Indian Antiquary Vol 49

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 132

128
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[JULY, 1920
fine palaces with arches and domed roofs were erected with coloured and latticed walls like the mirror of the satin sky, red and yellow, with floors paved with turquoise and lapis lazuli, their courts were like the gardens and their fountains like the springs of paradise.
After the completion of the fort, the king made it the seat of his government and took up his residence there. XVII-AN AOCOUNT OF THE DEATH OF MASNAD-I-'ALI MALIK NAQR-UL-MULK GUJARATI
THE KING'S PRIME MINISTER, AND OF THE APPOINTMENT OF MIYAN CHANDU
(MUKAMMAL KHAN) ONE OF THE KING'S OLD SERVANTS IN HIS PLACE. After these events the king's faithful, able, and prudent minister, Masnad-1-'Ali Malik Nasir-ul-Mulk, died, and he bade farewell to his ministry, and betook himself to the neigh bourhood of the mercy of a forgiving God. The king was much grieved by the loss of his minister, but as the administration of the kingdom had to be carried on, he appointed to the vacant office of minister, Miyan Chandu, one of his old servants, who had great wisdom and intellectual power and was passa bly well fitted for the post and moderately generous. He gave him the title of Mukammal Khân, and conferred other favours upon him, and entrusted to him the care of his army and his subjects.
Some historians have said that Ahmad Nizam Shah predeceased Malik Napîr-ul-Mulk Gujarati, who poisoned him in a quid of betel and was executed for his treason, but the story which has been told above is nearer to the truth. But God knows the truth of the matter.
XVIII.-AN AOOOUNT OF THE DEATH OY SULTAN AHMAD NIZÁN SHAH. Death comes alike to prince and peasant, and Sultan Ahmad Bahri, after he had reigned for nineteen years and four months, or, according to another account, for twelve years, and had waged holy wars and had taken most of the forts and districts of the Dakan from the idolaters and turbulent men, and made them his own, and had destroyed the temples and places of Worship of the accursed infidels and the irreligious polytheists, came at last to the end of his days. The signs of death appeared in his face and the hand of sickness was heavy upon him. His amirs and officers of State, but especially Mukammal Khân, feared that his spirit would take flight from his sufferings and earnestly prayed that God would allow them to die rather than that they should behold the sufferings of their king. Although skilful physicians treated him with all the skill at their command, nothing was of any avail, and the king's power declined day by day.
When the king became aware of the approach of death, he withdrew from desire of wordly kingdom and sent for the prince, Al Mu'ayyad Min'andillah Abal Muzaffar Burhên Nizam Shah, who was then seven years of age, and gave him his counsel.
After that he sent for the amire and officers of State, and conjured them all to be faithful and obedient to the prince. All the amirs and officers of State, the rest of the army and the subjects of the king promised to be obedient to the prince and swore allegiance to him.
When the king had given his parting instructions to all about him, he died, and great grief fell on the amíre, the army, and all the kingdom. The amirs and the officers of the army made all preparations for the funeral and the king was buried in the tomb which he had built for himself in the environs of Ahmadnagar, in the garden known as the Rauzah.51 This calamity happened in A.l. 911 (A.D. 1506-06). 56
(To be continued.) * Probably Raufah, in the hills above DaulatAbad, and not a garden in the environs of Ahmadnegar.
w Finishta says (ü, 198) that Ahmad diod in An. 914 (A.D. 1508-09). Firishta's date must be accepted as correct, for Ahmad certainly invaded Khandesh in 1508, retiring early in 1609, and there is Other ovidence in favour of the later date. Perhape Sayyid 'Ali intentionally antedated his death. On page 106 he places Burhan's accession, and consequently Ahmad's death, in A.. 918 (A.D. 1512-13.)