1923.| Life and letters of Malik ‘Aynu'l-Mulk Mahria. 281 
main grounds of the expedition to Lakhnauti and Pandua, 
enunciated therein, and the tyranny, and atrocities ascribed 
to Ilyas Hajji, are clearly noted by Maulana Ziyau’d-Din of 
Batan. The proclamation corroborates the historian’s account, 
with certain additional facts not mentioned by him. In 
this misal, Sultan Firiiz addresses three classes of men of the 
country : first, the religious group, secondly, the officials, civil 
and military, thirdly, the landed proprietors and masses. ‘The 
ormer two were no doubt Muslims, the last class were the 
natives of the soil. The Hindd Sains and Zoroasterians have 
owever, been specifically mentioned. 
Lest the dignitaries of religioas and State may think that 
one Muslim sovereign is fighting illegally with another, Sultan 
Pilgrim Ilyas. The chief grounds of the expedition were that 
the Zabit of Lakhnauti was a subordinate to the Emperor, and 
as such, he had no business to rebel against the authority and 
prerogative of his liege lord; that Ilyas was guilty of atrocities 
not only to men but also to women of Lakhnauti and Tirhit 
or as we now say of Bengal and Behar, and had tyrannically 
exacted illegal duties and taxes from the people, and there 
was no security for life and property in the country. It was 
to the special prerogative he and they enjoyed from the Imam, 
the Khalif, as the rightful rulers and vice-regents in India, whose 
order every one was bound to obey. The concessions His 
Majesty promised to the oppressed people of Lakhnauti are, to 
us, new, and interesting. The Misal throws many intimate 
glimpses into the Indo-Turkish rule of seven centuries since. — 
ound difficulty in deciphering the document, as tt Is 
full of errors on the part of the ignorant scribe. I hope I have 
given an intelligible abstract of this important notification. 
It may with advantage be compared with some of the proclama - 
tions of our times issued by a different race and in a different 
tongue—both aliens to India. 
Mteresting details given in Shams-i-Siraj’s graphic account 
(pp. 163-174 Tarikh-i-Firiz Shahi, Bibliotheca Indica Series). 


' In the course of a letter, Mahrii refers to Firiiz Shah’s victory at 
Lakhnauti over Sikandar Shah, son of Hajji Ilyas. 
