In the caligraphy of books and letters Sultán Muhammad
abashed the most accomplished scribes. The excellence of his
hand-writing, the ease of his composition, the sublimity of his
style, and the play of his fancy, left the most accomplished
teachers and professors far behind. He was an adept in the use
of metaphor. If any teacher of composition had sought to rival
him, he would have failed. He knew by heart a good deal of
Persian poetry, and understood it well. In his epistles he
showed himself skilled in metaphor, and frequently quoted
Persian verse. He was well acquainted with the Sikandar náma,
and also with the Búm-i salím Námah and the Táríkh-i Mah-
The dogmas of philosophers, which are productive of indifference and hardness of heart, had a powerful influence over him. But the declarations of the holy books, and the utterances of the Prophets, which inculcate benevolence and humility, and hold out the prospect of future punishment, were not deemed worthy of attention. The punishment of Musulmáns, and the execution of true believers, with him became a practice and a passion. Numbers of doctors, and elders, and saiyids, and súfís, and kalandars, and clerks, and soldiers, received punishment by his order. Not a day or week passed without the spilling of much Musulmán blood, and the running of streams of gore before the entrance of his palace. * * *
In the course of twenty-seven years, a complete karn, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords made him to prevail over the dominions of several kings, and brought the people of many countries under his rule in Hindustán, Gujarát, Málwa, the Mahratta (country), Tilang, Kampila, Dhúr-samundar, Ma'bar, Lakhnautí, Sat-gánw (Chittagong), Sunár-gánw, and Tirhut. If I were to write a full account of all the affairs of his reign, and of all that passed, with his faults and shortcomings, I should fill many volumes. In this history I have recorded all the great and important matters of his reign, and the beginning and the end of every conquest; but the rise and termination of every mutiny, and of events (of minor importance), I have passed over. * * *
Sultán Muhammad planned in his own breast three or four
projects by which the whole of the habitable world was to be
brought under the rule of his servants, but he never talked over
these projects with any of his councillors and friends. Whatever
he conceived he considered to be good, but in promulgating and
enforcing his schemes he lost his hold upon the territories he
possessed, disgusted his people, and emptied his treasury. Embarrassment
followed embarrassment, and confusion became worse
confounded. The ill feeling of the people gave rise to outbreaks
and revolts. The rules for enforcing the royal schemes became
daily more oppressive to the people. More and more the people
became disaffected, more and more the mind of the king was set
against them, and the numbers of those brought to punishment
increased. The tribute of most of the distant countries and
districts was lost, and many of the soldiers and servants were
scattered and left in distant lands. Deficiencies appeared in the
treasury. The mind of the Sultán lost its equilibrium. In the
extreme weakness and harshness*
of his temper he gave himself
up to severity. Gujarát and Deogír were the only (distant)
possessions that remained. In the old territories, dependent
on Dehlí, the capital, disaffection and rebellion sprung up.
By the will of fate many different projects occurred to the
mind of the Sultán, which appeared to him moderate and suitable,
and were enforced for several years, but the people could
not endure them.*
These schemes effected the ruin of the
Sultán's empire, and the decay of the people. Every one of
them that was enforced wrought some wrong and mischief, and
the minds of all men, high and low, were disgusted with their
ruler. Territories and districts which had been securely settled
were lost. When the Sultán found that his orders did not work
so well as he desired, he became still more embittered against his
people. He cut them down like weeds and punished them. So
many wretches were ready to slaughter true and orthodox Musul-
The first project which the Sultán formed, and which operated
to the ruin of the country and the decay of the people, was that
he thought he ought to get ten or five per cent more tribute from
the lands in the Doáb. To accomplish this he invented some
oppressive ábwábs*
(cesses), and made stoppages from the land-
The second project of Sultán Muhammad, which was ruinous to the capital of the empire, and distressing to the chief men of the country, was that of making Deogír his capital, under the title of Daulatábád. This place held a central situation: Dehlí, Gujarát, Lakhnautí, Sat-gánw, Sunár-gánw, Tilang, Ma'bar, Dhúr-samundar, and Kampila were about equi-distant from thence, there being but a slight difference in the distances. Without any consultation, and without carefully looking into the advantages and disadvantages on every side, he brought ruin upon Dehlí, that city which, for 170 or 180 years, had grown in prosperity, and rivalled Baghdad and Cairo. The city, with its sáráís, and its suburbs and villages, spread over four or five kos. All was destroyed. So complete was the ruin, that not a cat or a dog was left among the buildings of the city, in its palaces or in its suburbs. Troops of the natives, with their families and dependents, wives and children, men-servants and maid-servants, were forced to remove. The people, who for many years and for generations had been natives and inhabitants of the land, were broken-hearted. Many, from the toils of the long journey, perished on the road, and those who arrived at Deogír could not endure the pain of exile. In despondency they pined to death. All around Deogír, which is an infidel land, there sprung up graveyards of Musulmáns. The Sultán was bounteous in his liberality and favours to the emigrants, both on their journey and on their arrival; but they were tender, and they could not endure the exile and suffering. They laid down their heads in that heathen land, and of all the multitudes of emigrants, few only survived to return to their home. Thus this city, the envy of the cities of the inhabited world, was reduced to ruin. The Sultán brought learned men and gentlemen, tradesmen and landholders, into the city (Dehlí) from certain towns in his territory, and made them reside there. But this importation of strangers did not populate the city; many of them died there, and more returned to their native homes. These changes and alterations were the cause of great injury to the country.