Page:The Seven Cities of Delhi.djvu/254

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The Seven Cities of Delhi


In 1343 emissary had come from Egypt,as the result of a long negotiation, and brought with him a diploma from the descendant of the Abbaside khalifas. Mahomed conceived himself only now to be a rightful king, and ordered that those of his predecessors who had not received such sanction should not be mentioned in the "khatbah." Thus the names of all, as far back as Altamsh, were struck out, including even his own father. Egypt, it may be mentioned, passed under Turkish rule at the end of the sixteenth century, and it is to the Sultan of Turkey that Mahomedans now look as their spiritual head.

All this time, east, south, west, and north,rebellion was rife, but was Invariably put down with a strong hand, and punished with barbarous severity. At length Mahomed had to undertake an expedition into Sind, and there he died, on the Indus, near Tatta, in A.D. 1351. Ferishta sums up his reign with the remark that "he seems to have laboured, with no contemptible abilities, to be detested by God, and feared and abhorred by all men."

Mahomed Tughlak left no son, so his generals elected to the throne FIROZE SHAH TUGHLAK, a nephew of the founder of the dynasty, and son of a Hindu princess. He had been educated196