happened, however, that the governor and his son-in-law, Kamil Khan Deccany, were privately of the Sheea sect, so that, instead of observing the orders of the King, they attached themselves to the Prince, and endeavoured to acquire his good will by granting him every indulgence. When Ibrahim Adil Shah was taken ill, and his end ap­peared nigh, the Prince frequently ascended the pulpit in a mosque, and read the prayers after the ritual of the Sheeas, and sometimes Kamil Khan himself officiated. This behaviour coming to the King's knowledge, he resolved to nominate his younger son Tahmasp to be his successor; but learning that he was by far a more zealous Sheea than his brother, he became incensed against him, and committed him to confinement in the fortress of Belgam. He then said he must leave the suc­cession to be determined by the decrees of Pro­vidence, and to the ministers of the government, who might elect either of the princes they chose for their sovereign after his death.

When the life of Ibrahim Adil Shah was des-spaired of, Mahomed Kishwur Khan, governor of the districts of Hookery, Belgam, and Raybagh, who possessed great wealth and influence in the state, moved towards the fort of Mirch, represent­ing to Sikundur Khan, who commanded the latter place, that as the King's end was approaching, it was probable that many officers of the court and jageerdars would embrace the cause of the Prince Tahmasp, and raise dissensions in the state; that, therefore, it would be as well to prepare the royal insignia for the Prince Ally immediately, and at once to encamp near the walls of Mirch, in order that people might join his standard, and be able to move to Beejapoor without delay, on the death of the King. Sikundur Khan, accordingly, invested the Prince with the insignia of royalty, and sent his son-in-law, Kamil Khan, to attend him out of the fort. Ally was immediately joined by Kishwur Khan, who presented him with a large sum of money; and that chief in return was honoured with a dress, and received the office of commander-in-chief, while Kamil Khan Dec-cany was raised to the rank of a noble. The news of the Prince's proceedings spreading abroad, the King's troops repaired to his standard from various quarters; and many of the officers of the court, together with the body-guard, quitted Beejapoor, and hastened to pay their respects. Upon the death of Ibrahim Adil Shah, Ally, without delay, moved towards the capital, and was met on the route by all the members of the court with the regal insignia of his father, which they laid at the feet of the new sovereign; and on arriving within two miles of the city Ally Adil Shah ascended the throne in the garden of Kishwur Khan. All the syuds and learned men prayed for the prosperity of his reign, and the nobles and other officers of government, raising their voices in congratulation, presented offerings. The King gave orders for a town to be erected near the place, to commemorate his accession; which was soon built, and called Shahpoor. Of his dispo­sition towards the Sheea religion he gave imme­diate proofs, by issuing orders for the Khootba to be read throughout his dominions in the names of the Imams, as in the reign of his grandfather; at the same time, he ordered forty persons to be employed in his train as criers, to utter curses against the Sahiba, agreeably to a ceremony adopted by those of the Sheea persuasion; so that curses were uttered in the mosques, at the public audiences, and in the King's presence whenever he appeared abroad. Justice is a treasure which increases by expenditure, and an edifice which fire cannot burn, nor the engines of vicissitude destroy: the King, by his strict attention to this virtue, became entitled to rank among the most upright of monarchs, paying such scrupulous at­tention to the rights of his subjects, that the revenues of his dominions were increased, and the limits of his kingdom greatly extended.

In the first year of his reign, being desirous of recovering the forts of Kulliany and Sholapoor, which had fallen into the hands of Hoossein Nizam Shah, the King, without waiting for the customary compliment of receiving ambassadors from the surrounding powers, to congratulate him on his accession, despatched Kishwur Khan and Shah Aboo Toorab Shirazy to negotiate a treaty of alliance with Ramraj * at Beejanuggur; at the same time he sent Mahomed Hoossein Sadicky for the same purpose to Ahmudnuggur. Ramraj received the ambassadors with proper honours, and sent back one of his confidential officers with Kishwur Khan, to congratulate the King on his accession; but Hoossein Nizam Shah, jealous of the designs of Ally Adil Shah against Sholapoor, did not evince proper respect to his embassy, nor send any in return, but gave strong indications of de­cided enmity. Ally Adil Shah, intent on adding to his dominions, and repairing the losses sustained by his father, entered into a close alliance with Ramraj; and on the occasion of the death of a son of that Prince, he had the boldness, attended only by one hundred horse, to go to Beejanuggur, to offer his condolence in person on that me­lancholy occasion. Ramraj received him with the greatest respect, and the King, with the kindest persuasions, prevailed upon him to lay aside his mourning. The wife of Ramraj, on this occasion, adopted the King as her son, and at the end of three days, which were spent in an in­terchange of friendly professions and presents, Ally Adil Shah took his leave; but as Ramraj did not attend him out of the city he was offended, and treasured up the affront in his mind, though too prudent, for the present, to evince any signs of his displeasure.*

Ally Adil Shah's enmity towards Hoossein Nizam Shah daily increasing, he intimated to him, by a message sent through Shah Hoossein Anjoo, that it was clear to the whole world that the forts of Kul-liany and Sholapoor belonged to his family by an­cient right, though, owing to the misfortunes of his father, they had passed into the hands of the Nizam Shahy government, but that now he hoped they would both be restored, or, at all events, the former. Shah Hoossein Anjoo failed in every argument in prevailing on Hoossein Nizam Shah to give up either place; and Ally Adil Shah sent another am­bassador to Ahmudnuggur, representing that pas­sion and obstinacy in the discussion of political questions of such importance did not become great kings; and that to prevent ill consequences, he trusted Hoossein Nizam Shah would see the justice of giving up the forts, when the friendship between their states would increase; but if not, he might expect the march of an army into his dominions, which should be laid waste without mercy.