Muhammad ibn Tughluq Quotes

The Sultan who is ruling at present has achieved that which had not been achieved so far by any king. He has achieved victory, supremacy, conquest of countries, destruction of the forts of the infidels, and exposure of magicians. He has destroyed idols by which the people of Hindustan were deceived in vain.

Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlak acquired the throne by murdering his father, became a great scholar and an elegant writer, dabbled in mathematics, physics and Greek philosophy, surpassed his predecessors in bloodshed and brutality, fed the flesh of a rebel nephew to the rebel’s wife and children, ruined the country with reckless inflation, and laid it waste with pillage and murder till the inhabitants fled to the jungle. He killed so many Hindus that, in the words of a Moslem historian, “there was constantly in front of his royal pavilion and his Civil Court a mound of dead bodies and a heap of corpses, while the sweepers and executioners were wearied out by their work of dragging” the victims “and putting them to death in crowds.”76 In order to found a new capital at Daulatabad he drove every inhabitant from Delhi and left it a desert; and hearing that a blind man had stayed behind in Delhi, he ordered him to be dragged from the old to the new capital, so that only a leg remained of the wretch when his last journey was finished. The Sultan complained that the people did not love him, or recognize his undeviating justice. He ruled India for a quarter of a century, and died in bed.

During Muslim rule in India, foreign and Indian Muslims were freely bestowed jobs and gifts. Foreign Muslims were most welcome here. They came in large numbers and were well provided for. Muhammad Tughlaq was specially kind to them, as averred by Ibn Battutah. He writes that "the countries contiguous to India like Yemen, Khurasan and Fars are filled with anecdotes about... his generosity to the foreigners in so far as he prefers them to the Indians, honours them, confers on them great favours and makes them rich presents and appoints them to high offices and awards them great benefits". He calls them aziz or dear ones and has instructed his courtiers not to address them as foreigners. 'The sultan ordered for me," writes Ibn Battutah, "a sum of six thousand tankahs, and ordered a sum of ten thousand for Ibn Qazi Misr. Similarly, he ordered sums to be given to all foreigners (a'izza) who were to stay at Delhi, but nothing was given to the metropolitans."... There are scores of instances of Muhammad Tughlaq's generosity to foreigners.... The point to note here is that under Sultan Muhammad so much wealth was awarded to so many deserving and undeserving foreign Muslims that at the close of his reign the Delhi treasury had become bankrupt. There was also the loss of popularity because "the people of India hate the foreigners (Persians, Turks, Khurasanis) because of the favour the sultan shows them."

So great was the faith of the Sultan in the Abbasid Khalifas," says he, "that he would have sent all his treasures in Delhi to Egypt, had it not been for the fear of robbers.

I am not at all perturbed by these revolts.

At the end of the tenth century Turks from Afghanistan began raiding India, a country of enormous wealth, ripe for conquest and incorporation into the Islamic world. In 1206 the Turks established the Sultanate of Delhi, which dominated the subcontinent for 300 years. The Sultans reached the height of their power in the reign of Muhammad bin Tughlak. His expansionist policies, which brought most of India under his control, reflected an uncontrollable and erratic ambition that eventually impoverished the country, and provoked a series of devastating revolts. He was famed for his learning, piety—and cruelty.

The Sultan has 3000 elephants which are covered in battle with iron trappings inlaid with gold. In times of peace they are covered with housing of silk brocade and different kinds of silk adorned with figures. They are adorned with canopy and seats overlaid with plates; and wooden towers are fixed on them with nails and the Indians construct their seats for fighting. On an elephant are from 10 to 6 men according to the strength of the elephant. The Sultan has 20,000 Turkish slaves. Al-Bazzi says: 10,000 eunuchs, 1,000 treasurers, 1,000 Bashmaqdars, 2,00,000 attendants, who wear weapons and march with the Sultan in front of him.

Muhammad bin Tughlaq became notorious for enslaving women and his reputation in this regard spread far and wide. Ibn Battuta who visited India during his reign and stayed at the Court for a long time writes: “At (one) time there arrived in Delhi some female infidel captives, ten of whom the Vazir sent to me. I gave one of them to the man who had brought them to me… My companion took three girls, and - I do not know what happened to the rest.” On the large scale distribution of girl slaves on the occasion of Muslim festivals like Id, he writes: “First of all, daughters of Kafir (Hindu) Rajas captured during the course of the year, come and sing and dance. Thereafter they are bestowed upon Amirs and important foreigners. After this daughters of other Kafirs dance and sing… The Sultan gives them to his brothers, relatives, sons of Maliks etc. On the second day the durbar is held in a similar fashion after Asr. Female singers are brought out… the Sultan distributes them among the Mameluke Amirs…” Thousands of non-Muslim women were distributed in the above manner in later years.

The first place which was conquered was the country of Tilink [the Kakatiya kingdom of Telengana, was conquered by Muhammad bin Tughluq before his accession]. It is an extensive province with many villages, the number of which is nine hundred thousand and nine hundred. Then the province of Jajnagar [capital of Orissa] was conquered. In it there are 70 fine cities all ports on the sea, the revenue of which consists of pearls, elephants, different kinds of cloth, perfumes and aromatics. Then the province of Lakhnauti [Bengal, it was conquered by the Sultan’s father] was conquered which has been the seat of nine kings. Then the province of Devagir [the northern most Hindu kingdom of the south] was conquered. It has 84 strong hill forts. Sheikh Burhanuddin Abu Bakr bin al-Khallal aI-Bazzi related that there are one crore and two lakh villages in it. Then the province of Dursamand [Dwarasamudra] was conquered where Sultan Bilal Deo [Vira Ballala III, the Hoysala king of Dwarasamudra] and five infidel kings reigned. Then the province of Mabar was conquered.
It is a big country having ninety ports on the seacoast the revenue of which is derived from perfumes, muslin (lains), various kinds of cloth and other beautiful things.…
The Sufi Shaikh Burhanuddin Abu Bakr bin al-Khallalh Muhammad al-Bizzi has related to me the following: This Sultan sent his army to the province of…[ name cannot be deciphered, Telingana?] and it is in the neighbourhood of Dewogir, in the extremity of its frontiers. The people were infidels and every king was called ‘rai’. When the troops of the Sultan took the field against him he sent a messenger saying: Say to the Sultan that he should refrain from us and whatever he wishes in the form of wealth it will be given to him, he should send as many beasts of burden as he likes to carry away. The commander of the army sent information to the Sultan as to what he (the rai) had said. His answer came back that he should refrain from fighting them and give quarter to the Rai. When he presented himself before the Sultan, he honoured him very much and said to him: I have never heard the like of what you have said. What is the amount of wealth you have got that you have told me to send you as many beasts of burden as I like to carry that. The Rai replied: Seven rais have preceded me in this country and everyone of them collected 70,000 Babin and all of them are still with me. He said: A bobin is very wide cistern from the four sides of which one descends into it with ladders. The Sultan was surprised at his speech and ordered the sealing of the babins with his name (to preserve them). So they were sealed with the name of the Sultan. Then he ordered the Rai to nominate a viceroy in his country and that he himself should reside in Delhi and he offered him Islam, but he refused. So he let him act freely in the matter of his religion and he stayed in his court appointing a regent for him in his country and the Sultan assigned attendants for him, suitable for one like him and sent to that country great sums to be distributed to his people as alms saying that they were counted amongst the number of his subjects. The Sultan did not interfere with the babins, but only put on them the seal and left them in the same condition under his seal. I have related this according to what al-Bazzi related and he is known for his veracity. The responsibility is with him. He who wants further information should turn to him.

Muhammad bin Tughluq is generally, and perhaps rightly, regarded as a man of liberal views. The Chinese Emperor asked for his permission to build a temple at Samhal, a place of pilgrimage in the Himalayan hills frequented by the Chinese, which the Muslim army “had seized, destroyed and sacked”. But the Sultan, who accepted the rich presents sent by the Chinese Emperor, wrote to him a reply to this effect: ‘Islam does not allow the furthering of such an aim and the permission to build a temple in a Muslim country can be accorded only to those who pay the jizya.

Muhammad Tughlaq confined Shaikhzada Jami in an iron cage leading to his death. Under him punishments laid down by the Shariat were scrupulously awarded. The mother of prince Masud was ordered by the Sultan to be stoned to death for adultery, the verdict having been pronounced by Qazi Kamaluddin. Ibn Battutah relates that on one occasion he himself as Qazi gave eighty stripes to one Razi of Multan for making himself drunk and stealing five hundred dinars. He also says that during Muhammad Tughlaq's reign people used to admit uncommitted crimes and courted death to escape torture. When the royal order was issued for the execution of any person, he was executed at the gate of the palace where his corpse remained for three days. The Diwan-i-Siyasat worked vigorously and every day hundreds of culprits were brought for punishments.

The jurist Abul Fadhail Omar bin Ishaq ash-Shibli narrated to me that this Sultan does not leave the company of learned men whether in travel or in residence. He says: We were with him in one of his conquests. When we were on the way news of the victory reached him from the advance guard while we were in his presence. Then a joy befell him and he said: This is due to the blessing of those Ulama. Then he ordered them to enter the public treasury and they carried away as much wealth as they could. Those who were weak amongst them appointed a substitute who carried this wealth for them. The narrator continues, “They entered the treasury, but I did not enter, not did many of my peers because we did not belong to that group. Every one of those carried away two purses, each one containing 10,000 dirhams. But one of them carried three purses, two beneath his armpit, the other one on his head. When the Sultan saw them, he laughed in astonishment at the avarice of him who carried three. He (Sultan) asked about the rest of the persons and those who had not entered like me. It was said to him that these were below those because those were professors and these were assistants. He then ordered 10,000 dirhams to be given to everyone of them, and they were distributed among us. The narrator continues: the beacon of shariat, (Muslim Law) is standing on account of him and love for men of letters is found with him. They are shown honour and veneration. They exert to the highest to preserve that by which their reputation is established, by improving their mind and their appearance and in persevering in studying and in imparting knowledge, and right deliberation in all matters and moderation in all their affairs.

It is related that his army consists of 900,000 horsemen, a part of them are at His Majesty’s court, others are scattered in the whole country. His Diwan provides for the means of subsistence for all of them. The army consists of Turks, Khitais, Persians, Indians and people of various nations. All of them have branded horses, excellent weapons and are elegant in appearance. The officers of his army are the Khans, Maliks, Amirs, Sipah-Salars and then the ranks.
He relates that in the Sultan’s service there are eighty Khans or more and that each of them has followers according to his rank. The Khan has ten thousand horsemen, the Malik one thousand, the Amir one hundred, and the Sipah-Salar less than that. None of the Sipah-Salars are considered worthy to be near the Sultan, but they can be appointed as Valis or to posts equal to the rank of Vali. The Sultan has ten thousand Turkish slaves and ten thousand eunuchs; one thousand cashholders and one thousand Bashmaqdars [in charge of horseshoes of the Sultan]. He has two lakhs of stirrup slaves, who wear weapons, accompany him always and fight on foot in front of him. The whole army is exclusively attached to the Sultan and his Diwan pays them, even those who are in the service of the Khans and Maliks and Amirs. Fiefs cannot be given to them by their masters as it is the custom in Egypt and Syria….
Besides these he has one thousand falconers (bazdar) who carry the birds of prey for hunting while riding the horses and three thousand drivers who obtain the game; five hundred courtiers (nadim) and two hundred musicians besides his one thousand slaves who are specially trained for music; one thousand poets of fine taste and wit in Arabic, Persian and Hindi. His Diwan pays all these as long as they are men of spotless purity and chastity, in public and private life.

This Sultan has an embroidery house in which 4,000 silk-workers who make different kinds of cloth for robes of honour and garments and gifts in addition to the stuff which is imported from China, Iraq and Alexandria. The Sultan distributes every year 2,00,000 complete garments, namely 1,00,000 in spring and 1,00,000, in autumn. The garments, of spring are mostly from Alexandrian stuffs made in Alexandria; the garments of summer are all of silk made in the factory in Delhi and stuff from China and Iraq. He distributes (them) in Khanqahs and hospices. The Sultan has 4,000 embroiderers who manufacture the brocades for the harem and manufacture things for his use which he bestows upon the officers of the state and presents (them) to their wives…

Ulugh Khan destroyed the great Svayambhusiva temple, whose fragments remain scattered around Warangal’s fort area. He built an enormous mosque on the site of the temple, along with a huge audience hall... By the time Ulugh Khan ascended the throne, considerable parts of the Deccan and south India had acknowledged the suzerainty of Delhi.