And Malik Nāib informed the Sulān of the coming of Khiẓr Khān with considerable embellishment, saying that Alp Khān, the maternal uncle of Khiẓr Khān, who had arrived from Gujrāt, out of policy and prudence, having regard to the affairs of the State and in his desire to become Nāib and Vakīl, bad himself summoned his sister's son, and further remarked that if this crude idea and immature desire had not fixed itself in the mind of Khiẓr Khān, why had he come unbidden to the Court?
The Sulān whose health was upset, and his brain disordered and disposed to entertain absurd prejudices, in according with the saying,* “When a man's health is disordered his fancies are disordered,” from his great lack of discrimination taking this suggestion as the actual fact, and regarding this assertion* as the truth, instantly gave orders for the execution of Alp Khān.
Malik Nāib and Malik Kamālu-d-Dīn Kark seizing that unhappy wretch like a meek lamb, cut him to pieces inside the Royal palace. After that Malik Nāib induced the Sulān (on the ground that Khiẓr Khān had taken alarm at the murder of his uncle and that it was not expedient for him to return to his own place in the court), to issue instructions that, to allow of the restoration* of order in the State, he should go for some 199. time to Amroha till a command should issue summoning him to the presence. In the meantime he might engage in hunting, and he was to return to the Court his canopy and staff of office, and all the other insignia of royalty. Khiẓr Khān having obeyed this order with a sad and distracted heart, after a little while relying upon the sincerity of affection he entertained for his father and the confidence between them, wrote to him to this effect,* that he had never committed any breach of trust which could cause the Sulān to be so wroth with him; then overcome by sorrow he determined to leave Amroha for Dihlī. When he arrived to do obeisance to his father, the chord of fatherly affection was stirred in the heart of the Sulān, he clasped his son to his breast, and kissed him several times on the forehead, and motioned to him to go and see his mother. Khiẓr Khān went thither, and Malik Nāib out of villainy,* on the instant went back to the Sulān and filled his ears with lies, saying,* ‘Khiẓr Khān has now come for the second time to the palace with evil intentions without orders, and the Sulān takes no notice of the matter.’ The Sulān upon this occasion gave orders to send both brothers, Khiẓr Khān and Shādī Khān, to the fortress of Gwāliār.* Malik Nāib, after these two heirs had been deported, and the way was clear for Malik Shihābu-d-Dīn, the son of the Sulān by another mother, who was yet a lad of tender years, made him heir-apparent and exacted from him an agreement.
After two or three days the Sulān's life became intolerable through his affliction, and he would willingly have purchased a breath at the price of a world, but it was not to be had.
Verse.Sikandar, who held sway over a world,
At the time when he was departing, and was quitting the
world,
200. It could not be as he wished, though he would have given
a world could they have given him in return the brief
respite of a moment.
The mint of Existence was emptied of the coin of life.
This event took place in the year 715 H. (1316 A.D.).* The duration of the reign of Sulān ‘Alāu-d-Dīn was twenty-one years.
‘Alāu-d-Dīn who struck his stamp upon the golden coin
Subdued a world beneath the palm of his gold-scattering
hand.*
By the revolution of the sky, that stamp became changed,
but that gold
Remained the same in appearance, and you may see it now
passing from hand to hand.
[Account of Amīr Khusrū and Mīr Ḥasan may God have mercy on them].*
And among the poets*
by whose existence the reign of Sulān
‘Alāu-d-Dīn was adorned and honoured, one was the Khusrū-i-
He completed his five works, collectively called Khamsa,*
in the
year 698 H. (1298 A. D.), in honour of Sulān ‘Alāu-d-Dīn,
within the space of two years. Among these works is the Mala‘u-
The year of this ancient heaven which had passed away
Was after six hundred and ninety eight.
Following on the steps of the sky traversing star*
In two weeks did the full moon* arrive at completion.
In the Nafaḥāt*
it is stated upon the authority of Sulānu-l-
Khusrū my friend, strive in the right way
201. That you may be called Turk-i-Khudā (God's champion).
Another poet was Mīr Ḥasan Dihlavī,* whose anthology also has enslaved the east and west of the world. Although in that reign there were other poets who composed anthologies, still by reason of these two eminent poets the mention of the others sinks into insignificance.
The death of Mīr Khusrū took place in the year 725 H. (1325 A.D.). He is buried in Dihlī at the foot of the sacred tomb of his own spiritual instructor* may God shew mercy to them. Maulānā Shihāb* wrote an enigmatical chronogram upon that, and having had it engraved upon a tablet of stone had it fixed above the shrine* of Mīr Khusrū. It is as follows:—
Mīr Khusrū, the Khusrū of the kingdom of eloquence,
That ocean of excellence, and sea of perfection;
His prose is more attractive than flowing water,
His poetry purer than the most limpid streams;
A sweet-singing nightingale without a rival,
Honey-tongued parrot without an equal:
In tracing the date of the year of his death,
When I placed my head upon the knee of thought,
One phrase ‘Adīmu-l-Mil* came as the date,
Another was Ṭūī-i-Shakar Maqāl.*
Mīr Ḥasan, in the year in which Sulān Muḥammad having laid waste Dihlī built Daulatābād* in the Deccan, died in that country, and was buried in the city of Daulatābād where his tomb is well known, and is visited as a shrine of sanctity.
‘Ārif Jāmī,* may his resting-place be sanctified, says—
Those two parrots from whose birth
Hindustān was filled with sugar,
Became at last a mark for the arrow of the sky
And were silenced and prisoned in the cage of earth.