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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[DECEMBER, 1899. forebodings arose, and in each heart secret desires. Day and night their anxiety was by some stratagem to remove Malik Barid from the fortress of the capital.
In the midst of this Shuja'at Khân, who was one of the principal amirs, ran away, carrying off with him two female elephants of the Sultan's for which the latter had a special liking. A number of those who complained of the government of Malik Barld represented to the servants of the Sultan that Majlis-i Mukram was the only person who had the power to go in pursuit of Shuja'at Khân; and another advantage in nominating him for the duty was that expediency demanded it. The Sultan, according to their advice, appointed Barid-i Mamâlik to go in pursuit of Shuja'at Khân. Malik Barid went in all haste after Shuja'at Khân, and overtaking him, put him to death; then carrying off the royal elephants with all the horses, baggage and other property of Shuja'at Khân, returned with great pomp and magnificence, and had the honour of kissing the royal vestibule. So each affair that the amirs had arranged turned out exactly opposite to their wishes and intentions. Day by day the power of Malik Barid in the affairs of State became greater and greater, till he brought into his own hands the whole of the government and the control of the army and the subjects.
In this interval the Sultan died.
822
This great misfortune, which was the cause of the ruin of the world and the affliction of the human race, occurred on the 24th of Zi-ul-Hijjah, A. H. 924 (28th December, A. D. 1518) His age was forty-seven years and twenty days, and the duration of his reign was thirty-seven years and two months.
Although during his reign, in the dominions of the Dakhan, owing to the opposition and quarrelling of the amirs and generals, and the numerous plots and the quantity of bloodshed, which were the cause of distress among the people and the desolation of the country; yet as long as this Sultan remained alive, all the amirs, wazirs. and maliks notwithstanding their contumaciousness among one another were, nolens volens, loyal to their sovereign, and did not withdraw their heads from the collar of obedience and submission. If now and then one of the amirs got perverse ideas in his mind, all the other amirs and maliks, treading the path of obedience with the Sultan, joined the latter in putting down rebels, and used to strike out the letter of hypocrisy from the page of submission.73
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Some historians of the annals of this king state that in the latter days of his reign the reins of government entirely left the hands of the Sultan, and that Malik Barid with the approval of the amirs of all parts of the dominions seated the Sulțân in the corner of retirement and seclusion, and divided the country among themselves; and that the Sultan for a long time after that was a prisoner, till at last he died. But God alone knows the truth of matters!
When the Sultan departed this life, all at once anarchy and confusion found their way into the country of the Dakhan: each one of the amirs and great men proclaimed his independence and sovereignty in his own place of residence; and the rights of rebellion and confusion became shut on promulgated in that country. The amirs and maliks like the kings of nations one another the doors of obedience, and hoisted, the standards of independent rule. Consequently the infidels of Vijayanagar, seizing the property of the Musalmâns, used each year to make raids into the territory of Islâm, and much injury used to be caused by those infidels to the country of the Musalmans.
Majlis-i Rafi Adil Khân, who after that became entitled "Adil Shah;" and Masnad-i All Malik Kutb-ul-Mulk who sat on the Kutb-Shahi throne, since they were in proximity to
13 This is an important passage, as it shows how the governors of provinces were justified in declaring their independence on the decline and fall of the Bahmani power. If they had not done so, they would have had to submit to the ignominy of being ruled by Malik Barid instead of their lawful sovereign. Kutb-ul-Mulk's loyalty asted longest,
