Who was the brother's son of Sulān Ghīyāu-d-Dīn Tughlaq and uncle's son of Sulān Muḥammad ‘Ādil, in accordance with the authority appointing him the heir-apparent of Sulān Muḥammad ascended the throne of sovereignty and state, by the consent of the chiefs of the Shaikhs and the leading Amīrs and Vazīrs in the aforesaid year, in the vicinity of Thatha. It is said that the Makhdūmzāda-i-‘Abbāsi of Baghdād, and Shaikh Naṣīru-d-Dīn Chirāgh-i-Dihlī may God sanctify their sacred resting places were* the cause of the allegiance thus sworn to Sulān Fīroz, and it is currently reported that [Makhdūm Shaikh Naṣīru-d-Dīn Chirāgh-i-Dihlī ^242. may God sanctify his resting place]* had secretly made Malik Fīroz King during the absence of Sulān Muḥammad. Some of the Muftīs informed the Sulān of this, and his orders were that those two, master and disciple* were to be taken in confinement from Dihlī and brought to the camp. This was carried out,* and Malik Fīroz in some way or other gained over the guards, and made his way, just as he was, to the neighbourhood of Hānsī to Shaikh Badru-d-Dīn who was one of the descendants of Shaikh Jamālu-d-Dīn of Hānsī* may God sanctify theìr resting-places. That holy man exclaimed “Great God! a man has been made prisoner and taken off to be Sulān, and he wots not of it”! When they arrived* at the camp of the Sulān in the vicinity of Thatha and the tidings of the arrival of these two holy men reached him* he gave orders that they were to be put to death the instant of their arrival, and with that he lapsed into a state of intoxication. A son of his had gone on a hunting expedition, accordingly when the guards saw* this state of affairs, they liberated the holy Shaikh and the Sulān;* then Sulān Fīroz by the consent of the nobles raised the banner of sovereignty and got the Sulān's son out of the way by some crafty scheme, and after that* he had returned to Dihlī he made the pargana of Chaurāsī in the district of Hānsī a present to the monastery and rest house of Shaikh Badru-d-Dīn, whom I have mentioned. This is what I have heard—God alone knows the real truth. They also say that Sulān Muḥammad ibn Tughlaq Shāh took the reverend Shaikh under his protection, till one day the Shaikh, may God sanctify his resting-place, tied a knot upon one of the Sulān's robes and said “Naṣīru-d-Dīn fastens and God opens” and that very day the Sulān died.

Verse.

The only kingdom which sorrows not for the affliction of its
decline,
Hear my words freely spoken, is the kingdom of the darvesh. ^243.

However this may be, the Sulān Firoz at the outset of his reign issued this order that the Mughuls who had obtained influence over the soldiery should be brought apart from the camp, and inasmuch as their mutinous conduct had passed all bounds, the Sulān himself saw to their safe custody, and punishing these Mughuls effectually put a stop to their interfering with the dis­cipline of the army.

Verse.

Far better than giving a Mughul a hint to plunder
Is it that you should rejoice him with a sight of Paradise.

Then he brought his army in safety into security, and proceed­ing by way of Sīwistān made for Dihlī by continuous marches, and Aḥmad Aiyāz, styled Khwāja-i-Jahān, who in the absence* of the Sulān had urged the claims of an obscure child* to the throne, and had given him the title of Ghiyāṣu-d-Dīn Maḥmūd Shāh, appointing himself Vakīl, after considerable argument,* and much correspondence, by reason of his helplessness and dejection, by the mediation of Ashraful-Mulk and the other nobles and grandees, came with bared head, casting his turban on his neck, to the neighbourhood of Hānsī, and had an interview with the Sulān, who washed out the writing of his fault with the water of forgiveness, and made him over to the Kotwāl of Hānsī, and as for the party who had been his companions in this faction and opposition, he dispersed them all in different direc­tions. At Sarsutī tidings arrived of the birth of Shāhzāda Fatḥ Khān,* whose son eventually became Tughlaq Shāh, and the news of the death* of Taghī Tāghī also reached him there from Gujrāt; and on the second of Rajab in the aforesaid year, he graced the throne of Dihlī by his accession and made a fresh distribution of appointments.

^244. And in the year 753 H. (1352 A.D.) he went to the Sirmūr hills for the purpose of relaxation and sport, and returned thence, and in the month of Rajab of this year Shāhzāda Muḥammad Khān, who eventually obtained the title of Nāṣiru-d-Dīn Muḥammad Shāh, was born.

And in the year 754 H. (1353 A.D.) he returned from Kalānor whither he had gone on a hunting expedition, and built a lofty building on the banks of the river Sarsutī and [gave it to Shaikh Ṣadru-d-Dīn Multānī, may God sanctify his resting place, the Shaikhu-l-Islām] and Malik Qubūl* Nāib Vazīr he made Khān-i-Jahān ,* and at the close of this year he went to Lakhnautī with the intention of putting down the rebellion of Ḥājī Ilyās who had assumed the title of Shamsu-d-Dīn. He accordingly took refuge in the fort of Ikdāla,* which is the strongest of the forts of Bangāla, and after a desultory* defence fought for a very short time, and threw his elephants and his material of war, with his servants and retainers to the winds, and all of them fell into the hands of the Sulān who, having made peace with him because of the rainy season,* retraced his steps.

And in the year 755 H. (1354 A.D.) having crossed by the ford of Manikpūr he arrived at Dihlī and built Fīrozābād* on the banks of the Jamna. And in the year 756 H. (1355 A.D.) he went to Dīpālpūr and bringing a canal from the river Satlaj* led it as far as the Jahjar which is forty-eight kroh from there.

In the year 757 A.H. (1356 A.D.) he conducted a stream from the river Jamna from the vicinity of Mandūī (Mandilī) and ^245. Sarūr,* and having led seven other canals into it took it to Hānsī and thence to Rās* where he built a fortress which he called Hiṣār Fīroza, and dug* a spacious reservoir beneath the palace which was in that fortress, and filled it with water from the canal; he also led another stream from the canal of the Ghaghar underneath the fortress of Sarsutī, and from thence to Birnī Kheṛa,* and in the space between them he built a fortress* and named it Fīrozābād.* At the end of this year on the occasion of the ‘Īdu-ẓ-Ẓuhā a robe of honour arrived for the Sulān from the Khalīfah Al-Hākim bi amrillāhi Abūl Fatḥ Abū Bakr ibn Abil Rabī‘ Suleimān* from the Dārul Khilāfat of Egypt, with a patent conferring upon him the whole of Hindustān: and* in this same year messengers from Ḥājī Ilyās the ruler of Lakhnautī, having arrived bearing splendid presents and offerings, were distinguished with countless favours and kindnesses, after which they returned, and it was ordered that in return for these presents (handsome) elephants* should be sent. The whole of Hindustān was now in possession of Sulān Fīroz with the exception of Lakhnautī which was held by Ḥajī Ilyās,* who had come to terms with the Sulān,* and with the exception also of the Deccan, which, after the death of Sulān Muḥammad, had come into the possession of Ḥasan Kāngū.

And in the year 759 H. (1358 A.D.) having gone to Samāna, he appointed Malik Qabūl Sarbardadār* to proceed against* the Mughuls who had arrived on the frontier of Dīpālpūr. The Mughuls upon hearing particulars of the Sulān's army turned back ^246. and went to their own country, and the Sulān returned to Dihlī;* and in this year the Sulān despatched some Arabian horses and foreign fruits* with all kinds of choice presents by the hands of the messengers of Sulān Shamsu-d-Dīn of Lakhnautī who had arrived at his Court bearing many presents,* and at Bihār they heard that the Sulān Shamsu-d-Dīn had died, and Sulān Sikandar his son had ascended the throne in the room of his father, so they sent the horses in accordance with orders to the Court at Bihār and conducted the messengers back to Kaṛṛa.

* And in the year 760 H., the Sulān having formed the design of attacking Lakhnautī with a vast army, left Khān-i-Jahān in Dehli, and after deputing Tātār Khān, that is to say Malik Tātār, to proceed from Ghaznīn to Multān, set out and passed the rainy season in afarābād, and at this place, Ā‘am Malik Shaikhzāda-i-Busāmī * who had become intimate during his absence with Malik Aḥmad Aiyāz, and by the orders of the Sulān had been banished, brought from the Dārul Khilāfat of Egypt a robe of honour for the Sulān and received the title of A‘am Khān. Saiyyid Rusūldār was sent with the messengers of Lakhnautī* to the Sulān Sikan-dar at Lakhnautī, and Sikandar despatched five fine elephants with other costly presents and offerings to the Court. The Sulān when the rains were over leaving afarābād shaped his course for Lakhnautī, and while on the way set apart the requirements of kingship, and elephants and a store of rubies which at that time were held in great estimation, for the Shābzāda Fatḥ Khān, they ^247. also struck coins in his name. When they arrived at the confines of Panḍūah, Sulān Sikandar shut himself up in the castle of Ikdāla* whither his father had been in the habit of going for refuge, and after the Sulān had laid siege to that fortress Sulān Sikandar asked for quarter, and sent thirty-seven elephants with other costly presents as his humble service.