Who had the title of Ulugh Khān, by the consent of the Maliks and Amīrs adorned the throne by his accession in the Qaṣr-i-Safed (the White Palace) in the year 664 H.* He was one of the “Forty Slaves” of Sulān Shamsu-d-Dīn, each one of whom had attained to the dignity of Amīr. Inasmuch as the reins of government had been in his hands even in the days when he was merely Ulugh Khān, the affairs of the State very quickly came into his grasp. He would not allow people of low origin to have the slightest authority. It is said that a man named Fakhr, who had for years served as chief of the Bāzār, had recourse to one of ^128. the Sulān's more intimate attendants, and offered a very large sum* on the condition that if the Sulān Ghiyau-d-Dīn Balban would speak with him once only, he would give him all this money and valuable property.* When this request was represented to the Sulān he would not entertain it, and said ‘to converse with people of low and mean extraction will lower my prestige.’ He was altogether opposed to oppression, and, in the early days of his reign, punished certain of his Amīrs on account of some tyranny which they had practised upon their subjects, and having handed over one or two of them* he permitted the complainants to exact retaliation, and after that these Amīrs had paid the blood money, for shame they could never come out of their houses as long as they lived, and at last they left the world.

Verse.

Reputation arises from equity and justice;
Oppression and kingship are as the candle and the wind.

And all his praiseworthy qualities may be estimated from this, that he used never to omit the ceremony of purification, and on going into an assembly where one was preaching he used to display emotion, and weep much, while as regards his treatment of sedition and revolt he used to shew himself a merciless repressor.

He laid claim to the glory of an Emperor, because of this
That he adorned the world with wisdom and equity,
In days of retirement he would wear a blanket;
And he strove in prayer and supplication
His eyes fixed upon the ground, his heart boiling like a
cauldron;
A heart eloquent of speech, but a silent tongue;
Till his heart perceived with the eye of secret knowledge
All that was visible of these intricate matters.

In this same year of his reign Tātār Khān the son of Arsalān Khān sent from Lakhnautī sixty-three elephants as a present; and in this year the Sulān proceeding to Patīalī* and Kanpila, built the forts of Patīalī, Kanpila, Bhojpūr, and certain ^129. other forts, and with five thousand cavalry crossed the Ganges on the pretext of making preparation for an expedition to the Jūd hills. In two days after leaving Dehli he arrived in the midst of the territory of Kāithar* and put to death every male, even those of eight years of age, and bound the women, and inflicted such chastisement that up till the reign of Jalālu-d-Dīn the territory of Badāon and Amroha remained safe from the ravages of the Kāitharīs,* and he threw open all the roads of Bihār and Jaun-pūr, and all the roads of the Eastern part of India which were closed, and made over the territory of Mīwāt, which lies in the Doāb, to strong handed governors, with orders to put to death the rebels, which they did, imprisoning some. Then he made an attack in the direction of the country at the foot of the Sintūr hills,* and built a fort on those boundaries, and having called it Hiṣār-i-Nau (New Castle) proceeded to the Jūd hills, and brought an army* towards Lāhor, and rebuilt the castle of Lāhor which had been laid waste by the Mughūls in the reign of Sulān Mu‘izzu-d-Dīn Bahrām Shāh. Here he became ill, and the news of his illness* reached the confines of Lakhnautī, and Tughral, Nāib of Amīn Khān, who had been appointed to succeed Sher Khān in that district, laid the foundation of rebellion, and fought with his master Amīn Khān and came off victorious, and having im­prisoned him gathered round himself the paraphernalia of royalty, and gave himself the title of Mu‘izzu-d-Dīn, and completely defeated some imperial troops which had been sent to oppose him. Sulān Ghiyāu-d-Dīn brought up an army against Tughral but he went towards Jājnagar and Tārkīla (Nārkīla)* and Malik Ikhtiyāru-d-Dīn Beg Birlās* was ordered to pursue him, the Rāī of Sunārgām named Dhanūj* offering his services to the Sulān engaged to bring Tughral, and Malik Ikhtiyāru-d-Dīn proceeding by forced marches found Tughral, who had fled into a a jungle,* walking about off his guard, and having put him to ^130. death sent his head to the court. The Sulān conferred that kingdom with a canopy and baton of office on his younger son Bughrā Khān, Governor of Sāmāna, who eventually received the title of Sulān Nāṣiru-d-Dīn, and then left for the capital. Since, after the death of Sher Khān (who was uncle's son to the Sulān and one of the “Forty Slaves” of Sulān Shamsu-d-Dīn, and Governor of Lāhor and Dībālpur, and had read the Khubah in Ghaznīn in the name of Sulān Nāṣiru-d-Dīn, the Mughūls during his governorship not daring to invade Hindustān) the road of communication had become opened* to the Mughūls, accordingly Sulān Balban, to remedy this, despatched his elder son Sulān Muḥammad, who is known as the Khān-i-Shahīd, and Qāān-i-Mulk, (having first conferred upon him a canopy and baton of office, and the signs and insignia of royalty, and having made him his heir-apparent, and giving over Sind with its dependencies to his care) with full equipment towards Multān, and the country right up to Tattha and the seacoast was in his possession. Amīr Khusrū and Amīr Ḥasan of Dehlī remained in his service for five years in Multān, and were enrolled among his intimate companions. On two occasions he sent large sums of gold from Multān to Shīrāz and begged that Shaikh Sa‘dī,* may God have mercy on him, would come to live with him. The Shaikh did not come, excusing himself on the score of old age, but commended Mīr Khusrū to the care of the Sulān, writing in excessively laudatory terms concerning him, and sent a collection of autograph poems. Sulān Muḥammad used to visit Multān every year to see Sulān Balban, and used to return distinguished with robes of honour and all possible rewards and distinctions, and on the last occasion on which they were able to meet, the Sulān instructed him in private with excellent counsels and pleasing discourses, which are mentioned in the books of the Histories of Dehlī, and having granted him permission to depart sent him to Multān; and in the same year Ītimar* the Mughūl with thirty thousand horsemen having crossed the Rāvī by the ford of Lāhor caused great com­motion in those districts, and the Governor of Lāhor sent a ^131. petition to Khān-i-Shahīd* telling him of what had occurred. He while in his assembly read 30,000 as 3,000 and, marching with a large force, by rapid and continuous marches arrived at the boundaries of Bāgh-i-Sabz,* on the banks of the Lāhor river where he engaged the infidels and attained the dignity of martyrdom. This event took place in Zū-Hijjah of the year 683 H,* and Mīr Ḥasan* of Dehlī composed a prose lament, and sent it to Dehlī. It is copied here in its very words.