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292
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[NOVEMBER, 1899.
and ingratitude was proved, and they receiving the punishment due to them, were put to death, and the remainder were banished.
After the execution of Khwajah Jahan, the Sultan proceeded towards his capital, and looked after the comfort of his soldiers and subjects, treating all with much kindness. After some time he repented of having killed that minister ; but since the arrow had sped from the bow and the shaft of fate lodged in the butt, regret was of no avail. For this reason delay and deliberation in punishing is advocated by the greatest of sages, who says : - "One cannot remedy the punished, while he who is not punished can be judged."
In some histories it is related that after the martyrdom of Khwajah Jahân, the Sultan one night in a dream saw the Prophet seated on the throne of judgment, and the father of Khwajah Jahan appealed against oppression, and demanded retribution for the blood of his son. The Prophet asked him for his witnesses, apon which he produced them; and in accordance with the orders of the Prophet, the law of retaliation was enforced upon the Sultan, who from terror of that dreadful dream, awoke ; and by compulsion and uneasiness related the dream to his intimates. He was in a constant state of terror owing to that dream.
A year after that the Sultan again conceived the idea of waging a jihád ngainst the infidels, and having collected an army in numbers like the sand, he resolved to invade Vijayanagar and seize the Konkan. On the way there the Sultan was seized with asthma and fever, and bis strength suddenly failed owing to the severity of the fever. Although skilled physicians applied remedies and did their atmost, they could not cure him : in fact, they only increased his illness. The Sultan seeing death approaching made his will. He sent for Prince Ahmad - afterwards called Sultan Mahmad, and having appointed him heir to the throne, died.
The nobles and statesmen rent their clothes and put dust on their heads and began weeping and wailing.
Sultan Muhammad Shab was a king characterized by mildness and bravery, and celebrated for his mercy and generosity; but he had sold the gem of his precious soul for the jewel of the liquid ruby of pure wine, and had burnt the nest of the bird of his spirit in the desire of pleasure. He had a great partiality for the Turki slaves, and left in their hands the management of all the important affairs of State.
The Dakhani amirs - who had been brought op by the ancestors of the Sultan - after his . death unanimously agreed to the succession of Sultan Mahmud Shah. Outwardly they had mixed with that clique (the Turkis), like dice of ivory and ebony on a chess-board, but in the end they played with false dice, and suddenly falling upon the Turkis, threw them on the chess-table of annihilation and misfortune, and arrested them. But eventually the Dakhani amirs treated one another in the same manner, and crossed swords with one another; so that a country which was adorned like the faces of the fair became utterly dishevelled and confused like the curls and hair of women : some of which occurrences shall after this, please God, be written in the account of Sultan Mahmud Shah.
The age of Sultan Muhammad was twenty-eight, and the duration of his reign, twenty years and two months. His death occurred on the 5th of the month Şafar, in the year 887 (26th March, A. D. 1482). An excellent man has composed the following chronogram of the date of his death :
"The king of kings of the world, Sultan Muhammad, “Who was suddenly plunged into the ocean of death ; "Since the Dakhan became waste by his departure, "So the ruin of the Dakhan 40 was the date of his death."
(To be continued.) # The words giving the date are US Sula The same chronogram is given in Firishtah.
