Page:Historic Landmarks of the Deccan.djvu/47

 "than which post there was none higher in the service of the Bahmanis." This appointment was made in the reign of Muhammad III, the thirteenth king of the Bahmani dynasty, and later in the reign a reform which had already been too long delayed was effected. The four original provinces of the kingdom were sub-divided into eight, Daulatabad being divided into the new provinces of Daulatabad and Junnar. The almost regal powers of the tarafdars were also curtailed in other directions. Formerly, all the forts in the provinces had been in the hands of the tarafdars, who appointed and removed the commandants. It was now ordered that only the fort at the capital of each of the provinces should be in the hands of the tarafdar, and that the commandants of all other forts should hold their appointments directly from the Sultan. The nature and effect of this policy have been misapprehended by a modern historian, who, referring to the dissolution of the Bahmani kingdom, says, "A recent division into large provincial governments hastened the dissolution." This statement is misleading. The kingdom had originally been divided into large provincial governments and the "recent division" referred to was the sub-division of those large governments into smaller ones. This step, though not taken in sufficient time to prevent, did not itself accelerate the dissolution of the kingdom, though an act of injustice committed by Muhammad III, who had the innocent author of the reform put to death, disgusted the more powerful provincial governors. The disruption of the kingdom, however, was due solely to the degeneracy of the later Bahmanis and to their subserviency to ministers whom the provincial governors would not accept as masters.

After the subdivision Malik Hasan Nizam-ul-Mulk was transferred from the government of Telingana to that of Daulatabad, and Yusuf Adil Khan from that of Daulatabad to the new province of Bijapur which had formed part of the old taraf of Gulbarga.

Early in the reign of Mahmud Shah, the son and successor of Muhammad, Hasan Nizam-ul-Mulk, profiting by the absence of Yusuf Adil Khan in Bijapur, acquired a predominance of influence in the capital, and sent his son, Malik Ahmad, to carry on the government of