1 120 HISTORY OF THE PANJAB.
2 SYAD ALA-UD-DIN.
3 Ala-ud-din succeeds. Syad Ala-ud-din, having succeeded his father Syad Muhammad, took up
4 his residence in Budaon, where, instead of directing his attention to the
5 affairs of his kingdom, which had become distracted, he employed his time
6 in building pleasure-houses, laying out gardens and giving entertainments.
7 At this time the empire of Hindostén was divided into several independent
8 kingdoms; and the provinces of the Dekkan, Gujrat, Malwa, Jaunpur and
9 Bengal had each its own king. The Panjab, including Depalptir and Sirhind,
10 as far south as Pdnipat, was in the possession of Behlol Khan Lodi, and the
11 authority of the king was confined to the city of Delhi, with a small tract
12 of the adjoining country. The king was duped by his councillors to such
13 a degree that, acting on their advice, he imprisoned and disgraced his wazir,
14 Viamid Khan, and even entered into a plan to assassinate him. The wazir
15 found means to effect his escape from confinement, took possession of the
16 king’s effects, and sent the females of the royal harem out of the city.
17 While the king’s attention was absorbed in quelling these domestic feuds,
18 Behlol Khan Lodi quietly entered the capital and was proclaimed king in
19 Abiieates the 1450. The King Ala-ud-din adopted him as his son, and, formally abdicating
20 ana ee? the throne in his favour, withdrew to Budaon, where he died in 1478, after
21 having reigned in Delhi for seven years and lived in retirement at Badaon
22 And dics, 1178. for about twenty-eight years.
23 -
24 CHAPTER IX.
25 THE LODI DYNASTY.
26 BEHLOL LODI.
27 _The ancestors of ie ancestors of Behlol were a commercial tribe of Afghans who carried
28 yn on trade between India and Pérsia. Malik Behrédm, the grandfather of
29 Behlol, having abandoned his occupation in the time of Firoz Toghlak,
30 entered the service of Malik Mardan Doulat, governor of Multén. He had
31 five sons, the eldest of whom, Malik Sultan, fought with distinguished
32 bravery against Ikbél Khan, the Delhi wazir, in an action in conjunction
33 with Khizr Khan, viceroy of Multdn, in which he had the good fortune to
34 slay the wazir with his own hands. . Pleased with this gallant conduct,
35 Khizr Khan appointed him governor of Sirhind, with the title of Islam
36 Khan, while his brothers were honoured with high posts. On one of these
37 brothers, Malik Kaly, the father of Behlol, Khizr Khan bestowed a district.
38 The wife of Malik Kaly was killed by the fall of a house, while enceinte,
39 but, by a surgical operation, the child, who subsequently received the name
40 of Behlol, was brought into the world alive. Malik Kaly was shortly after-
41 wards killed in action, and the young Behlol grew to manhood under the
42 care of his uncle, Islam Khan, governor of Sirhind, whose daughter he
43 married, and whom, on his death, he succeeded in his command. How
44 Behlol seized the government, at a time when its dissolution seemed immi-
45 nent, in the reigu of the last and imbecile king of the Syad dynasty, has
46 been already narrated. Behlol governed the empire with a firm hand and
47 re-incorporated the kingdom of Jaunpur with the dominions of Delhi, the
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