In the early part of his reign, Alla-ood-Deen Shah erected, at Ahmudabad Bidur, an infirmary for the poor; to support the expenses of which he granted considerable tracts of land, and estab­lished in it both Mussulman and Hindoo physicians. To every part of his dominions he sent censors of morals and just judges; and though he drank wine himself he forbade the use of it to others, as also the practice of gaming. He put chains on the necks of kullendurs, * and idle, dissipated vagabonds, whom he punished by employing them in removing filth from the streets, in dragging heavy stones, and in the performance of all manner of laborious work, in order that they might reform, and either earn their livelihood by industry, or quit the country alto­gether. If any person, after admonition and mo­derate correction, was convicted of drinking wine, it was enacted, that melted lead should be poured down his throat, whatever might be the rank of the offender.

One of the grandsons of Syud Mahomed Gee-soo-Duraz, captivated by a courtesan, was induced by her to drink wine, and becoming quarrelsome from its effects, he beat the woman, and cut off her side locks. The affair was brought before the kotwal, * who confined both parties; but out of consideration for the rank of the Syud, he thought proper to refer the case to the royal presence. The King was much enraged, and ordered the offender to be carried to the most public square of the city, there to receive two hundred blows on the soles of his feet, and he was required to take a solemn oath against drinking wine; while the courtesan was led through the streets dressed in an ass's skin, and afterwards banished from the city.

The King regulated his civil and military de­partments so wisely, that the acts of Fureedoon and Nowshirwan lost their lustre when compared with his. On Fridays, and on all holidays, he attended the mosque and heard sermons. He was averse from shedding human blood, though he de­stroyed many idolatrous temples, and erected mosques in their stead. He held conversation nei­ther with Nazarenes nor with bramins; nor would he permit them to hold civil offices under his government.*

After the war of Beejanuggur the King changed his conduct, and gave himself wholly up to luxuri­ous enjoyments. Transferring the management of his government to ministers, he collected a thou­sand of the most beautiful women he could pro­cure; to accommodate whom he erected a magni­ficent palace, and laid out elegant gardens around it, on the banks of a piece of water. This palace he called the abode of bliss; and therein he spent most of his time in drinking ruby-coloured wines, and in pressing the lips of smooth-faced damsels, or listening to the melody of sweet-voiced musicians. During this intoxication of pleasure, he only ap­peared in the public audience hall once every four or five months; and the Deccany officers ex­ercised the power of government with uncontrolled sway.

At this time Meamun-Oolla Deccany formed a plan for reducing to subjection all the fortresses along the sea-coast. To affect this, the King de­puted Mullik-oot-Toojar, with seven thousand Dec-cany infantry, and three thousand Arabian cavalry, besides his own division, to the westward. Mullik-oot-Toojar, fixing upon Chakun as his seat of go­vernment, secured the fort near the city of Joonere, from whence he sent detachments, at different times, into Concan, and reduced several rajas to subjection. At length he moved to that country in person, and laid siege to a fort the Raja of which was named Sirka, * whom he speedily obliged to surrender, and to deliver himself and family into his hands.

Mullik-oot-Toojar insisted that Sirka should em­brace the faith of Islam, or be put to death; upon which the subtle infidel, with much assumed humi­lity, represented that there existed between him and Shunkur Ray, who owned the country around the fortress of Kehlna†, * a family jealousy, and that should he enter into the pale of Islam, and his rival remain secure in the full possession of power, he would, on the general's retreat, taunt him with ignominy on account of his change of religion, and excite his own family and subjects to revolt; so that he should lose the countries his ancestors had held for ages. Raja Sirka added, however, that if Mullik-oot-Toojar would reduce his rival, Shunkur Ray of Kehlna, and give his country either to himself or to one of his officers, which might be effected with little difficulty, he would then pronounce the creed of the true faith, become enrolled among the servants of the King, and remit annually a tribute to his treasury, as well as assist in reducing those rajas who might hereafter fail in their duty and allegiance.

Mullik-oot-Toojar replied, that he heard the road to the Ray's country was woody, and full of difficult passes. To which Sirka answered, that while there was a guide with the army so faithful and capable as himself, not a single soul should re­ceive injury. Accordingly, Mullik-oot-Toojar, relying on the promises of the Raja, in the year

A. H. 858.
A. D. 1453.

858 began his expedition against Kehl-na, but was deserted in the outset by most of the Deccany and Abyssinian officers and troops, who declined entering the woods. Raja Sirka, agreeably to his promise, during the two first days conducted the army along a broad road, so that the general praised his zeal and fidelity; but on the third day he led them by paths so in­tricate, that the male tiger, from apprehension, might change his sex, and through passes more tortuitous than the curly locks of the fair, and more difficult to escape from than the mazes of love. Demons even might start at the pre­cipices and caverns in those wilds, and ghosts might be panic-struck at the awful view of the mountains. Here the sun never enlivened with its splendour the vallies; nor had Providence designed that it should penetrate their depths. The very grass was though and sharp as the fangs of serpents, and the air fetid as the breath of dragons. Death dwelt in the waters, and poison impregnated the breeze. After winding, weary and alarmed, through these dreadful labyrinths, the army entered a darker forest, a passage through which was diffi­cult even to the winds of heaven. It was bounded on three sides by mountains, whose heads towered above the clouds, and on the other side was an inlet of the ocean, so that there was no path by which to advance, nor road for retreat, but that by which they had entered.*

Mullik-oot-Toojar at this crisis fell ill of a bloody flux, so that he could not attend to the regu­larity of the line of march, or give orders for the disposition of his troops, who being excessively fatigued, about night-fall flung themselves down to rest wherever they could find room, for there was no spot which admitted of two tents being pitched near each other. While the troops were thus scattered in disorder, Sirka, their treacherous guide, left them, and communicated to Shunkur Ray that he had lured the game into his toils. The Ray, with a great force conducted by Sirka, about midnight attacked the Mussulmans from all quarters, who, unsuspicious of surprise, were buried in the sleep produced by excessive exer­tions. In this helpless state, nearly seven thousand soldiers of the faithful were put to death, like sheep, with knives and daggers; the wind blowing violently, the rustling of the trees prevented the troops from hearing the cries of their fellow-sufferers. Among these was Mullik-oot-Toojar, who fell with five hundred noble Syuds of Medina, Kurbulla, and Nujuf; as also some few Deccany and Abyssinian officers, together with about two thousand of their adherents, who had remained with their general. Before daylight the Ray, having completed his bloody work, retired with his people from the forest.

Those who survived this dreadful massacre re­traced, with much difficulty, the path by which they had advanced, and joined the Deccany and Abys­sinian officers, who had remained encamped on the plains above the Ghats. The latter advised the foreigners to retire to their estates, that they might recover from their fatigues, and supply themselves with necessaries for future service. To this pro­posal the Moguls would not accede, as the town of Chakun was near, where they might, in a short time, recruit their strength, and be able to rejoin the army. Some of the Moguls, also, impru­dently observed, that the defection and cowardice of the Deccany officers, who had refused to de­scend the Ghats, was the occasion of the disaster which had befallen Mullik-oot-Toojar and the Syuds. After their arrival at Chakun, the Moguls threatened to write full accounts to court of the desertion of the Deccanies.

The latter, apprehensive of this, resolved to be the first accusers, and therefore sent advices to the King, stating, that Mullik-oot-Toojar, at the instigation of a zemindar named Sirka, and by the advice of the Syuds and Moguls, had entered on a wild project in defiance of their most earnest remonstrances; that the general had by his own death suffered the punishment of his rashness, and that most of his followers had also fallen; that the surviving foreign troops, instead of agreeing to remain with them till another general should be appointed, had behaved with insolence, spoken disrespectfully of the King, and were gone in a body to the fortress of Chakun, offering their ser­vices to the rajas of the Concan, and inviting them to revolt.