After the martyrdom of Tughlaq Shāh, by the ill-judged agree­ment of the Amīrs assumed the Government under the above title, and at the commencement of his reign distributed appoint­ments among the Amīrs, and raised Ruknu-d-Dīn Chanda to the dignity of Vazīr, and eventually, when he heard that Ruknu-d-Dīn in concert with certain of the Amīrs, was plotting sedition, ^259. and entertained ambitious designs upon the kingdom, got rid of him together with his following, taking possession of his elephants and treasure, obtained complete hold over Dihlī and increased in power daily. In the meantime the Amīrs of hundreds of Sāmāna cut to pieces Malik Sulān Shāh Khushdil, the Amīr of Sāmāna, who had been sent against the Sulān Muḥammad Shāh to the country at the foot of the hills, at the head of the reservoir of Sāmāna and sacked his house, and sending his head to the Shāhzāda Muḥam-mad Shāh at Nagarkot invited him to come; Muḥammad Shāh accordingly left Nagarkot, and came to Sāmāna by way of Jalan-dhar by continuous marches, and having gathered together the paraphernalia of royal magnificence, for the second time raised the standard of royalty in the month of Rabī‘ul Awwal in the year 791 H. (1389 A.D.), and in the following month of Rabī‘ul Ākhir of the same year, set out to capture Dihlī with a force of 50,000, and alighted at the palace of Jahān Numā where he bestowed upon the Amīrs suitable appointments; among others* he conferred upon the Governor of Multān the title of Khiẓr Khān; and Abū Bakr Shāh having raised an army for the assistance of Bahādur Nāhir Khān Zāda of Mīwāt, on the (2nd) of Jumādīu-l Awwal* of the aforesaid year engaged in battle on the plains of Fīrūzābād with Muḥammad Shāh, and gained the day. Muḥammad Shāh, with two thousand cavalry, crossed the river Jamna and entered the Doāb, and sent Humāyūn Khān his younger son to Sāmāna, and having obtained thence a great following and the requirements of sov­ereignty, and taking with him certain Amīrs of Hindustān with fifty thousand cavalry, a second time marched his standards towards Dihlī. As it chanced he became engaged in battle with Abū Bakr ^260. Shāh and was again defeated, and Abū Bakr Shāh pursued him part of the way, but considered it an excellent opportunity to return. Muḥammad Shāh arrived at Chaptar,* which is a town on the banks of the Ganges, and giving over his following to destruction once more attempted to fight. And in the month of Muḥarram of the year 792 H. (1389-90 A.D.) Shāhzāda Humāyūn Khān having called together many Amīrs from the frontier of Sāmāna to reinforce him, laid waste the country round Dihlī, engaged in battle in the neighbourhood* of Pānīpath with ‘Imādu-l-Mulk who had been sent by Abū Bakr (Shāh)* with four thousand cavalry to oppose him, and being defeated retreated towards Sāmāna. And in the month of Jamādīu-l Awwal of the aforesaid year Abū Bakr Shāh marched for Chaptar (Chītar) with a strong force, with the object of opposing Muḥammad Shāh, and had encamped at a distance of twenty kroh from Dihlī, when Muḥammad Shāh with four thousand men,* passing unobserved round his right flank,* reached Dihlī by another route and entered the palace of Humā-yūn, where the populace both great and small declared in favour of him; Abū Bakr Shāh pursued him and arrived at Dihlī, and having put to death Malik Bahāu-d-Dīn Jangī whom Muḥammad Shāh had left to guard the gates, without hesitation made for the palace of Humāyūn, and Muḥammad Shāh, being taken off his guard, was not able to oppose him and leaving by way of the door of the Ḥauẓ-i-Khāṣṣ fled again with all haste to Chaptar (Chītar) his original abode and asylum.* Many of his noted Amīrs and of his body servants were put to death, and although Sulān Muḥam-mad Shāh was no longer able to stand against Abū Bakr Shāh, still* the soldiery and people were very ill-disposed towards Abū ^261. Bakr Shāh, and in the month of Ramaẓān in the aforesaid year, Mubashir Chap and some of the slaves of Fīrūz Shāh's party who had been promoted to the rank of Amīr, and for one reason or another bore a grudge against Abū Bakr Shāh, opened a secret cor­respondence * with Muḥammad Shāh, and invited him;* Abū Bakr Shāh when he came to know of this was utterly dumbfounded, and under pretext of asking assistance from Bahādur Nāhir set his face to go to Kotila* of Mīwāt, and set out leaving Malik Shāhīn and ‘Imādu-l-Mulk and Malik Baḥrī and Ṣafdar Khān in Dihlī; then Muḥammad Shāh in obedience to the invitation of the Amīrs entered Dihlī for the third time and ascended the throne of royalty in the palace of Fīrūzābād with great ceremony; and Mubashīr Chap, having received the title of Islām Khān, was promoted to the rank of Vazīr, and after some time he left Fīrūzābād and went to the palace of Humāyūn, Jahān (Numā),* and gave orders for the slaves of the Firūzī party who had been a source of disturbance in the days of tumult and riot to be put to death without distinction, and many of the free men also, who came from the eastern quarters of Hindustān were taken for slaves by reason of the imperfection of their pronunciation,* and were put to the sword. Abū Bakr Shāh after this misfortune could not recover himself, and remained at the Kotila (of Mīwāt) just as he was till Muḥammad Shāh* by continuous marches came against him, and Bahādur Nāhir Mīwātī and Abū Bakr Shāh who had taken refuge with him, after fighting for a long time begged for quarter and had an interview with Sulān Muḥammad Shāh. Bahādur Nāhir re­ceived a robe of honour and other marks of favour, but they imprisoned Abū Bakr Shāh in the fort of Mīrath. In that self­same prison he escaped from the prison house of the world. This event took place in the year 793 H. (1390-91 A.D.)* the duration of the reign of Abū Bakr Shāh was a year and a half.

Verse.

He reckoned certain days and then he came to nothing
The time smiled to think that he too had passed away.

Verse.

^262. This world is like a corpse upon which there are
thousands of vultures
[One continually tears another with its talons,
The other rends it constantly with its beak]*
At last, they all take to flight and
All that remains of them all is the corpse.