Page:Historic Landmarks of the Deccan.djvu/97

 built a fort which he named Muhammadnagar. He refused to join the tarafdars who revolted in 1490 and remained steadfastly loyal until 1512, when it was no longer possible to maintain the fiction of a Bahmanid reigning as king at Bidar. He then followed the example of the other tarajdars, though it does not appear that he encouraged the use of the royal title. During the period of Sultan Quli's government of Telingana it is probable that Warangal fell into the hands of Hindus or other rebels, for in the most detailed history of his reign which has come down to us it is mentioned among his conquests. The most frequent aggressor was a mysterious Musalman entitled Shitab Khan. This warrior, regarding the reading of whose title there is no manner of doubt, is described in the Tarikh-i- Muhammad Qutb Shahi as "the Raja of Khammamet, a fearless infidel". This description has much puzzled Lieutenant-Colonel Briggs who, in volume III of his History of the Rise of the Muhammadan Power in India, makes Shitab Khan a Hindu, and confers on him the title of "Seetaputty." The historian of the Qutb Shahi kings is, however, corroborated by the Telugu inscription in the Hanamkonda temple, bearing the date 1503, which has already been mentioned. The truth seems to be that Shitab Khan was a renegade Musalman who, on the disruption of the Bahmani kingdom, allied himself with Hindus and by means of their aid established a small independent principality. From the inscription we may infer that he was in possesssion of Hanamkonda and Warangal in 1503, and he was still in possession of the same tract in 1515 after Sultan Quli Qutb Shah's war with the Sultan of Berar, at which period Khammamet, Warangal, and Nalgunda were included in Shitab Khan's dominions. On Sultan Quli's return to Golconda after his campaign against Ala-ud-din Imad Shah his nobles reported to him that Shitab Khan had ravaged the borders of the kingdom and was preparing for war. No attempt was made by Shitab Khan to hold Warangal, which passed without a struggle into Sultan Quli's hands while he marched on southwards to the siege of Belamkonda. After a protracted campaign, in the course of which Shitab Khan received much assistance from his Hindu allies, the whole of eastern Telingana, as far as the sea coast, was conquered and included in the Qutb Shahi dominions. Shitab Khan escaped and found a refuge with his Hindu friends and though he, or, as seems