The conquest of Chitor, which was named Khizrábád, after Khizr Khán, who was here honoured with being allowed to bear a red canopy over his head.
“After that, the king's attention was directed towards the south, in order that he might seize the country of the Southern ráís. Koká, the wazír, commanded the army, and he was stronger in the country of Málwá than the ráí. He had more than 40,000 cavalry, and his infantry were without number. 10,000 men were sent against him by his majesty, and they destroyed his entire force. The Hindus were captured and slaughtered in heaps, and only the ráí, Malhak* Deo, escaped to the hills.” This conquest was effected by 'Ainu-l mulk. Mándú taken, “a wonderful fortress four parasangs in circumference.”
Siwána is next proceeded against by his majesty in person. “The strong-armed ráí of that place was Satal* Deo. Many iron-hearted gabrs were in his service. The army sat down before it for five or six years, and did not, during that time, succeed in destroying half a bastion, but after one attack made upon that hill by the king, it was moved from its foundations by the troops like a flowing river.”
The conquest of Tilangí, where the ráí is made to send “a golden idol and an hundred elephants, and treasure beyond all calculation.”
The army proceeded to Ma'bar, that it might “take the shores of the sea as far as Lanká, and spread the odour of the amber-scented faith,” and thence returned to Deogír, from which place the ráí fled at their approach, and, after plundering the country, they proceeded towards the sea-coast.
“There was another ráí in those parts, whose rule extended over sea and land, a Brahmin, named Pandyá Gurú. He had many cities in his possession, and his capital was Fatan,* where there was a temple with an idol in it laden with jewels. He had many troops and ships; and Musulmáns, as well as Hindus, were in his service. He had a thousand elephants of Ma'bar and innumerable horses. The ráí, when the army of the Sultán arrived at Fatan, fled away, and what can an army do without its leader? The Musulmáns in his service sought protection from the king's army, and they were made happy with the kind reception they met with. 500 elephants also were taken. They then struck the idol with an iron hatchet, and opened its head. Although it was the very Kibla of the accursed gabrs, it kissed the earth and filled the holy treasury. Wealth and jewels were taken from it in such quantities that they would have outweighed a mountain. After the business of the ráí of Ma'bar was completed, the army returned victorious, and received due rewards from the fortunate king. May God grant him success, that he may take a whole world without moving from his throne! May he, sitting at Dehli, be able to plunder the country of Ma'bar and the seas, with a mere movement of his eyebrow!”
The author proceeds to the more immediate subject of his poem. Shortly after 'Aláu-d dín's accession to the throne, he sent his brother, Ulugh Khán, with a large army towards Gujarát and Somnát. The ruler of those countries was Ráí Karan. In an action between him and the Khán he sustained a defeat and fled, and his treasures, wives and concubines fell into the enemy's hands. On his return from Gujarát, the Khán presented all the booty he had taken to the king, and amongst other captives was the wife of Ráí Karan, Kanwalá Dí, celebrated for her beauty, who was taken into the king's Seraglio.
The Rání had two daughters by Ráí Karan; both had been carried off by their father in his flight. The eldest died, but the youngest. Dewal Dí, survived.
Kanwalá Dí solicited of the king that this daughter might be sent for and made over to her, and as the king was well disposed to meet her wishes, he demanded her from Ráí Karan, who was preparing to send her, accompanied with many presents, to the king, when he took alarm at the large army which had marched under Ulugh Khán and Panchamí for the conquest of the whole of Gujarát, and fled with his daughter and private attendants to seek the protection of the ráí of Deogír, by name Sankh Deo, the son of the Ráí-Ráyán, Rám Deo.
When the chief of Deogír learnt the approach of Ráí Karan, he sent his brother, Bhelam Deo, to demand Dewal Dí in marriage. Ráí Karan felt himself compelled to accede to the proposal, and he was preparing to send his daughter when he was attacked by the king's army, and Panchamí, who commanded the advance-guard, seized Dewal Dí, whose horse had been wounded and lamed by an arrow. She was taken to Ulugh Khán, and Ráí Karan fled. According to the king's order, Ulugh Khán sent Dewal Dí to Dehli, where she was made over to her mother in the palace. She was then eight years of age.
The Sultán wished to betroth Dewal Rání to his son Khizr Khán, who was then ten years old, and Kanwalá Dí agreed to the marriage, as she had an affection for Khizr Khán in consequence of his resemblance to her brother. The children were accordingly admitted to each other's presence, and indulged in youthful gambols, and became attached to each other.
The mother of Khizr Khán objected to this match, and was desirous of betrothing him to the daughter of her brother Alp Khán, who was himself anxious to speed the preparations for the ceremony. Upon which it was represented to the mother, that as Khizr Khán had conceived an affection for Dewal Dí, he ought to be separated from her. This was accordingly done, and they were placed in different apartments, but as they were able to have occasional interviews, their growing attachment ripened, and four go-betweens on each side conveyed affectionate messages from one to the other.
The queen-mother, apprehensive of these interviews, determined to send the girl to the Red Palace. Khizr Khán's distress upon the occasion, when he tears his clothes and exhibits other signs of frantic grief. The queen foregoes her intention, when Khizr Khán recovers his serenity. The young pair contrive a secret assignation, when they become senseless through emotion. The queen again determines on sending Dewal Dí to the Red Palace. On her way there she has an interview with Khizr Khán, when he presents her with a lock of his hair to preserve as a memento, and she in return gives him a ring.
This marriage was solemnized in Ramazán, 711 H. (Jan. 1312 A.D.). The decorations of the city upon the occasion. Triumphal arches, dancing, singing, music, illuminations, rope-dancing, jugglery. “The juggler swallowed a sword like water, drinking it as a thirsty man would sherbet. He also thrust a knife up his nostril. He mounted little wooden horses and rode upon the air. Large bodies were made to issue out of small ones; an elephant was drawn through a window, and a camel through the eye of a needle.* Those who changed their own appearance practised all kinds of deceit. Sometimes they transformed themselves into angels, sometimes into demons. Balls were made to be sometimes white and sometimes black, in imitation of the fitful vicissitudes we are subject to upon earth. They sang so enchantingly that they could make it appear as if a man was dying, and as if after an interval he was again made alive.”
Dewal Dí, on learning Khizr Khán's marriage, writes him a letter full of reproaches, to which he replies by excuses. The grief of the two lovers and their solicitations to heaven. The deep distress of Khizr Khán is reported to the queen-mother, and it is represented to her, that as it is lawful for a Musulmán to marry four wives, he might be allowed to marry Dewal Dí also. She relents, and as the Sultán has from the beginning given his consent to Khizr Khán's marriage with Dewal Dí, she is sent for from the Red Palace and married to him.—The complete happiness of the lovers at their union.—Khizr Khán becomes one of the disciples of the Saint Nizámu-d dín Aulyá.