Abraham Eraly - The Age of Wrath - A History of the Delhi Sultanate

Khizr Khan died in May 1421, after a reign of seven years. His rule was on the whole marked by positive developments, and he left the Sultanate in very much better health than how he found it.

KHIZR KHAN WAS succeeded to the throne by his son Mubarak Shah, whom he had nominated as his successor just before his death. Sirhindi describes Mubarak as the ‘most excellent and worthy son’ of Khizr Khan, and indeed he proved to be a ruler of energy and spirit. But he too, like most other rulers of the Sultanate, had to deal with several rebellions, the hostility of nobles, as well as with the recurrence of Mongol incursions. And his life ended tragically.

Mubarak, unlike his father, assumed all the symbols and appurtenances of a sovereign ruler, took the title Shah, and also issued coins in his own name, even though he continued to pay tribute to Shah Rukh, and took care to receive, with the respect and courtesy due from a subordinate ruler to his overlord, the robes of honour sent to him by Shah Rukh. But Mubarak’s posture of independence apparently irked Mongols. And this, according to Ferishta, was the reason for the recurrence of Mongol forays into India, though it is likely that this was only an excuse used by Mongols for launching their usual predatory raids.

These Mongol raids were however a relatively minor problem for Mubarak, and he was able to deal with them effectively without much difficulty. A far more serious problem for him was the recalcitrance of senior royal officers which, though a perennial problem in the Delhi Sultanate, had become particularly acute after the collapse of the Tughluq dynasty. Mubarak’s solution to the problem was to periodically transfer his top officers from their posts, in order to prevent them from entrenching themselves in their offices. This naturally created considerable resentment among the nobles. Matters came to a head when Mubarak clipped the wings of Sarvar-ul-Mulk, his arrogant and overweening chief minister, by bifurcating his office and assigning its crucial revenue functions to another noble. Sarvar-ul-Mulk avenged his virtual demotion by fomenting a conspiracy to assassinate Mubarak. The opportunity for the plotters came when the sultan went to inspect the progress of the work on the city of Mubarakabad that he had founded. There, while the sultan was preparing for the Friday prayers, a bunch of conspirators ‘rushed in with loud, hellish cries and dispatched that righteous sovereign,’ reports Sirhindi. ‘Mubarak Shah had reigned for thirteen years, three months, and sixteen days.’

MUBARAK HAD NO son, so he was succeeded by his nephew, Muhammad Shah, who was, according to Sirhindi, ‘a clement and generous sovereign, full of excellent qualities.’ But he was an easygoing ruler, who ‘took no measures to secure his possessions, but gave himself up to indulgence.’ This enabled Sarvar-ul-Mulk to emerge as the de facto sultan. But he could not enjoy the fruits of his regicide for long, for his rise to supreme power was resented by other nobles, especially as he was a Hindu convert to Islam. Presently the royal court was riven into rival cabals, and began to seethe with conspiracies and counter-conspiracies. And, even as Sarvar-ul-Mulk initiated measures to eliminate his rivals, he and his cohorts were slain in a palace uprising.

But that hardly improved matters in the Sultanate. With the sultan ever dallying in the harem and paying virtually no attention to the affairs of the state, there was now no nucleus around which the political power in the Sultanate could cohere. A group of disaffected nobles then sought the help of Mahmud Shah Khalji, the ruler of Malwa, to oust Muhammad, and Muhammad in turn sought the help of Buhlul Lodi, the governor of Sirhind, to suppress the rebels. The ensuing civil war was inconclusive, but it saved Muhammad’s crown, though the real beneficiary of the conflict was Buhlul Lodi, who, as the saviour of the throne, now emerged as the key player in the unfolding political drama. Although Buhlul returned to Sirhind after the civil war, his eyes were now very much on the throne of Delhi. And in 1443, having substantially extended his territories and acquired some strategic allies, he advanced on Delhi and besieged it. Although he failed to capture the city, on returning to Sirhind he declared himself a sovereign, and took the title Sultan Buhlul.

Muhammad died in 1445, and was succeeded by his son Ala-ud-din, who, according to Sirhindi, turned out to be even ‘more negligent and incompetent than his father in performing the duties of government.’ Ala-ud-din on his accession assumed the grand title Alam Shah, Lord of the World, which was most ironical, for under him the Sultanate shrank to the size of a petty state, covering just the city of Delhi and its neighbouring villages. As a common satirical jingle of the time had it,

Still Delhi was Delhi, and to rule from there was the ultimate goal of the politically ambitious everywhere in North India. But Alam Shah was not enamoured of the city because of its vicious, churning political environment. So in the third year of his reign he moved his residence from Delhi to Budaun, a charming little town on the banks of Ganga south-east of Delhi. And there he lived in blissful obscurity for thirty years, till his death in 1478, content with the modest revenue of his principality, enjoying the pleasures of life, free of all the cares and tribulations that harry a crowned head. Delhi was left to whoever could seize power there.

ON THE DEPARTURE of Alam Shah to Budaun, the Sultanate, without a king on the throne, was on the verge of terminal collapse. To prevent that fatality, the nobles of Delhi headed by Hamid Khan, the chief executive of Alam Shah, invited Buhlul Lodi to ascend the throne in Delhi. This, according to Ni’matullah, an early seventeenth century chronicler, was the turn of fortune that Buhlul had been long expecting, for a dervish had several years earlier blessed him with the words, ‘May the empire of Delhi be fortunate to you!’ So, on the invitation of Hamid Khan, Buhlul rushed to Delhi with an army, and there, on 19 April 1451, ‘at the … auspicious time which astrologers … and experienced Brahmins had indicated,’ he ascended the throne. Thus began the 75 year long reign of the Lodi dynasty.

The Lodis were Afghans, a people of uncertain racial origin, who were mostly engaged in agriculture and horse breeding, and were also highly valued as soldiers, being hardy and valiant. Afghans were divided into various tribes, among whom the Lodi tribe was one of the most prominent. Around the late tenth century a few Lodi families migrated from their homeland to north-western India, and gradually gained prominence there as horse traders and soldiers. They made their first appearance in Indian history in the mid-fourteenth century, when Malik Shahu, an ancestor of the Lodi rulers of India, raided Multan, killed its governor, and held the region under his power for a while. Though he was soon driven off from there by Muhammad Tughluq, the event marked the beginning of the involvement of the Lodis in the turbulent politics of the Delhi Sultanate.

Later, one of Shahu’s grandsons, Malik Bahram, entered the service of Firuz Shah Tughluq’s governor of Multan. A few years later Bahram’s son Malik Lodi was appointed the governor of Sirhind by Sultan Khizr Khan, as a reward for the crucial help that Malik had given to him during his tussle with Mallu Khan. Malik Lodi was succeeded to the governorship of Sirhind by Buhlul Lodi, his nephew and son-in-law, and he, taking advantage of the debilitation of the Sultanate under the latter Sayyids, functioned as a virtually independent ruler. He was indisputably the most powerful noble in the Sultanate at this time. So it was natural that the nobles of Delhi should invite him to occupy the throne of Delhi left vacant by Alam Shah.