THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF INDIA - III - Turks and Afghans

XIII

GUJARAT AND KHANDESH

 

Decline of the Royal Power

Bahadur left no son, and Muhammad Zaman Mirza, the kinsman and brother-in-law of Humayun, impudently claimed the throne on the ground that Bahadur’s mother had adopted him as her son, but Imadul Mulk Malikji hastened from Diu to Ahmadabad and agreed to call to the throne Muhammad Shah of Khandesh, whose wife, mother, grandmother, and two more remote ancestresses had all been princesses of Gujarat. Descent in the female line seldom counts for much in questions of succession in Muslim states, but Muhammad had been for years the loyal vassal and faithful companion in arms of Bahadur, whose recognition of his title of Shah was understood to indicate a wish that he should succeed him. Muhammad Shah obeyed the summons and set out from Burhanpur to ascend the throne of Gujarat, but died on May 24, on his way to Champaner.

There now remained only one possible successor, the last descendant of Muhammad Karim, Mahmud Khan, son of Bahadur’s brother Latif Khan, who, during his uncle’s reign, had been placed in the custody of Muhammad of Khandesh, and was a state prisoner in a fortress in that state. The nobles of Gujarat summoned him to the throne, but Mubarak II, who had succeeded his brother in Khandesh, and had almost certainly hoped to receive a summons to the throne of Gujarat, would not surrender him until a force led by Ikhtiyar Khan invaded Khandesh. Ikhtiyar Khan carried Mahmud with him to Ahmadabad, where he was enthroned on August 8, 1587, as Saduddin Mahmud Shah III.

The part which Ikhtiyar Khan Siddiqi had played in bringing the new king from Khandesh and placing him on the throne gained for him the regency, for Mahmud was but eleven years of age. Ikhtiyar Khan was learned and accomplished and his surname indicates descent from Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (the truthful), the first successor of the prophet Muhammad, but his father had held the comparatively humble post of qazi of Nadiad and his advancement was resented by many of the nobles, now divided into factions quarrelling over the part which each had borne in attempting to overcome the calamities which had recently fallen upon the kingdom and over the compensation due to each for his sufferings and his losses.

 Two nobles of the second rank, Fattuji Muhafiz Khan and Darya Khan Husain, urged Imadul Mulk Malikji, son of Tawakkul, who had long taken a prominent part in the affairs of the kingdom and now found himself relegated to the third place, that of deputy minister, to remove Ikhtiyar Khan by assassination, and his jealousy and ambition succumbed to the temptation. He stepped into Ikhtiyar Khan's place and appropriated the title of Amirul Umara, but Abdul Latif Sadr Khan, the minister, grieved deeply for his old friend, and taxed Imadul Mulk with having been accessory to his death. The new regent's denial of his complicity was not believed, and Sadr Khan voluntarily resigned his post, and explained to the king the grounds for his action. He informed both the king and the regent that Darya Khan aspired to the first place in the kingdom, and privately warned Imadul Mulk that the life of none would be safe if ambitious subordinates were permitted to foment discord between the great officers of state and to persuade them to remove rivals by assassination. Darya Khan obtained the post vacated by Sadr Khan, but the latter's warning was not lost upon Imadul Mulk who regarded his late accomplice with suspicion, which was rewarded with secret intrigue and open hostility.

Siege of Diu Raised 

In 1517 the last of the Mamluk Sultans had been overthrown, and Egypt became part of the Ottoman Empire, but it was not until 1538 that the new rulers of Egypt made any further attempt to drive the Portuguese from the Indian Ocean. In 1537, however, when news reached Egypt of the tragic death of Bahadur and the consequent strengthening of the Portuguese position in India, the Ottoman Sultan, Suleiman I, grew apprehensive and ordered the equipment at Suez of a powerful fleet, which eventually set sail under Suleiman Pasha al-Khadim, governor of Cairo, and then an old man of eighty-two. His objective was Diu, which was now in the sole possession of the Portuguese. His public announcement that he was setting out on a holy war against the Franks did not prevent his behaving with the utmost treachery and cruelty towards his co-religionist at Aden, where he called on his way to India. News of his disgraceful behavior at Aden travelled quickly to India, and was doubtless the real cause of his failure against the Portuguese, for when he reached Muzaffarabad Khvaja Safar, Khudavand Khan, whom Mahmud III had placed in command of a large force intended to co-operate with the Pasha, and who was at first inclined to join him, was deterred by his friends, who reminded him of the fate of the governor of Aden, and although he sent many gifts to the Pasha he persistently evaded a personal interview. But though co-operation between the land and sea forces was thus incomplete the Portuguese were reduced to great straits. They were driven by Khvaja Safar from the city into the fort, which they held with their wonted determination. Garcia de Noronha, the newly arrived viceroy, either could not or would not understand the situation, and failed to send relief; the defences were almost destroyed, and of the original garrison of 600 only forty men remained fit to bear arms. Sulaiman Pasha, who had been attacking by sea, was unaware, owing to the army's failure to co­operate with him, of the desperate situation of the defence and was so discouraged by repeated failure and by his losses that when Khvaja Safar, disgusted by the arrogance of the Turks, which had convinced him that Gujarat had nothing to gain by their taking the place of the Portuguese at Diu, sent him a fabricated letter, announcing that the viceroy was about to arrive from Goa with a formidable fleet, he sailed away on November 5. Some of his officers remained behind and entered the service of Gujarat. Among these were Aqa Farahshad the Turk, afterwards entitled Fath Jang Khan, Nasir the African, afterwards entitled Habash Khan, and Mujahid Khan, who occupied Junagarh. Khvaja Safar, on Sulaiman Pasha’s departure, set fire to the town of Diu and retired.

Imadul Mulk was now to discover the wisdom of Sadr Khan’s warning. His relations with Darya Khan had been growing ever more strained and the latter's influence over the feeble king ever stronger. He accompanied the king on an excursion, ostensibly for the purpose of hunting, but when well beyond the city walls carried him off to Champaner, and sent to Imadul Mulk a royal letter directing him to retire to his fiefs in Kathiawar. Imadul Mulk assembled his troops and attempted to obtain possession of the king's person in order to re-establish his influence over him, but the proceeding so closely resembled rebellion that many of his officers deserted him for the royal camp, and he was obliged to return to Ahmadabad, whence he retired, with Sadr Khan, to Morvi, his principal fief. In 1540 Darya Khan, carrying with him the king, marched against Imadul Mulk, defeated him at Bajana, where Sadr Khan was slain, and drove him into Khandesh. Darya Khan followed him, and at Dangri, near the Tapti, met Mubarak II, who was prepared to oppose any attempt to enter his kingdom. Darya Khan was again victorious, and Imadul Mulk fled to Mandu, where Mallu Nasir Khan, appointed governor by Bahadur was now independent, styling himself Nasir Shah. At this point Darya Khan and Mahmud III abandoned the pursuit and returned to Gujarat.

Darya Khan was now absolute in the kingdom, but Mahmud had sufficient spirit to be sensible of the humiliation of his situation, and enlisted the aid of a humble attendant, one Chirji, a fowler, to escape from it. Chirji had horses ready one night under the city wall, and the king, leaving his palace at midnight, mounted and rode to Dhandhuka, the fief of Alam Khan Lodi, nearly sixty miles south-west of Ahmadabad.

Alam Khan received him with every demonstration of loyalty, and summoned to his aid his brother-in-law, Nasiruddin Ulugh Khan of Junagarh, Mujahid Khan of Palitana, and other fief-holders. Darya Khan, on discovering that the king had escaped him and found a powerful protector, renounced the struggle to maintain his ascendancy and sent to the king a mission with the royal insignia, elephants, horses, and his own letter of resignation; but his old accomplice, Fattuji Muhafiz Khan, coming into the city from his fief of Viramgam, met the mission at Sarkhej, turned it back, and persuaded Darya Khan to strike a blow for the recovery of his lost supremacy. It was necessary to oppose a puppet to the actual king, and a child of obscure origin was accordingly proclaimed and carried by Darya Khan with the army which he led against Mahmud III and his new protectors.

The armies met to the south-west of Ahmadabad, in a confused conflict which had a strange result. Alam Khan Lodi charged with great impetuosity, cut his way through the centre of Darya Khan's army, rode to Ahmadabad with only five or six of his men, and took possession of the city in the name of Mahmud III. Darya Khan, convinced that Alam Khan's small force had been cut to pieces, continued the action with apparent success until it was confidently reported that Alam Khan had entered the royal palace, proclaimed his victory over the rebels, and let loose a mob of plunderers into his house. He hesitated, and was lost. His army fled, and Mahmud marched on into the city, Muhafiz Khan and the child who had been proclaimed king fleeing before him. Darya Khan fled to Burhanpur and Muhafiz Khan, with his puppet, to Champaner, whither he was followed by Mahmud III and Alam Khan. He was glad to purchase life by a speedy surrender and disappeared from the kingdom.

Overthrow of Alam Khan