The brother's son of Mubārak Shāh ibn i Khiẓr Khān, whom 300. Mubārak Shāh had adopted as his own son, ascended the throne in succession to Mubārak Shāh in the year395 837 H. (1433 A.D.) and Sarwaru-l-Mulk, whose head was filled with treacherous designs, ostensibly owned his allegiance. Muḥammad Shāh, in spite of the foregoing circumstances, conferred upon him the title of Khān-i-Jahān and bestowed a khil‘at upon him, he also appointed Mīrān Ṣadr Mu‘īnu-l-mulk, and for a short time winked at the doings of those infidels. Maliku-sh-Sharq Kamālu-l-mulk, who was co-partner with Sarwaru-l-Mulk in the vazīrship, elected to reside outside the city, and gave in his allegiance to Muḥammad Shāh. The second day after the accession Sarwaru-l-Mulk made some pretext for arresting395a certain of the servants of Mubārak Shāh, and put them to death, and left nothing undone to secure the overthrowal of the family of Mubārak Shāh; moreover, he began to divide the country among his own partisans, giving the territory of Baiāna, and Amroha, and Nārnol, and Kuhrām, together with certain districts in the Doāb, to Sidh Pāl and Sidhāran Khatrī who were the (actual) murderers of Mubārak Shāh. Rānūn the Black, a slave of Sidh Pāl, arrived in Baiāna with a large following, and attempted to enter the fort; but in the meantime Yūsuf Khan Auḥadī arrived from Hindwān,395b and giving him battle defeated him, and sent the greater portion of those infidels to hell. Their women and children fell as prisoners into the hands of the Muslims, and the head of Rānūn the Black was hung up over the gate of the fort. Inasmuch as Sarwaru-l-Mulk and his infidel horde began to commit violence, the Amīrs of Khiẓr Khan and Mubārak Shāh, who were scattered here and there about the country, in several places shewed symptoms of revolt and set on foot many insurrections. Sarwaru-l-Mulk had the self-same object, namely to damage the kingdom. 301. Malik Allahdād Kāla Lodī, governor of Sambhal and Ahār,395c and Malik Chaman396 governor396a of Badāon, grandson of Khān-i-Jahān, and Amīr ‘Alī Gujrātī, together with some other Amīrs, raised a large following to avenge the death of Mubārak Shāh, and started towards Dihlī. Maliku-sh-Sharq, Kamālu-l-Mulk, and Saiyyid Khān, son of Saiyyid Sālim, who had received the title of Khan-i-Ā‘zam from Mubārak Shāh, were appointed by the durbār to proceed against those Amīrs, and Malīk Yūsuf, the son of Sarwaru-l-Mulk, together with Sidhāran and Kāngū were ordered to accompany Kamālu-l-Mulk. The Dihlī army crossed by the ford of Kīcha and came to Baran (Bulandshahr). Malik Allahdād and the other noted Amīrs having arrived at the township of Ahār desired to cross the Ganges without fighting and go where they could safely. But when they saw clearly that Malik Kamālu-l-Mulk was heartily bent upon taking vengeance upon Sarwaru-l-Mulk, they took courage and did not leave their positions. Sarwaru-l-Mulk becoming aware of this sent his lieutenant Malik Hushyār, under pretence of reinforcing Kamālu-l-Mulk, as a spy into their army. Yūsuf Khān and Malik Hushyār, and Sidhāran the infidel, entertaining suspicions regarding Kamālu-l-Mulk left the army and went to Dihlī: and the Amīrs of Sambhal and Badāon joined Kamālu-l-Mulk and came in great force to the ford of Kīcha. Sarwaru-l-Mulk was engaged in strengthening his fort. The following day the loyal Amīrs having crossed the Jamna encamped in the Bāgh-i-Jūd 396b while the traitors and infidels sallied out from the fort and engaged them in battle, but suffered defeat in the very first onset and retreated to the fort, but before they could enter it a large number were put to death and most of the remainder were taken prisoners.
The day following this victory the Mubārak Shāhī Amīrs 302. encamped near the fort of Sīrī, and the greater part of the Amīrs who were inside the fort, came out and joined them. Fighting went on between the two parties for three months.
At the latter part of this year Zīrak Khān, Governor of Sāmāna died, and the country was confirmed to his son Muḥammad Khān. Muḥammad Shāh, although outwardly he held friendly relations with Sarwaru-l-Mulk, still in his inmost heart was in unison with his father's Amīrs. Sarwaru-l-Mulk became aware of this, and accordingly began to plot treachery against him also, and was only waiting his opportunity.
On the eighth of Muḥarram in the year 838 H. (1434 A.D.) Sarwaru-l-Mulk and the sons of the perfidious Mīrān Ṣadr suddenly broke into the tent of the king with the intention of doing him a grievous injury, but at this moment Muḥammad Shah became aware of their design; and with all despatch sent messengers to Kamālu-l-Mulk, while the attendants who were near the person of Muḥammad Shāh were on their guard, and killed the traitor Sarwaru-l-Mulk, and seizing the sons of Mīrān Ṣadr executed them in presence of the darbār. The traitorous infidels blockaded themselves in their own houses. Kamālu-l-Mulk, accompanied by all the Amīrs, entered the fort by the Darwāza-i-Ba ghdād (Baghdād gate). The ruffian Sīdh Pāl set fire to his house and property, and after performing the jauhar397 which is a well-known custom expressed by that word in the Hindī language, went himself into battle and became food for the flames of the pitiless sword,397a and his impure soul went to hell.397b Sidhāran Kāngū and the rest of the Khatrī confederation, were one and all taken prisoners, and were impaled near the ḥaẓīra397c (mausoleum) of Mubārak Shāh, and Malik Hushyār and Mubārak Kotwāl were executed along with them. The following day Kamālu-l-Mulk and the other noted Amīrs renewed their fealty to Muḥammad 303. Shāh; Kamālu-l-Mulk obtained the rank of vazīr and Malik Chaman of Badāon received the title of Ghāzīu-l-Mulk, and was reinstated in his former position as governor of Badāon, Amroha being also added to his province; Malik Allahdād Lodī would not accept any title, the title of Daryā Khān however he accepted for his brother. Thus after settling the important affairs, Muḥam-mad Shāh gave durability to his rule, and conducted his Government in tranquillity.
And in the year 840 H. (1436 A.D.) he turned his attention towards Multān, and halted for some days at Mubārakpūr to give time for the Amīrs of the various districts to join him. When the Muḥammad Shāhī's troops were all assembled at Mubārakpūr he marched thence towards Multān, and after visiting the shrines of the holy men at that place398 came to Dihlī. And in the aforesaid year, marching towards Sāmāna he despatched a force to proceed against Shaikhā Khūkhar.398a Accordingly they laid waste his country and returned.398b In the year 841 H. (1437 A.D.) tidings arrived that the tribe of Langāhs had raised an insurrection in Multān, and in the meantime Sulṭān Ibrahīm Sharqī obtained possession of certain divisions of Dihlī, and the Rāi of Gwāliār and the other Rāis refused to pay the customary tribute. Muḥam-mad Shāh affected to be indifferent to this, and disturbances sprung up in all directions, and everyone was hankering after something. The Khānzādas of Mīwāt, who are the ancestors of Ḥasan Khān of Mīwāt, invited Sulṭān Maḥmūd Khiljī from Mālwa to assume the imperial power of Dihlī.
And in the year 844 H. (1440 A.D.) Sulṭān Maḥmūd arrived at Dihlī, and Muḥammad Shāh drew up his forces and sent out his son Saiyyid ‘Alāu-d-Dīn to engage him in battle, giving the 304. command of the force to Malik Buhlūl Lodī. Sulṭān Maḥmūd also appointed his two sons Gẖiāṯu-d-Dīn and Qadr Khān399 to oppose them. A fierce battle resulting they at last agreed to make peace, and Sulṭān Maḥmūd taking advantage of that, and alleging as an excuse that he had seen in a dream that the kingdom of Multān was being ruined, marched in light order under cover of night towards Mālwa. Malik Buhlūl pursued him and seized a portion of his baggage and valuable equipment. Sulṭān Muḥammad was so pleased at the energy displayed by Buhlūl Lodī that he called him his son,399a and bestowed upon him the country of Lāhor and Detālpūr.
And in the year 845 H. (1441 A.D.) he marched to Sāmāna, and having despatched Buhlūl to chastise Jasrat Khūkhar, returned to Dihlī. Jasrat concluded a peace with Malik Buhlūl and held out to him the pleasing prospect of becoming Sulṭān of Dihlī,399b till at last Buhlūl began to collect Afghāns from all directions and took forcible possession of a large number of parganas, then without any ostensible reason he picked a quarrel with Muḥummad Shāh and revolted against him, leading an army against Dihlī. He held Sulṭān Muḥammad for a considerable time closely besieged, but could not accomplish his purpose, and returned without effecting anything. In the meantime Muḥammad Shāh was afflicted with a grievous disorder,399c and the Amīrs who were at a distance of twenty krohs from Dihlī revolted against him, and sending for his son ‘Alāu-d-Dīn who held a jāegīr in Badāun, and had left there on a hunting expedition at the foot of the hills, made him399d heir-apparent. And in the year 847 H.399e he passed away, the duration of his reign was fourteen399f years and some months, or thereabouts.
Come and cast one look upon their dust, and take warning.
For the dust is the resting-place of trusted emperors.
SHĀH400
In accordance with the testamentary disposition of his father succeeded to the throne, and Malik Buhlūl with the other Amīrs gave in their allegiance to him, and seeing that the indolence of Sulṭān ‘Alāu-d-Dīn was even greater than that of his father, a still more violent ambition to secure the throne began to work upon the excited fancy of Buhlūl.
In the year 850 H. (1445 A.D.) Sulṭān ‘Alāu-d-Dīn made an excursion towards Baiāna; while on the road he heard a false rumour that the King of Jaunpūr was on his way to attack Dihlī, and without attempting to ascertain its truth returned in hot haste to Dihlī. In the year 851 H. (1447 A.D.) he went to Badāon and elected to take up his abode there, and after making preparations for remaining there401 returned to his capital Dihlī.
And in the year 852 H. (1448 A.D.) having made his two brothers-in-law Shahna-i-Shahr (City Constable) and Mīr-i-Kūe (Superintendent of Roads) he returned to Badāon. A disturbance arose between those two brothers, and at last both were put to death by the people of Dihlī. Husāin Khān who was Umdatu-l-Mulk (a Privy Councillor), and loyal to the Sulṭān, but from time to time spoke the direct truth to the Sulṭān in connection with the administration of State affairs, had for this very reason, fallen out of favour with the Sulṭān, and had been deposed from his office. Ḥamīd Khān, Vazīr-i-mamlukat, (vazīr of the State) who had fled to Dihlī fearing punishment at the hands of the Sulṭān, and dreading an attempt upon his life,401a joined with Ḥusain Khān in inviting Malik Buhlūl and in raising him to the throne. He accordingly took advantage of the absence of the Sulṭān to pro- 306. ceed to Sirhind401b and having assumed to himself the title of Sulṭān read the Khuṭbah, and coming a second time with401c his whole army seized upon Dihlī. Leaving his viceroy there he proceeded towards Dībālpūr, where he set about raising an army, and wrote a letter couched in hypocritical terms to Sulṭān ‘Alāu-d-Dīn saying, “I am your obedient servant, and am undertaking all this marching backwards and forwards solely out of loyalty to your person.” The Sulṭān in reply, wrote as follows: “The deceased King, Sulṭān Muḥammad Shāh, called you by the name of Son. There is neither fruit nor profit for me in sovereignty; living in solitary contentment at Badāon I resign the empire of Dihlī401d to you. Sulṭān Buhlūl leaving Dībālpūr ascended the throne of Dihlī401e
without fighting or opposition; and Sulṭān ‘Alāu-d-Dīn by the orders of Sulṭān Buhlūl was invested with the sovereignty of Badāon and the districts appertaining to it, towards the river Ganges as far as Khairābād and the foot of the hills, and used to read the Khuṭbah in his own name in those districts, till at last after some time, in the year 855 H. (1451 A.D.) he bade farewell to this world.402 The duration of his reign was seven years and some months.
Verse.This is the sum and total of the world's conduct.
It has never proved faithful to any man.
Who in the reign of Sulṭān Muḥammad Shāh had obtained the title of Khān-ī-Khānān,402b in the year 855 H. (1451 A.D.) in concert with Ḥamīd Khān Vazīr (who, after the execution of Ḥusāin Khān at the hands of Sulṭān ‘Alāu-d-Dīn, had gained possession of the family and relations of Sulṭān ‘Alāu-d-Dīn in Dihlī, and had brought the key of the fortress and had given it to Sulṭān Buhlūl) 307. ascended the throne of sovereignty, and by degrees contrived to secure the imprisonment of Ḥamīd Khān,402c and in the same year proceeded to Multān to set that province in order.402d
And in the year 856 H. (1452 A.D.) Sulṭān Maḥmūd Sharqī at the instigation of certain of the Amīrs of the party of Sulṭān ‘Alāu-d-Dīn, came with a large army and laid siege to Dihlī, and after severe fighting gained possession of it,403 and Fatḥ Khān Ḥarawī403a who was one of the most trusted Amīrs of Sulṭān Maḥmūd was killed. Sulṭān Maḥmūd403b not being able to bear up against this went to Jaunpūr; and the following year came into the same neighbourhood, proceeding from Jaunpūr to Itāwa, and concluded peace upon the following terms, namely, that so much of the kingdom of Dihlī as was under the sway of Mubārak Shāh should belong to Sulṭān Buhlūl, while that portion which was under the rule of Sulṭān Ibrāhīm Sharqī should revert to Sulṭān Maḥmūd;403c and having promised that after the rainy season he would give Shamsābād to Sulṭān Buhlūl,403d which was held by Jūnā Khān as the deputy of Sulṭān Maḥmūd, each of them went to his own country.
Sulṭān Bublūl at the expiration of the appointed time marched against Shamsābād, took possession of it, and gave it to Rāi Kiran, ruler of Bhūnganw. Sulṭān Maḥmūd being displeased at this, proceeded again403e to the borders of Shamsābād and fought with Sulṭān Buhlūl.403f In the meantime Sulṭān Maḥmūd quitted this existence for the house of eternity, and Muḥammad Shāh, the son of Sulṭān Maḥmūd, was nominated to the kingdom of Jaunpūr in the room of his father, and having arranged peace upon the terms formerly agreed upon between Sulṭān Maḥmūd and Sulṭān403g
Buhlūl proceeded to Jaunpūr, and, inasmuch as Quṭb Khān, the cousin of Sulṭān Buhlūl had fallen a prisoner into the hands of Muḥammad Shāh,404 Sulṭān Buhlūl, in defiance of the existing treaty, again brought up his army against Muḥammad Shāh, who also leaving Jaunpūr came to Shamsābād and took it from the Hindūs 308. by force,404a and on the borders of Rāprī confronted Sulṭān Buhlūl. Muḥammad Shāh was defeated and retreated towards Qanauj. Sulṭān Buhlūl pursued him.404b And in the aforesaid year Sulṭān Ḥusain Sharqī, ibn-i-Sulṭān Maḥmūd revolted against his brother Muḥammad Shāh, and seized the throne of Jaunpūr with the assistance of the Amīrs, and detailed404c a large army to proceed against Muḥammad Shāh, whom they finally put to death on the banks of the Ganges in the vicinity of Rāj Gar. Sulṭān Ḥusain made peace with Sulṭān Buhlūl, and sending for Quṭb Khān Lodī who was still in prison, from Jaunpūr, presented him with a horse and a robe of honour and sent him to Sulṭān Buhlūl404d and returned from Qanauj to Jaunpūr.404e
Sulṭān Buhlūl also despatched Jalāl Khān, the brother of Ḥusain Khān, whom he held in confinement as hostage for Quṭb Khān, to Sulṭān Ḥusain after conferring honours upon him. And after some years405 Sulṭān Ḥusain coming to the borders of Chandwār, fought a battle with Sulṭān Buhlūl, and having concluded a peace for three years again returned to his own country. At this juncture Aḥmad Khān Jilwānī, the ruler of Baiāna read the Khuṭbah in the name405a of Ḥusain Khān; and Sulṭān Ḥusain, upon the expiration of the period for which peace had been concluded, proceeded towards Dihlī with 10,000 cavalry and a thousand elephants. They met near a place called Bhatwāra, and Sulṭān Ḥusain having agreed to peace encamped at Itāwa. Sulṭān Buhlūl came to Dihlī. The fact of these two kings being thus within a seven days' journey is not without its ridiculous side.
Verse.Who has ever seen a scabbard which can contain two swords!
Who has ever seen the thrones of two Jamshīds in one place!
And in this year Sulṭān ‘Alāu-d-Dīn, whose daughter [Malika- 309. i-Jahān]405b was married to Sulṭān Ḥusain, passed away in Badāon, as has been already related,405c and left his kingdom to Sulṭān Buhlūl and Sulṭān Ḥusain.
Verse.Even supposing that thou hast attained to that which thou
desirest,
Even supposing that thou hast been all that thou shouldest be,
Has not everything which has attained perfection, suffered
afterwards from loss?
Does not the azure heaven taken away again all that it has
bestowed?
And Sulṭān Ḥusain came from Itāwa to Badāon to perform the duties of mourning for him,406 and having taken those districts from the sons of Sulṭān ‘Alāu-d-Dīn, took possession of them himself, and thence went406a to Sambal, and having taken prisoner Tātār Khān,406b the Governor of that place, sent him to Sāran,406c and with a large army and the number of elephants already mentioned, arrived at Dihlī in the month of Ẕū Ḥijjah, in the year 880 H.406d and encamped on the banks of the Jamna near the ford of Kīchā.406e Sulṭān Buhlūl coming from Sihrind summoned406f Ḥusain Khān, the son of Khān-i-Jahān from the vicinity406g of Mīrath, and despatched him to oppose Sulṭān Ḥusain,406h while he himself held Dihlī against him. And on this occasion also, owing to the exertions of Quṭb Khān, Sulṭān Ḥusain agreed to peace, taking into his own possession the whole of the country on the further side of the Ganges;406i then relinquishing this side of the river to Sulṭan Buhlūl he returned. Sulṭān Buhlūl406j seized his opportunity, and when Sulṭān Ḥusain marched, crossed the river Jamna and captured some baggage and other property406k which Sulṭān Ḥusain, relying upon the truce, had left on the camping-ground: a certain proportion of the treasury also which was laden on elephants and horses, fell into the hands of Sulṭān Buhlūl, and as many as forty406l 310. noted Amīrs of Sulṭān Ḥusain's force, were taken prisoners, among others for instance, Qāẓī Samā'u-d-Dīn entitled Qutlugh Khān the Vazīr, who was the most learned of the doctors of his time.
Sulṭān Buhlūl made over Qutlugh Khān in chains to Quṭb Khān Lodī, and himself giving chase went as far as Shamsābād407 in the Doāb, which was held by Sulṭān Ḥusain, and seizing it, appointed commissioners407a of his own over407b that country; this occurrence took place in the year 884 H. (1479 A.D.)407c the chronogram for that year was Nawīd-i-Kharābī (Tidings of ruin).407d
And Sulṭān Ḥusain seeing that he was being very closely pursued, determined to make a stand at Rāprī, and once more peace was agreed to between them upon the old conditions, namely, that each should rest contented with the countries of which he was in possession, and should retire. Upon the conclusion of this peace Sulṭān Ḥusain remained at Rāprī, and Sulṭān Buhlūl at a place called Dhopāmaū'; and after a time Sulṭān Ḥusain again collecting an army came up against Sulṭān Bahlūl, and a fierce engagement took place in the vicinity of Sonhār.407e Sulṭān Ḥusain again suffered defeat, a great deal of treasure and valuables beyond computation falling into the hands of the Lodī party, and was a means of increasing their influence and power. Sulṭān Buhlūl left Dhopāmaū' for Dihlī to mourn407f for Khān-i-Jahān who had died in Dihlī, [and having conferred the title of Khān-i-Jahān upon his son, again returned to attack Sulṭān Ḥusain, and reaching Rāprī fought a battle in which he gained a victory];407g and when Sulṭān Ḥusain took refuge in flight a number of his family and children were drowned in the Jamna. Sulṭān Ḥusain continued his march towards Gwāliār, and was still on the way when the rebel tribes of Hatkānt,408 who are a clan of the Bhadaurīs, attacked his camp; Rāi Gīrat Singh, the Governor of Gwāliār came to the assistance of the Sulṭān offering his services, and having presented 311. him with money and property, horses, camels, and elephants, with tents for himself and his troops, sent an army to accompany him, proceeding himself with the Sulṭān408a as far as Kālpī; Sulṭān Buhlūl pursued him, and the two Kings408b met in the neighbourhood of Kālpī and a considerable time was spent in hostilities. In the meantime Rāi Tilūk408c Chand, the Governor of the country of Baksar,408d came and offered his services to Sulṭān Ḥusain,408e and enabled him to cross the Ganges at a place which was fordable. Sulṭān Ḥusain not being able to stand against him withdrew to Thatta,408f and the Rāja of Thatta came to receive him, and having presented him with several laks of tankahs in cash, and other valuables,408g together with several elephants, escorted him to Jaunpūr.
Sulṭān Buhlūl made an attempt to conquer Jaunpūr, accordingly Sulṭān Ḥusain leaving Jaunpūr went by way of Bahraich towards Qanauj, and engaged409 Sulṭān Buhlūl for some time on the banks of the Rahab, and met with the defeat which had become a second nature to him. On this occasion his whole retinue and regalia fell into the hands of the Lodīs, while his chief wife Malika-i-Jahān, Bībī Khūnzā,409a who was the daughter of Sulṭān ‘Alāu-d-Dīn, and the grand daughter of Khiẓr Khān, was taken prisoner;409b Sulṭān Buhlūl treated that lady with the utmost respect and regard, and when he again attempted to conquer Jaunpūr, Bībī Khūnzā by some artifice effected her escape and joined her husband. Jaunpūr fell into the hands409c of Sulṭān Buhlūl. He gave it to Mubārak Khān Lūhānī, and himself proceeded to Badāon. Sulṭān Ḥusain took the opportunity to march against Jaunpūr in full force: the Amīrs of Sulṭān Buhlūl evacuated it, and went to Quṭb Khān Lodī who was in Maḥjaulī,409d and approached Sulṭān Ḥusain with expressions of fealty, and by pretending to take his part kept him at bay till reinforcements arrived from Sulṭān Buhlūl. Sulṭān Buhlūl sent his own son Mubārak Shāh to the assistance of these 312. Amīrs, while he himself also set out409e for Jaunpūr, following his son; Sulṭān Ḥusain not being able to stand against him went to Bihār. In the meantime tidings of the death of Quṭb Khān reached Sulṭān Buhlūl at the camp of Haldī,409f and having performed the requirements of mourning for him, he proceeded to Jaunpūr, and after placing his son Barbak Shāh upon the throne of the Sharqī dynasty,409g returned, and came to the Kālpī country, which he gave to A‘zam Humāyūn, another nephew, who had the name of Bāyazīd,410 and having arrived at Dholpūr410a levied several mans of gold as tribute from the Rāi of that place; then passing by Bārī went to Ilāhpūr,410b one of the dependencies of the fortress of Rantanbhūr, and having laid waste that country came to Dihlī and remained there. Some time after this he hastened to Ḥīssār Fīroza, where he remained a few days and then returned to Dihlī. Once more he went to Gwāliār, where Rāja Mān the Governor of Gwāliār sent an offering of eighty laks of tankas of that period; accordingly Buhlūl confirmed him at Gwāliār, and proceeded to Itāwa, and was making his way back to Dihlī when he was taken ill in the neighbourhood of a township of the dependencies of Sakīt.410c And in the year 894 H. (1488 A. D.) he died, the duration of his reign was thirty-eight years,410d eight months and eight days.410e
Verse.Whether it be Afrāsiyāb or his son Zāl,
He will meet with chastisement at the hand of Fate.
To a cup whose measure the wine-bearer has appointed
313. It is impossible to add a single drop, however much you may
strive.
Whether it be a king or a khas-seller411
Fate brings to his hearing the summons of death.
The date of his death411a
In eight hundred and ninety and four
The world conquering Khedive, Buhlūl left the world;
With his sword he seized-provinces, but for all his bright
sword and burnished dagger,
He was not able to repel death.411b
Who was known by the name of Niẓām Khān, upon hearing the tidings of his father's decease, came in haste411d from Dihlī to the township of Jalālī, entered the camp411e and despatched the corpse of his father to Dihlī. On Friday, the seventeenth of the year above mentioned, he ascended the throne in the palace of Sulṭān Fīrūz, which is situated on the banks of the Black water, with the concurrence of Khān-i-Jahān ibn i Khān-i-Jahān, and Khān-i-Khānān Farmalī,411f and all the Amīrs, and was addressed by the title411g of Sulṭān Sikandar. It is said that at the time of leaving Dihlī, he went to Shaikh Samā'u-d-Dīn Kanbū,411h the spiritual guide of Shaikh Jamālī,411i who was one of the greatest among the Ulamā Shaikhs of his time, on pretence of taking an omen,412 for this reason that he feared lest the Shaikh might favour the claims of the other brothers,412a so making his customary daily walk a pretext, he enquired the meaning of the expression As‘adak Allāh412b from the Shaikh.
314. When he answered, It means may God Most High make you fortunate, he besought him saying, Kindly let this expression fall three several times from your auspicious lips; the Shaikh did so,412c then he arose and said I have gained my request, then he besought the Shaikh to assist him, and set out to go to the army, and after that his rule was firmly established,413 he left Dihlī, and marched towards413a Rāprī and Itāwa to conquer the country, and spent seven months there. He also sent Isma‘īl Khān Lūhānī413b with overtures of peace to King Bārbak Shāh at413c Jaunpūr, while he proceeded in person against413d ‘Īsā Khān Governor of Patīālī;413e and413f ‘Īsā Khān confronted and fought with him and was wounded, and after tendering his submission succumbed to his wounds. Rāi Ganesh,413g the Rāja of Patīālī who was friendly to Bārbak Shāh, came in and had an interview with the Sulṭān who413h confirmed him in the Government of Patiālī.413i Bārbak Shāh coming from Jaunpūr to Qanauj, the parties met and an engagement took place between them.413j Mubārak Khān Luhānī,413k who was with the army of Bārbak Shāh, was taken prisoner in this battle,413l Bārbak Shāh fled to Badāon, Sulṭān Sikandar besieged413m that fortress, and Bārbak Shāh being reduced to extremities sought an interview with the Sulṭān, who reassured and encouraged him, and took him along with him to Jaunpūr, restoring him to his former position upon the throne of the Sharqī kings, except that he divided certain parganas of these territories413n among his own Amīrs, detailing armies for each place and appointing trusted officers of his own following to assist Bār-bak Shāh.414 Then he took Kalpī from Ā‘zam Khān414a Humāyūn the son of Khwāja Bāyazīd. From thence he came to Jahtara,414b and from that place to Gwāliār, sending Khwāja Muḥammad Farmalī 315. with a special robe of honour on an embassy to414c Rāja Mān,414d who in turn sent his brother's son to pay his respects to the Sulṭān and to offer his submission. This nephew of his accordingly accompanied the Sulṭān as far as Baiāna. Sulṭān Sharq414e the Governor of Baiāna, the son of Sulṭān Aḥmad Jilwānī the First, came and visited him, and was desirous of handing over the key of the fort414f to the agents of the Sulṭān; however he changed his mind, and on arrival at Baiāna strengthened the defences of the fort. The Sulṭān proceeded to Agra where Haibat Khān Jilwānī, a subordinate of Sulṭān Sharf414g fortified himself in the fort of Agra.414h The Sulṭān left certain of his Amīrs in Agra and414i proceeded to Baiāna414j and in the year 897 H. (1491 A. D.) Sulṭān Sharq414k fell into straits and sued for quarter, surrendering the fortress of Baiāna to the Sulṭān; that province was then conferred upon Khān-i-Khānān Farmalī. In the same year the tribe of Bachgotīs414l in the Jaunpūr territory had assembled to the number of a hundred thousand cavalry and infantry,415 and were raising a disturbance. The Sulṭān proceeded thither and Bārbak Shāh came in and offered his allegiance. Leaving there, he proceeded to occupy himself with a hunting expedition to the borders of Awadh (Oudh), and again returned to Jaunpūr, and arrived at the fortress of Janhār,415a and engaged in battle with the Amīrs of Sulṭān Ḥusain Sharqī who held it, and having defeated them, without waiting to completely invest the fortress came to Patna;415b and having come to Ārīl,415c which is near Ilāhābās (otherwise called Prayāg),415d laid waste that district,415e and proceeding by way of Karra and Mānikpūr hastened to Dalmau',415f and from thence came415g to Shamsābād, and remaining there six months went to Sambal [whence he again returned to Shamsābād].415h
And after the rainy season in the year 900 H. (1494 A. D.) 316. he set out with the object of chastising the rebels of Patna, and great slaughter took place and many prisoners were taken; from thence he proceeded to Jaunpūr.415i In this expedition very many horses were lost, hardly one in ten remaining alive;416 the zemīndārs of Patua and others wrote and informed Sulṭān Ḥusain Sharqī of the loss of the horses, and of the scarcity of supplies in Sulṭān Sikandar's army, and invited him (to advance). Sulṭan Ḥusain collected an army, and marched from Behār with a hundred elephants against Sulṭān416a Sikandar, who for his part crossed the Ganges by the ford of Kantit416b and came to Chenār416c and from thence to Banāras. Sulṭān Ḥusain had arrived within seventeen krohs of Banāras when Sulṭān Sikandar marched against him rapidly.416d In the midst of his march Sālbāhan the Rāja of Patna, who was a trusty zemīndār, left Sulṭān Ḥusain and joined Sulṭān Sikandar.
Sulṭān Ḥusain drew up in line of battle, but suffered defeat and retired towards Patna.416e Sulṭān Sikandar left the camp, and pursued him416f with a hundred thousand light cavalry; while thus engaged he learned that Sulṭān Ḥusain had gone to Bihār. After nine days Sulṭān Sikandar arrived,416g and joining his camp set out for Bihār. Sulṭān Ḥusain, leaving his deputy416h in Bihār, could not remain there, but proceeded to Khul Gānw one of the dependencies of Lakhnautī, and Bihār fell into the hands of Sikandar's troops.416i Thence the Sulṭān proceeded to Tirhut and conquered it.
And in the year 901 H. (1495 A. D.) Khān-i-Jahān Lodī died, and Aḥmad Khān his eldest son416j was styled A‘zam Khān Humā-yūn. The Sulṭān returned from Tirhut, and went to pay a visit to the tomb of Quṭbu-l-Mashāikhi-l-‘Iẓām,416k Shaikh Sharfu-d-Dīn Munīrī,416l may God sanctify his resting-place, and came to Darveshpūr. From thence he set out on an expedition against Sul- 317. ṭān ‘Alāu-d-Dīn king of Bangāla, and in the vicinity of Bihār, the son of Sulṭān ‘Alāu-d-Dīn, whose name was Dāniāl, in obedience to his father's orders came out to overthrow Sulṭān (Sikandar), and prepared to oppose him, but they retraced their steps, each one contenting himself with his own territories417 and consenting to make peace. In this year great scarcity and dearth occurred in the camp of the Sulṭān; orders were promulgated417a remitting the customary tribute of grain in all provinces, in fact they were entirely abolished. From thence he came to the township of Sāran, and divided that district among his own followers in perpetuity,417b and came by way of Maḥlīgarḥ417c to Jaunpūr, and having spent six months there proceeded to Panna.417d And in the year 904 H. (1498 A.D.) he invaded the territory of Panna,417e as far as Bāndhūgaṛh417f which is a famous fortress plundering and taking prisoners, but being unable to take the fortress on account of its strength, went to Jaunpūr where he remained. In the meanwhile a quarrel had arisen among some of his Amīrs during a game of chaugān,417g and at last it ended in an open fight,417h and the Sulṭān becoming suspicious418 of the Amīrs, gave orders that some armed and trusty guards418a should attend him every night, which was accordingly done. The majority of the disaffected and disappointed Amīrs urged Fatḥ Khān the son of Sulṭān Buhlūl to seize the empire. He in his simplicity communicated418b this secret to his mother, and also to Shaikh Ṭāhir, and a party who were among the confidants of the Sulṭān, at the same time giving them418c a memorandum containing the names of those confederate Amīrs. The party above mentioned diverted him from that insane idea with friendly admonition. To prove their own innocence of complicity in 318. that treasonable design, they took that memorandum to Sulṭān Sikandar,418d who devised some specious pretext for scattering in different directions all those Amīrs418e who had shewn partiality for the Prince418f Fatḥ Khān.
And in the year 905 H. (1499 A.D.) he proceeded to Sambal, and resided there for four years employed in affairs of State, and used to spend his time418g either in luxurious living, or in hunting expeditions.
And in the year 906 H. (1500 A.D.) Aṣghar the Governor of Dihlī began to commit malpractices. The Sulṭān accordingly sent orders from Sambal to Khawāṣṣ Khān the Governor of Māchhīwāra,418h to seize Aṣghar and send him (into his presence); but Aṣghar anticipating this had gone humbly to Sambal where he suffered imprisonment; and Khawāṣṣ Khān received the Governorship of Dihlī. In this year also418i Khān-i-Khānān Farmalī the Governor of Baiāna died, and the Government of that place was for some time entrusted to Aḥmad and Suleiman the two sons (? grandsons) of Khān-i-Khānān.418j After a time they entered the Sulṭān's service at Sambal, and the Government of the fortress (of Baiāna) was made over to Khawāṣṣ Khān, while Ṣafdar Khān419 was appointed to the charge of Āgra, which was one of the dependencies of Baiāna. Khawāṣṣ Khān with the assistance of ‘Ālam Khān419a Governor of Mīwāt, and Khāni Khānān Lūhānī, proceeded to attempt the capture of Dholpūr.419b The Rāi of that place came out to oppose them, and heavy fighting ensued in which many Muslims attained martyrdom. The Sulṭān leaving Sambal came with all haste to Dholpūr, and Rāi Manik Deo,419c Rāja of Dholpūr, not being able to hold out, evacuated the fort and went to Gwāliār. They plundered and pillaged419d the district around Dholpūr. The Sulṭān having remained a month in those parts left to reduce Gwāliār, and leaving Ādam Lodī there crossed the river Chambal, and encamped for two months on the banks of the river Mendakī.419e
By reason of the419f badness of the climate of that place sickness 319. broke out among419g the population and a pestilence arose. The Rāja of Gwāliār also came and made overtures of peace,419h and delivered up Sa‘īd Khān, and Bābū Khān, and Rāi Ganesh,419i who had deserted from the army of the Sulṭān and had taken refuge in that fort, and also sent his eldest son419j to do homage to the Sulṭān, who sent him back after bestowing upon him a horse and robe of honour, returning himself to Agra. At the time of his return he restored the fort of Dholpūr420 also to Bināyik Deo,420a and having spent420b the rainy season in Agra, after the rising of Canopus420c in the year 910 H. (1504 A.D.), marched to reduce the fortress of Mandrāyal,420d which he took without fighting from the Rāja of Mandrāyal, who sued for peace; he also destroyed all the idol-temples and churches420e of the place, and, as he returned, rebuilt anew the fortress of Dholpūr, then came to Agra and gave his Amīrs permission to proceed to their several jaegīrs.420f [And in this year Mīr Saiyyid Muḥammad of Jaunpūr,420g may God sanctify his holy resting place, who was one of the chief of the great walīs and had even laid claim to be the Mahdī, in answer to the call of Him who has the true claim to us all answered, Here am I, while returning from Makkah the sacred city towards Hindustān, at the town of Farah420h where he was buried. Qāẓi Ḥusain Zargar of Qandahār, God's mercy be on him, whom, as well as the Mīr himself I had the honour of visiting, wrote the following chronogram:
Shaikh Mubārak also invented a chronogram in the words421a Maẓā Mahdī, The Mahdī has departed].421b
On the third of the month of Ṣafar in the year 911 H. (6th July, 1505 A.D.) so violent an earthquake occurred over the whole 320. of Hindūstān421c that the hills began to tremble, while strong and lofty buildings421d fell to atoms, and the earth in places was cleft and rents appeared,421e while they assert that villages and trees left their places, and men supposed that the day of resurrection had arrived.421f We learn from the Wāqi‘āt-i-Bābarī,421g and other histories, that this earthquake was not confined to Hindūstān, but that on the same day in Persia also a similar earthquake occurred, and the word Qāẓī,421h was invented as a chronogram to record the date of it.
Rubā‘ī.In nine hundred and eleven the city of Agra became the goal
of several successive earthquakes.
And whereas her buildings were excessively lofty, that which
had been their highest points became the lowest.422
From the time of Adam to the present time no such earthquake has ever been known.
And in the year 912 H. (1506 A.D.), after the rising of Canopus, he marched against the fortress of Ūntgaṛh,422a and laid siege to it, and many of his men joyfully embraced martyrdom, after that he took the fort and gave the infidels as food to the sword; those who escaped the sword fed the flames of the fire of jūhar with their wives and children. He then cast down the idol temples, and built there a lofty mosque.
In the year 913 H. (1507 A.D.), after the rising of Canopus he proceeded with the object of reducing the fortress of Narwar.422b Whilst en route he fell in with the elephants and cavalry and infantry of Jalāl Khān Lodī,422c whom he had sent on in advance to clear the way,422d and whom he had appointed to reduce Narwar. Becoming suspicious of him, he set about overthrowing him, and made some pretext for dispersing his forces, and taking him prisoner sent him to the fortress of Sakkar;422e he then took Narwar, the garrison having capitulated. And in the year 914 H. (1508 A.D.) he constructed other forts round Narwar to increase its strength, and bestowing a hundred and twenty horses423 and fifteen elephants, with a robe of 321. honour and a sum of money upon Prince Jalāl Khān, allowed him, together with Na‘mat Khātūn,423a wife423b of Quṭb Khān Lodī, who had come423c to have an interview with the Sulṭān, to proceed to Kalpī, and gave that district as a jāegīr to Prince Jalāl Khān. And in the year 915 H. (1509 A.D.) he marched from Lahāyar,423d and came to Hatkānth,423e established posts in different places and proceeded to his capital Āgra. The date of this was (fixed by the following words) Lahu alḥukmu wa ilaihi tarja‘ūn.423f That is to say, His is the decree and to him do ye return.
Muḥammad Khān, the grandson of Sulṭān Nāṣiru-d-Dīn of Mālwa, fearing his grandfather, came for safety to the Sulṭān, and was allotted the jāegīr of Chanderī, while Prince Jalāl Khān was directed to423g give him every assistance as an ally; and in this year orders were issued for the erection of palaces and rest-houses, and for the laying out of gardens423h at intervals along the whole route from Āgra to Dholpūr, so that when he came back from his hunting expeditions he might rest and refresh himself423i there. In this year Muḥammad Khān of Nāgor, influenced by the fact that certain of his relations423j had sought and obtained an interview with the Sulṭān, evinced great respect for the Sulṭān, reading the Khuṭbah in Nāgor in his name without raising any objection,423k so that in this way a new territory423l came423m into the possession of the Sulṭān.
In this year also Suleimān, the son of Khān-i-Khānān Farmalī, was dismissed from the service of the Sulṭān, on the grounds that he had been appointed424 to perform a service at Ūntghar,424a and in the direction of Sūpar, and had refused: the pargana of Indrī Karnāl424b was given him as Madad-i-ma‘āsh (rent-free land), with orders to go and remain there.
In this year424c Bahjat Khān of Mālwa transferred Chanderī to Sulṭān Sikander on account of the weakness424d of Sulṭān 322. Maḥmūd of Mālwa, and read the Khuṭbah in his name in those districts. Accordingly proclamations conveying tidings of this victory were written to all parts of the Kingdom; and Muḥam-mad Khān, the grandson of Sulṭān Nāṣiru-d-Dīn of Mālwa,424e was taken prisoner, and Chanderī was (nominally)424f placed under his authority, but Amīrs were appointed to supervise him so that they might be aware of all his movements, control his actions, and administer424g his jāegīr, then the Sulṭān proceeded on a hunting excursion towards Baiāna, and paid his respects to the various learned and holy men of those districts, who were at that time famous for their miracles and wonder-working,424h especially424i Saiyyid N‘amatu-llāh and Shaikh ‘Abdullāh Ḥusainī,424j who was one of those famous for revelations and miracle-working,425 with whom he used to consort frequently. Shāhzāda Daulat Khān, Governor of the fortress of Rantanbhūr, in the service of Sulṭān Maḥmūd of Mālwa, availing himself of the intermediary aid of ‘Alī Khān of Nāgor, who was in charge of the province of Sīwī Sīyūpūr,425a came and had an interview with the Sulṭān, and agreed to give up to him the key of the fortress. It so chanced that the ‘Alī Khān who has been spoken of above, once more practised his hypocrisy, and came out from the fort to oppose him. The Sulṭān pretended not to notice this, and treated Daulat Khān as though he were his own son, bestowing upon him a special robe of honour, with several horses and elephants, and proceeded towards the fort of Thankar,425b and from thence proceeding by way of the township of Bārī,425c he returned thence to Āgra. Here he was seized with an illness, and took the journey to the425d next world on Sunday the seventeenth425e of Zūl Q‘adah 923 H. (Jan. 1518 A.D.). The words Jannātu-l-Firdaus nazalā. (The gardens of Paradise came down) furnish the date425f of his death, the duration of his reign was twenty-eight years and five months.
Verse.Sikandar, the emperor of the seven kingdoms continued not.
No one continues, seeing that Sikandar himself did not
continue.
Sulṭān Sikandar used to associate frequently with poets and 323. was himself also a man of taste, and would occasionally compose verses after the ancient Hindustānī426 models, under the pseudonym of Gulrukh, accordingly he felt great pleasure in the companionship of Shaikh Jamāl.426a The following verses are the product of the genius of the Sulṭān, and are written with the utmost regard to poetical form.
Ode.426bThat cypress whose robe is the jasmine, whose body the rose,
Is a spirit incarnate whose garment the body provides.
What profits the Khatanī musk? all the kingdoms of Chīn
Are conquered, and bound in the chains of her clustering curls.
In the eye of her eyelashes' needle the thread of my soul
I'll fasten and swiftly repair every rent in her robe.
Could Gulrukh essay to discover the charms of her teeth,
He would say they are water-white pearls of the ocean of
speech.426c
One of the poets of the reign of Sulṭān Sikandar was the Brahman [Dūnkar426d] who, they say,426e in spite of being an infidel, used to give instruction in books of science.426f The following maṭla, (opening couplet) was spoken [and is a most auspicious maṭla‘426g] by him in the metre of Mas‘ūd Beg,
Had not thy glance been the dagger, my heart had not bled
to-day;
Had not thy look been the serpent426h I never had lost my way.
Also among the great and learned men of the time of Sulṭān Sikandar were Shaikh ‘Abdu-llāh Tulumbī426i in Dihlī, and Shaikh ‘Azīzu-llah Tulumbī426j in Sambhal, both of whom came to Hindustān at the time of the ruin of Multān, and introduced the systematic study of the intellectual sciences into that country. Before their time, with the exception of the Sharḥ-i-Shamsīyah, and the Sharḥ-i-Ṣaḥāīf427 there were no books current in Hin- 324. dustān which treated of logic and metaphysics. I heard also from my masters,427a that more than forty expert and profoundly learned men have arisen from among the disciples of Shaikh ‘Abdu-llāh, for example, Mīyān Lādan, Jamāl Khān of Dihlī, Mīyān Shaikh of Gwāliār,427b Mīrān Saiyyiḍ Jalāl of Badāon, and others. They say also that Sulṭān Sikandar, during the instruction of the aforesaid Shaikh ‘Abdu-llāh, used to come427c and seat himself quietly in a corner unseen by the rest, fearing lest he should interrupt the lesson of the other students, and when the lesson was ended they used to exchange the customary salutation of Salām ‘alaikum427d and mix freely with each other.
And Shaikh ‘Azīzu-llah of Tulumba, who was a man of great probity and rectitude, had such an abundant genius and marvellous power of recollection,427e that no matter how difficult or minute the subject matter of a book which a student of intelligence might be reading, he would give his lesson in it without previously reading it; and that time after time when they came up for examination, and propounded the most inscrutable problems, the learned Shaikh would explain them on the instant while giving his lesson.
One of his pupils was428 Mīyān Ḥātim Sanbalī, who is commonly said to have read the Commentary on the Miftāḥ428a more than thirty times in the course of his life, and the Muṭawwal428b more than forty times, from the first letter of the Bism'illāh to the last of the word Tammat.428c
Another is Shaikhu-l-Hadīyah Jaunpūrī, the author of many worthy compositions and excellent books, who wrote a commentary extending over several volumes upon the Hedāyah-i-Fiqh,428d while there is no need of mentioning his commentary on the Kāfīyah:428e in addition to these he wrote notes upon the Tafsīr-i-Madārik428f and other works, which are read up to the present day.429 Sulṭān Sikandar also collected together learned men429a from all parts of the country to instruct him,429b placing on one side Shaikh ‘Abd-u-llah, and Shaikh ‘Azīzu-llah, and on the other Shaikhu-l-Nadīyah and his son Shaikh429c Bhakārī to discuss 325. difficult points. Eventually it became clearly evident that the former pair of worthies were superior in oratory, while the two latter were the better writers. The death of Shaikh ‘Abdu-llah occurred in the year 922 H.; the following chronogram was invented to commemorate it: Ūlāika lahum ud-darajātu-l-ulā.429d
And among the poets of the time of Sikandar, was the aforesaid Shaikh Jamālī Kanbawī of Dihlī, to whom Sulṭān Sikandar was in the habit of submitting verses which he had written, for his opinion.
Speaking generally, he had many excellent points, he was a man who had travelled much, and had been honoured with the fellowship of our master the saintly Jāmī,429e may God sanctify his resting place, and had gained many advantages from429f him and won his approbation,429g and was moreover in the habit of submitting 429h his poems to that revered master: The following verses are by him:
Verse.I wear a garment woven of the dust of thy street
And429i that too rent to the skirt with my tears.Verse.429jLove's speech is swift, whole centuries of words,
Friend speaks to friend swift as the eye can close.
The following ode also,430 which he translated and set to music in his native Hindī, is marvellously inspiring, and is well known.430a
My heart's desire is fixed on thy abode
Oh thou that art long absent from my sight;
By day and night the thought of thee alone
My constant partner is, ask then thy thought
Should'st thou desire, to bring thee news of me.
He also wrote a Taẕkirah (Book of Memoirs) to recount the assemblies of some of the Shaikhs of Hindūstān, called the Sīyaru-l-‘Ārifīn (Biographies of the Saints) which is not entirely free from defects and discrepancies. It commences from the 326. venerable Khwāja430b Mu‘īnu-l-Ḥaqq wau-d-Dīn Ajmīrī, and finishes with his own spiritual guide Shaikh Samāu-d-Dīn430c Kanbawī of Dihlī, in addition to which it contains other matter both430d prose and poetry. His dīwān is made up of eight or nine thousand couplets.
Ascended the throne in Āgra in the year 923 H. with the concurrence of the Amīrs, and Shahzāda Jalāl Khān ibn-i-Sulṭān Sikandar430e [was appointed to the rule of Jaunpūr and was styled by the title of Sulṭān, while Khān-i-Jahān Lūhānī430f governor of Rāprī came to Āgra] and blamed the Amīrs greatly for associating (Jalāl Khān) in the government430g of the kingdom; and after that he had pointed out to them the foolishness430h of this procedure orders were issued to the Amīrs of the eastern districts to seize Jalāl Khān and bring him to the Court. He however went from Jaunpūr to Kalpī and collected a large following, and after establishing the Khuṭbah and sikkah in his own name, assumed the title of Sulṭān Jalālu-d-Dīn. A‘ẓam Hūmāyūn Shirwānī sided with him for a time, but eventually came and had an audience of Sulṭān Ibrāhīm. Sulṭān Ibrāhīm sent to the fortress of Hānsī certain of his brothers who were imprisoned, for instance Shāhzāda Isma‘īl Khān, and Ḥusain Khān, and others,431 and appointed for each of them food and clothing and two431a servants from the private establishment. Then he proceeded in person with the object of conquering431b the Eastern districts, and came to Bhūn Gānw, and having settled the disturbances in Mawās431c came to Qanauj. There he nominated a large number of Amīrs to proceed against Jalāl Khān, who with thirty thousand cavalry and a certain number of elephants had gone off in the direction of Āgra. Malik Ādam Kākar was 327. sent by the Sulṭān to defend Āgra, and certain other Amīrs arrived to support him. They succeeded in persuading Jalāl Khān, by making pleasing overtures and using attractive arguments, to surrender his paraphernalia of royalty and kingly splendour to the Sulṭān, in order that they might prefer his application for pardon of his past offences and obtain for him the Kalpī district as a jāegīr. Jalāl Khān instantly agreed, and made over his royal canopy, his kettle-drums, etcetera to Malik Ādam with instructions to convey them to the Sulṭān in the neighbourhood of Itāwa.
The Sulṭān would not agree to his proposal of peace, and despatched a large army to oppose Jalāl Khān, who fled in consternation and took refuge432 with the Rāja of Gwāliār, and the Amīrs of Sikandar's party, who had heretofore been a source of weakness to the administration of the empire, one and all owned allegiance to the Sulṭān. The Sulṭān experienced432a a revulsion of feeling with regard to Mīyān Bhoh, who was the chief of the Amīrs of Sikan-dar, and had been his vazīr and privy councillor, accordingly he cast him into chains and sent him to Malik Ādam; however, he treated his son with kindness and advanced him to the high offices formerly held by his father. Mīyān Bhoh died in prison, and A‘ẓam Humāyūn Shirwānī, the Governor of Karra, was sent with thirty thousand cavalry and three432b hundred elephants to attempt the reduction of Gwāliār. Jalāl Khān fled from Gwāliār and went to Mālwa to Sulṭān Maḥmūd of Mālwa. After the arrival of the Sulṭān's troops Rāi Vikramājīt the son of Rāi Mān Singh,432c who, after the decease432d of his father, held the government of Gwāliār, was not able to cope with them, and could not properly defend the fortress. The fortress of Bādalgarh, which lies below432e the fortress of Gwāliār,432f a very lofty structure, was taken from Rāi Mān Singh432g and fell into the hands of the Muslims,432h and a brazen animal,432i which was worshipped by the Hindūs also fell into their hands, and was sent by them to Āgra, whence it was sent by Sulṭān Ibrahīm to Dihlī, and was put up over the city gate. This image 328. was removed to Fatḥpūr in the year 992 H., ten years before the composition of this history,433 where it was seen by the author of this work. It was converted into gongs, and bells, and implements of all kinds.
In those days Sulṭān Ibrāhīm becoming distrustful of the old Amīrs, imprisoned the greater number of them,433a and expelled (others) in different directions; and inasmuch as Jalāl Khān could not get on with Sulṭān Maḥmūd of Mālwa, he fled from Mālwa and came to the country of Kara Kanka,433b where he fell into the hands of a tribe of the Gonds,433c who took him prisoner and sent him as a present433d to the Sulṭān who ordered him to be taken to Hānsī and imprisoned with his brothers. While on the way thither he drank of the draught of martyrdom.
The draught of sovereignty and glory is so sweet
That for its sake kings will shed the blood of their brethren;
Shed not the blood of the afflicted in heart for the sake of
kingdom,
For they will pour the selfsame draught into the cup for
thee.433e
After some time, in accordance with the orders of Sulṭān Ibrāhīm, Ā‘ẓam Humāyūn Shirwānī, together with his son Fatḥ Khān, abandoned the siege of Gwāliār Fort which he was within an ace of taking, and came to Āgra, where both were made prisoners. Islām Khān the son of Ā‘ẓam [Khān]433f Humāyūn, gathered together433g a following in Karra by means of his father's wealth, and, having brought over to his side the Amīrs of that district, fought a battle with Aḥmad Khān434 the governor of Karra, and defeated him. Sulṭān Ibrāhīm accordingly despatched Aḥmad Khān, the brother of Ā‘ẓam Humāyūn Lodī, in command of a vast army,434a to oppose the Amīrs who had fled from his camp and had joined Islām Khān. With him also he sent434b other 329. Khāns of eminence, such as Khān-i-Khānān Farmalī, and others of similar rank. Near the township of Bāngarmau, in the neighbourhood of Qanauj,434c Iqbāl Khān, the chief cavalry commander under Ā‘ẓam Humāyūn, with five thousand cavalry and some splendid elephants, broke out of ambuscade and attacked the forces of the Sulṭān, and after throwing them all into confusion434d withdrew (into ambush). The Sulṭān by way of precaution despatched434e a further force to their assistance, but the enemy, who had about forty thousand cavalry, well armed, and five hundred elephants, shewed a firm front against them, until Naṣīr Khān Luhānī with other generals arrived from the direction of Bihār and engaged the enemy on both sides. A fierce conflict ensued between the two armies, such a conflict as baffles description, and after a severe struggle434f the rebels were defeated. Islām Khān was killed and Sa‘īd Khān Lodī was taken prisoner, thus the rebellion was quenched.
Verse.Do not inflict ingratitude upon a benefactor and generous
friend,
Like the cloud, which receives bounty from the ocean, and
rains a storm of arrows upon its breast.434g
As far as you are able, make the requital of favours your habit
and custom,
Like the river, which gives to the clouds an ocean in return
for one drop of its rain.
And withal that he had gained so important a victory, yet was not the heart of the Sulṭān favourably disposed towards the Amīrs: and they also being aware of this, raised in all directions the banners of antagonism. In the meanwhile, many of the eminent Amīrs of royal descent, as for example Ā‘ẓam Humāyūn Shirwānī, and Mīyān Bhoh, the Vazīr of Sulṭān Sikandar, departed from this world in the confinement of the prison-house.435
Mīyān Ḥusain435c Farmalī was assassinated in Chanderī, at the 330. instigation of the Sulṭān, by certain ruffianly Shaikh Zādas of that place, and Daryā Khān Lūhānī, governor of Bihār, and Khāni-Jahān Lodī being alarmed,435d became disaffected. After a short time Daryā Khān died, and his son Bahādur Khān turned rebel and occupied the place of his father. The revolted Amīrs made common cause with him, so that he collected a force of nearly a hundred thousand cavalry in the vicinity of Bihār, and gained possession of that country,435e assuming the title of Sulṭān Muḥam-mad, 435f establishing the Khuṭbah and sikka in his own name. His army penetrated as far as the country of Sambal, and brought it within the area of their control.435g The Khuṭbah was read in his name in Bihār and the territories adjacent, for some time. It so happened that the son of Daulat Khān Lodī, whose name was Khān-i-Khānān435h came from Lāhor to Āgra to visit the Sulṭān, but being suspicious of his intentions fled from his court, and went to his father. Daulat Khān, seeing no hope of obtaining release from the (wrath of the) Sulṭān, sent that same son of his435i to Kābul. He accordingly did homage to the supreme King, Zahīrud-Dīn Bābar, and induced him to advance against Hindūstān. Eventually Khān-i-Khānān laid a complaint436 against his father before the supreme King Bābar, and poisoned his mind against him, and led to discord between them, as will be related if the Most High God so will it. Khān-i-Khānān was living up to the date of the rebellion of Sher Shāh, but at last died in prison. Sulṭān Muḥammad departed to the world of permanence from Bihār, and the Amīrs on all sides rebelled against Sulṭān Ibrāhīm, and great damage was inflicted upon the kingdom. The pillars of the 331. empire began to totter,436a and the standard of the fortune of King Bābar floated high.
The following is a brief epitome of the matter: Daulat Khān and Ghāzī Khān his son, together with the other noble Amīrs of Sulṭān Ibrāhīm, sent ‘Alam Khān Lodī to Kābul, bearing despatches to Zahīru-d-Dīn Bābar Pādishāh, inviting him to attempt the conquest of Hindūstān. Accordingly Bābar Pādishāh appointed a number of his own Amīrs to accompany ‘Ālam Khan, with orders to advance and conquer that country. Having conquered Sīālkot and Lāhor with its dependencies, they represented the condition of affairs (to Bābar) and the following qiṭ‘ah was written to commemorate the date of the conquest of Hindūstān.
Verse.Zahīru-d-Dīn Muḥammad Shāh Bābar,
In fortune Sikandar, in force a Bahrām,
By his fortune conquered the country of Hind,
The date of this was Fatḥ badaulat.436b (Victory by fortune).
Bābar Pādishāh marching continuously, arrived at the banks of the river Indus, and drew up the whole force, composed of ten thousand [veteran] cavalry436c in that camp after passing the troops in review. In the interval, Daulat Khān and Ghāzī Khān had turned back with thirty thousand veteran436d cavalry composed of Afghāns and other tribes, and had occupied the town of Kalānūr, and prepared to engage Bābar's Amīrs at Lāhor, while Amīr Khusrū, who had strengthened the fortress of Sīālkoṭ, evacuated it as soon as Ghāzī Khān arrived, and took refuge in flight to the camp. Some days afterwards Bābar arrived at Sīālkoṭ where he encamped [and after laying waste the township of Sīālkoṭ founded Dholpur.]437 ‘Ālam Khān proceeded to Dihlī by order of Bābar, and encountering Sulṭān Ibrāhīm, made437a a night attack upon the army of the Sulṭān; and Jalāl Khān with certain other Amīrs arrived in the course of that night and joined ‘Ālam Khān. Sulṭān Ibrāhīm did 332. not stir from his tent till dawn. The followers437b of ‘Ālam Khān, fancying they had secured an easy victory, were scattered in all directions, only a small number remained437c with ‘Ālam Khān. Sulṭān Ibrāhīm, urging an elephant forward, attacked the enemy's centre, who could not withstand437d his attack. The faithless ‘Ālam Khān passing through437e the Doāb came to Sihrind, and thence fled for refuge to the fortress of Gungūna,437f one of the dependencies of Malot,437g at the foot of the hills. Dilāwar Khān Lūhānī separated from him, and joined the service of Bābar Padishāh, and became one of his faithful adherents. ‘Ālam Khān also after some time came and had an interview with Bābar, who, in accordance with his former custom, gave him an honourable reception, and as he was halting at the time of the interview he distinguished him with a robe of honour and other marks of favour; and when he pitched camp in the neighbourhood of Kalānūr, Muḥammad Sulṭān Mīrzā and other Amīrs437h came from Lāhor and joined him. Thence he proceeded to the fortress of Malot in which Ghāzī Khān [and Daulat Khān were, and besieged it, and Ghāzī Khān and Khān-i-Khānān]437i determined upon flight and left the fort. Daulāt Khān hastened to tender his submission, and his faults were438 pardoned as on former occasions; and on the day of public audience when they brought him into the presence with two swords tied round his neck, orders were given that he was not to be brought in in that (humiliating) manner. On the contrary, Bābar sent him a respectful summons, and bidding him be seated438a gave him a place near himself.438b
That is (true) generosity to shew kindness to the wrongdoer,
For the generous cannot but shew kindness to a friend.
However, he distributed his effects among the soldiery,438c and the fortress of Malot, which apparently means Malot itself, fell into the hands of Bābar Pādishāh. Some few days after this occurrence 333. Daulat Khān, who had been imprisoned by Bābar, died in prison438d and Bābar proceeded to the Siwālik hills in pursuit of Ghāzī Khān, and encamped438e at the foot of the Dūn,438f which is a very high hill, Ghāzī Khān was not to be found. Bābar accordingly returned stage by stage to the frontiers of Ṣihrind, and pitched his camp on the banks of the Ghaghar;438g thence he came to the borders of438h Sāmāna and Sanām, and gave orders to Amīr Kittah Beg to438i proceed to within a short distance of the camp of Sulṭān Ibrāhīm, who, after the defeat of ‘Ālam Khān, had stood fast438j near Dihlī, and bring intelligence of the position and strength of his army; and at this camp Baban the Afghān who had been in revolt came and had an interview (with Bābar). From this camp also Shāh-zāda Muḥammad Humāyūn Mīrzā, together with Khwāja Kalān Beg and other notable Amīrs, were despatched against Ḥamīd Khān the Khaṣṣ-i-Khail (Chief of Cavalry) of Sulṭān Ibrāhīm, who was advancing at the head of a force from Ḥiṣṣār Fīroza to give them battle. They proceeded by forced marches, and a severe engagement took place. Ḥamīd Khān was defeated, many of his men being either killed or taken prisoners.439 The sarkār of Hiṣṣār Fīroza with a revenue of two crores,439a was given as a reward to the Shāh-zāda, and Bābar Pādishāh encamped on the bank of the Jamna, two marches from Shāhābād, and detailed Khwāja Muḥammad Sulṭān Mīrzā, and Sulṭān Junaid Mīrzā439b Birlās to oppose Dā'ūd Khān and a body of Amīrs of the army of Sulṭān Ibrāhīm, who had crossed the Jamna with five or six thousand cavalry. Accordingly they also crossed the Jamna and gave the Afghāns a second drubbing, killing them and taking them prisoners, while the remnant of the sword took refuge in the camp of Sulṭān Ibrāhīm.
Marching thence, having drawn up his right and left wings and centre,439c King Bābar reviewed them in person. Eight hundred 334. gun-carriages439d had been prepared in one day. Ustā439e ‘Alī Qulī the Artillerist, acting upon my orders, had followed the custom of the Turkish artillery, and bound together the gun-carriages with chains and raw-hide thongs, twisting them into the form of a whiplash. 439f And in the interval between each pair of gun-carriages six or seven shelter parapets439g were placed, so that on the day of the battle the riflemen might be able to fire in safety from the shelter of the guns and parapets. He had determined440 to march, and encamp with the city of Pānipath in the rear of his army, and to use the line of gun-carriages as a front line of defence for his troops,440a while the cavalry and infantry should come into action from behind the gun-carriages with440b arrow and musketry fire, while the remainder of the cavalry should advance on both sides, and keep up a constant attack,440c and in case of necessity should retire to the cover afforded by the gun-carriages.440d Accordingly on Thursday the last day of Jumaidu-l-Ākhir440e 932 H., he encamped in the vicinity of the city of Pānīpath, at a distance of six krohs from the camp of Sulṭān Ibrāhīm, whose force was composed of a hundred thousand cavalry and a thousand elephants, while the army of Bābar Pādishāh440f comprised fifteen thousand cavalry and infantry on a rough estimate.440g The troops under Bābar used to make daily sallies from unexpected quarters, and attack the Afghān army, bringing in several heads: in spite of which Sulṭān Ibrāhīm and his men did not dare to make a single attempt at any counter attack during all this time.440h At last one night Mahdī Khwāja, Muḥammad Sulṭān Mīrzā and certain other Āmīrs, with five or six440i thousand men made a night attack440j upon Sulṭān Ibrāhīm's army, and after killing a large number of them returned in safety. In spite of the consternation into which this threw them, the enemy were not put upon their guard,441 and on Friday the eighth of the honoured month Rajab441a in the aforesaid year, Sulṭān Ibrāhīm with a large army, strong as the brazen rampart of Sikandar,441b clad in iron armour came out to the fight.
Bābar Padishāh also, having arrayed his army with all the pomp and circumstance of war, and shewing a firm unbroken front, gave orders detailing from the left wing Amīr Qarā Qūrchī and Amīr Shaikh ‘Alī, with certain other Amīrs, and from the right wing, Walī Qizil and Bāba Qushqah, with the whole force of Mu-ghūls, to form two parties and attack the enemy in the rear, while the Amīrs of the right and left wings in a body, and from the picked troops,441c Amīr Muḥammad Gokultāsh, and Amīr Yūnas ‘Alī, and Amīr Shāh Manṣūr Birlās, with other famous Amīrs, should lead the front attack: and since the Afghāns [were specially observant of the right wing, Amīr ‘Abdu-l-‘azīz, who was with the reserve, was ordered by king Bābar to reinforce the right wing],441d and when he got within bowshot of the enemy,441e the bodies of the enemies took to themselves wings, and the bird of the soul of many of them took flight from the cage of the body, while the wings of others441f were clipped by the shears of the two-edged sword.
Verse.So vast was the river of blood which flowed on that battle
field
That the feet of the warriors could not stand against its flood;
The breeze which blew from that battle field at morning time
Brought to the nostrils the odour of the heart's blood.
The slain lay in heaps,441g while those who escaped death by the sword became the portion for kites and ravens. A period of two qarns442 has elapsed since this event up to the time of the composition of this Muntakhab, but up to the present, the noise of conflict and shouts of combatants proceeding from that field of battle reach the ears of travellers at night.
In the year 997 H. (1588 A.D.) the writer of these pages442a was proceeding one day at early morning442b from the city of 336. Lāhor towards Fatḥpūr, and had to cross that plain, when these terrifying noises reached his ears, and the people who were with him imagined that some enemy was upon them. I also witnessed with my own eyes what I had heard related. Submitting this divine mystery to the Almighty we went on our way.
Sulṭān Ibrāhīm together with a party of attendants was taken in an unknown desert and put to the sword, his head442c was brought into the presence of Bābar Pādishāh, and442d about five or six thousand who formed Sulṭān Ibrāhīm's retinue were put to death in the one spot.
Verse.
Bābar Pādishāh after gaining this442h signal victory departed thence, and reached Dihlī442i on the same day and encamped there. He then caused the Khuṭbah to be read in his name,442j despatching Shāhzāda Muḥammad Humāyūn Mīrzā and all the Amīrs to Āgra, with orders to make forced marches, and to seize the treasure442k belonging to Ibrāhīm, which was of untold value, and divide it among the soldiery.442l
Verse.He who sacrifices his life upon the field of battle
Sacrifice thy gold to him by way of generosity.
However brave-hearted a man may be
He cannot be eager to fight when he is without food.443
This event took place in the year 932 H. (1525 A.D.), and the Hindūs invented this date Shahīd shudan-i-Ibrāhīm443a (the martyrdom of Ibrāhīm) to commemorate it. From that time the empire once more passed from the Afghān Lodī family, and rested on the descendants of Amīr Tīmūr Sāḥibqirān. The duration of the reign of Sulṭān Ibrāhīm was nine years.
After this ascended443b the throne443c of sovereignty, and by his justice and liberality adorned the world with fresh lustre and glory, and sent rewards to Samarqand, ‘Irāq, Khurāsān and Kāshghar. He also despatched offerings443d to the sacred cities of Makkah and Medīnah, and to the holy places of pilgrimage, and sent off gold beyond price to all the inhabitants of Badakh-sh ān and Kābul, to each its separate store, from the vast treasuries of Hindūstān. He converted the world into a rose garden. The Amīrs of Hindūstān, notwithstanding his conciliatory behaviour and efforts to improve443e their fortunes, did not yield obedience to him, but behaved like unruly savages,443f and took to fortifying themselves in their fortresses and estates,443g while Qāsim Sanbalī in Sambal, and Niẓām Khān in Baiāna, and Ḥasan Khān Mīwátī in Alwar, and Tātār Khān Sārang Khān443h in Gwāliār, took refuge in their respective fortresses. Itāwa was held by Quṭb Khān, and Kalpī by ‘Ālam Khān, while Qanauj and all the eastern districts were in the possession of the Afghāns, who, in the reign of Sulṭān Ibrahīm also, had refused to own his sway,443i and443j having raised the son of Bihār Khān to the throne, gave443k him the title of Sulṭān Muḥammad; his empire extended as far as Bihār, and Naṣīr Khān Lūhānī and Ma‘rūf Farmalī and other powerful Amīrs gave in their allegiance to him, while a slave of Sulṭān Ibrāhīm named Marghūb, having fortified the township of Mahāwan, which is situated at a distance of twenty krohs from Āgra, on the far side of the river Jamna, refused to own him as king.
Accordingly troops were detailed by Bābar Pādishāh to conquer these countries, and Fīroz Khān, and Sārang Khān,444 and Shaikh Bāyazīd, the brother of Muṣṭafā Farmalī, with other Afghāns coming and tendering their submission, were given jāegīrs.444a Shaikh Khūran who was one of the Hindustānī Amīrs, and also one of their most accomplished men,444b being unrivalled in the art of music, came with his whole following and had an interview (with Bābar) in the Doāb.
The territory of Sambal was conferred as a jāegīr upon Shāh-zāda Muḥammad Humāyūn Mīrzā. The Amīrs seized Qāsim Sanbalī and sent him to Bābar, while another body of men had been sent against Baiāna, and had besieged Niẓām Khān, keeping him closely invested. In this year also Rānā Sānkā having wrested the fortress of Khandār,444c which is in the vicinity of Rantanbhūr, from Ḥasan son of Makhan, was in possession of it; and Shāhzāda Muḥammad Humāyūn Mīrzā,444d with a party of Amīrs who had been appointed444e to capture and hold Dholpūr, were ordered to proceed against a body of Afghāns of the Lūhānī faction who were close on fifty thousand, and had advanced beyond Qananj. Both Saiyyid Mahdī Khwāja, and Muḥammad Sulṭān Mīrzā, who had been ordered to capture Itāwa,444f joined the retinue of the Shāhzāda,444g who brought into subjection the whole of the eastern districts as far as Jaunpūr. In the meanwhile Rānā Sānkā and Ḥasan Khān Mīwātī raised to the throne one of the sons of Sulṭān Sikandar Lodī, named Sulṭān Muḥammad, with the title of Pādshāh, and started on an expedition against the territories of Bābar with a large following and vast444h army. Marching by way of Basāwar445 they arrived in the neighbourhood of Faṭhpūr, otherwise known as Sīkrī.445a Nizām Khān, the Governor of Baiāna made representations to the Court of Bābar and gained a certain degree of influence. Rafī‘u-d-Dīn Ṣafwī, who was one of the most powerful Saiyyids of Balkh,445b and the chief445c of the traditionists, and who, having come to Hindūstān in the reign of Sulṭān Sikandar Lodī, had been given the title of Ḥaẓrat-i-Mu-qaddas (His Holiness), came and had audience of the Sulṭān and tendered his service. Tārtār Khān Sārang Khānī also, after that Rānā Sānkā seized the fortress of Khandhār, and the infidels had got the upper hand, first of all sent a representation to King (Bābar) saying, I intend to surrender the fortress of Gwāliār; but when Khwāja Raḥīm445d Dād and Shaikh Khūran and a further party also arrived, he was ashamed (of this weakness). This party then, by the guidance of Shaikh Muḥammad Ghauṯ, who was unrivalled in his time, and was the chief authority on the science of da‘watu-l-asmā,445e entered the fort by some skilful stratagem and took it from Tātār Khān whether he would or no, and sent him 339. into the presence of Bābar Pādishāh. In just this same way also Muḥammad Zaitūn the Afghān gave up the fort of Dholpūr to445f the Amīrs of Bābar, and coming in had an interview with the King. In the meanwhile, Rānā Sānkā445g had arrived on the confines of Baiāna and was doing damage to the country, and had, after a halt of a few days, reached Fatḥpūr; Bābar Pādishāh, with a small body of the soldiery which he had with him, left the capital of Āgra with the object of engaging him in battle. He also wrote445h a despatch to summon Shāhzāda Muḥammad Humāyūn Mīrzā, ordering him to leave Jaunpūr in charge of certain eminent Amīrs, and to come himself with all speed to take part in that war; the victorious Prince, having taken the country of Ḥarand445i and Bihār from Nasīr Khān446 Luhānī, and having appointed Khwāja Amīr, Shāh Ḥasan and Amīr Junaid Birlās to the government of Jaunpūr, proceeded by way of Kalpī, and by adopting measures partly peaceful and partly warlike, brought over ‘Ālam Khān the governor of that place,446a and made him one of his adherents. He lost no time in attaching himself to the king's service, and was granted many royal favours.
At this same time, that pattern for the great446b and noble, Khwāja Khāwind Naqshbandī arrived from Kābul, and the Amīrs sitting in council determined by a majority, that, seeing that the army of Rānā Sānkā is currently reported to exceed in multitude the ants and locusts, it appears advisable to strengthen the fortress of Āgra, and that, leaving it in charge of a garrison, the sovereign of Islām should proceed in his own excellent person towards the 340. Panjāb, and wait for the development of unseen events. The king did not agree to the decision of this council, but girded up his loins to carry into effect his intention of a jihād, and setting his heart upon martyrdom, marched in the direction of the field of Fatḥpūr and made this project the aim and object of his ambition.446c
Verse.Since the soul must of necessity at last leave the body,
This is best, that, when the time comes, it should at least
depart with honour.
The end of the world is this, and nothing more
That after a man's death, his name should remain.
The Amīrs also, placing their hands upon the sacred word, (the Qur'ān), swore an oath to renew their compact and carry out their intention of making war upon the infidels, for the exaltation of the sublime creed,446d and the promulgation of the glorious law, deeming the field of battle to be a joyful assembly, and doing full justice447 to the claims of manliness in such a way as the eye of time had never before witnessed, and after many strenuous efforts the standards of Islām floated bravely on high, while the banners of infidelity were laid low. In the thick of the fight an arrow found its way to the forehead of Ḥasan Khān Mīwātī, who was an infidel who used the Kalimah; they cast him into a well and took to flight, while he fell into the well of Hell, although a certain Mīwātī,447a a jogī447b in form and appearance, in the year 960 H., after the death of Salīm Shāh Afghān Sūr, raised a rebellion in Mīwāt, and called himself447c Ḥasan Khān, and mentioned certain of the secret signs to the Mīwātīs, still, a certain number acknowledged him. The composer of this Muntakhab (selection) also, in the year 965 H. (1557 A.D.) saw him447d in Āgra, but no signs of nobility or authority were visible in his features,447e and the late Khān-i-Khānān Bairam Khān used to say, that Ḥasan Khān Mīwātī447f was a man who commanded a large following,447g and was of kingly appearance, and had a poetical temperament. His poems are well known; but this mannikin447h resembled447i an uncouth rustic, his appearance was extremely repulsive.447j God forbid that this wretch, should be that Ḥasan Khān.
After some time certain of the Khānzādas of Mīwāt moved 341. by indignation and jealousy put him to death. A short time after this447k victory, that gallant king was attacked by a severe illness, and after that he had reached the age of fifty years, he departed from this transitory world to the eternal realms in the year 937 H. (1530 A.D.).
This took place in the year nine hundred and thirty-seven. The words Shash-i-Shawwāl447l also form the date of his decease, while the date of his birth may be found from this couplet.
Since this revered monarch was born in the sixth of Muḥarram,
The year of his birth448 also is Shash-i-Muḥarram.
The duration of his reign in Māwarā-annahr, Badakhshān, Kābul, and Kāshghar, as well as in Hindustān, was448a thirty-eight years. He had succeeded to the kingdom at the age of twelve, and Khwāja Kalān Bēg wrote this couplet in his funeral ode:
Alas! that time and the changeful heaven should exist without thee.
Alas! and Alas! that time should remain and thou should'st
be gone.
Among the learned men of his time is Shaikh Zain Khānī,448b who translated in most elegant448c style, the Wāqi‘at-i-Bābarī,448d which the deceased monarch wrote, and the following verses are by him:
Verses.342. Thou hast rested with thy guardians and hast fled from me
What have I done? or what hast thou heard or seen from
me?
There was no necessity for injustice to enable thee to seize
my heart.
I would have yielded it had'st thou but desired it of me.Verses.448eSo straitened did my heart become for longing for those lips
of thine
Too narrow was the way by which my soul should quit its
earthly shrine.
My verses are both rational and traditional, and my desire is, that Maulānā Hasan, who comprises in himself all rational449 and traditional science, may hear them.
Another is Maulānā Baqā'ī who wrote a Maṯnavī in the metre of the Makhzan-i-Asrār.449a At the moment I do not remember a single poem of his.
Another449b is Maulānā Shihābu-d-Dīn the Enigmatist, whose general learning was overshadowed by his special skill in the composition of enigmas, and449c at the time when Darmash Khān449d was appointed449e by Shāh Isma‘īl Ṣafawī Husainī to the Governorship of Khurāsān, that prince of traditionists, Mīr Jamālu-d-Dīn, the traditionist, one day while the preaching was going on, in dispelling the apparent contradiction between the sacred word Verily your Lord is God, who created the heavens and the earth in six days,449f and that true Ḥadīṯ (tradition) that He created the world in seven days,449g explained it in two ways; Maulānā Shihābu-d-Dīn 449h refuted it, by adducing one after another several excellent arguments, and wrote a treatise on that subject, to which the learned divines of that time subscribed449i their signatures. The writer of these pages also on the same occasion wrote a few lines of prose and poetry, from which the following rubā‘ī is selected;449j
Quatrain. 343.This writing which has appeared like lawful magic,
Its poetry and prose are purer than the purest water.
It is a gleam from the brightness of “the brilliant Star,450
In describing whose dignity the tongue of meditation is struck
dumb.
The following enigma on the name Kāshif is also by him.
Quatrain.
The death of the Maulavī took place at the time of the return of the Emperor Muḥammad Humāyūn, whose abode is in Paradise, from his expedition to Gujrāt in the year 942 H., and Mīr Khond450d Amīr the historian invented the chronogram Shihābu-ṯ-ṯāqib. And one of the wonderful450e inventions of that Emperor, whose shelter is the pardon of God, is the Khaṭṭ-i-Bābarī (the Bābarī script), in which writing he indited a copy of the Qur'ān, and sent it to the sacred city of Makka: his anthology of Persian and Tūrkī poetry is well-known. He has also composed a book on the Hanīfite Theology called Mubaiyyin,450f and Shaikh Zainu-d-Dīn450g wrote a commentary upon it which he entitled Mubīn. His treatises 450h on Prosody are also in common use.
Verse.The heaven, whose sole skill is oppression,
Has this one object, to wring each moment the heart's blood;
It gives not to the tulip the crown of royalty without laying
low under the foot of oppression the head of a crowned
monarch.
PĀDSHĀH-I-GHĀZĪ. 344.
Marching by forced marches from Sanbal in the year 937 H. (1530 A.D.), with the concurrence of Amīr Khalīfa who was the agent and prime minister451a of the Government, ascended the throne. The following chronogram was invented to record the date.
Verse.Muḥammad Humāyūn Shāh of auspicious fortune
Who is the best of kings by virtue of his merit
The year in which he ascended the kingly|throne
Was distinguished by the words “Khairu-l-Mulūk.”451b
Moreover, inasmuch as at the time of his accession he made present of trays filled with gold, another chronogram was invented in the words Kishtī-i-Zar (Tray of gold). After disposing of all matters of importance he led an army against the fortress of Kālinjar,451c and,451d after quelling the insurrection of Sulṭān ‘Ālam ibn-i-Sulṭān Sikandar Lodī, who had raised a revolt in Jaunpūr, returned to Āgra and made a great feast, at which entertainment twelve thousand people were distinguished by the bestowal of robes of honour.
Verse.A king will have the upper hand of his enemies
When his army is happy and contented;
But if he withholds their just reward from his soldiery,
They in turn will withhold their hands from the sword.
In those days,451e Muḥammad Zamān Mīrzā ibn-i-Badī‘u-z-Zamān Mīrzā451f ibn-i-Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā, who had hostile intentions was captured. Sending him to the fortress of Baiāna, orders were given for his eyes to be put out. The pupil of his eye remained uninjured however, and shortly after, he escaped from prison and fled for refuge to Sulṭān Bahādur of Gujrāt. It is said that at the time when Muḥammad Zamān Mīrzā joined Sulṭān Bahādur, the latter was engaged in besieging Chitor, and the weather was exceedingly hot. Muḥammad Zamān Mīrzā was seized with a pain at the heart,452 for the cure of which the physicians declared gulqand (confection of roses)452a to be indispensable. Muḥammad Zamān Mīrzā begged Sulṭān Bahādur to send him a piece of this gulqand. He accordingly 345. summoned his sharbatdār (preparer of beverages), and enquired how much gulqand there had been brought with the camp; he replied that there must be more than twenty cart loads. The whole of this he sent to the camp of Muḥammad Zamān Mīrzā,452b and apologetically explained that this amount had been estimated as the probable requírements of the army, if it were not sufficient he begged to be excused.452c It eventually transpired that the juice of the gulqand used to be extracted for his use, and that for this reason there were452d so many carts accompanying him. Muḥam-mad Sulṭān Mīrzā, with his two sons Ulugh Mīrzā and Shāh Mīrzā, proceeded to Qanauj and laid the foundations of revolt, and when the king, now deceased, wrote and despatched to Sulṭān Bahādur letters summoning Muḥammad Zamān Mīrzā, Sulṭān Bahādur sent back a discourteous reply;452e he accordingly determined upon the conquest of Gujrāt. Bahādur, having collected an army to reduce the fortress of Chitor and oppose Rānā Sānkā, engaged him in battle, and besieged him. Tātār Khān Lodī being despatched by him, came and gained possession of the fortress of Baiāna, extending his depredations as far as Āgra; and after a fierce conflict453 with Mīrzā Handāl, in which he attacked with three thousand453a men, was put to the sword with all his following. While Sulṭān Bahādur was besieging Chitor for the second time, Muḥammad Humāyūn Pādshāh453b moved against him from Āgra; and in this same year Mīrzā Kāmrān, proceeding by forced marches from Lāhor to Qandahār, defeated Sām Mīrzā, the brother of Shāh453c Ṭahmāsp, who was besieging Khwāja Kalān Bēg, and453d the following hemistich gives the date.
(King Kāmrān defeated Sām)
Maulānā Bekasī453f also writes the following
Verse.At that time when the crown and the golden goblet stands in 346.
sight,
When amid the joy and feasting is seen the form of the
flagon and the chasing of the cup,
I enquired from wisdom, why hast thou cast down in our
midst the gold-scattering crown, like a crimson tulip?
She answered, the heaven, by way of assigning a date to this
encounter, has cast down the golden crown,453g in consequence
of the defeat of the army of Sām.
Muḥammad Humāyūn Pādshāh, considering that it would be disgraceful to go up against Sulṭān Bahādur and engage his attention while he was engaged in the siege of Chitor,454 halted at Sārang-pūr. Sulṭān Bahādur meanwhile forcibly reduced the fort of Chitor, after which he engaged in war with Pādshāh (Humāyūn) for a space of two months in the neighbourhood of Mandsūr, a dependency of Mālwa, but owing to the fact that no supplies of grain could reach the camp of Bahādur, man and beast died from starvation, and454a Bahādur with five of his most trusty Amīrs left the royal tent by the rear door and fled towards Mandsūr.454b The following verse commemorates the date of this event:—
Humāyūn Shah-i-Ghāzī, who has thousands of slaves in his
palace like Jamshīd,
When he came victorious towards Gujrāt, returned in triumph,
the glory of the sons of Tīmūr.
Since Bahādur fell humbled and abject,
The date thereof was “The disgrace of Bahādur.”454c
Muḥammad Humāyūn Pādshāh pursued him, and the Mughūl soldiers came upon Bahādur one night while he was asleep,454d and were near taking him prisoner, but he made his escape with five or six horsemen towards Gujrāt. Sulṭān ‘Ālam Lodī, however, fell into their hands and they cut off his feet. The army of Humāyūn Pādshāh pursued Bahādur by rapid marches and laid waste Aḥmadābād. Bahādur leaving Aḥmadābād went to Kanbhāyat,454e 347. and from there to the port of Dīp,454f and at that time the fortress of Jānpānīr455 was also taken after a battle by the Pādshāh, and treasure beyond computation fell into his hands.
The year in which this happened may be learned from the following verse:—
Wisdom sought for the date of the victory of Shāh Humāyūn
and discovered this,
“It was the ninth of the month of Ṣafar.”455a
Then Bahādur, in concert with the Zamīndars of the country455b of Sorath, collected a force and proceeded towards Aḥmadābad. Mīrzā ‘Askarī who, after the return of Humāyūn Pādshāh towards the East,455c remained at Aḥmadābād with the intention of having the Khuṭbah read in his own name, in which project he had the support of Amīr Hīndū Bēg; however, he could not carry out his plan, and after slight opposition left for Jānpānīr, the governor of which place, Tardī Bēg, having entrenched himself, sent letters to the court conveying the tidings of the revolt of Mīrzā ‘Askarī. But at the time when Humāyūn had left Mandir on his way to Āgra Mīrzā ‘Askarī met him on the road and gave in his submission, and Bahādur took Jānpānīr from Tardī Bēg without the necessity of fighting.455d [And in this year Shaikh455e Jamālī Kanbawī of Dihlī left this transitory world for the kingdom of eternity. A chronogram has been invented to commemorate this in the words Khusrū-i-Hind būda (he was the Khusrū of Hindustan)].455f In this year also Shāh Ṭahmāsp came up against Qandahār from ‘Irāq to take vengeance on Sām Mīrzā,455g and455h Khwāja Kalān Beg leaving the city empty, and leaving the Dīwānkhāna (Hall of audience) locked up just as it was, adorned with its splendid carpets, its magnificent furniture, and all the appurtenances of the audience chamber, came out to invite Shāh Ṭahmāsp to alight at that pleasantly prepared456 resting place, which he did, and456a 348. gave Khwāja Kalān Bēg great praise for his conduct, saying, that is a good servant whom Kāmrān Mīrzā possesses. Shāh Ṭahmāsp left Qandahār in charge of Badagh Khān, one of his own Amīrs, and returned to ‘Irāq. Mīrzā Kāmrān at this same juncture, proceeded by forced marches from Lāhor, and arriving at Qandahār took possession of it. Muḥammad Zamān Mīrzā, whom Bahādur had despatched after his defeat to inflict injury upon Hindustān, took advantage of the absence456b of Mīrzā Kāmrān to invest Lāhor; but, when he heard tidings of the return of Humāyūn Pād-shāh to Gujrāt, retraced his steps. At the expiry of one year from the accession456c of Humāyūn Pādshāh in Āgra, Shīr Khān Afghān Sūr, in the absence of Humāyūn, collected a large force, and took possession456d of the country of Gour, Bihār, and Jaunpūr, and also the fortress of Chinār. Humāyūn Pādshāh encamped456e before the fort of Chinār, with the intention of opposing Shīr Khān, on the fourteenth of the month of Ṣafar in the year 943 H., and besieged Jalāl Khān, son of Shīr Khān, who eventually obtained the title of Islām Shāh. In a short time by the exertions of Rūmī Khān the Artillerist, (on whose name Sulṭān Bahādur had written and despatched the following enigma:—
[Ḥaif bāshad nām i ān sag bar zabān,
Mīkh dar jānash nih o nāmash bikhwān]456f
It were a pity to take the name of that dog on one's lips
Place a stake (mīkh) in his life (jān) and read his name).
he reduced457 that fortress, but Jalāl Khān escaped by means of a boat, and joined Shīr Khān who was engaged in conflict457a with Naṣīb Shāh Governor of Bangāla, Humāyūn457b Pādshāh arrived, after that the Governor of Bangāla had been wounded in battle with Shīr Khān. Naṣīb Shāh457c submitted himself to Humāyūn, and acted as his escort. Having entrusted the Government of Jaunpūr to Mīr Hindū Bēg, with the rank of Amīru-l. Umarā, and a golden throne, he proceeded by way of Garhī,457d a narrow pass separating the countries of Bihār and Bangāla, which Quṭb Khān the son of Shīr 349. Khān and Khawaṣṣ Khān, the well-known servant of Shīr Khān, had fortified, and came into Bangāla. Shīr Khān not being able to withstand him, left by way of Chahār Khanḍ to the fortress of Rohtās, and fell upon the rear of Humāyūn's army, and gained possession of the fortress of Rohtās by crafty means, in the following manner. He alleged as a pretext that he had a large number of families457e with him, and having placed two thousand armed Afghāns in closed litters457f sent them towards the fort. The Rāja of Rohtās being fired with avaricious designs upon the wealth and families of the Afghāns threw open the gates of the fort. Then the Afghān soldiers who were concealed in the litters leapt out, and entering the fort,457g put them all to the sword.457h
The climate of Bangāla proved so extremely suitable to Humāyūn, that he changed the name of Gaur to Jannatābād (The realm of Paradise), and having halted there for (two or)458 three months returned. In the meanwhile Shīr Khān's affair was assuming large proportions, and his following was increasing. He wrote a letter to Humāyūn, saying, ‘all these Afghāns are the servants and retainers of His Majesty the King, and beg to be granted jāegīrs,458a if the king will think about a jāegīr for them, then it will be well, but if not, hunger will drive them to open revolt. Up to the present time I have kept them in check, but now they no longer obey me, and the proverb is well-known. The hungry man will throw himself upon the sword. For the rest whatever the king says is law.’
Humāyūn, when he grasped the contents of the letter, saw clearly what its object was, and seeing that the opportunity had passed by,458b and considering the bareness of equipment and inefficiency458c of his army, which had recently been doubled, many horses and camels having died, while the remainder were so jaded and emaciated that they were of no use whatever, he set about devising some remedial measures. Mīrzā Hindāl, who had accompanied the king as far as Mongīr, was despatched to Āgra to put down the rebellion458d of Muḥammad Sulṭān Mīrzā, Ulugh Mīrzā, and Shāh Mīrzā, who had 350. fled and had done great mischief in the Dihlī country, and were now returning. Muḥammad Zamān Mīrzā, after that Sulṭān Bahādur was drowned in the sea owing to the treachery of the Firangīs,458e could not accomplish anything, and again sought refuge with Humāyūn.
And in the year 945 H. Mīrzā Hindāl, at the instigation of certain turbulent innovators,459 put to death Shaikh Buhlūl, the elder brother of Shaikh Muḥammad Ghauṯ of Gwāliār, who was one of the chief exponents of the art of invocation and incantation,459a and who enjoyed the full confidence and friendship of Humāyūn. The year in which this event occurred was commemorated by the chronogram Faqad māta Shahīdan.459b Verily he died a martyr's death.
Mīrzā Hindāl in this year read the Khuṭbah in his own name in Āgra. Humāyūn despatched five thousand picked men to reinforce Jahāngīr Bēg the Mughūl, and making over the rule of that country to him, with permission to read the Khuṭbah should occasion arise, set out for Āgra, and, all unprepared as he was, reached Jausā,459c which is a village on the bank of the Ganges. The Amīrs of Jaunpūr and Chinār came in and offered to tender their services. Shīr Khān seized the head of the road, and being aware of the distress of the army, placed between it and his own army a canal,459d which joined the Ganges, and, owing to the rains, was quite full of water, and for three months encamped over against the King. It is said that during this period when they were confronting each other, Humāyūn one day sent Mulla Muḥammad ‘Azīz,460 who was an old friend of Shīr Khān, as an ambassador.460a Shīr Khān was at that moment with his sleeves460b rolled up, and with a spade in 351 his hand, in spite of the heat, was busy preparing the fort and entrenchments.
When Mulla Muḥammad came near he washed his hands, and having ordered a shāmiāna460c to be pitched, sat on the ground unceremoniously, and after hearing the King's message said, “Take this one message from me to the King and say: ‘You yourself desire war, but your army does not, I on the other hand, do not desire war,460d but my army does: for the rest the decision is the King's.’” Then he sent Shaikh Khalīl,460e one of the descendants of the venerable Shaikh Farīd Ganj-i-Shakkar, may God sanclify his soul, who was the spiritual guide of Shīr Khān, to Humāyūn, and made overtures of peace to him, representing that he was willing to give up to Humāyūn's representatives the whole country with the exception of Bangāla, and would have the Khuṭbah and sikka established in Humāyūn's name. This agreement was ratified between them by an oath on the Divine Word, and Humāyūn's mind was at peace with regard to Shīr Khān.
A bridge was ordered to be thrown across: but Shīr Khān was plotting treachery and deceit.
Verse.Make the camel leap from the room of the deceit of the world,
because out of craft,
In that room where they speak of peace the camel is clad in
armour.
I flee from the camel of the heavens and the room of the earth,
Because there are maddened camels surrounding that room.
The following morning he surprised and attacked the army of Humāyūn, without giving them time to draw up in line. After a short skirmish Humāyūn's army was defeated, and the Afghāns arriving first461 at the head of the bridge broke it down, while their artillerists and archers seated in boats kept the army under a perfect hail of fire, drowning461a them in the ocean of destruction. Muḥammad Zamān Mīrzā was overwhelmed by the tempest of death, and Humāyūn urged his horse into the water and was in dread of drowning, in fact was on the point of drowning, when a water carrier461b came to his aid and rescued him from that whirlpool of destruction. Then he turned towards Āgra. Shīr Khān wrote 352.461c this verse upon that event:—
Thou givest sovereignty to Farīd the son of Hasan,461d
Thou givest the army of Humāyūn to the fishes
Although the master (Ustād) has [this second verse]—461e
One thou exaltest and givest him sovereignty,
Another thou castest down from his throne to the fishes.461f
This event occurred in the year 946 H. and to commemorate it the following chronogram was written:
And Shīr Khān after the victory turned back, and came to Bangāla, and after fighting several engagements461h put to death Jahāngīr Qulī Bēg with all his following. In that country he read the Khuṭbah in his own name, and assumed the title of Shīr Shāh,461i and in the following year proceeded with a vast army intending to capture Āgra. Kāmrān Mīrzā, prior to the affair of Jausā, after hearing of the victory of Shīr Khān and the rebellion of Mīrzā Hindāl against Humāyūn, returned from Qandahār to Lāhor, and leaving there came to Āgra, which he reached in the year 946 H. Mīrzā Hindāl himself, before the arrival of Mīrzā Kāmrān, in the absence of Humāyūn, laid siege to Dihlī, in which Mīr Fakhr ‘Alī and Mīrzā Yādgār Nāṣir had fortified themselves; but not meeting with any success joined hands with Mīrzā Kāmrān. Mīr Fakhr ‘Alī also came in and had an interview with him, 353 but Mīrzā Yādgār Nāṣir would not leave the fort. Eventually Mīrzā Hindāl separating from Mīrzā Kāmrān proceeded to Alwar. When Humāyūn heard these tidings, he became still more despondent, 462 till that eventful defeat took place:462a after the defeat at Jansā462b he proceeded by forced marches, accompanied by a few horsemen, and arrived unawares at the tent of Mīrzā Kāmrān in Āgra. The Mīrzā also knew nothing of his coming; both brothers upon recognising each other burst into tears.462c Afterwards Hindāl Mīrzā and Muḥammad Sulṭān Mīrzā and his sons, who had for a time shewn hostility, came in and offered their submission for certain considerations: Their faults were pardoned and they sat in consultation. Mīrzā Kāmrān ostensibly had this intention, that, inasmuch as the army of the Panjāb had gathered fresh force, Humāyūn should grant him leave to proceed against Shīr Khān and endeavour to take vengeance on him, while the King should remain in ease and tranquillity at the Capital. When Humāyūn declined to accede to this proposal, the Mīrzā put forward a claim to proceed to462d the Panjāb, and urged an infinity of reasons, giving colour to the suggestion that a refusal would cause him insupportable annoyance. Accordingly Humāyūn acceded462e to all his requests, saving only his return; and Khwāja Kalān Bēg was exerting his efforts to procure the return of Mīrzā Kāmrān to the Panjāb: so that this argument was carried on for six months and nothing was settled.462f In the meantime Mīrzā Kāmrān was taken ill with a complication of severe diseases,463 and when the diagnosis was arrived at that the source of the disease was a poison, which had been poured into his life's cup by the hand of circumstance, he was led by the whisperings of interested advisers463a to entertain suspicion against Humāyūn, and imagined that perhaps it was he who had administered463b 354. poison to him. Ill as he was he returned to Lāhor, and in breach463c of his former agreement that he would leave the whole of his army at Āgra in the service of the king, took the whole of it463d with him, with the exception of two thousand men whom he left under the command of Sikandar. Mīrzā Ḥaidar the Mughul and Dughlāt463e Kashmīrī also remained at Āgra, and were kindly treated. Shīr Khān waxed bold at the success of these hypocrisies, and towards the close of the year463f aforesaid reached the bank of the Ganges, and despatching a463g force under his son Quṭb Khān, sent him across [the Ganges]463h against Kalpī and Itāwa. Qāsim Ḥusain Sulṭān Usbeg, in concert with Yādgār Nāṣir Mīrzā and Iskandar Sulṭān, after a fight in the vicinity of Kālpī, put to death the son of Shīr Khān with a large number463i of his following, sending their heads to Āgra.
Humāyūn started to oppose Shīr Khān with a large force composed of some hundred thousand cavalry, and crossing the river of Qananj encamped in face of his enemy for the space of one month. The army of Shīr Khān did not comprise in all more than five thousand463j cavalry. It was under such circumstances that Muḥammad Sulṭān Mīrzā and his son fled a second time from the king, and the reinforcements of Mīrzā Kāmrān also took flight to Lāhor, and the Mughuls of the King's army were scattered in all directions. The rains now came on, and inasmuch as the camp of Humāyūn's army was on low lying ground, he desired to march from there and encamp on the high ground. At this very time464 Shīr Khān drew up his troops, and came out to give battle. This engagement took place on the day of the ‘Āshūra, the 10th of Muḥarram 947 H., and a chronogram was found for it in the words Kharābī-i-mulk-i-Dillī.464a The greater number of the Mughul soldiers refused to fight464b and took to their heels, while a small 355. body of them who engaged in fight, strove manfully in battle,464c but things had gone beyond control, and it was of no avail. The king rode off with the intention of going to the high ground. This action of his in itself afforded an excuse to his men to flee, and a serious defeat ensued. Moreover the king while crossing the river Ganges became separated from his horse, and by the help of Shamsu-d-Dīn Muḥammad of Ghaznī (who eventually became the foster-father of the prince's most excellent majesty, and was honoured in Hindūstān with the title of A‘zam Khān),464d escaped from the water and returned to Āgra; but seeing that464e the enemy's army was coming up in pursuit, he could not remain there,464f so made his way to the Panjāb with all speed.
At the commencement of Rabī‘u-l-awwal of this year all the Sulṭāns and Amīrs of the Chaghatai tribe464g assembled for conference in Lāhor. Hypocrisy was still the order of the day, and Muḥammad Sulṭān and his sons fled from Lāhor to Multān, while Mīrzā Hindāl and Mīrzā Yādgār Nāṣir thought it advisable to proceed to Bhakkar and Tatta. Mīrzā Kāmrān prayed that this conference might speedily be dissolved so that he might go to Kābul. After long consultation Humāyūn sent Mīrzā Ḥaidar with a large party who had accepted service in Kashmīr, to that district. It was agreed465 that Khwāja Kalān Bēg should follow Mīrzā Ḥaidar, and that Humāyūn himself also should proceed thither after the conquest of Kashmīr.
When Mīrzā Ḥaidar arrived at Naushahra465a which is a wellknown place, he entered that country with the concurrence of certain Kashmīrīs and conquered it: and on the 22nd of Rajab of this same year he gained possession of that country. Khwāja Kalān Bēg had gone to Sīālkoṭ. When tidings reached the king 356. that Shīr Khān had crossed the river at Sulṭānpūr and had arrived within thirty krohs of Lāhor, Humāyūn, on the first of the month of Rajab in the aforesaid year, crossed the river of Lāhor, and Mīrzā Kāmrān, after breaking his solemn vows, agreed for certain reasons to accompany Humāyūn as far as the neighbourhood of Bahīra, and Khwāja Kalān Bēg made forced marches from Sīālkoṭ, and joined Humāyūn's camp. Mīrzā Kāmrān together with Mīrzā ‘Askarī, separating465b from the king, proceeded in company with Khwāja Kalān Bēg towards Kābul, while Humāyūn proceeded towards Sind. Mīrzā Hindāl, and Mīrzā Yādgār Nāṣir also, after accompanying him for a few stages, left him, and after a few days returned, by the counsel of465c Amīr Abūl Baqā. On the banks of the Indus such great scarcity prevailed in the camp of Humāyūn, that one sīr465d of the smaller millet465e could sometimes not be bought even for an ashrafī.465f The greater part of the army perished owing to this scarcity, while others died from want of water, till at last Humāyūn with a small number passed on to the districts of Jaisalmīr,465g and the country of Mārwār, where strange465h incidents occurred. After undergoing great hardships and distress, which it is the invariable custom of the Heavens to inflict, he betook himself to ‘Irāq and having obtained reinforcements, Shāh Ṭahmāsp gained possession of Qandahār and Kābul, and collecting a great army re-conquered Hindūstān. This exploit will be described in its proper place if the Most High God will it so.
Whose name was Farīd and his title Shīr Khān, ascended the throne of empire under the above title, which he assumed. The 357. chronogram Kharābī-i-Mulk-i-Dillī466 was invented466a to record that year.
Inasmuch as he, by favourable circumstances and his own cleverness and bravery, rose from the rank of Bēg466b to royal dignity, it is essential to give a brief account of his career. The father of Ḥasan Sūr, Ibrāhīm by name,466c in the time of Sulṭān Buhlūl, came to Hindūstān from466d Roh, by which is meant Afghānistān, entered the service of Sulṭān Buhlūl, and was stationed in the vicinity of Hissār Fīrūza and Nārnūl. After his death (his son) Ḥasan became a servant of Jamāl Khān, one of the Amīrs of Sulṭān Sikandar, and was granted the jāegīr of the pargana of Sahsarām and Khawāṣpūr, dependencies of the fortress of Eastern Rohtās.466e He had five hundred cavalry under his command. In consequence of the unkindness of his father, and the jealous enmity of his brothers,466f of whom there were seven, he left his home and giving up the service of Jamāl Khān spent some time in Jaunpūr in the acquisition of science, and in perfecting himself467 in knowledge, until he had read the Kāfiyah467a with its commentary and other epitomes, besides acquiring by heart the Gulistān, Būstān, Sikandarnāma and other works. He used to go the round of monasteries and colleges, associating with the learned doctors and Shaikhs of that country, and busied himself with the improvement of his character. After some time he was reconciled to his father, and was entrusted by him with the management of his jāegīrs. This he carried out with equity and impartiality, using clever devices467b for the punishment of rebels, and kept them in check.467c Later on circumstances again led to an estrangement between Farīd and his father, and going to Āgra with his own brother,467d he elected to enter the service of Daulat Khān,467e one of the chief commanders467f of Sulṭān Ibrāhīm, and laid a complaint against his father and brothers467g before the Sulṭān.467h The Sulṭān however, was displeased 358. at this and said, This is a disgraceful and inhuman state of things that a father should be displeased with his son and that the son should complain against him.467i Upon the death of Ḥasan, Daulat Khān made a representation to the Sulṭān, and obtained his desire in securing those parganas for Shīr Khān. There he remained for some time,467j and eventually was led by the enmity of his brothers to enter the service of Bihār Khān, the son of Daryā Khān Luḥānī,467k who had read the Khuṭbah and issued the sikka in his own name in Bihār, and had assumed the title of Sulṭān Muḥammad. This was at the time when Sulṭān lbrāhīm had taken the field at Pānīpath, and Bābar Pādshah had conquered Hindūstān and planted468 the banner of sovereignty. Here he was well received, and as one day, when on a hunting expedition, he killed a tiger in the presence of Sulṭān Muḥammad, the title of Shīr Khān was bestowed upon him by the Sulṭān, who also appointed him to be tutor468a to his son Jalāl Khān. After some time Muḥammad Khān Sūr, governor of the country of Chaund, made an attempt to turn Sulṭān Muḥammad against Shīr Khān, with the object of advancing the interest of his brothers, and having succeeded in getting an order from Sulṭān Muḥammad that the brothers were to have a share in the management of the parganas, sent Suleimān, son of Ḥasan Sūr who has been mentioned, accompanied by one of his servants named Shādī to Khawāṣpūr, and Bhaka the servant of Shīr Khān who was known as the father of Khawāṣ Khān engaged in battle with Suleimān and was killed. The remainder fled, and came to Shīr Khān at Sahsarām. Shīr Khān had no longer the power to cope with Muḥammad Khān, nor the inclination to serve Sulṭān Muḥammad, he accordingly abandoned his position and jāegīr, and having no other resource betook himself to Sulṭān Junaid Birlās, who was holding the Government of Karra and Mānikpūr on behalf of Bābar Padshāh. 359. He remained in his service, and after presenting many valuable offerings, obtained a fully equipped army as reinforcement from Sulṭān Junaid, and fought with Muḥammad Khān, wrested from him the parganas of Chaund and other parganas, and took possession of them. Muḥammad Khān fled, and took refuge in the fortress of Rohtās. Shīr Khān, having wreaked his vengeance on his brothers, made apologetic overtures to Muḥammad Khān, addressing him by the title of uncle; having thus earned his gratitude he handed over468b the parganas he held as jāegīr to him on the same footing as formerly, and leaving Niẓām his full brother in charge of the jāegīr, went again to Sulṭān Junaid, whom he found just starting to pay his respects to Bābar Padshāh. Taking Shīr Khān with him, Junaid enrolled him among the servants and well-wishers of the king's court. He accompanied Bābar on the expedition to Chanderī. In accordance with Mughūl habits and customs, and owing to the carelessness of the king in his management of the affairs of State, and the venality of the revenue-officers, and the utter disorder into which the affairs of the people had fallen, matters came to such a pass that if any person469 had an object in view, he could quickly bring it to pass.469a One day Bābar on the occasion of a banquet, observed him behave in a way which deserved the royal censure,469b and demanded the punishment of Shīr Khān. Those who were present at the banquet related the particulars of his independence and arrogant assumption, not omitting to mention some of his double-dealings. Shīr Khān accordingly became apprehensive of danger, and fled from the king's camp to his parganas, whence he wrote a letter couched in apologetic terms and sent it to Sulṭān Junaid, advancing as a pretext to cover his return,469c that since Muḥammad Khān was led by feelings of hostility against him to induce Sulṭān Muḥammad to send469d an army against Shīr Khān's parganas because of his being in service with the Mughūls, and as he could not easily and quickly469e obtain leave of absence from Bābar, he had accordingly taken this liberty and had at all hazards determined to rejoin those who wished well to the Ṣulṭān. 360. Thence he proceeded to Sulṭān Muḥammad, where he was honoured by increased confidence and by suitable rewards, and was once more installed as custodian of his younger son Jalāl Khān, whose whole affairs he took under his own management. After the death of Sulṭān Muḥammad, he obtained absolute control of the whole country of Bihār and its dependencies.
He entered into a compact of friendship with Makhdūm ‘Ālam, the governor of Ḥājipūr, one of the Amīrs of the Wālī of Bangāla, who despatched an Amīr named Quṭb Khān to undertake the overthrow of Makhdūm ‘Ālam. Shīr Khān marched to the aid of Makhdūm ‘Ālam, and470 after a fierce battle put Quṭb Khān to death, taking as spoil elephants and treasure and many followers. Jalāl Khān and his tribe, who are Lūhānīs,470a in spite of Shīr Khān, made over Bihār to the ruler of Bangāla and elected to serve under him, and leaving Shīr Khān to his fate, took care to secure their own safety.
The Bangālīs in the first instance sent Ibrāhīm Khān, the son of the Quṭb Khān above mentioned, against Shīr Khān to wreak vengeance upon him. Shīr Khān used daily to fight with them from within the fort, but since the Bangālīs received large reinforcements, and no way of retreat remained open to him, he yielded to necessity and fought a battle with them in the open470b in which he gained the day. Ibrāhīm Khān also seeing what had occurred went and joined his father, and Shīr Khān seized the whole of the camp of the Bangālīs470c with their elephants and artillery, acquiring thereby great renown, so that he established a lasting and undivided control over the country of Bihār and raised himself to the dignity of a Sulṭān. He next wrested the fortress of Chinār together with its vast treasures from the sons of [Jamāl Khān Sārang-Khānī470d]470e] Tāj Khān, one of the Amīrs of 361. Sulṭān Ibrāhīm Lodī, who some years before had regained possession of it, and took in marriage his wealthy and beautiful wife who had vast stores of treasure. This fact also enhanced his grandeur and dignity, so that the desire for sovereignty daily gained more ascendency over his mind, till at last certain powerful Amīrs of the Afghān Lodī faction summoned from Chitor Sulṭān Maḥmūd, son of Sulṭān Sikandar Lodī, who, after raising Ḥasan Khān Mīwātī and Rānā Sānkā to royal power, had induced him to fight with Bābar Pādshāh, and subsequently to his defeat470f had remained in the fortress of Chitor, and seated him upon the throne in Patna.470g He accordingly came with a vast army and invaded the country of Bihār, and wresting it from Shīr Khān took possession of it. Shīr Khān was perforce compelled to submit, and entered his service, and taking leave came to Sahsarām. Sulṭān Maḥmūd passing by Sahsarām, after writing and making over to Shīr Khān an agreement relating to Bihār,471 thereby raising his hopes, despatched him to attempt the conquest of Jaunpūr and to engage in war with the Amīrs of Humāyūn Pādshāh. He thus brought the whole of that province as far as Lakhnau into his own471a power. The Amīrs of Humāyūn Pādshāh could not stand against (Shīr Khān), and proceeding to Kālinjar471b gave in their allegiance to him. Humāyūn marched to oppose Sulṭān Maḥmūd, and Baban and Bāyazīd,471c who were with him.471d When the two armies met Shīr Khān, who had stood aloof from Sulṭān Maḥmud for some days, again joined his force, and sent a message to Mīr Hindū Bēg Qūchīn, Commander-in-chief of the Mughūl army, saying that on the day of the battle he would make a flank movement and stand on one side. You and the 362. Afghāns, said he, well know how utterly I abhor and detest the command of Sulṭān Maḥmūd and Baban471e and Bāyazīd.
Verse.If I committed a fault, I have at all events made my road
clear.
Eventually he did as he had arranged, and Sulṭān Maḥmūd and Baban471f being defeated retired to the country of Patna, and made no further attempts to fight, till in the year 949 H. (1542 A. D.) in the country of Orissa471g he encamped on the frontiers of the desert of non-existence, and having gone to the appointed goal remained at rest. Humāyūn Pādshāh [after this victory]471h sent Mīr Hindū Bēg as his agent to Shīr Khān with a demand to him to yield up the fort of Chinār. He, however, made some lame excuse, so the king ordered several noted Amīrs to precede him and lay siege to that fortress, himself also472 preparing to follow them. In the meanwhile Shīr Khān wrote a petition in which he pointed out his own sincerity and the favour shewn him by Baban, and recounted the deserving nature of his former services, more specially his opposition to Baban and Bāyazīd. This petition he sent by the hand of Quṭb Khān, his eldest son, together with a large force, to Humāyūn Pādshāh. He sent also with Quṭb Khān, ‘Īsā Khān Hajjāb, who was his vakīl with the powers of a vazīr, and he fleeing from Gujrāt joined his father in Bangāla. When Humāy-ūn Pādshāh altered his course towards Gujrāt, Shīr Khān himself had risen to great dignity and power, so that he engaged in open battle with Humāyūn on two occasions, and gained the day, as has already been mentioned. Shīr Shāh in the early part of the year of his accession laid waste the ancient city of Qannauj, and moving it from its original site re-established it on the banks of the river Ganges; it is now known as Shīrgaṛh. In the same manner he destroyed the fortress of Shamsābād and removed it to another 363. place, calling it by the name of Rusūlpūr. Now, however, at the date of writing, it has been repopulated in its old position. And when he arrived at old Dihlī, which was founded by Sulṭān ‘Alāu-d-Dīn, he destroyed that also, and established between the fortress of Dīnpanāh, which Muḥammad Humāyūn Pādshāh constructed, and472a Fīrozābād, an extensive city, and built round472b that fort a rampart of stone and mortar, having an extent of three krohs. On his arrival at Sulṭānpūr by continuous marches, the brothers of Humāyūn Pādshāh and the Chaghatai Amīrs quarrelled, and each took his own way as has been described, and Shīr Shāh himself,472c not giving them time to reassemble, came up in pursuit. In this year he issued a public proclamation that from the country of Bangāla as far as western Rohtās, which is a four months' journey, and also from Āgra to Mandū,472d at every kroh a sarāi (rest-house) and a mosque, and a well built of burned bricks was to be established and a Muaẕẕin472e and an Imām.472f A Musulmān and a Hindū were also appointed to superintend the supply of water for each. A refreshment house was also kept stocked for the use of strangers and poor wayfarers. On both sides of the road also, large and lofty trees were planted in avenues, so that all travellers might go along in the shade of them. Traces of these still remain in most places up to the present time, though fifty-two years have passed since then. In his reign justice was so widespread that if, for example, an old man holding a golden tray in his hand had lain down to sleep whenever he felt inclined, no thief or ruffian would have dared to take it away from him.
Thanks be to God that the writer of this Muntakhab was born in the reign of so just a king; to use the words of the Prophet, may the peace and blessing of God be upon him,473 I was born in the reign of the just king, on the seventeenth of Rabī‘u-ṯ-ṯānī473a in the year 947 H. (1540 A.D.) but, in spite of this, would that the 364. name of that hour and that day had been erased from the chronicles of years and months, so that I had not been obliged to leave the private chamber of non-existence, where I dwelt with the inhabitants of the world of dreams and fancies, and to place my foot into this world of imaginary existence, and to suffer473b so many scars of various misfortunes, all of which are branded with the stamp, He loses this world and the next, the context is well-known.
Verse.My body bears a robe, surpassing splendid
My hopes for this world and the next are ended.Rubā‘ī.I came yesterday, and have accomplished nothing,
To-day my efforts have availed me nothing,
To-morrow I depart, having learned no single secret;
Better had been non-existence than this vain superfluity.
And when one looks into the matter carefully one becomes aware that seeing that the Lord, the repository of the seal of the prophetic office, upon him and his family may the peace and blessing of God rest, says:473c “Would that the Lord of Muḥammad had not created Muḥammad,” it is not in the power of a weak-minded mortal (like myself) to draw a single breath in this valley (of desolation), and one fears lest such an attempt should lead to audacity in the way of religion, and lest its fruit should be everlasting destruction. I entreat pardon from God of all that is an abomination to Him.
What power has the clay that it should say to the potter
Why dost thou make me and why dost thou break me.474
After that Shīr Shāh reached the hill-country of Bālnāt. He built there the fortress of Rohtās as a protection for the army of Hindūstān against the Mughūl forces. Then he appointed Khawāṣṣ Khān to undertake the pursuit, and returned. While on the march he heard that a commander named Khiẓr Khān Sarak had become infatuated with rebellious notions and was behaving as though he were a Sulṭān. Shīr Shāh474a accordingly bent his course 365. thither, and Khiẓr Khān hastening to encounter him was taken prisoner. Shīr Shāh took possession of that country and conferred it by way of jāegīr upon several of his Amīrs, and appointed to the superintendence of the fort of Rohtās,474b Qāẓī Faẓīlat the Qāẓī of the army, who was popularly known by the more appropriate title of Qāẓī Faẓīḥat.474c
In the year 948 H. he came474d to Āgra, and in the year 949 H. proceeded to Gwāliār with the intention of conquering Mālwa.474e Abūl Qāsim Beg, one of the Amīrs of Humāyūn Pādshāh who had entrenched himself in that fortress, came in and had an interview with him, giving up the keys of the fort. Mallū Khān the governor of Mālwa, who475 was one of the slaves of the Khiljī Sulṭāns, and held absolute and unlimited power in that province, offered his services to Shīr Shāh, and was honoured by splendid rewards. Shīr Shāh also had tents pitched for him close to his own tent, and prepared a hundred and one horses and other apparatus of pomp and dignity in his honour. In the meantime a suspicion arose in Mallū Khān's mind, and one night he tore his tent and escaped alone after the accustomed manner of slaves, and fled. Shīr Khān wrote the following:—
Verse.You see how the chicken-hearted slave Mallū has treated me
It is a saying of Muṣṭafā “There can be no good in a slave.”
Shīr Khān then nominated Ḥājī Khān Sulṭānī to the subjugation of the province of Mālwa, and Sazāwal Khān475a to administer the affairs of the district of Sawās;475b Mallū Khān fought with Ḥājī Khān and Sazāwal Khān, and suffered a defeat from which he never recovered.
Every weakling who fights with one stronger than he,
Gets such a fall that he can never again rise.
And Khān-i-Khānān Sarwānī,475c who was the475d permanent Governor of the fort of Ranthanbūr, yielded up that fortress to Shīr 366. Shāh and came with his family to the township of Basāwar. It is said that some one introduced some poison into his cup. His tomb is in the suburbs of that township, in a pleasant spot, and is wellknown at this time:
Quatrain.Death, thou hast desolated hundreds of homes,
In the kingdom of existence thou makest life thy spoil.
No jewel beyond price has come into the world,
But thou has borne it away and hidden it beneath the dust.
In this year Shīr Shāh475e led an army against the fortress of Rāī Sen and besieged it, because Pūranmal the son of Silhadī, one of the Chiefs of Rāī Sen, had attacked the city of Chanderī, which is one of the chief cities of Hindūstān, and had put its inhabitants to death, and was keeping two thousand476 women, Hīndūs and Muslims, in his own ḥarīm. The following couplet was found to record the date of this siege:
May the stability of the court be fortunate.476a
After prolonging the siege for some time Shīr Shāh entered into a compact, and succeeded in dislodging Pūranmal476b by the intervention of Shāhzāda ‘Ādil Khān and Quṭb Khān Nāib,476c and assigned him a place in his own camp, bestowing upon him a hundred horses, with a robe of honour and a sum of gold; and eventually by the advice of Mīr Saiyyid Rafī‘u-d-Dīn Ṣafawī of Īj,476d which was given the title of Muqaddasa (Sacred) by Sikandar Lodī, broke his word, and caused Pūranmal together with his family and children to be trampled to death by elephants. Not a single man of those turbulent and rebellious Hindūs, who were 367. near ten thousand souls, escaped in that battle. Their women and men either476e became food for the edge (jauhar) of the sword or fed the flames of the fire called jūhar, a well-known word in the Hīndī language. This chronicle, from that day forward, remained as a record upon the pages of Time, may God be merciful to its author. This event occurred in the year 950 H., and476f after some time he girded up his loins for a holy war to uproot the pestilent infidels of the country of Mārwār, and led a vast476g army against Rāi Maldeo476h the leader of the Rāis of Hindūstān who held sway over the country of Nāgor and Jaunpūr, and was a powerful opponent of the Muslims; and inasmuch as one of the maxims of Shīr Shāh, from which he never departed,477 was to throw up an entrenched position round his army, no matter how few the enemy might be, as soon as Māldeo arrived in the vicinity of Ājmīr with fifty thousand picked cavalry trained and experienced in war, intent upon slaying or being slain, and confronted Shīr Shāh, he, finding it impossible to make trenches and ramparts because of the sandy soil, held a conference with his experienced and veteran Amīrs. No one of them however could devise a way to effect that object. Suddenly Maḥmūd Khān, the son of ‘Ādil Khān,477a who was grandson to Shīr Shāh, notwithstanding his youth said, “Let Shāh ‘Ālam order the banjāras (grain sellers) of the army to fill sacks with sand and arrange them round477b the army.” This idea477c highly commended itself to Shīr Shāh, and he immediately placed his turban upon the lad's head, and bestowed upon him in perpetuity the treaty territories.
In the end Heaven did not favour his designs, and Islām Shāh477d after reaching kingly power, made this unfortunate boy the very first of his family, heirs to the kingdom, to have his name blotted out from the page of existence, in accordance with the saying Al mulku ‘aqīm477e (The kingdom has no heir), and that treatment which he meted out to them, vindictive Time measured again to his posterity.
Verse.If thou hast done evil remain not secure from calamity,
For the nature of things brings about requital.
In short Shīr Shāh, who477f would not give the head of one of 368. his soldiers for a kingdom, and to whom the Afghāns were477g far dearer than can be expressed, was by no means willing to involve his army in calamity with the ignorant, boar-natured, currish478 Hindūs. Accordingly he devised an artifice, and wrote fictitious letters purporting to emanate from the generals of Māldeo's army, to himself, couched in enigmatical language,478a the substance of them being that there would be no need for the king in person to superintend the fighting, when the armies were drawn up for battle, because they themselves would take Māldeo alive and deliver him up, upon the condition that such and such places should be given them as a reward. Having done this he so arranged that those letters fell into Māldeo's hands, with the result that Māldeo became utterly suspicious of all his generals,478b and, in the dead of night478c fled alone without looking behind him; and, notwithstanding that his generals denied their complicity with oath upon oath, saying that they never could have been guilty of such dastardly conduct,478d and that this was all the handiwork of Shīr Shāh in his desire to raise dissensions478e between them, it was of no use, and had no effect upon Māldeo's mind. Kanhaiyā,478f who was his minister and agent, abused Māldeo in violent terms, and taking four thousand resolute men devoted to death, or even more than this number, came down upon the army of Shīr Shāh, with the intention of surprising them by night, but missed his way, and after marching the whole night, when morning broke became aware that he had left the camp far in rear.478g After striving to the utmost of their powers, when they had abandoned all hope of life, at the very moment when the army of Shīr Shāh came in sight, as a result of their own stupidity, by the good luck of Shīr Shāh or by the superior good fortune of Islām, the infidels in a body dismounted from their horses, and renewing their vows of singleness of purpose and mutual assistance, binding479 their sashes together and joining 369. hand to hand, attacked the army of the Afghāns with their short spears, which they call Barchha,479a and with their swords. Shīr Shāh had given orders saying that if any man ventured to fight with the sword with this swinish horde, his blood would be on his own head. He accordingly ordered the elephant troops to advance and479b trample them down. In rear of the elephants, the artillery and archers gave them a taste of the bowstring, and admitting them to the banquet of death, gave them the hospitality of the land of extinction. The bright surface of the world's page was polished, and freed from the dark lines of the land of infidels, and not one of the infidels got off with his life, nor was a single Muslim lost in that encounter.479c A poet of Basāwar, whose takhalluṣ is Faiẓī,479d wrote this verse on that subject.
It is said that after this victory Shīr Shāh on several occasions used to say, “I have sold the empire of the whole of Hindūstān479g for a handful of millet.” Returning thence and making over the fortress of Rantanbhūr to his son ‘Ādil Khān, he gave him leave for a few days to visit the fort, and put the garrison in order, when he was to follow his father. The writer has heard from a trustworthy source, that one day while on that expedition Mīr Saiyyid Rafī‘u-d-Dīn, the renowned and unique traditionist now pardoned and absolved, who has been already mentioned, said to Shīr Shāh, “All my ancestors were479h authors of authoritative compositions and used to give instructions in the two sacred cities.480 I alone of all my family have become so helpless and powerless that in search of the gold and fame of Hindūstān I 370. am blindly wandering. I beseech your Majesty to grant me permission to depart, so that at the end of my days I may be able to relight the lamp of those venerable ancestors of mine.
Seeing that I was not worthy to succeed those mighty
intellects who have gone before me,
My hands have spoiled many books, my ignorance has wasted
many parchments.480a
Shīr Shāh answered, I should have no objections to make on this score, were it not that I have kept you with me for a special object, which is this that I intend in a short time by the help of God, He is blessed and exalted,480b to clear the heart-delighting plain of Hindūstān of the thorns of infidelity, and shortly to reduce the few forts which remain, with very little difficulty, and passing along the seashore to fight with480c those Qizilbāshes who oppose the progress of the company of pilgrims480d to the holy temple (of Makkah) and have given rise to bigoted interference with the established religion and the orthodox followers of Muḥammad, may the peace and blessing of God be upon him,480e and to send you thence with a mission bearing letters to the Sulṭān of Rūm, in order that, having knitted the bonds of religious brotherhood between us, you may bear to him a request on my behalf to be entrusted with the service of one of the two sacred temples, may God increase their dignity. Then I coming up from one direction [and the Khwandgār480f from the other], may clear out the Qizilbāsh from between us, because480g as soon as the Sulṭān of Rūm attacks him, he will move with all rapidity in this direction, and when the Sulṭān of Rūm withdraws his forces, he will again return to the place he came from, whereas if we surround him from both directions with this army and the large following we have in Hindūstān, together with that powerful force and its artillery,481 his resisting power will be nil;481a and on carefully considering over this matter I can think of no person more fitted 371. to carry481b this message than yourself, and simply in view of the attainment of this object481c I cannot entertain the idea of your leave.
It must not be forgotten that it is by no means improbable that this same good intention may be the cause of the salvation of that faithful king from the fire (of hell) although he fell into the fire,481d in the Day of Reckoning, for the Almighty, may He be glorified and exalted, is satisfied with little and very bountiful, and the story of ‘Amr ibnu Laiṯ481e [who for all his vast army and equipment, which gave him the preeminence over all kings of ‘Irāq, in the four quarters of the globe, was always regretful because he had not been present at the slaughter of Imām Ḥusain, may God Most High be pleased with him, so that he might have smitten and destroyed the481f followers of Yazīd,481g and of his having a vision in which he was walking in the gardens of Paradise] is well known, say, every man acts after his own manner,481h that is after his own desire.
Verse.My brother thou art all desire, naught else;
All the rest of thee is but bone and fibre.
If a rose is thy desire, thou art a rose garden,
If a furnace is thy desire, thou art its fuel.481i
And in the year 952 H. (1545 A.D.) Shīr Shāh invested the fortress of Kālinjar, which is one of the strongest and most famous of the forts of Hindūstān, and with great energy and skill in a short time prepared galleries, and used to make daily attacks upon the bastions;482 and by the time that the galleries had advanced near to the walls of the fort, and the mines were ready, attacking on all four sides he made the condition of the garrison very precarious. Shīr Shāh from the position where he was standing, gave orders to hurl grenades filled with gunpowder 372. into the fort. This they did, and by chance one of those grenades struck the wall of the fort, and recoiling with great force exploded. Its fragments fell among the other grenades, which exploded, burning Shīr Shāh severely from head to foot. And inasmuch as he was badly scorched,482a and Shaikh Khalīl the son of his spiritual guide, and the learned Maulānā Nāẓimu-d-Dīn482b also were fellow-sufferers with Shīr Shāh in this explosion,482c Shīr Shāh as he ran using his hands to cover his nakedness,482d took refuge in a tent which they had pitched for him in (front of) a bastion,482e where he lay unconscious. Whenever he recovered consciousness a little482f he shouted to his men encouraging them482g to seize the fort, and if any one came to see him he signed to him to go and fight, so that in his absence the Amīrs482h in command in the trenches worked harder than if he had been present, and behaved with the utmost gallantry, and coming to close quarters with the garrison, brought matters to a fight with knife and dagger and did full justice to the demands of endeavour and manliness. The writer heard a story from a most trustworthy source, that on that eventful day of assault, in which the deeds of every individual assailant were conspicuous, and the standards and faces could be easily distinguished one from another,483 I saw, said he, a soldier armed cap-a-pie, who had not previously been seen nor was ever after seen, clothed from head to foot in black, wearing a plume483a of the same colour upon his head,483b and urging and encouraging our men in the battle. Then he entered one of the galleries and made his way into the fort. I searched for him everywhere after the battle, but in vain, I could find no trace of him.483c The men in the other trenches also gave the same account, saying, we saw several horsemen wearing these clothes who kept advancing in front of us till they entered the fort and vanished:
Verse.If thou hadst not been on the side of religious law, Heaven 373.
itself would have girt its loins,
If thou hadst483d been on the side of the faith, the Gemini
would have ungirt their sword.
A report became current that, in that battle, certain men from the invisible world had come to the aid of the Muslims. And Shīr Shāh suffering and distressed as he was, from time to time enquired for tidings of victory. The air was terribly hot, and although they sprinkled him constantly with sandal and rosewater, it was utterly useless483e to relieve the scorching heat whose intensity increased hour by hour.
Verse.A breast which is consumed by the fire of separation
Sandal484 can afford it no relief.
At the very moment of hearing the good tidings of victory he yielded up his life484a to the Lord, the Giver of life, the Receiver of life. The following stanza was written to record the date of his death:—
Shīr Shāh, he in dread of whom
The lion and the goat drank at the same source
Left the world; the wise sage pronounced
The date of his death. Zi ātash murd484b (he died from the
effects of fire).
His corpse was taken to Sahsarām where was the burial-place of his fathers, and there buried. The period of his military command was fifteen years, and of his Sulṭānate five years.
It is said that on one occasion when he was looking in a mirror, he exclaimed, “Alas! that I obtained my kingdom at the time of evening prayer.”484c
Verses.My heart! like Khiẓr485 take and drink the water of life,
Like Sikandar come and conquer land and sea.
If thou entertainest any longing for the cup-bearer and wine,
Take the cup of Kauṯar485a from the hand of the Hūrī485b and
drink.
The fame of thy greatness and glory and majesty
Has reached the Koh-i-qāf, go thither and hear its tale. 374.
If thou art sitting, for instance, on the throne of Solomon,
One day like the ant creep into the recess of a cave and hide
there;
Two or three days like the spider, spin in the deserted corner
of the world the strands of desire and take thy place there.
Every beautiful-faced one,485c whose beauty is unapproachable
With that one, to thy heart's content,485d take thy delight.
This world is a dream in the opinion of the wise,
Do thou at last see this dream and take it.
Thy life, O Qādirī, is as a fairy-tale of enchantment,
Thou hast heard the tale, take the spell of enchantment.
When the hand of Death tears485e the sleeve of thy existence
Raise thy hand, and seize the skirt of the true Friend (God).
The Tabaqāt-i-Akbarī according to Elliott IV. 86, says ten years and some months. With |regard to this see Thomas, Pathān Kings, p. 336 and note 1, where it is said that Firishta “makes a less venial mistake in insisting upon a twelve years' reign in spite of his own expressed figures of from “839 to 849” A. H. Briggs, pp. 332—339.” This is not Firishta's error but is the fault of his translator. Firishta says clearly that Muḥammad succeeded to the throne on the very day on which Mubārak Shāh was assassinated (Bo. text, p. 309) that is, “on the 9th Rajab 837” (Bo. text, p. 308), so that while his date as regards the death of Muḥammad Shah may be wrong, his calculation based upon the dates he gives is correct. I am not aware of any direct evidence that Sulṭān ‘Alāu-d-Dīn as cended the throne in 847 H. The Tārīkh-i-Mubārak Shāhī, if Elliott's translation (Elliot, IV, p. 86) is to|be trusted, says, “Upon the death of Muḥammad Shāh the amīrs and nobles assembled, and raised his son to the throne under the style of Sulṭān ‘Alāu-d-Dīn’ and in a footnote on the same page referring to the conflict of testimony between Badāoni and Firishta as to the date of Muḥammad Shāh's death, he says: “Firishta seems correct in making it 849,” and with this opinion I am inclined to agree. The mistake appears to have arisen from accepting the date given by Briggs in his translation of Firishta, instead of confirming it from Firishta himself, who gives 17th Jamādi I 824 as the date of Khiẓr Khān's death and Mubārak Shāh's accession, and states (Bo. text 309) that Mubārak Shāh reigned thirteen years three months and sixteen days. This would bring us to 837 H. not to 839 H. Therefore, unless there is evidence to shew that ‘Alāu-d-Dīn came to the throne in 847 H. we are justified in accepting Firishta's plain and coincident statement that Muḥammad Shāh reigned twelve years and some months, dying in 849 II.
↩Badāonī's statement is wrong in this particular. In 855 H. according to Firishta, ‘Alāu-d-Dīn retired into obscurity, leaving the kingdom of Dihlī to Buhlūl Lodi, and reigned in Badāon for twenty-eight years, dying in 883 H. (Bo. text 316.) See n. 4 page 405.
↩Hatkānth is said by Abūl Faẓl to be the chief town of Bhadāwar a district S. E. of Āgra. Its inhabitants are called Bhadauriahs. They were known as daring robbers and though so near the capital managed to maintain their independence till Akbar had their chief trampled to death by an elephant, when they submitted. Āīn-i-Akbarī (B) I. 488. Elliot. Races of N. W. P., vol. I, p. 25.
↩Prior to his death Sulṭān Buhlūl had made a partition of his dominions, assigning Jaunpūr to Shāhzāda Bārbak Shāh, and Karra Mānikpūr to Shāhzāda ‘Ālam Khān, Bahraich to his sister's son Shaikh Muḥammad Far-malī, who was known as Kālā Bhār, and Lakhnau and Kālpī to Ā‘zam Humāyūn ibn i Khwāja Bāyazīd Khān. (Firishta Bo. text 327).
↩Firishta reads ◌ Ārīl (or Aryal); he says ◌.
Arail is mentioned by Abūl Faẓl (Āīn-i-Akbarī (B) I. 425.) “he held Jhosī and Arail (Jalālābās) as jāgīr.”
↩There is no river which I can definitely identify as this river, but the Asun in Keith Johnson (India) E. f. flowing west of Gwāliār, would answer to the Asī in position. Rennell's Map gives no name to this river.
↩The Shī'ahs believe that the Mahdī has already appeared, the Sunnīs still look for his appearance. Hughes, Dict of Islam.
↩Firishta reads: Bahjat Khān, Governor of Chanderī, whose ancestors for generations had been the faithful subjects of the Sulṭāns of Mālwa, on account of the weakness of Sulṭān Maḥmūd of Mālwa, and the decadence of his kingdom, sought an interview with Sulṭān Sikandar, and agreed to the Khuṭbah being read in his name in Chanderī, see Briggs, p. 583, and Bo. text, p 341.
↩Miftāḥu-l-‘ulūm (clavis doctrinarum), see Hājī Khalīfah 12578. This book was written by Sirāju-d-Dīn Abū Ya‘qūb Yusuf bin Abī Muḥammad bin Alī as Sikkākī who died 626 A.H. (1228 A.D.)
The book was divided into three parts, of which the first treated of grammatical inflection, the second of syntax, and the third of arrangement and composition of sentences. (◌) ‘Ilmaiu-l-ma‘ānī wal bayān. (Regarding ‘Ilmu-l-bayān, etc., see Garcin de Tassy Rhetorique des langues de l'orient Musulmān, pp. 1-5.)
A commentary on all three parts was written by Maulā Ḥusāmn-d-Dīn al Muwaẕẕinī, and this is probably the commentary alluded to in the text. Other commentaries were written on the third part, of which Hājī Khalīfah mentions three as worthy of special notice.
↩Firishta reads here:
> ◌
Jai Chand, a Zemindār of Chartūlī, a dependency of the pargana of Kol which was better known as Mawās, had fought against ‘Umr Khān the son of Sikandar Khān Sūr and had slain him. Accordingly Malik Qāsun Ḥākim of Sanbhal proceeded against him and put that rebel to death, and having quelled that sudden rebellion came and joined the king at Qanauj.
On the strength of Firishta's statement the above translation is given, and I would suggest that the text should read ◌.
↩The letters of the words ◌ give the date 888 H. This would make him fifty years of age in 938 H. This couplet has a variant reading which is given in the footnote to the text.
↩The literal meaning of the line may be taken thus:
Has cast away the crown of gold (Taj-i-Zar) from the defeat of the army of Sām (Shikast-i-Sipāh-i-Sām). By Tāj-i-Zar is meant the letter ◌, the first letter of the word ◌, the value of which is 7; this being cast out from the value of Shikast-i-Sipāh-i-Sām gives 949 - 7 = 942.
↩See also Āīn-i-Akbarī I. 348, and II. 265, also Bayley, Hist. of Gujrāt, 319 n.
↩The words in the original, ◌ Rūmīkhān, contain as will be seen the word ◌ mīkh between the syllables Rū…ān. These form the word ◌ Rawān, one meaning of which is life, for which the synonym in Persian is ◌ jān. So the writer says: Place the word mīkh in his life (◌ rawān,) and you have his name ◌ Rū mīkh ān, i.e., Rūmī Khān.
↩A still better reading however suggests itself namely ◌, instead of ◌. We should then translate: “And inasmuch as he had very many families with him obtained possession of the fort in the following manner.”
↩By ◌ Asmā is meant the names or attributes of the Deity; they are of two categories, the Asmāu-l-jalālīyeh or “terrible attributes” and the Asmāu-l-jamālīyeh , “amiable attributes.” For a full account, see Hughes, Dict. of Islām articles DA‘WAH and MAGIC.
↩No authority exists for such a reading.> ◌
The verses in question are by Firdausi.
↩↩> ◌
The word Atka, Atīkā, or Atākā is a Turkī word, signifying precepteur institnteur, père de lait (Pavet de Courteilles).
The wife of Shamsu-d-Dīn was appointed anakah or wet-nurse to Prince Akbar at Amarkôṭ.
↩The first seems the only intelligible reading in the sense in which it is translated.
↩According to M. Pavet de Courteille it signifies “Paternité: nom d'une dignité daus le Turkestān et le Kharisur, chef de tribu: qui élève une personne.
↩↩◌Thou formedst me of clay. What help have I!
Thou didst this garment weave. What help have I!
Whate'er for good or ill from me proceeds
Is thy prescription, Thine! What help have I!
The text reads erroneously ◌ Ilchī'-e. MS. (A) reads ◌ Injī, and MS. (B) reads ◌ Īchī. We should read ◌ Ijī, in the sense given in the translation. Ij is stated by Yāqūt to be a city rich in gardens and other advantages. The Persians he says pronounce it ◌ Ī'k (Mu‘jamu-l Buldān, I, p. 415).
↩↩Chandan, dhūp, dīp, malayāgīr
Prem sahit Thākur nahalwāūn.
With (gifts of) Chandan, frankincense, lamps, and malayāgīr
I will lovingly bathe the Thākur (Lord).
MSS. (A) (B) writes ◌.
↩