H I N D O 
incalculable--mifchief. Thus, for the prefent, he difmiffed 
them in difgrace; but in a few days he fent for them 
again, and conferred great and merited honours upon 
them. 
Balin, returning to Bengal, put every one of the rebel's 
family, and principal adherents, to death. He did not 
even fpare his innocent women and children ; and he car¬ 
ried his cruelty fo far, as to malfacre a hundred fakiers, 
for having been in favour with the rebel, who had given 
them a prefent of three maunds of gold to fupport their 
fociety. Balin now appointed his fon Kera to be king of 
Bengal; and marched back his army towards Delhi, from 
whence he had been abfent three years. Upon his arrival, 
he ordered fpits to-be ereCted in the market-place, on which 
he intended to impale all the prifoners taken in the late 
expedition, as a lading memorial againft the crime of re¬ 
bellion ; and it was with the utmoft difficulty that the 
mufties, and venerable omrahs of the city, petitioning in 
a body for their pardon, at laft foftened Balin, and Ob¬ 
tained for the wretched vi&ims his entire forgivenefs. 
During thefe tranfaflions, the Mogul prince Timour, 
defcended from the great Gengis Khan, was acquiring re¬ 
nown in arms throughout the vaft empire of Mogulftan, 
or Wellern Tartary. Having determined to invade Hin- 
dooftan, he ravaged all the country about Lahore, and 
then marched towards Moultan. The prince Moham¬ 
med, eldeft fon of Balin, who then governed Moultan, 
haftened to the banks of the river of Lahore, and prepared 
to oppofe him. Both armies drew up in order of battle, 
and engaged with great fury for the Space of three hours, 
when the Moguls were put to flight, and were purfued 
with imprudent diforder. Mohammed, with five hundred 
attendants, halting to refrefh on the banks of a beautiful 
lake, was attacked by an ambufcadeof two thoufand Tar¬ 
tar horfe, who, from a neighbouring wood, rufhed out, 
and took them by furprife. The prince, collecting his 
fmall party, made dreadful havoc among his affailants ; but, 
being at length overpowered, he received a wound in the 
breall, and died on the fpot. When the fatal news reach¬ 
ed Balin, he was for a time inconfolable; but at length 
he appointed his grandfon Kei Chofro, the fon of the de- 
ceafed Mohammed, to fupply the place of his father in the 
government of Moultan; and, difpatching confiderable 
reinforcements, drove the Moguls, with prodigious daugh¬ 
ter, from all thofe provinces of the empire. 
When the aged fultan found grief and infirmities gradu¬ 
ally wearing him down, he fent for his fon Kera from Ben¬ 
gal, and appointed him his fucceffor ; at the fame time di¬ 
recting that he fliould continue with him at Delhi, and 
appoint a deputy for his government of Bengal. To this 
Kera confented; but he diortly after fet out for Bengal, 
without acquainting his father of his departure. This 
undutiful conduCt deeply afflicted the fultan, juft as the 
hand of death was upon him. He therefore flint for his 
grandfon Kei Chofro from Moultan, and altered the fuc- 
ceffion in favour of this young prince. Balin in a few 
days expired, in the year of the hegira 68 5, or A. D. 1286, 
after a reign of twenty-two years. Immediately on the 
death of the emperor, the brave Malieck ul Omrah, or 
principal minifter of ftate, having affembled the nobles, 
harangued them upon the prefent pofture of affairs. He 
affured them,- that Chofro was a young man of a violent 
and untraClable difpofition,' and therefore, in his opinion, 
unfit to reign ; belides, that the power of the prince Kera, 
the rightful heir, was fo great in the empire, that a civil 
war was to be feared, if the fucceffion ffiould not be con¬ 
tinued in his' family. That therefore, as his father chofe 
to refide in the kingdom of Bengal, it "would be mod pru¬ 
dent for them to eleCt his fon Kei Kobad, who was a 
prince of a- mild difpofition, and then at Delhi. So great 
was the . influence of the minifter, that he procured the 
throne for Kei Kobad; and Chofro- returned to his for¬ 
mer government of Lahore and Moultan. 
Kei Kobad, though of a mild difpofition, and difpcfed 
to govern, by the rules of equity and juftice, '■yet, in a 
O-STAN. 23 
fliort time, gave himfelf up entirely to effeminacy and 
debauch. He fitted up a palace upon the banks of the 
Jumna, and retired thither to enjoy his pleafures undif- 
turbed; admitting no company but fingers, players, nvu- 
ficians, and dancing girls. Nizam, who was nephew and 
fon-in-law to the chief magiftrate of Delhi, obferving that 
the king was thus fwallowed up in his pleafures, began to 
form l'chemes of advancing himfelf to the throne. His firft: 
objeft was to deftroy all thofe who, by confanguinity or 
loyalty, might poffibly ftand in his way. He began with 
Chofro, grandfon of the late fultan, whom he hired afiaf- 
flns to murder, as the unfortunate prince was on his way 
to Delhi. The villanies of Nizam did not flop here; he 
privately affaflinated all the old fervants of Balin ; info- 
much that a general condensation was fpread through the 
city, though none as yet fufpefted Nizam to be the caufe. 
The next ftep the traitor took, was to inlpire the king 
with jealoufy of his Mogul troops, who, as foldiers of for¬ 
tune, had become Mufi'ulmen, and enlifted in great num¬ 
bers in his fervice. He pretended that he had detected 
many of them in treachery ; and the weak prince, liken¬ 
ing to his villainous intimations, ordered all thofe to whom 
Nizam bore the leaft enmity to be fet upon by his guards 
and maffacred. 
Kera, the emperor’s father, having heard how infa- 
moufly affairs were conducted at the court of Delhi, pe¬ 
netrated into the defigns of the minifter, and wrote a let¬ 
ter to his fon, forewarning him of his danger, and advi- 
fing him todifpatch the mifcreant. But, his advice being 
of no weight, he determined to march with his army to 
Delhi, to put a Hop to thefe fliamefui dil'orders. When 
Kei Kobad heard that his father had advanced as far as 
Bahar, he drew out his forces, by the advice of Nizam, 
to cut the throat of his aged fire. Kera, meanwhile, en¬ 
camped upon the Sirve ; and both armies remained fome 
days in hourly expectation of an aCtion. In this interval, 
Kera fent a letter to his fon, written in the moft affec¬ 
tionate terms, begging he might fee him before matters, 
were carried to extremities. This letter awakened the 
feelings of nature in Kei Kobad’s breaft ; and he gave or¬ 
ders to prepare his retinue, that he might vifit his father. 
Nizam, however, with a view to get Kera into his power, 
prevailed upon his fon to infill, as fultan of Delhi, upon 
having the firft vifit.- Kera accordingly confented to 
come to his fon’s camp, and fent notice of his pacific in¬ 
tentions. The young monarch, by the minifter’s direc¬ 
tions, afcended his throne, and arrogantly gave orders 
that, when his father approached, he ffiould three times 
kifs the ground. Kera was fo fhocked at this indig'nity, 
that he burft into tears; which being felt by the fon, he 
could no longer fupport his unnatural inlolence ; but, 
leaping from the throne, fell on his face at his father’s 
feet, imploring his forgivenefs. The good old fultan 
melted into compaffion, and, railing him in his arms, em¬ 
braced him, and hung upon his neck. The fcene was fo 
afteCting, that the whole- court was in tears. The young 
king now led his father to the throne, and took his place 
on his right hand, ordering a charger full of golden lirns 
to be waved three times over his head, and afterwards to 
be given among the people. All the omrahs in like man¬ 
ner -prefented him with coftly gifts. The fchemes of 
Nizam now reverted upon his own head. The omrahs 
ordered him to be difpatched by poifon; and Kera re¬ 
turned, after folemnly bellowing his bleffmg on his fon, 
to his favourite palace at Bengal. 
Kei Kobad, however, was not to be reftrained from his 
habits of voluptuoufnefs ; fo that every omrah of popu¬ 
larity or power began to intrigue for the empire 5 which 
obliged the friends of the royal family to take Keio- 
mourfe, a child of three years, fon to the reigning fultan, 
o ut of the -haram, and to fet him upon the throne. The army 
upon this occafion fplit into two factions, who encamped 
on oppoflte fides of the city. The Mogul or Tartar legion 
efpouled the caufe of the young king; and the Chilligies, 
or-Afghans, joined. Ferole, who had ufurped the throne. 
Upon. 
