1 110 : HISTORY OF THE PANJAB.
2 on many of his expeditions. The emperor, notwithstanding his education,
3 proved himself a tyrannical despot before he had been long on the throne,
4 During his residence at Delhi he once set out with his army on a hunting
5 expedition, On arriving in the district of Bairam, he told the officers that
6 ‘Bis cruel propensi' he had come, not to hunt beasts, but men, and he barbarously caused
7 a the inhabitants to be massacred. Thousands of their heads were brought to
8 Delhi and hung over the city walls. On another occasion, writes Ferishta,
9 he made an expedition in the direction of Kanauj and put the inhabitants
10 to the sword. The country was laid waste for many miles round, and
11 desolation and terror spread over the land. The king once entertained
12 Projected conquest the project of conquering the Persian empire, and raised 370,000 horse
13 obkerain. for the purpose, thereby impoverishing the resources of the country ; but the
14 scheme had to be abandoned as impracticable. Of his expedition to China
15 we have already given an account. A curious incident is described by
16 Ferishta of the empevor’s whims and caprice, which has led Mr. Elphinstone
17 Tis whims and to speculate whether he was not strongly tainted with insanity. During a
18 caprice. journey to Malabar, which had rebelled, he fell dangerously ill, and, entrust-
19 ing Imad-ul-mulk with the command of the army, returned to Dowlatabad, his
20 favourite habitation. Being afflicted with a violent toothache on the way,
21 he lost one of his teeth. This tooth was buried in Bir with great ceremony,
22 and a magnificent stone mausoleum was constructed over it which exists to
23 this day, a monument of the king’s vanity. The king entertained the
24 His roverence forthe greatest reverence for the Caliph of Baghddd, whose ambassador, Haji Syad
25 Caliph of Bagdad. = Hurmuzy, was received with great ceremony by him in 1344. The king
26 advanced twelve miles from the city on foot to receive him, and put the Caliph’s
27 letter on his head. On his return to the city, a grand festival was held, and
28 the king’s fancy carried him so far that he caused the Caliph’s name
29 to be inscribed on all the royal robes and furniture. Shekhtl Shayukh Misri,
30 the Caliph’s envoy, who arrived in 1162, was received with the same
31 distinction, and subsequently, when a prince of the house of Abbasi arrived,
32 he was always seated on the kiny’s right hand at court, and the king
33 was at times seen even sitting on the carpet below him.
34 FIROZ TOGHLAK,
35 On the death of Muhammad Toghlak, his cousin Firoz, whom he had
36 declared his successor on his death-bed, being absent with the army, Sadr
37 Jahan, a relation, placed a boy six years old on the throne. Firoz advanced
38 to Delhi at the head of his troops, and the pretensions of the boy being with-
39 drawn, he ascended the throne on September 14th, 1351, under the title of
40 aaa ee Firoz Toghlak. He visited Kalanaur, then in the district of Lahore, on @
41 Greed Kista ail hunting excursion, In 135%, and had a splendid palace built on the banks of
42 TeeMaaudeNe the Sarsuti. ‘The year 1354 was rendered memorable by the king founding
43 353 ap. a new city adjoining Delhi, to which he gave the name Firozabéd. He then
44 neh fonn Is Firozt- marched to Depalpar, and, ov July 12th, opened the great canal, forty-eight
45 kos in length, which he had had constructed for the purpose of turioatioty from
46 Hisecinal projects the Sutlej to the Kaggar rivers. Another canal, constructed in 1356 carried
47 the waters of the Jamna to the wastes of Hansi and Hissdér, where he built a
48 Aertiets strong fort which he called Hissdr Firoza. A third canal, connected with
49 yiefoundstissie | the Kaggar and Sarsuti, extended to the village Peri Khera, where he
50 Maaiaencane mounted a city which he called Firozabdd after his own name,
51 Beas es eae ie year 1858 the Moghals invaded the Panjdb as far as Depalptr.
52 . i u an, the lord of the privy chamber, was sent with an army to meet
53 them, but the invaders, having taken much booty, retired to their own
54 country before the royal troops could arrive.
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