Page:Historic Landmarks of the Deccan.djvu/72

60 course of which he overcame and expelled a renegade Musalman named Shitab Khan, who had made common cause with the infidels. He also engaged in a campaign against Ismail Adil Shah of Bijapur. He was murdered on September 3, 1543, in the ninety-eighth year of his age, at the instigation of his second surviving son Jamshid.

Sultan Quli is buried in a small and unpretentious tomb near the south-western corner of the whole group of buildings, and beyond the garden in which the later tombs now stand. He is described in his epitaph as *' the prince who has received pardon for his sins, the fortu- nate, the martyr, the warrior for the sake of God, the striver in the way of God, Malik Sultan Quli, entitled Qutb-ul-Mulk, known as Bare Malik," the last being evidently a familiar Indian nickname. The absence of the royal title distinguishes his epitaph from those of his successors, for the word Sultan is not here part of the royal title as some English historians have erroneously taken it to be. Quli is a Turki word meaning "servant" or "slave," and Sultan Quli ("servant of the king ") was the personal name of the founder of the Qutb Shahi dynasty. 1 hose who regard the word Sultan in this case as a royal title and call him as one historian does King Quli, do but call him King "Coolie."

Jamshid Qutb Shah, who ascended the throne on his father's death, was a warlike ruler who interfered far more than was the custom of the Qutb Shahi kings in the quarrels between the other independent Sultans of the Deccan. He was also a poet of respectable ability. Towards the end of his reign he sank into debauchery, possibly with the object of deadening the severe pain caused by a cancer from which he suffered, and which so inflamed a temper naturally fierce that he became a terror to all about him.

Jamshid Qutb Shah died early in 1550 and was buried in a high and narrow tomb, of no architectural meiit near that of his father.

On the death of Jamshid his son, a boy of seven years of age, was raised to the throne as Subhan Quli Qutb Shah, but was not permitted to enjoy his kingdom long in peace. At the time of Jamshid Qutb Shah's accession his younger brother Ibrahim, alarmed for his safety, fled to Vijayanagar, where he hved for seven years under the protection of Sadashivaraya, the ruler of that kingdom. After Jamshid's death Saif Klian Ain-ul-Mulk, the prime minister of the kingdom, formed the