V. Expansion in the South: The Khaljis and
the Tughluqs
*First Conquests* == *The
Consolidation of Muslim Rule*
[[61]] ON
THE surface,
the seizure of the throne by Jalal-ud-din Firuz in 1290 was the act of
a strong and ruthless individual; in reality, it was the achievement of
power by one large clan, the Khaljis. Their triumph illustrates one of
the basic ingredients in the history of Islamic India: the role in the
continual power struggles of different groups within the ranks of the
Turkish
invaders. Ethnically the Khaljis were Turks, but because of their
earlier
migration from the Turkish homelands they constituted a group quite
distinct
from those who had come into the Ghazni and Ghuri areas at a later
time.
Although they had played a conspicuous role in the success of the
Turkish
armies in India, they had always been looked down upon by the Ilbari
Turks,
the dominant group during the Slave dynasty. This tension between the
Khaljis
and other Turks, kept in check by Balban, came to the surface in the
succeeding
reign, and ended in the displacement of the Ilbari Turks.
Khalji success
against the
aristocratic Turks had far-reaching sociopolitical results. Muslim
government
ceased to be a close preserve of the Turkish aristocracy and not only
the
Khaljis but other groups such as the indigenous Muslims began to share
power. For the first time, the historians refer to the “Hindustanis,”
the
local Muslims, and soon converts such as Malik Kafur were occupying the
highest position in the state. The efforts of the Muslim missionaries
and
Sufis had begun to bear fruit and a sizable number of Muslim converts
was
available for the service of the state. The rule of the Khaljis did not
last more than thirty years, but the social revolution which their
success
engendered, and the large increase in manpower which resulted from it,
enabled the Delhi government to take a major step forward and conquer
the
vast areas south of the Vindhyas.
When Jalal-ud-din
came to
the throne he followed a policy of exceptional mildness and
forbearance.
This reconciled the general population [[62]] to him, but the
Khalji
nobles were shocked at the sultan's behavior. They attributed it to
senility—he
was more than seventy when he came to the throne—and openly started
plotting
against him. The plot which succeeded was that of his nephew and
son-in-law,
Ala-ud-din. This ambitious young man had been appointed governor of
Kara
(near modern Allahabad), and there, surrounded by other discontented
officers,
he organized an army to make a bid for the throne of Delhi. To support
his army he plundered neighboring unconquered Hindu territories.
First Conquests
Ala-ud-din
started by invading
Malwa and capturing the town of Bhilsa, a wealthy commercial center. He
decided next on a bolder step. At Bhilsa he had heard of the wealth of
the great southern kingdom of Devagiri. Without obtaining the
permission
of his uncle, and making arrangements at Kara for supplying Delhi with
such periodical news about his movement as would allay suspicion, he
set
out in 1296, at the head of 8,000 horse. So far, no Muslim ruler had
crossed
the Vindhyas, and Devagiri was separated from Kara by a two-month march
through unknown regions. The success of this extraordinary raid against
a powerful kingdom is explained partly by good luck and partly by
Ala-ud-din's
ability and courage. He returned to Kara with a huge booty—17,250
pounds
of gold, 200 pounds of pearls, 58 pounds of other gems, 28,250 pounds
of
silver, and 1,000 pieces of silk. Some of Jalal-ud-din's nobles,
particularly
the loyal and vigilant Ahmad Chap, were critical of Ala-ud-din's moves,
but his brother, who was at the court, lulled the sultan's suspicions.
He was able even to persuade Jalal-ud-din to go to Kara to meet
Ala-ud-din,
who, he said, was too penitent to come to Delhi after having undertaken
a major military operation without royal authority. The sultan,
according
to a contemporary historian, was blinded by greed, and, welcoming the
suggestion,
he proceeded to Kara, where he was assassinated. Ala-ud-din Khalji
ascended
the throne, and, with a judicious distribution of riches brought from
Devagiri,
he was able to win over the public of Delhi.
[[63]] Ala-ud-din's
twenty-year reign may be divided into three phases. During the first
period
(1296–1303) he defeated the Mongols, reconquered the Hindu kingdom of
Gujarat,
and reduced Ranthambhor (1301), Chitor (August, 1303), and other Hindu
strongholds in Rajasthan. In the second period (1303–1307) his
attention
was given largely to securing and consolidating his power. He
continued,
however, to extend his territory. In 1305 he sent Ain-ul-Mulk Multani
to
Central India, where he subdued Malwa and conquered the forts of
Ujjain,
Chanderi, and Mandawar. Malwa was annexed, and Ain-ul-Mulk appointed
its
governor. In the final period, he was engaged in the conquest in the
South.
The Mongols had
continued
to threaten India, and in 1290 they raided as far as Delhi. They
returned
in 1303 with an army of 120,000, besieged Delhi, and forced Ala-ud-din
to retire to the fortress of Siri. Their reason for withdrawing after
two
months is not clear; and while Barani attributed it to the power of the
prayers of a local saint, Ala-ud-din realized that more effective steps
were necessary to deal with the Mongol menace. He proceeded to
reorganize
the defenses in the western Punjab, where the fortifications
established
by Balban had fallen into disrepair, and placed the frontier province
of
Dipalpur under Ghiyas-ud-din Tughluq, the ablest soldier of the realm.
He also raised a powerful standing army independent of the contingents
of the fiefholders, and made it adequate for all offensive and
defensive
purposes. This meant that Ala-ud-din's officers could take the
offensive
against the Mongols, and they raided their territory as far as Kabul
and
Ghazni. After 1306, partly because of these measures, partly because of
the death of the Mongol ruler of Transoxiana, India ceased to be
troubled
by the Mongols.
During the third
period (1307–1313),
Ala-ud-din completed the conquest of South India. The ground had been
prepared
for this by his conquests in Central India, and in 1307 his general,
Malik
Kafur, defeated Raja Ramchandra of Devagiri, who had withheld the
tribute
he had promised to pay after Ala-ud-din's first raid. The raja was
brought
to Delhi, and, reaffirming his submission, he received the title of Rai
Rayan. Two years later Malik Kafur led another expedition to the south
and conquered Warangal. Among the booty was a great diamond, [[64]]
identified by some with the famous Koh-i-Nur. In this campaign the raja
of Devagiri gave the Muslims considerable help, including a force of
Marathas.
Next year Malik Kafur set out on a year-long expedition which, through
the defeat of the rajas of Madura and Dvarasamudra, extended the Muslim
dominion to the southern sea-coast. During this expedition, the Muslim
officers built a mosque, either at Rameshwaram on the island of Pamban,
or on the mainland opposite.
Ala-ud-din did
not bring
the newly conquered territories in the south under his direct
administration.
Devagiri was an exception. When the raja of Devagiri died in 1311 and
his
successor refused to accept the suzerainty of Delhi, it was annexed as
part of the sultanate of Delhi. Other conquered territories such as
Warangal,
Madura, and Dvarasamudra continued under local rajas who paid an annual
tribute.
Ala-ud-din Khalji
was a soldier,
undisciplined by formal education. When fortune smiled on all his early
projects, his fancy soared high and he began to think of conquests in
other
fields. He played with the idea of establishing a new religion, and at
times expressed a desire to sally forth from Delhi, and, like
Alexander,
to embark on a career of world conquest. He even issued coins referring
to himself as Alexander the Second. Luckily his nobles were not afraid
of giving him sound advice, and he had the good sense to listen to
them.
He had four principal counsellors, but it was the old Ala-ul-Mulk, the
kotwal of Delhi, who dissuaded the king from attempting to carry out
his
plans. Ala-ul-Mulk's interview is vividly described, perhaps with a
touch
of imagination, by his nephew, the historian Barani./1/
Ala-ul-Mulk told the sultan that the introduction of a religion was a
matter
for the prophets and not for kings, and pointed out that the Mongols,
in
spite of their great power, had not been able to replace the Islamic
religion.
As for foreign conquests, the sultan could not undertake them until he
had completely conquered and established his rule in the whole of
India,
and even then he could leave his realm only if he had a sagacious and
dependable
deputy like Alexander's Aristotle to look after the kingdom during his
absence. Ala-ud-din had an uncertain temper, but he recognized the
wisdom
of the old [[65]] counsellor. He never talked again about
religious
innovations, and he dropped his plans for world conquest.
During the early
years of
his reign, two rebellions—one at Delhi and another in Oudh—and an
attempted
assassination forced Ala-ud-din to consider precautions against
attempts
to overthrow his rule. According to his advisers the rebellions had
four
main causes: 1) an inefficient system of intelligence which prevented
the
sultan from knowing what was happening; 2) the widespread use of wine,
which loosened tongues, encouraged intimacies, and bred plots and
treason;
3) the strengthening of the position of the nobles by intermarriage;
and
4) the possession of wealth by certain sections of the people, which,
relieving
them of the necessity of work, left them leisure for mischievous
thoughts./2/
Ala-ud-din dealt systematically with all these causes. He set up an
efficient
system of intelligence and taught himself to read the illegible
handwriting
known as shikasta, in order to be able to decipher the reports of his
informers.
He prohibited the use of intoxicating liquor and set an example by
causing
his wine vessels to be broken and having the wine poured out. He
regulated
marriages among the nobles and revised the taxation system so as to
reduce
the surpluses of the prosperous classes. This latter measure hit both
the
Muslim and Hindu privileged classes. It included the Muslim holders of
inam lands (rent-free grants) and waqf (pious endowments), and those
Hindu
chiefs who had been allowed to retain their lands in return for the
payment
of tribute. Apparently many of them had used their positions to build
up
centers of intrigue against the ruler.
Among the most
interesting
of Ala-ud-din's actions were the famous price-control measures. Modern
historians, following Barani, have generally held that these were
introduced
in order to keep the cost of the new army at a low level./3/
Other contemporary or near-contemporary writers such as Afif, Ibn
Battuta,
Isami, and Hazrat Nasir-ud-din Chiragh-i-Delhi indicate that Ala-ud-din
controlled prices of the necessities of life so that the general public
might benefit./4/ Barani's
explanation appears odd, since a ruthless ruler like Ala-ud-din [[66]]
could easily have provided for the upkeep of his army by other means,
such
as additional taxation. In order to deal with a limited problem it was
hardly necessary for him to introduce a detailed and complicated system
involving elaborate administrative measures over wide areas. All
contemporary
authorities except Barani indicate that Ala-ud-din, in spite of his
obvious
defects, had firm ideas of the responsibilities of kingship. Their
interpretation
is that he felt that the most effective way to benefit the public and
achieve
lasting renown was to place reasonable price controls on the
necessities
of daily life. Those who have seen the difficulty of enforcing a rigid
price control in India and Pakistan in modern times know that this
could
not be achieved by royal edict, and one cannot read Barani's account of
various regulations and administrative steps taken by Ala-ud-din
without
admiring his administrative ability and the competence of his officers.
To enforce his orders regulating prices he introduced the following:
the
system of obtaining land revenue in the form of food grains; the
buildup
of vast stores from which corn could be issued at the time of need;
control
of transport; a simple method of rationing when necessary; and the
buildup
of an elaborate organization to carry out the whole system. Ala-ud-din
made a success of this scheme, which continued in operation throughout
his reign. It is no wonder that after his death the poor forgot his
cruelty
and remembered his rule with gratitude; they even visited his grave as
if it were the tomb of a holy man./5/
It is only
recently that
scholars, piecing together bits of information from different sources,
have begun to realize the extent of Ala-ud-din's administrative
achievements.
K. R. Qanungo, for example, credits him with organizing the army on a
new
model. He accomplished this, according to Qanungo, by arming it
directly
through the Ariz-i-Mamalik, paying in cash from the state treasury,
choosing
the officers himself, and stamping out corruption in the supplying of
horses
by requiring that they be branded./6/
Ala-ud-din kept
in touch
with the army when it was on the move through an elaborate system of dak-chauki,
or postal relay. When he [[67]] sent an army on an expedition
he
established posts on the road at which relays of horses were stationed,
and at every half or quarter kos runners were appointed. "Every day or
every two or three days," according to Qanungo, "news used to come to
Sultan
reporting the progress of the army, and intelligence of the health of
the
sovereign was carried to the army. False news was thus prevented from
being
circulated in the city or the army. The securing of accurate
intelligence
from the court on one side and the army on the other was a great public
benefit." While this system was not original with Ala-ud-din—the
Abbasids
had used it—the efficiency with which it was set up indicates
Ala-ud-din's
thoroughness in matters of administration.
More important
for Ala-ud-din's
subjects were his arrangements for proper assessment of land revenue—a
continuing concern of Indian governments. He introduced the method of
assessment
of revenue on the basis of land measurement, as this appeared to him
more
satisfactory from the point of view of the state than merely exacting
as
much as seemed feasible from the peasants. While the system was not
extended
very far and did not take sufficient root to survive the death of
Ala-ud-din,
it shows that the most important feature of Sher Shah's revenue system
was originally introduced by the Khalji ruler.
A full assessment
of cultural
aspects of his rule is yet to be made, but the scattered indications on
the subject are enough to show that it was a very important period in
the
cultural life of medieval India, comparable almost to that of Akbar
during
the Mughal period. Indeed it may be said that if consolidation of
Muslim
rule was the work of Balban, Muslim India attained cultural maturity in
the days of Ala-ud-din Khalji. The wealth that poured into Delhi after
the conquests in South India made possible the maintenance of a large
army,
and enabled the ruler and other beneficiaries to undertake cultural
activities
on a lavish scale. Ala-ud-din did not live long enough to realize all
his
architectural dreams, but he has left many splendid monuments.
Developments
in the realm of music were even more significant. After the conquest of
the Hindu states in the south, musicians moved north to seek the
patronage
of Muslim kings and nobles. Luckily Delhi had men such as Amir Khusrau
who availed themselves [[68]] of the situation, and a new era
in
Indo-Muslim music was opened.
Developments in
literature
were equally remarkable. Amir Khusrau (c.1254–1324), one of the
greatest
of Indo-Islamic poets, lived during the reign of seven monarchs, but
the
royal court with which he was associated longest was that of
Ala-ud-din.
The Khalji king's outlook was too practical to permit him to appreciate
literature, but the poet must have benefited by the general prosperity
of the period. As a poet, musician, historian, biographer, courtier,
and
mystic, he assisted in the evolution of a new pattern of culture,
humanistic,
artistically rich, and in harmony with the environment.
Unlike earlier
poets, Amir
Khusrau was not an immigrant, but was born in India of an Indian
mother.
Living in an era which saw the large-scale expansion of Muslim rule in
the south and its consolidation in the north, including the defeat of
the
Mongols, his works breathe a spirit of exultation, self-confidence and
local pride. His liberal Sufi outlook and probable Indian origin on the
maternal side enabled him to admire and imbibe the praiseworthy
elements
of the old Indian tradition. He studied Indian music and introduced
changes
and innovations which made it acceptable to the new Muslim society. He
wrote long poems on local themes. His poetry is full of pride in his
native
land, its history, its people, its flowers, its pan and its
mango;
he also held that Persian as spoken, and written in India was purer
than
the language used in Khurasan, Sistan, and Azerbaijan. A poem written
in
the last year of Ala-ud-din's reign gives vivid expression to this
spirit:
Happy be Hindustan, with its splendor of religion,
Where Islamic law enjoys perfect honor and dignity;
In learning Delhi now rivals Bukhara;
Islam has been made manifest by the rulers.
From Ghazni to the very shore of the ocean
You see Islam in its glory.
Muslims here belong to the Hanafi creed,
But sincerely respect all four schools [of law].
They have no enmity with the Shafites, and no fondness for the Zaidis.
With heart and soul they are devoted to the path of jamm'at and the
sunnah. [[69]]
It is a wonderful land, producing Muslims and favoring religion,
Where the very fish of the stream are Sunnis.
While this outburst of
intellectual
creativity was at its height, control of the kingdom began to slip from
the aging Ala-ud-din's hands. The excesses of a luxurious court had
left
him an invalid. Instead of the group of counsellors which had helped
him
in his days of triumph, he was dominated by Malik Kafur, a eunuch who
had
been one of his most successful generals. After Ala-ud-din's death in
January,
1316, Kafur blinded the heir to the throne, intending to seize power
for
himself, but he was murdered by another son of Ala-ud-din, who became
sultan
under the name of Mubarak Shah.
Mubarak Shah's
brief reign
was the beginning of a grim but curious episode in the history of the
Delhi
Sultanate. His favorite was Khusrau Khan, a convert from a low Hindu
caste
who, after four years of dominating his master, had him murdered.
Khusrau
Khan ascended the throne, put to death all members of Ala-ud-din's
family,
and tried to make his rule secure by various devices including a
liberal
distribution of gifts, on the line adopted by Ala-ud-din when he had
usurped
the throne. His treatment of his patron and his family, however, had
alienated
public opinion. Furthermore, the behavior of Khusrau's companions, many
of whom were Hindus, convinced leading Muslims that there was a
possibility
of the revival of Hindu supremacy or at least displacement of Islam
from
the position it occupied. It is conceivable that if the insurgents had
had a suitable leader capable of winning the respect of Hindu chiefs
and
the public, they might have reestablished Hindu power. But Khusrau's
low-caste
companions behaved with incredible stupidity, destroying mosques and
copies
of the Quran. Important Muslims outside of Delhi, led by Ghazi Malik,
who
had been one of Ala-ud-din's frontier generals, gathered an army and
attacked
the sultan. Khusrau's forces were totally defeated, and since he had
murdered
all the members of Ala-ud-din's family, the nobles made Ghazi Malik the
new sultan. As Ghiyas-ud-din Tughluq Shah, he became the first ruler of
the Tughluq dynasty, which maintained itself for nearly a hundred
years.
The Consolidation of Muslim Rule
[[70]]
According to
generally accepted accounts, Ghiyas-ud-din Tughluq, who became sultan
of
Delhi in September, 1320, was the son of a Turkish slave of Balban and
a Jat woman. With a distinguished record as a defender of the sultanate
against the Mongols, he faced first the task of restoring the authority
of the Delhi government, which had been weakened during the disorders
that
followed Ala-ud-din's death. In the south, the tributary raja of
Warangal
had declared his independence; Ghiyas-ud-din met the challenge by
annexing
his kingdom. The governor of Bengal had also revolted, and while
suppressing
this rebellion Ghiyas-ud-din expanded his boundaries by the conquest of
Tirhut (the ancient Mithila), which had remained outside Muslim rule.
This
was his last campaign, however, for he was killed in 1325 in the
collapse
of a victory pavilion erected to celebrate his triumphal return from
Bengal.
The son who
succeeded him
was Muhammad Tughluq (r.1325–1351), whose character was a puzzle both
to
contemporary and later historians. Highly gifted and accomplished, and
possessing great purity of character, he endeavored throughout his
reign
to create a just and orderly society. Instead, he soon gained a
reputation
for barbarous cruelty, and his rule brought misery to his people and
greatly
weakened the power of the Delhi Sultanate.
Admittedly this
was due partly
to natural calamities, for his reign coincided with a long period of
drought
which in intensity and extent was one of the worst the subcontinent has
ever known. From 1335 to 1342 there was widespread famine, and although
the king tried to deal with the situation by opening poor-houses and
distributing
free grain, the problem was beyond his resources. But his misfortunes
were
not all due to natural and unavoidable causes. A man of ideas, he
continually
conceived new schemes; and if they were not well received, he lost
patience
and resorted to ferocious cruelty to enforce them. The most famous
incident
of this kind occurred in 1327. He had decided, in view of repeated
rebellions
in the south, that it was necessary to shift the capital to a more
central
place. He selected [[71]]
*THE EMPIRE
OF MUHAMMAD
BIN TUGHLUQ IN 1335*
[[72]] Devagiri, which he named Daulatabad, as the
new seat of
government, and he forced the Muslim inhabitants of Delhi to migrate to
the new capital. Many perished on the long march to Daulatabad, and
eventually
the sultan allowed them to return to Delhi. On the face of it, the
operation
seems to have been an act of folly, yet there is no doubt that the
migration
of a large Muslim population drawn from all sections of society helped
to stabilize Muslim rule in the south. Like many of his schemes, it
failed,
not because his idea was wrong, but because his organization was not
adequate
to carry it out.
Another
controversial measure
was the sultan's issue of token currency. The prolonged famine, the
expensive
wars, and royal liberality had severely strained the exchequer.
Muhammad
Tughluq's solution was to issue brass and copper tokens in place of
silver
coins. Again, the idea was probably sound enough, and one that has been
adopted everywhere in the modern world. However the measure was too
unfamiliar
and too complex for fourteenth-century India. The result was severe
dislocation
of the economy. Counterfeiting became common and as Barani says, "every
Hindu's house became a mint." The king had the good sense to
acknowledge
his failure, and the token currency was withdrawn from circulation
after
three or four years. Its introduction and failure neither enhanced
public
confidence in the sultan nor restored economic prosperity to the
country.
There were
widespread rebellions
throughout Muhammad Tughluq's reign, and the vast empire which
Ala-ud-din
Khalji and Ghiyas-ud-din Tughluq had governed with success began to
fall
apart. Early in his reign he had to deal with the revolt of Baha-ud-din
Gurshashp, a cousin who was given shelter by the Hindu rajas of the
south.
Muhammad Tughluq sent a powerful force against the defiant rajas,
annexed
Kampili, sacked Dvarasamudra, and forced its ruler to surrender
Gurshashp
and to reiterate his submission to the government of Delhi. The
cousin's
fate was indicative of the sultan's treatment of rebels. He was flayed
alive, his flesh was cooked with rice and was sent to his wife and
children,
while his skin, stuffed with straw, was exhibited in the principal
cities
of the kingdom. But even such ferocious punishments did not prevent
rebellion;
perhaps they drove men to rebel out of desperation and fear.
In 1335 Ma'bar,
in the extreme
south, became independent, followed [[73]] three years later by
Bengal. The Hindu rajas in the south organized a confederacy, and in
1336
Vijayanagar became the nucleus of a powerful Hindu state. A year later,
when the Muslim chiefs in the Deccan set up the independent Bahmani
kingdom,
the entire area south of the Vindhyas was lost to Delhi. In the same
year
Gujarat and Kathiawar revolted, but the sultan was able to quell the
rebellions
in these two areas. Next it was Sind, and in 1351 he was marching
towards
Thatta to put down the revolt when he fell ill and died. As Badauni
says,
"The king was freed from his people and they from their king."
While the breakup
of the
Delhi Sultanate began in the reign of Muhammad Tughluq, the disasters
which
overtook him during the last years of his reign need not be the only
basis
for assessing his character and abilities. Until extreme irritation at
the failure of his plans had warped his judgment, driving him to
revolting
cruelties, he had tried, as a man of ideas, to steer his course
according
to certain intelligent plans and considerations. His policy toward the
Hindus, for example, was conciliatory, and he had tried to introduce
social
reforms, such as the abolition of sati. He appointed a Hindu as
governor
of Sind, and employed others in high positions. The Jain chroniclers
remember
with gratitude the respect with which he received their theologians.
When
northern India was afflicted by the seven-year famine, he built a new
town
on the Ganges near the worst affected area, giving it the Hindu name of
Svargdvara, the "Gate of Heaven."
Muhammad
Tughluq's greatest
achievement was in the south. Previous rulers, particularly Ala-ud-din
Khalji, had established suzerainty over the Hindu princes of the south,
but in general had left them in possession of their territories as long
as they paid tribute. Muhammad Tughluq, however, set out to end Hindu
rule
in the south. Warangal and Madura had already been incorporated in the
Tughluq dominions, and now Kampili and a large part of the Hoysala
dominions
shared the same fate. Not all of these conquests were maintained, for
even
during Muhammad's lifetime a powerful Hindu reaction led to the
foundation
of Vijayanagar, but much remained. Above all, the creation of
Daulatabad
out of the old fortress city of Devagiri gave the Muslims a great
stronghold.
Mention must be
made also
of the attempt by Muhammad Tughluq [[74]] to establish links
with
other Muslim countries. Among the many distinguished visitors who came
to Delhi at this time perhaps the most famous was Ibn Battuta
(c.1304–1378),
the Moorish traveler who was appointed chief judge in the capital. He
has
left an interesting account of the capital as well as of places in
Sind,
Multan, and the Punjab which he visited on the way to Delhi. He was
sent
on a diplomatic mission to China, and although he did not return to
India,
his Book of Travels is a useful source for the history of
Indo-Islamic
society.
Muhammad
Tughluq's successor
was his cousin, Firuz Tughluq, who reigned from 1351 to 1388. While the
commencement of the Tughluq rule had seen a new emphasis on orthodoxy,
Firuz's reign saw an even greater attempt to govern India in conformity
with Islamic law. Until Aurangzeb, in fact, no other ruler made such a
serious endeavor to champion orthodoxy as a guide for the state. The
study
of Islamic law was encouraged, and Firuz attempted to enforce the law
not
only among orthodox Muslims, but also among sects such as the Ismaili
Shias
and the non-Muslims. For the first time jizya was levied upon the
Brahmans,
who had hitherto remained exempt from the tax. On appeal, the king
reduced
the amount to be levied from 10 tankas to 50 jitals, but maintained the
tax as a legal formality.
In this support
of orthodoxy
Firuz was probably swayed by personal religious beliefs, even though he
was not, in his private life, a strict follower of the Islamic code.
Probably
he was conscious also that one reason for Muhammad Tughluq's failures
was
lack of support from the powerful religious leaders, and therefore he
was
anxious to win them to his side.
The measures by
which Firuz
helped to gain a reputation for orthodoxy were of a formal nature; the
developments which shed luster on his reign were the steps taken in the
furtherance of public welfare. In many ways he was the ablest of the
Muslim
rulers of Delhi previous to Akbar, and contemporary historians describe
at length the steps he took to assist agriculture, promote employment,
and secure the happiness and prosperity of the people. He initiated
extensive
irrigation schemes, digging five canals to distribute the water of the
Sutlej and Jhelum over a large area. One of these continues to be used
up to the [[75]] present day. Also he set up an employment
bureau
where young men who were without work in the city of Delhi gave their
qualifications,
and occupations were found for them.
The greatest
monuments of
Firuz's rule, however, are the buildings and the towns founded by him.
He is credited with the erection of 200 towns, 40 mosques, 30 colleges,
30 reservoirs, 50 dams, 100 hospitals, 100 public baths, and 150
bridges.
He built a magnificent new capital near Delhi, and the two important
towns
of Jaunpur and Hissar were founded by him. He set up a regular
Department
of Public Works, which erected new buildings and took steps to restore
the structures of former kings. He removed two gigantic monolithic
pillars
of the emperor Ashoka, one from a village in the Ambala District and
the
other from Meerut, and had them set up near Delhi. He also showed his
interest
in India's past by having translations made of a number of Sanskrit
books
which he found during his conquest of Kangra in 1361.
But Firuz did
little to prevent
the disintegration of the sultanate which had already set in during the
last years of the reign of his predecessor. The process was speeded by
his death, for a civil war broke out between his son and grandson. The
Hindu chiefs threw off their allegiance and governors of provinces
became
independent. The weakness of the kingdom invited foreign invasion and
in
1398 Timur, the Barlas Turkish chief who ruled at Samarqand, invaded
India.
He had no intention of staying in India, but came, as had the invaders
of four centuries before, to take back slaves and booty. After terrible
destruction, including the sacking of Delhi, he returned home, but he
had
helped to destroy the Delhi Sultanate. Possibly it could not have
survived
long in any case, but certainly Timur's raid effectively prevented the
Tughluqs from regaining their control.
The familiar
story of dynastic
decay thus repeated itself. In the decade following Firuz's death, six
sultans briefly occupied the throne. The last of the Tughluq line,
Mahmud,
fled from Delhi during Timur's invasion. Although he returned after his
departure, managing to stay on the throne until 1413, he was not able
to
ensure the succession to a member of the house.
N O T E S
/1/ H. M. Elliot
and John
Dowson, A History of India as Told by Its Own Historians (London,
1867–1877), III, 169–71.
/2/ Elliot and
Dowson,
III, 178.
/3/ Elliot and
Dowson,
III, 191–97.
/4/
Shams-i-Siraj-i-Afif,
Tarikh-i-Firuzshahi,
ed. by Maulvi Wilayat Husain, (Calcutta, 1890); A. M. Husain, The
Shahnama
of Medieval India of Isami (Agra, 1938), p. 293; Mahdi Husain, The
Rehla of Ibn Battuta (Baroda, 1953).
/5/ S. M. Ikram, Ab-i-Kausar
(Lahore, 1958), pp. 163–68.
/6/ K. R. Qanungo,
Sher
Shah (Calcutta, 1921), p. 361.