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JULY, 1899.)
KISTORY OF THE BAHMANI DYNASTY
183
more, to assassinate the king. Enticed by the bribe, he agreed to undertake this dangerous affair, and was watching his opportunity till on a Friday when the Sultan went to prayer in the masjid and the people were crowding on one another, that fearless shedder of blood and devoted slave approached the Sultan and caused him to taste the same sharbat as Sultan Mujâhid Shah.37
Muhammad Khan, son of Maḥmad Khan, and younger brother of the Sultan, was present in the crowd, and he felled the murderer to the ground with one blow of his sword, and despatched him from the world. He then returned to the palace, and seated himself on the throne in his brother's place. The nobles, ministers, learned men and shekhs hastening to wait on him, saluted him as king and were all liberally rewarded.
This event happened in the month of Muharram, A. H. 780 (May, A. D. 1378),39 but God duly knows the truth of the matter.
CHAPTER V. Reign of Sultan Muhammad Shah,
son of Maḥmad Khan, Bon of Sultan 'Ald-ud-Din agan shah Bahmani.30 The nobles and military officers having acknowledged Sultan Muhammad Shak as their sovereign, placed the royal crown on his head and seated him on the throne. The ministers of state, great men of the court and those learned in the law, all obtained honours and rewards suitable to their rank and circumstances.
He was a king adorned with the ornament of intelligence and understanding and decorated with the jewel of justice and equity. In his time the people were at rest on the reclining-place of safety and security. In his age the dagger of tynanny and the sword of injustice rotted in their scabbards. In his reign there was no vestige of unlawful things; and habits of iniquity and impiety were removed from his time. He founded masjids, pablic schools and monasteries, and never permitted any receding or swerving from the straight road of rectitude and justice and the highway of the divine law. He held fast all the country which had come into the possession of his illastrious grandfather and his paternal uncle ; and from partisans or friends in those parts 10 rebellion or sedition showed itself, and they never swerved from the road of obedience and subjection. The Saltån did not lead any army is any direction, but spread the carpet of justice and liberality, and so engaged himself in the requisites of selfevident duty and prohibiting unlawful things that no one had an opportunity of deviating from the beaten path of the divine law.
It is related that during the reign of this just king & certain woman, being charged with the disgraceful act of adultery, was taken for trial to the ķdzi's court. On the way there an artifice occurred to the woman's mind, and when she was presented before the kází, being questioned as to her reason for committing that disgraceful act, she replied: "O kúzi, a doubt has occurred to me on this point: Is each man permitted by the precepts of religion to have four wives P My opinion was that women might act in the same manner : now that I am aware of its impropriety, I am ashamed of the deed, and repent." The Lidzl, astonished at her answer, remained silent; and that painful impostor being freed from panishment hastened to her house.
17 Agasesinated him.
* According to Firishtah it happened on the 21st Muharram, 780, which corresponds to the 20th May, 1378, A. D. The author of the Taskarat-wl-Muluk says he reigned one year, one month and three days, which exactly agrees with the Burhan-s M'agir , but lirishtah only gives hims reign of one month and five days.
* There is here a serious discrepancy between our author and Firishtah. According to the latter, the fifth king of the dynasty was Mahmud, son of ‘All-ud-Din I:; but iristah must be wrong, for the coinage shows that the Dame of the Behmant king reigning at this period ww Muhammad, Histories written qaite independently of Firishtah-maoh the Tankarat-ul-Mwd and Tarih-.-Jahan and also corroborate the statement of our author. Dr. O. Codrington has recently written about this in the miomatic Chronicle (8rd Series, Vol. XVI. Page 259-278), and quotes letter of mine on the subject
