INDIA. 



rr. wide every prt of the Mahomedan law which was 

 - . ' *t variance with his own views of policy. At the pe- 

 riod of !>is death, all Hindostan proper was compre- 

 hended in the Patan empire ; and though, as we have 

 seen, Alia was a cruel and despotic prince, yet the 

 internal police was so admirably regulated, that stran- 

 gers might travel throughout his whole empire in per- 

 fect security. 



Mhnwl Cafoor did not long enjoy the fruits of his ingrati- 

 tude mid treason ; for, after a few months, Cottub, 

 the eldest son of Alia, was placed on the throne. No- 

 thing mn.irkaMe occurred during his reign, nor till the 

 period when Mahomed III. became emperor. This 

 prince at first seems to have been successful in the 

 Pecan ; for he carried his arms to Warangole, the ca- 

 rt' 1 '. llingana, which "during the disturbances 

 that preceded Mahomed, had shaken o'ff the Mahome- 

 dan yoke ; but afterwards his reign was marked with 

 misfortune. The Moguls penetrated nearly to Delhi ; 

 and he was obliged to^-aise immense sums from his sub- 

 jects to induce the invaders to retire ; the consequence 

 as, that the farmers were so severely taxed, that some 

 burnt their houses and crops in despair, and many fled 

 to the forests, where they maintained themselves by 

 robbery. To remedy these evils, Mahomed very unwisely 

 issued base money, which necessarily increased them. 

 ir.s |^ e a ] so ] ost muc i) territory by rebellions in Bengal, Gu- 

 ga ^' zerat, and the Punjab. Under these calamities, he pro- 

 jected an invasion of China, to which he appears to 

 have been stimulated by the reports that had reached 

 him of the immense riches of that country ; but he was 

 repulsed on the frontier ; nearly the whole of his army 

 perished, and he was soon called upon to quell rebellions 

 in the southern part of his dominions : he also planned 

 the absurd scheme of transferring the seat of government 

 from Delhi to Dowlatabad, and attempted it twice but 

 without success. Dowlutabad soon remained his only 

 possession in the Decan; for some of the Hindoo princes, 

 headed by Belaldeo, king of the Carnatic, taking advan- 

 tage of the distracted and weakened state of his empire, 

 drove his armies out of that country. About the same 

 Dm. time, Belaldeo founded the city of Bijinagur. Maho- 



A. D. 1351. me< l died, after a reign of 27 years, in A. D. 1351. 



.. He was succeeded by his nephew, Feroze III. ; the 

 improves ' new sovereign was much more desirous of improving 

 hu country, what remained of his empire, than of adding to it by 

 conquest. But whenever war was necessary, he dis- 

 played great energy and skill; and during his reign, 

 he was called upon more than once to quell insurrec- 

 tion, and repel invasion. He built fifty great sluices 

 or canals, forty mosques, thirty schools, twenty cara- 

 vansaries, a hundred palace?, five hospitals, an hundred 

 tombs, ten baths, ten spires, one hundred and fifty 

 wells, one hundred bridges, and gardens almost innu- 

 merable ; such is a list of the works of this monarch ; 

 mid in almost every instance they were planned and 

 executed with great judgment, and contributed most 

 materially to improve and beautify his kingdom. He 

 was also fond of literature ; and so thoroughly con- 

 vinced of the beneficial effects of education, that he 

 spared no pains or cxpence to bestow on his children 

 the best that his time and age could afford. In the 

 Irruption of year 1357, the Moguls made another irruption ; indeed 

 th Moftuls the empire was not secure for any length of time, either 

 I* 7 - from the invasion of* these barbarians, or from the at- 

 tempts of the Hindoos to regain their native land. 

 The old age of Feroze was rendered unhappy, by the 

 death of several of his children, and by a rebellion 

 gainst hi son Mahomed, to whom he had resigned 



5 



the empire: he died in 1388. The grandson of Feroze, History. 

 who seems to have succeeded to the throne,, reigned '""V^"' 

 only but five months ; rebellion and ciil war raged, 

 and prepared the kingdom for foreign conquest. The 

 nobles having put him to death, placed his cousin 

 on the throne; but he also was unfortunate ; for his 

 uncle, Mahomed, returning from the exile into which 

 he had been driven, recovered the dominions of his 

 father ; civil war still raged, and the historian re- 

 lates an unusual circumstance which arose out of 

 this civil war, two emperors in arms against each 

 other, residing in the same capital. In the mean 

 time, an independent kingdom was rising up in the 

 Decan, which was founded by Houssan, who^had been 

 a general under Mahomed III. : before his time, 

 Deogire had been the capital of this part of India, but 

 Houssan fixed his resklence at the ancient Koolbourga, 

 which he named Ahssunabad. 



In the year 1397, intelligence was received at Delhi, Timur Bee 

 that Timur Bee was approaching ; this famous .con- invades 

 queror, after having overrun Persia, Turkestan, and part Hindostan. 

 of Russia, turned his ambitious views towards Hindos- A> D> 1397 

 tan. During this year, he had sent his grandson, Peer 

 Mahomed, to reduce the Punjab and Multan ; and in 

 the month of October, he crossed the Indus himself. 

 When he first proposed to his princes the invasion of 

 Hindostan, he was answered by a murmur of discon- 

 tent and despair. " The rivers, and the mountains, and 

 the deserts, and the soldiers clad in armour, and the 

 elephants, destroyers of men." These things his princes 

 thought it was impossible to overcome ; but when they 

 perceived he was determined on the invasion, they gave 

 way to his superior judgment, or were terrified into 

 submission by his dreadful character. He had been 

 informed by his spies, of the weakness and anarchy of 

 Hindostan ; the soubahs of the provinces had erected 

 the standard of rebellion; and the monarch was de- 

 spised and disobeyed, even in his capital. The Mogul 

 army moved in three divisions ; between the Shy- 

 lum and the Indus they crossed one of the ridges of 

 mountains, styled by the Arabian geographers, the 

 stony girdles of the earth. The mountaineers, after 

 a brave resistance, were reduced or extirpated; but 

 great numbers of men and horses perished in the 

 snow ; the emperor himself was obliged to be let 

 down one of the precipices on a portable scaffold, 

 the ropes to which were 1 50 cubits in length, and be- 

 fore he could reach the bottom, this dangerous opera- 

 tion was five times repeated. He crossed the Indus at 

 the passage of Attock : from this place to Delhi, the 

 direct and most frequented road measured only 600 

 miles ; but Timur deviated to the south-east, for the 

 purpose of joining his grandson, who had by this time 

 succeeded in the conquest of the Punjab and Multan. 

 Being in want of provisions, he gave up the large and 

 populous town of Tulmubini to the plunder of his sol- 

 diers ; and when its inhabitants murmured at this con- 

 duct, he directed them to be massacred. After crossing 

 the Hyphasis, he entered the desert, reduced the for- 

 tress of Batner, and advanced with little or no resist- 

 ance to the city of Delhi. 



In the mean time, the contending parties in the ca- Delhi be- 

 pital united for their common defence. The siege, S1 <|ge<l and 

 more especially of the castle, might have been a work ta 

 of time, but Timur, by the appearance of weakness 

 and indecision, tempted his adversaries to descend in- 

 to the plain, with 10,000 cuirassiers, 10,000 foot guards, 

 and 120 elephants, whose tusks are said to have been 

 armed with sharp and poisoned daggers. Timur, 



