In the sixteenth year of his age, in succession to his grand­father, by the intervention of Malik Kachhan, who was called Ītimar, and other Amīrs who were disaffected to the Martyred Khān, succeeded to the throne of Empire.* Then having bestowed Multān upon Khusrū Khān with his family and dependents, they sent him off there under some pretext and exiled his adherents, and when the Empire became established he appointed all the officers of the state to their old posts in the kingdom, and Malik Niāmu-d-Dīn* was appointed Dādbeg* and they gave Khwāja Khaīru-d-Dīn the title of Khwāja-i-Jahān, and Malik Shāhik Amīr Ḥājib that of Wazīr Khān, and Malik Qīyāmu-l-Mulk obtained the post of Wakīldar: and after six months he left Dihlī and founded the palace of Kīlūghaṛī, which is now a ruin, near the ford of Khwāja Khiẓr on the banks of the river Jumna; there he held public audiences, and by craft getting hold of the Mughals who had newly become Moslims, put the majority of them to death, and banished a certain number of them. The chief author and cause of this action was Malik Niāmu-d-Dīn ‘Alāqa the ^158. Wazīr (this Niāmu-d-Dīn ‘Alāqa is the same in whose honour Muḥammad ‘Aufī composed the books Jāmi‘u-l-Ḥikāyāt and Taẕkiratu-sh-Shu‘arā); and to Malik Chhajū (who eventually became grantee of Karra* and Manikpūr, and whom Mīr Khusrū eulogises in the Qirānu-s-Sa‘dain in these words,*

Khān of Karra Chhajū, conqueror of countries
Who hast encircled thy feet with anklets* formed from the
lips of Khāns)

was given Sāmāna, his daughter was united in marriage to Sulān Mu‘izzu-d-Dīn Kaiqubād. At the end of the month of Zūl Ḥijjah in the abovementioned year, news arrived that the Tatār infidels whose leader was Ītimar had attacked Lahore and the frontier of Multān. The Sulān appointed Shāhik Bārbak with thirty thousand cavalry and giving him the title of Khān-i-Jahān despatched him to oppose them. He pursued the Tatārs as far as the foot of the Jūd hills, and put the greater number of them to the sword, or made them prisoners, and having repulsed them he came to the Court.

Inasmuch as Sulān Kaiqubād, during the lifetime of Sulān Balban, had not attained the desires of his heart, and learned instructors had been placed in charge of him, at this time when he attained to the Empire finding himself completely unfettered he occupied himself with the full fruition of lustful delights, while the majority of the people took advantage of the luxurious­ness of his reign to spend their days in wantonness and license. The ministrants of debauchery, jesters, singers and jugglers were admitted to close intimacy in his Court, in marked contrast to his grandfather's reign, and learning, and piety, and integrity were nothing valued; and Malik Niāmu-d-Dīn ‘Alāqa seeing that the Sulān was immersed in luxury and enjoyment, and utterly care­less of his kingdom's affairs, stretched forth the hand of oppres­sion and went to unwarranted lengths. The vain desire of sovereignty came into his heart, so that he set about devising the downfall of the family of Ghiyāu-d-Dīn. In the first instance having instigated Sulān Mu‘izzu-d-Dīn to murder Kai Khusrū the son of Sulān Muḥammad the Martyr, he summoned him from Multān, and in the town of Rohtak raised him to the dignity of martyrdom and sent him to join his father.

^159. In the same way he accused Khwāja-i-Jahān of an imaginary crime and had him publicly paraded on an ass through the city, he also imprisoned the Amīr and Maliks of the house of Balban who were related to the Mughals who had recently become Moslims, and deported them to distant fortresses, and destroyed the glory of Mu‘izzu-d-Dīn.

Sulān Nāṣiru-d-Dīn Bughrā Khān, when the tidings of his son's ruinous condition reached him in Lakhnautī, wrote a letter full of hints couched in the language of enigma and innuendo to Sulān Mu‘izzu-d-Dīn warning him of the sinister intentions of Niāmu-l-Mulk. Sulān Mu‘izzu-d-Dīn out of the hot-headedness of youth, did not act on his father's advice, and after much correspondence it was decided that Sulān Nāṣiru-d-Dīn should leave Lakhnautī, and Sulān Mu‘izzu-d-Dīn should start from Dihlī and that they should visit each other in Oudh.

From what Mīr Khusrū may the mercy of God be upon him, says in the Qirānu-s-Sa‘dain,* and also from the Tārīkh-i-Mubārak Shāhī* we learn that Bughrā Khān, on his accession to the throne of Bengāla with the title of Nāṣiru-d-Dīn, was coming with a large gathering to attack Dihlī, and Sulān Mu‘izzu-d-Dīn also having collected his forces from the neighbouring districts advanced against him in the direction of Oudh; and since the river Sarū* lay between them the son alighted on this side and the father on the other side, and neither was able to cross the river. The Amīrs and Maliks of Ghiyau-d-Dīn's party, intervened with advice to come to peaceful terms, and Sulān Nāṣiru-d-Dīn with a party of special retainers crossed the river, as it had been agreed that the son should sit upon the throne, and the father, standing below the throne, should pay the customary dues of reverence and respect to him. Sulān Mu‘izzu-d-Dīn from excess of desire forgot that compact, and on the instant his eyes fell upon the splendid presence of his father he came down from his throne and running barefooted, was about to fall at his feet. The father however ^160. would not permit this, whereupon each embraced the other and for a long time they wept bitterly, and in spite of all the father's attempts to take his stand at the foot of the throne, the son forcibly took him by the hand, and led him to the throne and seated him upon it. Then he also took his seat, and after a long time the Sulān Nāṣiru-d-Dīn returned to his own camp, and sent as presents to his son a large number of famous elephants and very many extremely valuable presents and curiosities, and priceless treasures from the country of Lakhnauti. The son also sent to his father an equal number of Persian horses, and other kinds of valuable articles and cloth goods, and rare and unique presents such that the accountant of imagination is unable to estimate their number and value; and all sorts of delight and pleasure burst upon the Amīrs of Ghiyāu-d-Dīn and Nāṣiru-d-Dīn and Mu‘izzu-d-Dīn, and upon high and low of the armies, and the Maliks of both parties exchanged visits: Mīr Khusrū relates in detail this meeting* in the Qirānu-s-Sa‘dain, and in another place he writes in a qaṣīda:

Hail! to the happy kingdom when two kings are as one.
Hail! to the happy era when two troths are as one.
Behold! the son is a monarch, the father a Sulān,
Behold the glorious kingdom now that two kings are as one.
'Tis for the sake of kingship and world enslaving power,
That for the world, two world-protecting kings become
as one.
One is the Nāṣir of the age, the king Maḥmūd Sulān,
Whose edict in the four parts of the world is still as one.
The other is Mu‘izzu-d-Dīn the world's king Kaiqubād,
In whose grasp Irān and Turān are welded into one.

And this is his also—

^161. Sulān Mu‘izzu-d-Dunyā wad Dīn Kaiqubād Shāh
Hast thou ever seen one who is the light of the eyes of four
kings

On the last day* when Sulān Nāṣiru-d-Dīn came to bid fare­well in the presence of Malik Niāmu-l-Mulk and Qiwāmu-l-Mulk, who were both of them counsellors and closely bound up with the Government, he gave Mu‘izzu-d-Dīn many good pieces of useful advice on all subjects, with exhortation, and examples and instances, and first of all warned him against excess in wine and venery, then spoke of his carelessness with regard to state matters, and rebuked him severely for killing his brother Kai Khusrū and the other noted Amīrs and Maliks of the adherents of Ghīyāu-d-Dīn; then he exhorted him to be continually given to prayer and to perform the fast of Ramaẓān, and to keep all the principal tenets of the Musulmān religion, and taught him certain fixed rules and essential regulations of sovereignty. At the time of taking his departure he whispered in a low tone telling him to get rid of Niāmu-l-Mulk ‘Alāqa as soon as possible, “for” said he “if he gets a chance at you it is small chance you will get” this much he said, and they bid one another farewell with great emotion, and Sulān Mu‘izzu-d-Dīn for a few days remembered his father's injunctions, and gave up his vicious pleasures, but when he had travelled a few stages the merry courtesans and all kinds of enticing musicians and enchanting jugglers, subverters of piety, skilled and clever, crowded round him on all sides, and enticed his feet from the firm path of fortitude and self-restraint, by all sorts of gallantries and coquetries, and sense-ravishing gestures and allurements.

The bitter parting advice of his father did not find place in
his heart
For this reason that his heart was inclined to sweets of
pleasure.

And the elephant saw Hindustān* in its dreams and he broke through his forced repentance, which was as filmy as the web of a spider, at the first provocation, and used to say, “Which ^162. advice?* and what counsel?

I will not give up the delights of to-day for tomorrow
Let tomorrow bring what it may, say to it “Bring it.”

In opposition to this view is the following,

It befits not a king to be drunken with wine
Nor become entangled in lust and desire;
The king should be always the guardian of his people,
It is a sin that a guardian should be drunken.
When the shepherd becomes full of new wine
The flock sleeps in the belly of the wolf.

Heavy cups of wine used he to drink from the hands of the light-living cup bearers, and used to snatch a portion from his short ephemeral existence, and in this state malicious time used to foretell this calamity,*