Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/108

 w

71-

JiisToity or iNi^iA.

[Book I,

Jelal-ii-diu succeeds.

A.D. 1288. took part with their countryman ; the Moguls were equally unanimous in favour of the prince, whom they canied off from the harem, for the purj-K^se of seating IiItu upon the throne. It was not yet vaamt, for Keikoba/1, though on a sick- bed, might continue for a time to linger on. This was a state of uncertainty which the contending {Kirties could not endure; and after mutual attempts at assas.sination, the emissaries of Jelal-u-din, having forced their way into the palace of Kelookery, where they found Keikobad lying in a dying state, deserted Keikobad's by all liis attendants, they beat out his braias with bludgeons, rolled up the

death.

body in the bed-clothes, and threw it out of the window into the river. The young prince was shortly after put to death; and Jelal-u-din having been pro- claimed king, became the founder of the Khilji d_ynasty. This revolution hap- pened in 1 288.

Jelal-u-din Feroze had reached the age of seventy when he usurped the throne. The footsteps to it he had stained with blood, but after he was seated, either remoi"se or policy induced him to become humane. Having no great confidence in the people of Delhi, he fixed his residence at Kelookery, which he fortified, and also adorned with fine gardens and terraced walls along the river. Numerous other buildings rapidly sprung up; and Kelookery, having thus assumed the appearance of a city, was known for a time by the name of Xew Delhi. The year after Jelal-u-din's usurpation, a competitor for the crown appeared in the person of Mullik Juhoo, one of the late Bulbun's nephews, instigated chiefly by Ameer Ally, governor of Oude. After an obstinate engagement, Juhoo was defeated, and Ameer Ally and several other leaders were taken prisoners. They were immediately sent off to Kelookery ; but Jelal-u-din, as soon as he saw them, ordered them to be unbound, and gave them a free pardon, while (quoting a verse of which the purport is — " Evil for evil is easily returned, but he only is great who returns good for evil" The Khilji chiefs could not understand this humanity, which they condemned as at variance with sound policy. " At all events," they observed, " the rebels should be deprived of sight, to deter them from further mischief, and as an example to others. If this was not done, treason would soon raise its head in every quarter of the empire." The king answered, " What you say is certainly according to the ordinary rules of policy ; but, my fiiends, I am now old, and I wish to go down to the grave without shedding more blood." His humane It is refreshing to be able to turn aside from the massacres which we have Ind '.X'*' in the course of the narrative been compelled to witness, and listen to senti- taken lenity ^q^^^ partaking so much of the spirit of Christianity. It seems, however, that the Khiljies were not altogether wrong, for the king's lenity was often mistaken,

I

their former greatness, ere the Dooraunee dynasty succeeded in wre.sting from them the sovereignty. In the beginning of last century this tribe alone conquered all Persia. After a hard struggle, the third Khilji King of Persia was expelled by Nadir Shah. The territory occupied by them is situated in

the north of Afghanistan, and forms a parallelogram of about 180 miles in length, by 8.5 miles in breadth. It is comprised more especially in the valley of the Cabool River, from its source to the town of Jelala- bad, and also in the valleys which descend from tha Hindoo Koosh.