Qutbuddin Mubarak Shah

Mubarak Shah, also called Mubarak Khan, was a son of Alauddin Khalji and Jhatyapali, the daughter of Ramachandra of Devagiri.[1] After Alauddin died on 4 January 1316, his slave-general Malik Kafur appointed Alauddin's 6-year-old son Shihabuddin as a puppet monarch, and himself held the power as regent. At Shihabuddin's coronation ceremony, Mubarak Shah and other sons of Alauddin were ordered to kiss Shihabuddin's feet.[2]

Later, Kafur started persecuting Alauddin's family members, whom he considered a threat to his control over the throne. Mubarak Shah, who was a major threat as one of the few adult sons of Alauddin, was imprisoned.[3] The former bodyguards (paiks) of Alauddin, who disapproved of Kafur's actions, freed Mubarak Shah after killing Kafur.[4] According to an account mentioned by the 16th century chronicler Firishta, Kafur had sent some paiks to blind Mubarak Shah, but the captive prince gave them his jeweled necklace, and convinced them to kill Kafur instead.[5] However, this account is a later-day fabrication: according to the earlier chronicler Ziauddin Barani, the paiks took the initiative to kill Kafur on their own.[6]

After Kafur's murder, the nobles offered the post of regent (naib-i mulk) to Mubarak Shah. However, Mubarak Shah believed that as a regent, his life would be in constant danger. Initially, he rejected the offer, and instead requested to be allowed to flee to another country with his mother. Nevertheless, the nobles persuaded him to accept the regency.[7]

Mubarak Shah thus became the regent of his younger step-brother Shihabuddin. Some weeks later, he accused Shihabuddin's mother Jhatyapalli of trying to poison him. Subsequently, he had Shihabuddin imprisoned in Gwalior and blinded, and usurped the throne.[7]

Square Billon 8 gani of Mubarak Shah

Mubarak Shah ascended the throne with the title Qutubuddin on 14 April 1316, when he was 17 or 18 years old.[8] Mubarak Shah retained Alauddin's officers and governors, which ensured a stable government during the first year of his reign.[9] He also made some new appointments:

• Malik Dinar, who held the office of shuhna-i pil (Keeper of the Elephants) under Alauddin, was given the title of Zafar Khan. Later, Mubarak Shah married his daughter.[10]
• Muhammad Maulana, a maternal uncle of Mubarak Shah, was given the title Sher Khan.[10]
• Maulana Ziauddin, the son of the Sultan's calligraphy teacher Maulana Bahauddin, was given the title Qazi Khan and the office of sadr-i jahan.[10] A gold dagger studded with jewels was also presented to him.[11]
• Malik Qara Beg, one of Alauddin's senior officers, was given around 14 offices. His sons also received high posts.[10]
• Malik Fakhruddin Juna, a son of Tughluq (Ghazi Malik), was given the office of Amir Akhur (Master of Horse).[11]
• The slave Hasan was given the title Khusrau Khan, with the fief of Malik Kafur. Later, within Mubarak Shah's first regnal year, he was promoted to vazir.[11]

The paiks who had killed Malik Kafur claimed credit for putting Mubarak Shah on the throne, and demanded high positions in his court. Mubarak Khan had them beheaded instead.[7]

Mubarak Shah attributed his rise to power to the divine will. He once asked his courtiers if any of them had expected him to become the king. When they replied in negative, he declared that the Allah had made him the king, and only the Allah could remove him from that position. He assumed the title Khalifatullah ("Representative of God"), which appears on his coins.[10]

To win popular support, Mubarak Shah revoked several of Alauddin's decisions:

• Alauddin had ordered imprisonment of around 17,000-18,000 officers for a variety of reasons, including corruption and political offences. Mubarak Shah ordered the release of all these prisoners, who remained grateful to him.[9]
• During the last years of his reign, Alauddin had stopped receiving public petitions. Mubarak Shah revived the petition system, and very often, issued orders favouring the petitioners.
• Alauddin's administration had incorporated a number of private lands in the crown territory (khalisa). Mubarak Shah reinstated these lands to their private owners.[9]
• Mubarak Shah abolished severe fines and taxes, and prohibited the revenue ministry from using harsh measures such as flogging and imprisonment to recover taxes.[12]
  • The lower land taxes improved the conditions of the landholders and the peasants. Ziauddin Barani, an orthodox Muslim, lamented that the Hindus (agriculturalists) who had been reduced to destitution during Alauddin's reign, now wore fine clothes and rode on horses.[12]
• He also revoked Alauddin's price control measures, leading to increased inflation.[9]
  • The prices of grains and commodities rose substantially.[9] According to Barani, the Multani merchants rejoiced at Alauddin's death, and now openly resorted to profiteering.[11]
  • The price of beautiful slave girls, eunuchs and young boys rose to 500 tankas, and sometimes, as high as 2,000 tankas.[9] Besides inflation, the high demand was also a factor in this price increase: the new Sultan was fond of sensual pleasures, and the general public followed suit.[12]
  • The average wages increased four-fold. The annual pay of servants increased from 10-12 tankas to as high as 100 tankas.[9]
• Mubarak Shah rewarded the army soldiers with an amount equal to six months of salary, and increased the officers' allowances and stipends.[11]
• He also increased the grants to the Sayyids and the ulama.[9]
• Mubarak Shah continued Alauddin's prohibition on intoxicants, but the implementation was lenient, and liquor was brought into the city.[9]

Mubarak Shah was bisexual.[10][23] His harem had a large number of women, many of which accompanied him on his campaigns.[10] After killing his brother Khizr Khan, he took the latter's widow Deval into his own harem.[24] According to the 16th century historian Firishta, who calls Mubarak Shah "a monster in the shape of man", Mubarak Shah used to parade naked prostitutes on the terraces of his palaces and make them urinate on the nobles entering his court.[25][26]

Mubarak Shah also had homosexual relations[27][28] with two uterine brothers, Hasan (later Khusrau Khan) and Husamuddin (or Hisamuddin).[29][30] According to Amir Khusrau's Tughluq Nama, the two brothers belonged to a Hindu military caste called Baradu. They had been captured during Ayn al-Mulk Multani-led 1305 conquest of Malwa. They were brought as slaves to Delhi, where they were brought up by Alauddin's naib-i khas-i hajib Malik Shadi. The two brothers acted as passive homosexuals only to maintain their status and position.[29] Mubarak Shah appointed Husamuddin as the governor of Gujarat, after executing the former governor Malik Dinar Zafar Khan for no apparent reason. Husamuddin later became an apostate (from Islam), because of which the amirs of Gujarat arrested him, and sent him to Delhi in chains. Mubarak Shah merely slapped him, and gave him a high position in the royal court.[14]

Mubarak Shah preferred Hasan as a partner, but turned to Husamuddin whenever Hasan was not available. Their relationship was not a secret, and Mubarak and Hasan used to exchange hugs and kisses in public. Mubarak gave Hasan the title Khusrau Khan, several iqta, the army of the deceased Malik Kafur, and the wizarat.[29] According to the chronicler Barani, Mubarak became "so enamored by Hasan ... that he did not want to be parted from him for a moment." Barani further states that Hasan resented "the way the Sultan forced himself upon him and took advantage of him", and secretly planned revenge against him.[31] Mubarak's other subordinates warned him about Khusrau's treacherous plans, but while being sodomized by the Sultan, Khusrau convinced him that the accusers were falsely slandering him.[32] Mubarak was ultimately killed by Khusrau Khan's accomplices.[33]

Khusrau Khan convinced Mubarak Shah to allow him to raise an army of Baradu Hindus by arguing that all other nobles (maliks) had their own groups of followers. He enlisted several soldiers at Bahilwal (near Mount Abu and in the province of Gujarat. According to Tughluq Nama, this army included 10,000 Baradu horsemen, and was commanded by several Hindu chiefs (rais and ranas).[34]

Next, Khusrau Khan contacted officers who resented Sultan Mubarak Shah. Bahauddin, a dabir who had quarreled with the Sutan over a woman, joined the Baradu coinspiracy. Yusuf Sahi, Shaista (son of Muhammad Qirrat Qamar), and some other officers also joined Khusrau Khan. Initially, the Baradus planned to kill the Sultan during a hunting expedition in Sirsawah, but Yusuf Sahi and his colleagues opposed the plan arguing that the Sultan's army would kill the conspirators in an open field. Instead, they suggested killing the Sultan in the royal Hazar Sutun palace, and capturing all the nobles at the palace. Khusrau Khan then told the Sultan that he wanted his men to be granted access to the palace, so that they could meet him without requiring him to leave the Sultan's company. The Sultan obliged, and subsequently, every night 300-400 Baradus started entering the palace. They assembled in the former chambers of Malik Kafur on the ground floor of the palace, which had been assigned to Khusrau Khan.[34]

On 7 May 1320, Qazi Ziyauddin, a teacher of the Sultan, suggested an investigation into the assembly of the Baradus. However, the Sultan angrily dismissed the suggestion, and none of the nobles dared to make a similar suggestion.[35] Barani claims when the Sultan told Khusrau Khan about Qazi Ziyauddin's suggestion, Khusrau khan won over his confidence by making love with him.[36]

On the night of 9 July 1320, Qazi Ziyauddin visited the ground floor of the palace to supervise the palace guard.[36] Randhol, the maternal uncle of Khusrau Khan, entered the palace with a large number of Baradus, who hid daggers under their clothes. When Ziyauddin let his guard down to accept a paan (betel leaf preparation) from Randhol, the Baradu leader Jaharya stabbed him to death.[37] The Sultan, who was in the company of Khusrau Khan on the upper floor, heard the commotion caused by Ziyauddin's murder. However, Khusrau Khan told him that the royal horses had broken loose, and the noise was caused by the guards trying to catch the animals. Meanwhile, Jaharya and other Baradus entered the upper floor, and killed the Sultan's special guards - Ibrahim and Ishaq. The Sultan now realized that a rebellion was happening against him, and tried to escape to his harem, which was located a floor above. However, Khusrau Khan stopped him by seizing his hair. The Sultan knocked Khusrau Khan to the ground, and sat on his chest, but Khusrau Khan did not let go of his hair. Meanwhile, Jaharya arrived at the scene, stuck a patta (axe) at the Sultan's chest, lifted him up by his hair, and threw him to the ground. He then beheaded the Sultan, and the head was later thrown in the courtyard on the ground floor. The royal guards fled to save their lives, as a large number of Baradus started massacring the palace residents.[38]

Legend says that Mubarak Shah did not like the famous Sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya, because Khizr Khan - the brother whom Mubarak Shah put to death - was a disciple of the saint. Mubarak Shah started patronizing the rival saint Shaikhzada Jam, but Shaikhzada Jam did not become as reputed as Nizamuddin Auliya. Mubarak Shah then tried to prop up Shaikh Ruknuddin of Multan as a rival to Nizamuddin by declaring that he would personally consider all the petitions passed to him through the saint. However, Ruknuddin did not emerge as a rival of Nizamuddin either. Nizamuddin met and saluted Mubarak Shah at a Quran-reading ceremony (siyyum) after the death of Shaikh Ziyauddin Rumi, but Mubarak Shah did not acknowledge the salutation. Subsequently, he announced a reward of 1,000 tankas (coins) for anyone who brought him the head of Nizamuddin. When Mubarak Shah constructed a jama masjid called Masjid-i-Miri and asked all Muslim scholars (ulama) and mystics to assemble there for the Friday prayers, Nizamuddin refused to oblige, declaring that he would visit the mosque closest to his home instead.[39] In June-July 1320, when the notable people of Delhi visited the Sultan to greet him on the beginning of a new lunar month (Jamadi), Nizamuddin sent his servant-disciple instead of personally visiting the Sultan.[40] Mubarak then declared that if Nizamuddin did not visit him personally at the beginning of the next lunar month, he would compel the saint to do so via an executive order. Nizamuddin did not respond and instead prayed at his mother's grave. At the beginning of the next month (1 Jamadi II), Mubarak Shah was killed.[34] The Baradus killed or blinded the other surviving sons of Alauddin to eliminate Khalji claims to the throne, and also killed Mubarak Shah's mother Jhatyapali.[41]

• Sultan Qutb ud din Mubarak Shah The Muntakhabu-’rūkh by Al-Badāoni (16th century historian)