| Muhammad bin Tughluq | |
|---|---|
| Fakhr al-Malik Abu al-Mujahid | |
 EarlyMughal painting of Muhammad bin Tughluq (1534) | |
| Sultan of Delhi | |
| Reign | 4 February 1325 – 20 March 1351 |
| Coronation | 4 February 1325 Tughlaqabad Fort |
| Predecessor | Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq |
| Successor | Firuz Shah Tughlaq |
| Vizier | Khwaja-i-Jahan Ahmad Ayaz |
| Born | Fakhr ud-Din Jauna Khan c. 1290 Delhi,Delhi Sultanate (modern-dayNew Delhi, India) |
| Died | 20 March 1351 (aged 60–61) Thatta,Sindh Sultanate (modern-daySindh, Pakistan) |
| Burial | |
| Dynasty | Tughlaq |
| Father | Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq |
| Mother | Makhduma-i-Jahan |
| Religion | SunniIslam |
| Tughra |  |
Muhammad bin Tughluq (Persian:محمد بن تغلق;Persian pronunciation:[mu.ham.ˈmadbintuɣ.ˈlaq]; 1290 – 20 March 1351), orMuhammad II, also known by hisepithets,The Eccentric Prince,[1] andThe Mad Sultan,[2] was the eighteenthSultan of Delhi. He reigned from February 1325 until his death in March 1351. The sultan was the eldest son ofGhiyath al-Din Tughluq, founder of theTughlaq dynasty.[3] In 1321, the young Muhammad was sent by his father to theDeccan Plateau to fight a military campaign against theKakatiya dynasty. In 1323, the future sultan successfullylaid siege upon the Kakatiya capital inWarangal. This victory over KingPrataparudra ended theKakatiya dynasty.[4]
NamedJauna Khan as Crown Prince,[5] Muhammad ascended the throne ofDelhi upon his father's death in 1325. Muhammad bin Tughluq had an interest inmedicine. He was also skilled in several languages:Persian,Hindavi,Arabic,Sanskrit andTurkic.[6]Ibn Battuta, the famous traveler and jurist from Morocco, wrote in his book about his time at the Sultan's court.[7] Exhibiting traits ofparanoid personality disorder, Muhammad was nicknamed theWisest Fool.[8]
Fakhr ud-Din Jauna Khan was born toGhiyath al-Din Tughluq, who founded theTughlaq dynasty after taking control of theDelhi Sultanate.[9] He is also known as Prince Fakhr Malik Jauna Khan, Juna Khan or Ulugh Khan.[10] Jauna Khan remarked that he was "bound to all Indians by ties of blood and relation."[11]
Three days after the death of his fatherGhiyasuddin Tughlaq, Muhammad bin Tughlaq ascended the throne ofTughlaq dynasty ofDelhi on 4 February 1325.[12] In his reign, he conqueredWarangal (in present-dayTelangana, India), Ma'abar (Kayalpatnam) andMadurai (Tamil Nadu, India), and areas up to the modern day southern tip of the Indian state ofKarnataka. In the conquered territories, Tughluq created a new set of revenue officials to assess the financial aspects of the area. Their accounts helped the audit in the office of thewazir.[13]
Muhammad bin Tughluq was also known for his tolerance for other religions. Several historians mention that the Sultan honored the Jain monk Jinaprabha Suri during the year 1328.[14][15] Peter Jackson mentions that Muhammad was the only Sultan who participated in Hindu festivities.[16]
In 1327, Tughluq ordered to move his capital from Delhi toDaulatabad (also known as Devagiri) (in present-dayMaharashtra) in theDeccan region of India. Muhammad bin Tughlaq himself had spent a number of years as a prince on campaign in the southern states during the reign of his father. Daulatabad was also situated at a central place so the administration of both the north and the south could be possible.[17][unreliable source?] These elite colonists from Delhi wereUrdu-speakers, who carried theUrdu language to the Deccan.[18] These immigrants includedHasan Gangu, a celebrated general who would later found theBahmanid Empire.[19][20]
A broad road was constructed for convenience. Shady trees were planted on both sides of the road; he set up halting stations at an interval of two miles. Provisions for food and water were also made available at the stations but most of the people died during the shifting as the ruler was not able to provide them with enough food and water for their survival. Tughluq established akhanqah at each of the stations where at least onesufi saint was stationed. A regular postal service was established between Delhi and Daulatabad. In 1329, his mother also went to Daulatabad, accompanied by the nobles. By around the same year, Tughluq summoned all the slaves, nobles, servants,ulema, sufis to the new capital.[13] The new capital was divided into wards calledmohalla with separate quarters for different people like soldiers, poets, judges, and nobles Grants were also given by Tughluq to the immigrants. Even though the citizens migrated, they showed dissent. According to Ibn Batuta's accounts, the reason for the transfer of capital was that Tughluq shifted the capital for protection from Mongol and Afghan Invasion which was later confirmed by Historian Garner Brown. In the process, many died on the road due to hunger and exhaustion as there were not enough resources. Moreover, coins minted in Daulatabad around 1333, showed that Daulatabad was "the second capital".[21]
In 1334, there was a rebellion inMabar, led by the North Indian Muslim soldier,Jalaluddin Ahsan Khan Kaithali, a native ofKaithal inNorth India, who founded theMadurai Sultanate.[22] While on his way to suppress the rebellion, there was an outbreak ofbubonic plague atBidar due to which Tughluq himself became ill, and many of his soldiers died. While he retreated back to Daulatabad, Mabar and Dwarsamudra broke away from Tughluq's control. This was followed by a revolt inBengal. Fearing that the sultanate's northern borders were exposed to attacks, in 1335, he decided to shift the capital back toDelhi, forcing the citizens to return to their previous city.[13] This caused many more deaths.
While most of the Medieval historians, including Barani and Ibn Battuta, tend to have implied that Delhi was entirely emptied (as is famously mentioned by Barani that not a dog or cat was left), it is generally believed that this is an exaggeration. Such exaggerated accounts simply imply thatDelhi suffered a downfall in its stature and trade. Besides, it is believed that only the powerful and nobility suffered hardships if any. Two Sanskrit inscriptions dated 1327 and 1328 C.E. confirm this view and establish the prosperity of the Hindus of Delhi and its vicinity at that time.[6]
Although this decision was unpopular among the Muslim elite, one impact of this decision was that Islamic rule inDeccan lasted centuries longer than Delhi's own unstable authority over the south. If not for Tughlaq's creation of a Muslim elite at Daulatabad, there would have been no stable Muslim power like theBahmani Sultanate to check the rising power of the HinduVijayanagara Empire.[23]
After the death ofGenghis Khan, one line of his descendants, theChagatai Khanate, ruled overTurkistan andTransoxiana and another branch ofHulagu Khan conquered present dayIran andIraq.[note 1] However, at the time of Tughlaq, both of the dynasties were on the downfall, with conditions in Transoxiana unstable after the death ofTarmashirin.[13][6] He was ambitious of annexing these kingdoms. He invited nobles and leaders from these regions and gave them grants. At that time many Afghan rulers gained independence and posed a significant threat to the Tughluq empire.
Tughluq raised an army of possibly up to 370,000 soldiers in 1329.Barani has written that Tughluq took no step to check the ability of the soldiers or the brand of horses. They were paid in one year advance, and after being kept idle for one year, Tughluq found it difficult to pay them. Therefore, he decided to disperse and dissolve the soldiers in 1329.[13]
In 1333, Muhammad Bin Tughlaq led the Qarachil expedition to thekumaon region of modern-dayUttrakhand in India. Historians likeBadauni andFerishta wrote that Tughluq originally wanted to cross theHimalayas and invade China. However, he faced local resistance inKumaon. Dharm Chand isPahadiRajput fromkingdom of Kumaon (including garhwal and some part of himachal ) defeated the army of Muhammad Bin Tughlaq which was not able to fight in the hills. Nearly all his 100,000 soldiers perished and were forced to retreat.[13]
Muhammad Bin Tughlaq died in 1351 on his way toThatta,Sindh, while he was campaigning inSindh against Taghi, a Turkic slave tribe. It was during his reign that the Sultanate of Delhi collapsed by twofold resistance. One was from Rajputs led byHammir Singh of Mewar.[24] and the other fromHarihara andBukka of South India. WhileRanaHammir Singh liberated the strategicRajputana following the victory inBattle of Singoli in 1336,[25]Harihara andBukka established a new empire calledVijayanagara Empire, by initially defeating and later ending Madurai Sultanate that was ruling the city of Madurai and its environs of South India on behalf of Delhi Sultanate. Several other south Indian rulers likeMusunuri Kaapaaneedu, etc. also contributed to the downfall of the Islamic Sultanate of Delhi. To add to Tughluq's woes, his own generals rebelled against him. One of his generals, an Afghan or Turk Muslim namedHasan Gangu,[26][27][28] would go on to form theBahmani Sultanate in theDeccan during theRebellion of Ismail Mukh.[29]
HistorianIshwari Prasad writes that different coins of different shapes and sizes were produced by his mints which lacked the artistic perfection of design and finish. In 1330, after his failed expedition toDeogiri, he issued token currency; that iscoins ofbrass andcopper were minted whose value was equal to that ofgold andsilver coins. HistorianZiauddin Barani felt that this step was taken by Tughluq as he wanted to annex all the inhabited areas of the world for which a treasury was required to pay the army. Barani had also written that the sultan's treasury had been exhausted by his action of giving rewards and gifts in gold. In the rural areas, officials like themuqaddams paid the revenue in brass and copper coins and also used the same coins to purchase arms and horses.[30] As a result, the value of coins decreased, and, in the words ofSatish Chandra, the coins became "as worthless as stones". This also disrupted trade and commerce. The token currency had inscriptions in Persian and Arabic marking the use of new coins instead of the royal seal and so the citizens could not distinguish between the official and the forged coins. Records show that the use of token currency had stopped by 1333 asIbn Battuta who came toDelhi in 1334, wrote a journal which made no mention of this currency.[31]
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There are conflicting views expressed by historians on his religious tolerance. While visitors Ibn Battuta, Nunez and Firistha mention that Muhammed Bin Tughlaq showed intolerance to other religions,[33] on the contrary, Peter Jackson mentions that Muhammed was the only Sultan who participated in Hindu festivities.[16] Ibn Battuta mentions that the king of China (theYuan Emperor) had sent an embassy to Muhammad for reconstruction of a sacked temple atSambhal. The envoys were however denied with the statement that only those living in a Muslim territory who paid thejizya could be permitted to restore a temple.Firuz Shah Tughlaq had claimed that before his rule, idol-temples had been permitted to be rebuilt contrary to the Sharia.[34]
The contemporaneousJain authorities attests Muhammad cordial relations with theJains and further showing favour to the Jain scholars.[35]
Tughluq was a strict Muslim, maintaining his five prayers during a day, used to fast in Ramadan. According to 19th century CEBritish historian Stanley Lane-Poole, apparently courtesans had hailed Tughluq as a "man of knowledge" and had an interest in subjects like philosophy, medicine, mathematics, religion, Persian and Urdu/Hindustani poetry. In his "Medieval India", "He was perfect in the humanities of his day, a keen student of Persian poetry ... a master of style, supremely eloquent in an age of rhetoric, a philosopher trained in Logic and Greek metaphysics, with whom scholars feared to argue, a mathematician and lover of science."[6] Barani has written that Tughluq wanted the traditions of thenubuwwah to be followed in his kingdom.[36] Even though he did not believe in mysticism, Chandra states that he respected theSufi saints, which is evident from the fact of his building of the mausoleum of the saintNizamuddin Auliya atNizamuddin Dargah.[additional citation(s) needed] Critics have called him hasty in nature, owing to most of his experiments failing due to lack of preparation.Ibn Battuta has also written that he depended on his own judgment and rarely took advice from others and has also criticized him for his giving of excessive gifts and "harsh punishments".[37] He was famous because whenever a gift was bestowed upon him, he would give gifts worth three times the value to show his stature.[citation needed]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Sayyid Hassan Kaithali...half a dozen Hasans, each distinguished from the other by an epithet indicative either of domicile or of birth
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)change of capital to Daulatabad (1337) proved to be the most important vehicle by which North Indian Muslim ideas and institutions crossed the Narmada. The status of being a tributary to the Sultanate was deeply resented by the local Muslims, culminating in the revolt by Deccani nobles led by Ala al-Din Hasan Bahman Shah in 1347, eventually establishing an independent kingdom called the Bahmani kingdom
Muhammad bin Tughlaq (1325–1351) is mentioned in Jain texts as showing favour to Jain scholars
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Media related toMuhammad bin Tughluq at Wikimedia Commons
Quotations related toMuhammad bin Tughluq at Wikiquote| Preceded by | Sultan of Delhi 1325–1351 | Succeeded by |
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