Page:Historic Landmarks of the Deccan.djvu/102

90 Ruz Afzun, who founded a town, which he named Firuzabad after him- self, on the banks of the river Bhima, about twelve miles to the south of Gulbarga. In the reign of this Sultan a famous saint, popularly known from his long side-locks as Gisu Daraz, and from his practical charity as Banda Nawaz, came from Dehli to Gulbarga, and was adopted by Firuz Shah as his patron saint. But the zeal of the monarch for the saint cooled by degrees, and Banda Nawaz transferred his religous pat- ronage to the Sultan's brother, Ahmad Khan, the Khan-i-Khanan, Ahmad Khan, a devout and scrupulous Musalman, with some knowledge of theology and casuistry, was a far more promising disciple than the cultured and pleasure-loving Firuz, who, though thoroughly orthodox, was apt to be impatient of saintly control. Ahmad Khan after a struggle overcame his brother, and, in spite of the incredulity of some historians, who will believe nothing wrong of so saintly a king as Ahmad, the sudden death of Firuz Shah within a very short time of his abdication must be pronounced too opportune to have been fortuitous.

Events on the northern frontier of the kingdom took Ahmad Shah away from Gulbarga for three years, and on his return he was attracted by the superior advantages of Bidar, which, in 1429, he made his capital. Gulbarga thenceforward necessarily declined much in importance as a city, but it gained great reputation as a place of pilgrimage, for Gisu Daraz, who did not accompany the court to Bidar, died and was buried here in the reign of Ahmad Shah, and his tomb is to this day the most famous shrine in the Deccan. But Gulbarga had so far lost favour as a seat of royalty that when Nizam Shah, the twelfth king, was forced in 1463 by the invasion of Mahmud Shah Khalji of Malwa to leave Bidar, he retired, not to the old capital, but to Firuzabad.

At the dismemberment of the Bahmani kingdom in 1490, when the provincial governors proclaimed their independence, each jagirdar continued to hold the lands which he had held under the Bahmanis, and those who were strong enough refused at first to submit to the new kings. Gulbarga was then in the possession of Dastur Dinar, an Abyssinian, who seems to have imagined that he could, with a little assistance, set at naught the authority of Yusuf Adil Shah of Bijapur, the founder of the Adil Shahi dynasty. In 1 500 he formed an alliance with Khaja Jahan of Sholapur, a jagirdar, occupying a position similar