The Sulān after adding the fortress of Rantanbhor and its surrounding districts to the jāegīr of Ulugh Khān returned (to Dihlī). Ulugh Khān was taken ill that very day while on the road, and died,* and Rantanbhor became for him like the Paradise of Shaddād.*
Moreover a band of robbers of Jālor, whose leader was Mīr Muḥammad Shāh, were captured in Rantanbhor after the fort was taken. When the Sulān asked Muḥammad Shāh (who had been wounded) ‘If I should spare your life and have you cured, and you should thus escape this deadly danger, how would you treat me in future?’ he replied, ‘If I should get well and should have an opportunity, I would kill you and raise the son of Hamīr Dev to the throne.’ The Sulān wondered, and was amazed at 195. this audacity, and enquired of his most shrewd and astute Amīrs the reason why the people had so turned against him, and why these continual riots and seditions were so constantly occurring, and further sought to know how to set about remedying these evils. They shewed him several paths of conduct which would end naturally in four things. Firstly, that the king should in his own person be aware of the enterprises both good and bad which are going on in his kingdom. Secondly, that he should put an end to wine bibbing, which is the source of so much evil. Thirdly, abandonment by the maliks of their gadding about to each others' houses and holding deliberative meetings.* Fourthly, to demand back the money which he had lavished, from all classes, whether soldiery or populace, because it is the fountain head of all riot and sedition, especially upstarts and nouveaux riches,* and in a short time these regulations would by their inherent good, be acceptable to the Rāīs, and pass from potentiality to actuality just as has already been related in a former place.
The Sulān did away with wine drinking, and brought the other regulations also into force, and also published several new rules of his own, which have never been heard of either before or after his time, whether they were in accordance with religious law or not; one of these rules was that regulating the price of grain, and cloth, and horses, and all necessaries essential to the comfort of the soldiery and populace, and the bestowal of rewards and alms upon all classes of the people, the detail of which is told at some length in the history of Ẓiā-i-Barnī.* Those laws were the most extraordinary of all: this cheapness of provisions was one of the chief sources of the prosperity of the people, and formed a stout wall of defence against the irruption of the Mughuls. And inasmuch as in mentioning some of these events and occurrences in the original work,* the chronological sequence has not been preserved, and they have been only incidentally mentioned as occasion arose, for this reason they have also been recounted here in the same manner.
196. In the year 700 H. he ordered ‘Ainu-l-Mulk Shihāb Multānī to proceed to Mālwa with a large army [and Kōkā the Rānī who had forty thousand cavalry and 100,000 infantry, not being able to stand against him fled].* ‘Ainu-l-Mulk ravaged and pillaged that country and returned victorious with countless spoils.* The Khusrū of poets has described this in the ‘Ashīqa, in these words:
He gave ‘Aīnu-l-Mulk a signal with his brow
To turn his face towards the kingdom of Mālwa;
From the clear-sightedness which ‘Ainu-l-Mulk possessed,
That which he ordered was brought into sight.
He marched with an army drawn up in array,
And placed round them sentinels like the eyelashes.*
And in the year already mentioned the Sulān set out for Sorath* on a hunting expedition, and despatched to hell Satal Dev a rebel who had taken refuge in that fortress with a huge army, the Sulān's army having before been unable to reduce it, but it now fell into their hands. And in the year 701 H. (1301 A.D.) the fort of Jālor was reduced by Kamālu-d-Dīn Kark and he sent Kanhar Dev, a headstrong rebel to the lowest abyss of hell.
And in the year 702 H. (1302 A.D.) he sent Malik Kāfūr Nāib* with a large army and complete equipment towards Tilang and Marhaṭ* and an immense quantity of treasure with elephants and horses, jewels and cloths, fell as spoil into the hands of the troops.
And in the year 709 (1309 A.D.)* Malik Nāib Kāfūr went a second time to Arankal* and having taken much treasure and several fine elephants and seven thousand horses as a present from Rāi Nadar Dev the Governor of Arankal made him a regular tributary. And in the year 710 H. (1310 A.D.) the country 197. of Ma‘bar* as far as Dhor* Samundar came into the possession of the Muslims.
And in the year 711 H. (1311 A.D.) Malik Nāib brought to court
and presented his spoils consisting of three hundred an twelve
elephants, and twenty thousand horses, ninety-six thousand mans
of gold, and many chests of jewels and pearls besides other
booty beyond the limits of computation; Amīr Khusrū who
was with that army has given full particulars in the Khazāīnu-l-
At length when the Sulān's mind was satisfied, and he gained some leisure from the administration of the State, he set himself to provide for the future of his two sons, allotting to each one a province in the neighbourhood, and setting apart districts for them. Among other events was the marriage of Khiẓr Khān to Dewal Rānī, and Girāī's account is of a nature to last to all eternity, and those who have the taste may read the account of that in the ‘Ashīqa;* then having bestowed upon Khiẓr Khān the canopy and staff of office, and having made him his heir the Sulān sent him away to Hatnāpūr* and the foot of the hills. When affairs were settled,* and the heavens began to act with their ingrained natural deceit, and commenced displaying those evil traits, and old age overcame the Sulān's health, his followers deserted him;
Verse.In the world, when a king becomes advanced in years
His worshippers grow weary of him;
His head, which is worthy of a crown,
He must recline on musk not on ivory.*
198. Various disorders affected him,* and hectic fever which leads* to ill-temper, and suspiciousuess, and causes the health to become deranged, gained the mastery over him, and when only such a small amount of health remained that it was like a single lamp to light the whole house, Khiẓr Khān in fulfilment of a vow he had made, in singleness of heart and sincerity of spirit set out from Hatnāpūr* barefooted upon a pilgrimage to the holy men of Dihlī, and performed his thanksgiving for the restoration of his father's health, but it is a very strange fact that he never once went to visit the Sulānu-l-Mashāikh wal Auliyā,
“Shaikh of the sects, Pillar of the faith, Niāmu-d-Dīn
Like Khiẓr and Masīḥ, with a breath brings bones to life.”
with whom he was connected by bonds of affection and sanctity.