Indian Antiquary Vol 49

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

Page 71

APRIL, 1920)
HISTORY OF THE NIZÂM SHÂFİ KINGS OF AĦMADNAGAR
67
1.-ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN OF THE NIZAM SHAH KINGS OF AĦMADNAGAR. Since God's eternal mercy was closely connected with the preservation of the male line and the continuation of the kingdom and prosperity of the family, founded in vicegerency, who, from father to grandfather, have been crowned kings and rulers since the days of Bahman the son of Isfandiyâr and, before that, as far back as Kayûmars, He saved the firmly founded house of the pillars of the kingdom of the king of the world, Sultan Muhammad Shah Bahmanî, from the inroads of ruin and disintegration, and the misfortune of extinction and decay, by the birth of the successful and fortunate prince, a Faridan with the power of Jamshid, protected by the one God, Aba l-Muzaffar Sultan Ahmad Bahri Nizam Shah. Although historians differ much in their accounts of that king of high birth, and the author of this noble work has seen in the royal library of the Nizam Shahi kings a treatise in the noble handwriting of His Majesty whose abode is Paradise, at the end of which he had written, "The writer of this was Shaikh Burhân-ud-dîn, son of Malik Ahmad Nizâm-ulMulk, son of Malik Näib, who had from His Majesty the title of Ashraf-i-Humayûn Nizâm Shah ; " yet that which has come before the eyes of the writer of these lines in some works on the history of the sultâns of the countries of the Dakan, and which he has. heard from experienced old men of this country, is the story which is now to be related.
Historians of Ahmad Nizam Shah have written as follows: When the king of the world, Muhammad Shah Bahmani, was on the throne, some of the amirs who were, by his orders, employed in collecting tribute from, and in laying waste. the country of the idolaters, captured a beautiful damsel. When they saw that she was worthy of the royal bedchamber, they sent her, with other gifts, to His Majesty. The modest virgin, on her arrival at court, found favour in the king's eyes, and was treated more kindly than any other member of the seraglio, as she excelled them all, not only in beauty, but also in courtesy, modesty, fidelity and understanding. Since it was God's eternal will that that Bilqis of the period, that Mariyam of the age, should be the shell which was to contain the gem of the vicegerency and the place of rising of the star of sovereignty, the plant of her hopes, after the Sultan had gone in into her, bore fruit, and became heavy therewith. When her days were accomplished, a prince was born, and the Sultan, on receiving news of the event, rendered thanks to God and gladdened his eyes with the sight of the child. The young prince was entitled Moti Shah, and received the name of Sultan Ahmad. The king then bestowed gifts on all around him, and commanded the astrologers to draw the young prince's horoscope with the utmost care. They foretold, from the aspects of the seven planets, that the child would become king, and that the further he could be sent from the court and the capital, the better it would be for the interests of the State.
When they reported the result of their investigations, the king, though delighted by the bright future foretold for the child, writhed with anguish at the thought that he must part from him. At last he decided that the interests of the State would be best consulted by his sending the prince and his mother to Malik Hasan Humayun Shahi, who ultimately obtained the titles of Majlis-i-A'lâ Mangab-i-Mu'allà, and Malik Näib, in order that that vazir.might send the prince and his mother to Ramgir and Mahûr, which were parganas far from the capital and held by Malik Naib, and keep him in that country, taking the greatest pains in his education and in the care of him. Majlis-i-A'lâ Mansab-i-Mu'alla Malik Naib
1 Burhan Nizam Shah I.