When this news reached the Sulān, the story goes that one night he went in disguise to his monastery, and saw for himself that he expended even more than was reported. Accordingly the next day he held a grand durbār and ordered Sīdī Maulā with the Qāẓī and the other Amīrs who were his disciples, to be brought before him with ignominious treatment of all kinds, bound in fetters and chains. He enquired into the state of the case, and asked each one whether the Sīdī laid claim to kingly power. The aforesaid Sīdī denied it, and fortified his denial with an oath, but to no purpose. At that time Qāẓī Jalālu-d-Dīn lay under the Sulān's displeasure, he also denied the allegation. The Sulān ^171. deposed him, and nominated him as Qāẓī of Budāon. In order to verify the claims to Saiyyidship, and to test the miraculous powers of the Sīdī, he had a huge fire like that prepared by Nimrūd (for Abraham) lighted, and wished to have Sīdī Maulā thrown into that temple of fire. The Ulamā of the time, in con­sideration of the irreligious nature of that order, issued a manda­mus which they communicated to the Sulān saying, “The essential nature of fire is to consume things, and no one can issue forth from it in safety unhurt.” The Sulān accordingly desisted and gave up that ordeal, but he punished the larger number of those Maliks in that same assembly, and some he expatriated; and inasmuch as the answers of Sīdī Maulā* were all in accordance with reason, and no fault could be found with him either on the score of religious law or logic, the Sulān was reduced to extre­mity, and suddenly turning to Abū Bakr Tūsī Ḥaidarī who was the chief of the sect of Qalandars, and utterly unscrupulous, he said “Why do not you darveshes avenge me of this tyrant,” there­upon a Qalandar leapt up from their midst, and struck the unfor­tunate Sīdī several blows with a razor and wounded him, then they shaved off the holy man's whiskers* with a knife even to the chin, and stabbed him in the side* with sackmakers' needles, and then, by command of Arkalī Khān, the second son of the Sulān, an elephant driver drove a rogue elephant over the head of the poor oppressed Sīdī, and martyred him with countless tortures may God be gracious to him. They say that this same Sīdī, for a whole month before this occurrence used to sing these verses at all times, smiling the while he sang:

In the kitchen of love, they slay naught but the good;
The weak natured, and evil disposed they kill not.
If thou art a sincere lover, flee not from slaughter,
He whom they slay not is no better than a corpse.

And just at this time, on the very day of his murder, a whirl­wind black with dust arose, and the world was darkened; there ^172. was a scarcity of rain in that year, and such a famine occurred that the Hindūs, from excess of hunger and want, went in bands and joining their hands threw themselves into the river Jumna, and became the portion of the alligator of extinction. Many Muslims also, burning in the flames of hunger, were drowned in the ocean of non-existence, while the rest of the world took these signs and events as proofs of the verity of Sīdī and as evidence of his sincerity. Although no inferences can be drawn from facts of this kind, since they may finally prove to be only coincidences, still I myself have seen with my own eyes examples of such incidents, as shall be related in their proper places if God so will it.

God has never cursed any nation
Until the heart of a holy man has been grieved.

The remainder of the accused, at the intercession of Arkalī Khān, were delivered from the danger which threatened their lives, and from the punishment intended by the Sulān; and in this same year the Sulān for the second time marched against Rantanbhor, and destroyed the country round it, and overthrew the idols and idol-temples, but returned without attempting to reduce the fort. Arkalī Khān went to Multān without his per­mission, at which the Sulān was very vexed.

In the year 691 H. the Mughuls under Chingīz Khān came up against Hindustān with a very large army, and fought a very severe battle with the Sulān's victorious forces in the neighbour­hood of Sanām. When the Mughuls became aware of the size of the army of Hindustān they began to make overtures for peace. The Sulān thereupon summoned their leader, who was very closely related to Halākū Khān, and also his son, who called the Sulān his father. They accordingly had an interview and ex­changed gifts and presents and each returned to his own country: ^173. and Alghū* the grandson of Chingīz Khān, embraced Islām, and several thousand Mughuls besides followed his example and having learnt to repeat the sacred and blessed formula, elected to remain in the service of the Sulān. Alghū was selected for the honour of becoming son-in-law to the Sulān. The Mughuls took up their abode in Ghiyāpūr in which is now the sacred tomb of the Prince of Holy men Nīāmul Auliyā* may God sanctify his resting place. It is commonly known as Mughulpūr and those Mughuls were called the “new Muslims.”

At the close of this same year the Sulān having gone up against the fort of Mandāwar ravaged and pillaged the country round it and then returned. ‘Alāu-d-Dīn the Governor of Karra, obtained permission in that year to proceed to Bhilsa* and attacked that country* and brought much booty thence to present to the Sulān, and the idol which was the object of worship of the Hindūs, he caused to be cast down in front of the gate of Badāon to be trampled upon by the people.* These services of ‘Alāu-d-Dīn being highly approved,* the jāgīr of Oudh also was added to his other estates; and since ‘Alāu-d-Dīn was very angry and incensed against the Sulān's consort, who was his mother-in-law, and against the daughter of the Sulān, because she always made a practice of speaking ill of him to her father, he was anxious, on any pretext whatever, to leave the Sulān's dominions and go to a distance, and find some place of refuge for himself; accordingly he provided himself with new servants, and making all preparations as to personal clothing and furniture, he asked the Sulān* to bestow upon him the district of Chanderī, and leaving Dihlī came to Karra, and from there under the pretence of attacking Chan-derī, he went by way of Illichpūr, and made for the frontiers of the country of Deogīr; leaving Malik ‘Alāu-l-Mulk who was one of his friends, as his deputy in Karra, and having instructed him to temporise with the Sulān, went off somewhere unknown to anyone, and when no news could be obtained of Malik ‘Alāu-d-Dīn's where­abouts for a considerable time, the Sulān was exceedingly sorry.* Suddenly news arrived that ‘Alāu-d-Dīn having gone up against ^174. the rebel Deo Gīr, had conquered the whole of his country as far as the confines of the country of the Deccan, and had taken as spoil much treasure, and elephants and property, several thousands of horses, together with valuables; silk and cloth goods, and jewels, beyond the limits of computation, and that he was making for Karra. This was a source of great gratification to the Sulān, but the wise men of those times knew very well, both from analogy and inference, that ‘Alāu-d-Dīn* had gone to that country without permission from the Sulān, and had suffered much annoyance at the hands of Malika-i-Jahān who was the consort of the Sulān, and also from his own wife, and had accord­ingly faced the world, always nursing in his breast sinister inten­tions. Now* that he was in a position perfectly to put his rebellious ideas into execution, and had not the access to the Court, it was strange that the Sulān seemed to suffer no appre­hension as regarded him; but no one dared represent these views to the Sulān, who was wholly and entirely ignorant of the annoyance which ‘Alāu-d-Dīn had suffered at the hands of the Queen-mother and his own wife, and if by chance they ventured to speak* of the possibility of the revolt and treachery of ‘Alāu-d-Dīn, the Sulān attributed it to jealousy, and would never allow the idea of his contumacy or rebellion to enter his head.