Page:Historic Landmarks of the Deccan.djvu/193

 dition of the kingdom at this time was such that an appeal to arms would probably have hastened its downfall, and the young man was consequently compelled to rely on his diplomatic tact and personal charm of manner. Notwithstanding the disadvantages under which he laboured, he soon succeeded in restoring order, thus securing the confidence placed in him by the ladies of the harem and winning useful friends among those amirs of the empire who had lands in Telingana.

In the reign of Mahmud Shah, the son and successor of Muhammad Lashkari, Sultan Quli became an amir of the empire, with the title of Qutb-ul-Mulk, receiving as his jagir Golconda with the surrounding country. Shortly after receiving this grant he was appointed commander-in-chief in Telingana, a position which strengthened his hands considerably. In 1512 Qutb-ul-Mulk, who had for some time been practically independent, followed the example which had been set by Yusuf Adil Khan, Ahmad Nizam-ul-Mulk, and Fath-ullah Imad-ul-Mulk, the governors of Bijapur, Ahmadnagar, and Berar, and, throwing off his allegiance to the now feeble house of Bahman, had himself proclaimed independent sovereign of the territory which he had hitherto ruled in the king's name, under the style of Sultan Quli Qutb Shah, and made Golconda his capital. Sultan Quli had already replaced the old Hindu mud fort with a substantial fortress of stone which the surrounding country yielded in large quantities. His fort received many and substantial additions at the hands of his descendants and successors. The Qutb Shahi kings of Golconda did not, like their neighbours, the Adil Shahi kings of Bijapur, run mad on architecture, but they built, and built well, in spite of a depraved preference for stucco for buildings other than fortifications. Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, the fourth king of the dynasty, made extensive additions to the fort built by his ancestor, and also founded, as his residential capital, the city of Haidarabad, which he at first named Bhagnagar, after his favourite mistress, a Hindu girl named Bhagmati. Abdullah Qutb Shah, the successor of Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, also devoted much care to the improvement of the fortress and constructed a spacious ambar-khana or store-house within the citadel. An inscription on black basalt, recording the erection of this ambar-khana, is still in an excellent state of preservation. It relates that the ambar-khana was completed, by the efforts of Khairat Khan,