Page:Historic Landmarks of the Deccan.djvu/25

Rh the houses of many foreigners in the city. In the morning Mahmud Shah gave orders for a general massacre of the Deccani and African troops. The slaughter lasted for three days, and was only checked at the instance of a holy man who was connected with the king by marriage.

After this escape Mahmud Shah gave himself up entirely to debauchery, leaving the management of affairs to Qasim Barid, the Turk. The great tarafdars grew weary of receiving orders which originated with this upstart, and from 1487 onwards were practically independent, while Qasim Barid himself, who had jagirs in the neighbourhood of Bidar, governed them without even the formality of using the king's name, which appeared only in farmans affecting unalienated lands in the province of Bidar, and in futile orders to the tarafdars.

It was not, however, till 1490 that the tarafdars openly declared themselves independent. In that year Malik Ahmad Nizam-ul-Mulk held the province of Daulatabad, Yusuf Adil Khan that of Bijapur, and Fatbullah Imad-ul-Mulk that of Gawil, or northern Berar. Nizam-ul-Mulk was the first to propose that they should assume independence, and invited Yusuf Adil Khan, Fatbullah Imad-ul-Mulk, and Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk of western Telingana to join him. The two first named agreed and, together with Nizam-ul-Mulk, assumed the insignia of royalty, but Qutb-ul-Mulk would not openly defy his master, and refused to declare himself independent. Twenty-two years later, in 1512, he found it impossible to maintain even the pretence of dependence, and followed the example of the other tarafdars.

The three new kings, in spite of their having openly thrown off their old master's yoke, remained well disposed towards him, and were exceedingly chary of using the royal title. They protested that they were as loyal as ever to the descendant of Bahman Shah, but that they would not take orders from Qasim Barid. They made several abortive attempts to rescue Mahmud Shah from Qasim's clutches, but the miserable debauchee could never summmon up courage to give adequate support to those who would have helped him, and invariably relapsed into his old condition of subservience.

Qasim Barid died in 1 508 and his son Amir Barid took his place. Mahmud Shah died on December 8, 1518, and Amir Barid raised his