Page:Historic Landmarks of the Deccan.djvu/95

 province. Muhammad Shah, against the advice of Mahmud Gawan, granted this request and Malik Ahmad was recalled from Mahur and placed in charge of the government of eastern Telingana while Nizam-ul-Mulk accompanied the king in his extensive crescentade in the dominions of Raja Narsingha, a vassal of the ray a of Vijayanagar. The details of this campaign are interesting, but have no immediate connection with the history of Warangal.

On Muhammad Shah's return from his campaign the reform which had been foreshadowed by the division of Telingana into two provincial governments was completed, and the four tarafs or great provinces of the Bahmani kingdom were divided into eight. Berar was divided into the provinces of Gawil and Mahur, Daulatabad into those of Daulatabad and Junnar, Gulbarga into those of Gulbarga and Bijapur, and Telingana was finally divided into the two provinces of Warangal and Rajamahendri, of which the former remained under the government of Azam Khan and the latter under that of Nizam-ul-Mulk. The powers of the tarafdars or provincial governors were at the same time curtailed. Each tarafdar had formerly had in his hands all the forts in his province, but under the new regulation only the fort at the headquarters of each province was to remain in the hands of the tarafdar, all other forts being commanded by amirs appointed by and directly responsible to the sovereign. The military regulations, too, were revised. By the regulation of Bahman Shah, the founder of the dynasty, commanding officers were allowed either in the form of the revenue of jagirs or by drafts on the treasury, or from both sources combined, a lakh of huns for every five hundred men whom they were expected to maintain, but their forces were not regularly mustered or minutely inspected. By the new regulation the allowance for every five hundred men was raised to a lakh and a quarter of huns, but at the same time a more rigorous system of supervision was introduced and deductions were made for each man short of the establishment. These excellent regulations made both for efficiency and for the well-being of the soldier, but were extremely unpopular among the great nobles, and caused widespread resentment against the reformer Mahmud Gawan, whose chief supporters were Yusuf Adil Khan and other Turki Amirs. The Deccanis and Africans to a man opposed the innovations, and set