A. H. 818.
A. D. 1415. In the year 818, the King having fixed on his son Hussun, a weak and dissipated Prince, to succeed him, con­ferred on him a royal cap and waistband, with a chutr or canopy, several royal pavilions, and some elephants, the emblems of sovereignty. At this time, also, he invited the nobles to acknowledge him as his successor, and requested the holy Syud to give him his blessing; but the saint answered, that to one chosen by the King the prayers of a poor beggar could be of no avail. Feroze Shah, dissatisfied with his reply, sent to him again; on which the Syud observed, that as the crown was decreed to descend to his brother Khan Khanan, by the will of Providence, it was in vain for him to bestow it on another. The King was much alarmed, and ordered the Syud to quit the city; pretending that his durgah was too near the palace, and that the crowds of his disciples and students were dan­gerous to the peace of the capital. The holy man immediately obeyed, and retired out of the town to the spot where his tomb now stands; and his followers soon erected for him a magnificent dwelling.* A. H. 820.
A. D. 1417. In the year 820, the King despatched ambassadors to the Ray of Tulingana, demanding some years' arrears of tri­bute, who sent the sums due, with several valu­able presents in addition. In the middle of this year, Feroze Shah formed the design of reduc­ing the fortress of Pangul, now called Bilcondah, situated about eighty fursungs (two hundred and forty miles) from Adony. * Without regarding his relationship to the Ray of Beejanuggur, he marched and commenced the siege, which ex­tended to two whole years; at the end of which time, it not being the will of Heaven that it should then fall, a pestilence broke out in the royal army, in which, men and horses died every day in great numbers. Discontent and fear filled the minds of the survivors; and many officers of the first rank, quitting the camp with their followers, retired to their estates. At this crisis, Dew Ray, having collected his army, and having obtained assistance from all the surrounding princes, including the Raja of Tulingana, marched against the King, with a vast host of horse and foot.

Feroze Shah, though he judged his army unequal to oppose the Hindoos, yet, impelled by a sense of pride, gave battle in spite of the remonstrances of his officers. Meer Fuzl Oolla, who commanded the troops of Islam, charged the infidels with great valour, and routing their centre, fell upon their right wing, and was on the point of obtaining the victory, when one of his own attendants, said to be bribed for the purpose by Dew Ray, in­flicted a severe wound on his head, of which he instantly died. This fatal event changed the fortune of the day: the King was defeated; and with the utmost difficulty, and not without very great efforts on his part, effected his escape from the field. The Hindoos made a general massacre of the Mussulmen, erected a platform with their heads on the field of battle, and pursuing the King into his own country, laid it waste with fire and sword. They subsequently took many towns, broke down mosques and other holy places; slaughtered the people without mercy; and by their savage conduct seemed desirous to discharge the vengeance and resentment of many ages. Feroze Shah, in the exigence of his distress, requested aid of the King of Guzerat, who having but just as­cended the throne could afford none. At last fortune took a turn more favourable to his affairs; and the enemy, after repeated battles, were ex­pelled from his dominions by the King's brother, Khan Khanan. But these misfortunes dwelt on the mind of Feroze Shah, now old, and he fell into a lingering disorder, which affected his spirits and his intellect.

During his illness, he gave the reins of go­vernment into the hands of two of his slaves, —one named Hooshyar, and the other Bedar; * strengthening their influence with the whole weight of his authority. These ministers, jealous of the popularity and ambition of Khan Khanan, remarked to the King, that the government of the Deccan could only be secured to his son Hussun Khan when the kingdom should be cleared of the power and influence of Khan Khanan. Feroze Shah, recollecting the prediction of Syud Mahomed Geesoo-duraz, determined, by causing his brother to be blinded, to prevent the possibility of his ascending the throne. Khan Khanan, informed of this design, prepared for flight. During the night, he went with his son, Alla-ood-Deen, to the dwelling of the holy Syud, to request his ad­vice and blessing; who taking the turban from his son Alla-ood-Deen's head, divided it into two parts, and tied one round the head of the father, and the other round his son, and then extending his hands over them, predicted sovereignty to both. Khan Khanan, after this ceremony, returned to his house; and having spent the remainder of the night in preparation for his departure, issued from the gates at dawn of day, with four hundred faithful companions. At the gate he was saluted with the title of King, by one of his earliest acquaint­ance, a celebrated merchant named Khulf Hussun, of Bussora, who had heard of his intentions.

Khan Khanan desired him to hasten to his own dwelling, lest he should be seen by the officers of the court, and suffer on his account. To this Hussun remarked, that to be a companion in the days of prosperity, and to cast the dust of incon­stancy in the eyes of a friend in adversity, was unbecoming a virtuous man; that while he had a spark of life he should be loath to quit his patron; and he hoped he would receive him among the number of his servants, and permit him to perform some service of importance. Khan Khanan, pleased with these professions of attachment, consented to Khulf Hussun accompanying him; saying, that if he should ever attain the throne, Khulf Hussun should be his guide and minister. He then left the city, and in the evening arrived at Khan-Khananpoor, the revenue of which town he vowed to assign to the use of the Syuds of Mecca and Me­dina, Nujuf and Kurbula, should he become king.

Hooshyar and Bedar, on learning the flight of Khan Khanan, went with anxious impatience to the King, and having obtained permission to go in pursuit, marched with expedition, attended by four thousand horse, and some war elephants. Khan Khanan proposed concealing himself till he could prevail on some of the nobility to support his cause; but his companion Khulf Hussun dis­suading him, sent to Koolburga, Bidur, and Kul-liany, from whence he procured a number of malecontents to join his standard. Some days passed in moving from place to place to avoid fighting, when, at last, the King's ministers being reinforced, all hope of escape seemed cut off, the royalists being eight thousand strong, and the whole force of Khan Khanan not exceeding one thousand cavalry. In this crisis, a band of grain merchants, called in Hindoostan Bunjaras, * who were on their way from Berar with two thousand head of oxen, encamped in the neigh­bourhood of Kulliany, as also three hundred horses, which some dealers had brought from Lahore for sale. Khulf Hussun, taking advantage of this incident, purchased them all, and making red and green banners, after the custom of the Deccan, mounted a man with a flag on each ox. He placed a few cavalry in front of this mock force, with orders to appear at a distance, when the engage­ment should commence, and to give out, that some chiefs had arrived from their estates to assist Khan Khanan. Khan Khanan at first regarded the scheme as childish, but at last consented to adopt it. In the morning, he moved slowly towards the King's troops, encouraging his own men, by declaring that certain noblemen were hastening to join him, and were then only a few miles distant. Hooshyar and Bedar, also, dreading the event of his being reinforced, eagerly accepted the offer of battle, hoping by this means to prevent the junction of reinforcements. When the action had begun, Khulf Hussun advancing his horse in front of the oxen, and waving his banners, appeared marching from behind a wood at some distance, which made the enemy conclude that the expected chiefs were arrived to Khan Khanan's assistance; and a vigorous charge being made at the same instant, the right wing of the royalists broke in confusion. Hooshyar and Bedar, who were in the centre, seeing their men fly, and terrified at the approach of the supposed succours, were routed and driven from the field, after offer­ing a slight opposition. Khan Khanan, thus un­expectedly victorious, pursued the fugitives, and after taking many elephants and horses, was shortly after joined by numbers of the royal troops from all quarters.

Notwithstanding the King's indisposition and weakness, he caused the royal canopy to be raised over the head of his son, the Prince Hussun Khan; and having intrusted the citadel to some faithful servants, put himself in a palankeen (being too infirm to travel otherwise) at the head of many of the nobility, accompanied by four thousand horse, a vast number of foot, some artillery, and many elephants, to oppose his brother Khan Kha-nan. An engagement took place a few miles from the city. The part of the army in which was Feroze Shah being hardly pressed, a report pre­vailed that he was killed; on which the officers and soldiers came over in great numbers to the standard of Khan Khanan. Hooshyar and Bedar, alarmed at the great desertion, fled with the King towards the citadel, at the gates of which Feroze Shah recovered from a fainting fit into which he had been thrown from the alarm and fatigue.