A. H. 779.
A. D. 1377.

779, a trifling insurrection occurred among the zemindars of Etawa; but it was soon crushed, and the insurgents brought to punishment, while forts were built to keep them in future subjection. In the year

A. H. 781.
A. D. 1379.

781, Feroze marched towards Sumana, Ambala, and Shahabad, as far as the foot of the mountains of Saharunpoor; and after levying tribute from the rajas of the Surmore hills, he returned to his capital.

About this time information was brought that Kurgoo, the zemindar of Kutehr, had invited Syud Mahomed, governor of Budaoon, with his brothers, Syud Alla-ood-Deen, and Syud Mahomed, to his house, and basely assassinated them. Enraged at this transaction, the King instantly marched and took severe vengeance on the associates and kindred of the zemindar, putting them to the sword, and levelling their houses with the ground. The murderer himself made his escape to the mountains of Camaoon, and was protected by the rajas of those parts. Feroze ordered a detachment of his army against them, and nearly 23,000 of those mountaineers were made prisoners and con­demned to slavery. As he could gain no inform­ation of Kurgoo himself, the King appointed one Mullik Dawood, an Afghan, with a body of troops, to remain at Sumbhul, with orders to invade the country of Kutehr every year, and not to allow it to be inhabited until the murderer was given up. The King himself also, under pretence of hunting, marched annually in that direction to see that his orders were fulfilled, and for six years not an inhabitant was to be seen in that district, nor was the land cultivated.

A. H. 787.
A. D. 1385. Age and infirmity began in the year 787 to make rapid ravages on the con­stitution of the King. The power of the Vizier, Zuffur Khan Farsy (entitled Khan Jehan), became so absolute, that the King was guided by him in every thing, till at length that minister had the baseness falsely to accuse the Prince Mahomed Khan, the King's son, of a design against his father's life. Among others said to be con­cerned in the plot, was Zuffur Khan, the late governor of Guzerat, and then governor of Ma-hoba, as also Mullik Yakoot and Mullik Kumal-ood-Deen. The King gave credit to the accusation, and authorised the Vizier to secure the parties. Zuffur Khan was accordingly recalled from his government of Mahoba, and confined. The Prince Mahomed Khan, obtaining intelligence of the design against him, provided for his security, by fortifying his palace. In this situation he remained shut up for some days, and at last, having ob­tained leave for his wife to visit the King's ladies, he put on his armour, and getting into a closed palankeen, was himself carried into the seraglio. On being discovered, the women, alarmed, ran screaming into the King's apartment, telling him that the Prince had come in armour with treasonable designs. The Prince following them, presented himself to his father, and falling at his feet, told him, that the suspicions he had en­tertained of him were worse than death itself; that he came, therefore, to receive his fate from the King's own hands; but he first begged leave to inform him, that he was perfectly innocent of the charge which the Vizier had purposely con­trived, in order to pave his own way to the throne.

Feroze, confiding in his son's veracity, clasped him in his embrace, and, weeping, acknowledged he had been deceived, and authorised him to act as his judgment prompted against the traitor. On this the Prince, Mahomed Khan, leaving the presence, ordered out twelve thousand horse, and proceeded to surround the Vizier's house. On hearing of the Prince's approach, the Vizier put to death Zuffur Khan of Guzerat, one of the persons whom he had accused of treason, and collecting his own friends engaged the Prince in the streets. The traitor was wounded, fled first to his house, and thence escaped towards Mewat. The Prince, in the mean time, secured all the minister's wealth, and cut off his adherents.

Immediately after these transactions, Feroze resigned the reins of government into the hands of his son, and abdicated the throne. The Prince, assuming the name of Nasir-ood Deen Mahomed,

Shaban,
A. H. 789.
August,
A. D. 1387.

ascended the throne in the month of Shaban, 789, and caused the Khootba to be read both in his own name as well as in that of his father. The first act of his government was to form a new administration, and to distribute honorary dresses among the chiefs. Mullik Yakoob Khan, the master of the horse, was nominated to the charge of the government of Guzerat, with the title of Sikundur Khan. On his route thither, Koka Chowhan, a Rajpoot ze­mindar of Mewat with whom Khan Jehan the Vizier had taken refuge, fearing the King's resent­ment, seized and delivered him up as a prisoner to Sikundur Khan, who cut off his head, and sent it to Dehly. Nasir-ood-Deen Mahomed went with

A. H. 790.
A. D. 1388.

his army, in the year 790, towards the mountains of Surmore, to hunt. While engaged in this diversion, advices were received that Furhut-ool-Moolk, governor of Gu­zerat, in conjunction with the Ameer Judeeda settled in that country, had risen in rebellion, and had defeated and slain Sikundur Khan, who had been lately appointed to succeed him. On this in­formation, the Prince hastened to Dehly; but, as if infatuated, he gave himself up entirely to pleasure, and seemed insensible of the loss he had sus­tained, and of the dangers in which his conduct had involved him. When the officers of his court attempted to rouse him from his lethargy, he dismissed them from his presence, and filled their places with parasites and flatterers. The nobles, seeing affairs in this state, availed themselves of the circumstance to unite with the Princes Baha-ood-Deen and Kumal-ood-Deen, cousins of the Prince Mahomed, for the purpose of subverting his authority, and collected not less than 100,000 men. Nasir-ood-Deen Mahomed employed Mullik Zuheer-ood-Deen Lahory to treat with the insur­gents, whose camp was formed without the city. The mob, however, pelted him with stones, and obliged him to retire, after being much bruised and wounded. The Prince, seeing no hopes of an amicable result, roused himself, and advanced with his army against the conspirators. After a bloody battle, he drove them into the city, where they secured the palace, and renewed the contest. The city became now a horrid scene of slaughter. During the space of two days and nights, the dead were left lying in the streets; where friends and foes, victors and vanquished, were jumbled together without distinction. On the third day the populace brought out the old King in his palankeen, and placed him down in the street, be­tween the combatants. The Prince Mahomed's

A. H. 790.
A. D. 1388.

troops seeing their former master, and concluding that his appearance was vo­luntary, quitted the Prince, and crowded around the old King with shouts of joy. The Prince Mahomed thus deserted, fled with a small retinue to the mountains of Surmore. All parties now united, and tranquillity being restored, Feroze again resumed his full authority. But feeling him­self unequal to the task, on account of his age, he once more resigned, and, at the instance of the house­hold troops, placed his grandson Gheias-ood-Deen, the son of his eldest son, Futteh Khan, upon the throne. The troops, in the mean time, put to death Ameer Syud Hussun, the King's son-in-law, for supporting the fugitive Prince Nasir-ood-Deen Mahomed, and the first orders issued by Gheias-ood-Deen after his accession were to kill all the adherents of his uncle Mahomed, wherever they might be found.

Rumzan 3.
A. H. 790.
Oct. 23.
A. D. 1388. Feroze, having now arrived at the age of 90, died on the third of Rumzan, in the year 790.

Feroze Toghluk was a just and learned prince. His soldiers and his subjects were equally happy under his administration, nor did any one dare to exercise oppression in his time. He was himself the author of the Futtoohat Feroze Shahy. He was the first of the Dehly kings who brought forward, by his patronage, the race of Afghans, before whose time they were not held in estimation. He reigned 38 years over Hindoostan, and the words “Wufat Feroze,” “The Death of Feroze,” com­prise the numerical letters of the date of his de­mise. Zeea-ood-Deen Burny, who lived at his court, has written the history of his reign in a work entitled Towareekh Feroze Shahy. Nizam-ood-Deen Ahmud Bukhshy observes in his history, that Feroze introduced many excellent laws, which were current in his time. Among others, were the three following regulations: The first was the abolition of the practice of mutilating criminals, a mode of punishment which he would not allow to be in­flicted on any of his subjects, either Mahomedan or Hindoo. The second regulation limited very much the demand on cultivators, by which he increased not only the population but eventually his revenue. The third was the encouragement he gave to learned men, whom he caused to reside in different parts of the empire, for the sake of imparting in­struction to the people. He caused his regulations to be carved on the Musjid of Ferozabad, of which the following may be taken as a sample: “It has “been usual in former times to spill Mahomedan “blood on trivial occasions, and, for small crimes, “to mutilate and torture them, by cutting off the “hands and feet, and noses and ears, by putting “out eyes, by pulverising the bones of the living “criminal with mallets, by burning the body with “fire, by crucifixion, and by nailing the hands and “feet, by flaying alive, by the operation of ham-“stringing, and by cutting human beings to pieces. “God in his infinite goodness having been pleased “to confer on me the power, has also inspired me “with the disposition to put an end to these prac-“tices. It is my resolution, moreover, to restore, “in the daily prayers offered up for the royal “family, the names of all those princes, my prede-“cessors, who have reigned over the empire of “Dehly, in hopes that these prayers, being ac-“ceptable to God, may in some measure appease “his wrath, and ensure his mercy towards them. “It is also hereby proclaimed, that the small and “vexatious taxes, under the denomination of Cot-“wally, &c. payable to the public servants of “government, as perquisites of offices, by small “traders; that licences for the right of pasturage “from shepherds, on waste lands belonging to the “crown; fees from flower-sellers, fish-sellers, cotton-“cleaners, silk-sellers, and cooks; and the precarious “and fluctuating taxes on shopkeepers and vint-“ners, shall henceforward cease throughout the “realm; for it is better to relinquish this portion “of the revenue than realise it at the expense of “so much distress, occasioned by the discretionary “power necessarily vested in tax-gatherers and “officers of authority; nor will any tax here-“after be levied contrary to the written law of “the book. It has been customary to set aside “one fifth of all property taken in war for the “troops, and to reserve four fifths to the govern-“ment. It is hereby ordered, that in future four “fifths shall be distributed to the troops, and one “fifth only reserved for the crown. I will on all “occasions cause to be banished from the realm, “persons convicted of the following crimes: “Those who profess atheism, or who maintain “schools of vice. All public servants convicted “of corruption, as well as persons paying bribes. “I have myself abstained from wearing gaudy silk “apparel and jewels, as an example to my subjects. “I have considered it my duty to repair every “public edifice of utility, constructed by my pre-“decessors, such as caravansaras, musjids, wells, “reservoirs of water, aqueducts, canals, hospitals, “alms-houses, and schools, and have alienated “considerable portions of the revenue for their “support. I have also taken pains to discover “the surviving relations of all persons who suffered “from the wrath of my late lord and master, Ma-“homed Toghluk, and having pensioned and pro-“vided for them, have caused them to grant their “full pardon and forgiveness to that Prince, in the “presence of the holy and learned men of this “age, whose signatures and seals as witnesses are “affixed to the documents; the whole of which, as “far as lay in my power, have been procured, and “put into a box, and deposited in the vault in “which Mahomed Toghluk is entombed. I have “gone and sought consolation from all the most “learned and holy men within my realm, and have “taken care of them. Whenever my soldiers have “been rendered inefficient for service, by wounds, “or by age, I have cause them to be pensioned on “full pay for life. Two attempts have been made “to poison me, but without effect.”