A. H. 835.
A. D. 1434. In the year 835, Sooltan Hooshung marched for the purpose of taking the fortress of Kalpy, then in charge of one Abdool Kadur, a Dehly officer. On arriving within a few miles of the place, he heard that Ibrahim Shah Shurky of Joonpoor was also on his march to reduce Kalpy; and conceiving it neces­sary to defeat him in the first instance, Sooltan Hooshung marched to oppose him. The Malwa and Joonpoor armies were within sight of each other, and a battle was hourly expected, when Ibrahim Shah Shurky (hearing that Syud Moo-barik, King of Dehly, was on his march to attack Joonpoor,) commenced his retreat to his capital without delay, leaving Sooltan Hooshung to re­turn to Kalpy, which shortly after surrendered. Having ordered public prayers to be read in his name, and having received homage from Abdool Kadur, Sooltan Hooshung delivered over the charge of the government to him, as before, and returned to Malwa. On the road, he obtained information that a band of daring freebooters from the Jam hills had taken up their abode at the Houz-i-Bheem, and infested the country of Malwa. He consequently marched in that direction; and hav­ing destroyed the Houz-i-Bheem, he returned to Mando, from whence he proceeded to Hooshung-abad, where he remained during the rainy season.

It is related, that about this period Sooltan Hooshung, being one day on a hunting-party, lost a ruby from his tiara. On the third day it was found and brought to him by a foot-passenger, who received five hundred tunkas for his honesty. Sooltan Hooshung observed, “This circumstance “puts me in mind of a similar event which hap-“pened to Feroze Toghluk, King of Dehly, pre-“viously to his death. One day that king having “lost a ruby from off his head on a hunting-“party, gave five hundred tunkas to a peasant “who found it. Sometime after, Feroze said, “‘This is a hint to me to prepare for my long “journey into the other world, when I must part “with all the rubies and other jewels which I pos-“sess.’” Sooltan Hooshung also remarked, that he was sure this circumstance portended his own dissolution. The courtiers observed, that he should recollect that when Feroze made this speech he was upwards of ninety years of age, and it was not surprising, therefore, that death very shortly verified his prediction. “Your Majesty,” they said, “is, by the blessing of God, just now in “the prime of life, the circumstances, therefore, “appear altogether different.” He was, however, shortly after afflicted with a violent attack of the stone. On the approach of this dangerous disease, he marched towards Mando, having formally proclaimed his eldest son, the Prince Ghizny Khan, his successor; and laying hold of the young man's hand in public durbar, delivered him into the hands of his favourite minister, Mahmood Khan, who promised to support his right to the throne, even to the last drop of his blood. The King then dismissing the durbar, sent for Mahmood Khan, whom he knew to be ambitious, and sus­pected that he might some day take advantage of the division of interests among the young princes to usurp the government. He told him plainly of his apprehensions, and made him again swear to defend Ghizny Khan, and also to be vigilant in watching the motions of Ahmud Shah of Guzerat, who, he observed, was “an ambitious and enter-“prizing prince, and contemplated the eventual “conquest of Malwa.” Mahmood Khan swore the most implicit obedience to Ghizny Khan, and the whole of the present royal family; and the King, at his instance, consented to release the young Prince, Oothman Khan, from confinement, and to give him an estate on which he might reside, and have no plea for disturbing the reign of Ghizny Khan. The heir-apparent, having heard what was in contemplation, sent for Mahmood Khan, and proposed that his brother should be required to take the oaths of allegiance to him in the King's presence. Mahmood Khan returned to his own house, where he received a secret deputation from Mullik Oothman Julwany and the Prince Oothman Khan. The agents commenced by flattering Mah-mood Khan, and observing, that they were sur­prised at a person of his discretion recommending Ghizny Khan as the King's successor, who, although the elder, was by no means to be compared, either in courage or talents, to his younger brother. Mahmood Khan was not disposed to dispute the qualifications ascribed to Oothman Khan, but was unwilling to have his courage or abilities brought in competition with those plans which he himself meditated on the throne; being fully convinced, that neither the disposition nor ability of Ghizny Khan were calculated to withstand the efforts he had resolved to make to forward his own views for the eventual usurpation of the government. Mah-mood Khan therefore replied to the deputies, that it was his business to obey the will of his sovereign, who had declared Ghizny Khan his successor, and remarked that he had never presumed to oppose his wishes.

Zuffur Khan, a person of Prince Oothman's party, despairing of the King's life, fled from camp, in order to induce the keepers of the Prince, then in confinement at Mando, to release him, and give him an opportunity of disputing the crown with his brother. The minister, Mahmood Khan, hearing of this circumstance, informed the heir-apparent, Ghizny Khan, who ordered a party of fifty men of the royal guards to overtake and bring back Zuffur Khan and those who had accompanied him. The officer commanding the guard being well disposed towards the Prince Oothman refused to allow the horses to be saddled without an order from the King himself; and communicating the circumstance to one of the officers of the household, who was also inclined to favour Prince Oothman, he told the master of the horse to speak so loud that the King might overhear him; hoping that he would be provoked with the Prince Ghizny Khan, when he heard that even before his death he had usurped all authority over his own household troops. The scheme succeeded; and Sooltan Hooshung, rousing himself, called for his bow and quiver, and swore he would put the Prince Ghizny Khan to death. On this occasion he summoned all the officers into his presence; but they, fearing he was really dead, and that Ghizny Khan had sent for them, in order to seize those who were unfavourable to his views, declined going. When the Prince heard of this he became much alarmed; and not possessing sufficient judgment to act with propriety, he fled to Ga-grone, three marches from camp. From whence he deputed Oomdut-ool-Moolk to wait on Mah-mood Khan, and to acquaint him with his sus­picions of the officers who conspired to raise Prince Oothman to the throne, at the same time assuring the minister, that excepting himself he believed he had no friend. The message went on to say, that the fact of the King calling for his bow and arrows convinced him that his Majesty intended at least to seize and confine him, if not to put him to death. Mahmood Khan was obliged to send several persons to the Prince before he could be induced to return to camp. Meanwhile the King's life was despaired of; and the officers of his household, fearing lest Ghizny Khan should succeed to the crown, consulted together, and resolved to remove the King, even in his weak state, to Mando, where they proposed releasing the Prince Oothman, and placing him on the throne.

Zeehuj 9.
A. H. 835.
Sept. 7.
A. D. 1432.

On the following morning, being the 9th of Zeehuj, they carried their purpose so far into effect, as absolutely to place the King (who was quite senseless) in his palanquin, and to take him away from the camp on the road to Malwa; but they had not gone far before he died, — after a reign of thirty years. Mahmood Khan, accompanied by the Prince Ghizny Khan, followed the King's palanquin to bring it back; but the officers of the household declared that it was his Majesty's pleasure that he should be removed towards Mando, and that they had only acted in compliance with his orders. On the King's death, Mahmood Khan issued a proclamation in the name of the Prince Ghizny Khan, setting forth the cir­cumstance, and declaring the nomination of his eldest son to the succession. After which his Ma­jesty, being laid out in state, was conveyed to Mando, where his body was buried in a stone vault, which is still to be seen. * The date of his death will be found in the three last words of the following distich:—

When death had sealed the glorious Hooshung's fate,
And he prepared to tread on Lethe's shore,
I asked a poet to record the date,
Who briefly said, “Shah Hooshung is no more.”

The author of his history relates, that water constantly ouses from the sides of his vault, between the apertures of the masonry, which falls in drops; that this phenomenon ceases in the four rainy months, but is unremitting in the dry season; which is absurdly attributed, by the natives of India, to the supernatural intervention of Sooltan Hooshung, for whose death, say they, “the rocks even appear to shed tears.”