The officers of the guards, who had cleared the way for the King's accession, are put to death. — The King disgusts his nobles by raising low persons to high dignities. — One Mullik Khoosrow, a Hindoo of the lowest origin, is enrolled among the nobility, and is appointed to the command of the army. — The King indiscriminately orders the gates of the prisons to be thrown open, by which 17,000 persons are set free — he abolishes all the regulations regarding trade introduced by his father — he abandons himself to licentiousness, and the most degrading vices. — The King sends an army to Guzerat, and marches in person to the Deccan — sends Mullik Khoosrow, with the main body of the army, towards Malabar, and returns to Dehly. — A plot discovered against the King's life. — The leader of the conspiracy, a cousin of the King, suffers death. — The princes at Gualiar are also murdered, and the widow of one of them is brought to Dehly, and placed in the King's haram. — The King becomes totally regardless of all decency in his licentious­ness and vices. — Mullik Khoosrow returns from the Deccan. — The King goes forth to meet him — embraces him publicly. — Khoosrow aims at the throne. — Plot to murder the King publicly talked of. — The King warned by his tutor — neglects the admonition — is murdered by Mullik Khoosrow.

Mohurrum 7.
A. H. 717.
March 22.
A. D. 1317. ON the 7th of Mohurrum, in the year 717 of the Hijra, Moobarik ascended the throne. The commander of the foot-guards, who had saved his life, and raised him to the throne, as also his lieu­tenant, were ungratefully and inhumanly put to death by his orders, under no better pretence than that they presumed too much on the services they had done him. It is probable, that he was insti­gated to this base action by his fears, as, in some measure, appears by his immediately dispersing all the old soldiers, who were under their command, into different parts of the country. Moobarik began to dispense his favours among the nobles, but he disgusted them all by raising some of his slaves to the rank of omras. Mullik Deenar, the superintendent of the elephants, received the title of Zuffur Khan, Mahomed Moula, the King's maternal uncle, that of Sheer Shah, and Mowlana Zeea-ood-Deen, that of Sudr-Jehan. Mullik Kir-ran Beg was made a member of the council of state; and Hussun, a converted Purwary * slave of

A. H. 717.
A. D. 1317.

Guzerat, received the title of Mullik Khoosrow, and, through the King's at­tachment towards him, became the greatest man in the realm. He was appointed, in the first instance, to the command of the armies of Mullik Kafoor, and Khwaja Hajy, those joint con­querors of the Deccan, and at the same time re­ceived the title of Vizier.

The King, whether to affect popularity, or in re­membrance of his late situation, ordered all the prisons to be opened; by which means 17,000 persons were blessed with the light of day; and all the exiles were recalled by proclamation. He then commanded a present of six month's pay to be made to the whole of the troops, and con­ferred upon them many other advantages. He at the same time issued orders to give free access to all petitioners. He restored the lands and villages to those persons from whom they had been forcibly wrested in the late reign; and by degrees removed all the obnoxious restrictions on commerce, and the heavy tributes and taxes which had been exacted by his father. By these means, the ordinary and natural intercourse of trade fell into its usual channels; but in carrying these measures into effect, he abandoned some of the wisest institutions of his predecessor, and the sources of justice soon became polluted, and cor­ruption prevailed. The King gave himself up entirely to wine, revelry, and lust: these vices became fashionable at court, from whence the whole body of the people was soon infected.

Moobarik, in the first year of his reign, sent an army under the command of the celebrated Ein-ool-Moolk Mooltany into the province of Guzerat, which had revolted. Ein-ool-Moolk was an officer of great abilities: he defeated the insurgents, cut off their chiefs, and settled the country in peace. After this, the King conferred the government of Guzerat upon Zuffur Khan, whose daughter he had taken in marriage. Zuffur Khan soon after marched his army to Nehrwala, the capital of Guzerat, where some disturbances had taken place. He reduced the rebels, confiscated their estates, and sent their movable wealth to the King.

A.H. 718.
A. D. 1318. In the second year of his reign, the King, collecting his army, marched to­wards the Deccan, to chastise Hurpal Dew, the son-in-law of Ram Dew, who, by the as­sistance of the other princes of the Deccan, had recovered the country of the Marrattas. * Having appointed one Shaheen, the son of a slave, to whom he gave the title of Wufa Beg, his lieutenant in his absence, the King left Dehly and arrived at Dew-gur. Here Hurpal Dew, with some other rajas, had assembled, but fled at the approach of the Moslems. A detachment was sent in pursuit, which brought back Hurpal Dew prisoner, who was flayed alive, decapitated, and his head fixed above the gate of his own capital. The King now ordered a chain of posts to be established as far as Dwar Sumoodra, and built a mosque in Dew-gur, which still remains. He appointed Mullik Beg Luky†, * one of his father's slaves, to com­mand in the Deccan; and, in imitation of Alla-ood-Deen, gave to his favourite, Mullik Khoosrow, the ensigns of royalty. He sent the latter towards Malabar, with part of his army, and returned in person to Dehly.

Mullik Assud-ood Deen, a cousin of the King on his mother's side, seeing him daily in a state of intoxication, and negligent of the duties of his high station, began to entertain thoughts of usurp­ing the crown, and formed a conspiracy against the King's life. The plot, however, was disclosed by one of the conspirators, and Assud-ood-Deen was condemned to death. Whether Moobarik had found proofs that his brothers were concerned in this transaction is not known; but at that time he sent an executioner to Gualiar, and caused the Princes to be put to death. He also caused Dewul Devy, the wife of his elder brother Khizr Khan, to be brought to the royal haram.

Moobarik, now in quiet possession of Guzerat, the Deccan, and most parts of northern India, gave a loose to the most unbridled excesses. He grew more perverse, proud, vindictive, and tyrannical, than ever; despising all council, ill treating his friends, and inflicting the most sanguinary and unjust punishments, merely in conformity with his obstinate and arbitrary will. Zuffur Khan, the go­vernor of Guzerat, among others, fell a victim to his caprice, as also Wufa Beg, upon whom he had heaped such favours; both suffered death without even an accusation. The King became infamous for every vice that can disgrace human nature, and condescended so far as to dress himself often like a common actress, and go with the public women to dance at the houses of the nobility. At other times, he would lead a gang of abominable prosti­tutes, half naked, along the terraces of the royal palaces, and oblige them to exhibit themselves be­fore the nobles as they entered the court. These, and other indecencies too shocking to mention, were the constant sources of his daily amusement. After the death of Zuffur Khan, Hissam-ood-Deen, uncle to Mullik Khoosrow, obtained the govern­ment of Guzerat. He had not long been esta­blished, when in conjunction with a few nobles he rebelled. The other nobles of Guzerat, rising in arms, defeated him, and sent him prisoner to Dehly. Here he was not only pardoned, but re­gained his place in the King's favour, and Mullik Wujee-ood Deen Kooreishy was sent to Guzerat in his stead. About this time news arrived, that Mullik Beg Luky, governor of the Deccan, had rebelled. The King sent a force to suppress that insurrection, which contrived to seize Mullik Beg and his principal adherents, and to send them to Dehly, where the chief had his ears cut off, and the others were put to the torture. Mullik Ein-ool-Moolk Mooltany was now raised to the office of governor of the Deccan.

A. H. 719.
A. D. 1319. Mullik Khoosrow, who had gone to Malabar, stayed there about one year. He plundered the country of one hun­dred and twenty elephants, a perfect diamond, weighing one hundred and sixty-eight ruttys, with other jewels, and gold to a great amount. His ambition was increased by his wealth; and he pro­posed to establish himself in the Deccan in an in­dependent sovereignty. Being unable to gain over any of the chief officers of his army, he conceived a project for their destruction. To this end, he re­called one Mullik Tubligha from the government of the island of Goa. He also recalled Mullik Teimoor and Mullik Gool, Afghans, who were on different services, and gave out that he had orders to return to Dehly. These nobles, having in­telligence of his designs, disobeyed his commands, and wrote a remonstrance to court, accusing Mullik Khoosrow of treason. The King com­manded him to be seized, and to be sent prisoner to Dehly, which order the officers found means to execute. When Khoosrow came before the King, he pleaded his own cause so successfully, and re­torted on his accusers with such plausibility, that the King believed the whole accusation originated in envy and disgust at being commanded by his favourite. He immediately recalled his accusers, and though they gave undoubted proofs of their assertions, he not only shut his ears against the defence which they brought forward, but disgraced them, confiscated their estates, and reduced them to poverty. Other nobles, seeing that the enemies of Mullik Khoosrow, right or wrong, were destined to destruction, made excuses, in order to obtain leave to retire to distant parts of the empire. A few sycophants adhered to the favourite, who had now become the object of universal dread, as well as the source of all honours and promotion. This slave, in the mean time, cherished his own ambi­tious views, and began again to form measures for his own advancement to the throne.