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 Rajamahendri respectively. Muhammad Shah then marched with his troops from KondapalH to Bidar, but the tarafdars, who had lost all confidence in him since his appointment of Hasan Nizam-ul-Mulk to the post rendered vacant by the death of his victim, refused to enter the capital and encamped without the walls with their forces. The king was much humbled by this mark of mistrust, but dared not command them to enter the city and, with the best grace he could muster, dismissed Yusuf Adil Khan, Fathullah Imad-ul-Mulk, and Khudawand Khan to their provinces.

Meanwhile Hasan Nizam-ul-Mulk remained at the capital, doing his best to compass the ruin of the three refractory larafdars. They were summoned to the capital with their armies in order to accompany the king on an expedition in the direction of Belgaum, but showed by their behaviour in camp and on the march that they were able to protect themselves, and that they had no intention of trusting either the king or his minister. They would not encamp in the neighbourhood of the royal troops nor march in their company, and invariably saluted the king from afar. After a short time Imad-ul-Mulk and Khudawand Khan returned to their provinces without leave, an act which would have been deemed open rebellion by any of the king's predecessors, and Muhammad Shah gave himself up to the delights of the wine-cup in Firuzabad.

On March 23rd, 1482, Muhammad III died, and was succeeded by his son Mahmud Shah, a lad of twelve years of age. We have already seen the condition of the kingdom in the closing years of Muhammad's reign. It was not such that it could be remedied by a youth, and it speedily went from bad to worse. The great nobles present in the capital at the time of Mahmud's accession were the minister, Hasan Nizam-ul-Mulk, Qivam-ul-Mulk the elder, and Qivam-ul-Mulk the younger who, though foreigners, believed that they had won the regard of the Deccanis, and Qasim Barid, a foreigner, who, for reasons of his own, one of which was probably hatred of Yusuf Adil Khan and another, probably, attachment to the Sunni faith, often identified himself with the Deccanis. The coronation was hurried on, and though there were some complaints that the greater tarafdars and the foreign nobles from Bijapur were not allowed time to attend, Hasan