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their salary for one year in advance. However, this Firoz Shah Tughluq was a welfare-oriented ruler.
expedition was given up because this could lead He built many canals, tanks, wells, hospitals and
to misery to the soldiers. These new soldiers were rest houses. He founded many new towns such as
disbanded. Hissar, Ferozepur, Jaunpur and Ferozabad. He
All these new ideas proved impractical, and gave free medical services to the people. He set
Muhammad-bin Tughluq became very unpopular. up educational institutions. He also commissioned
As a result, he lost the confidence of the nobles. the translation of Sanskrit works into Persian and
Also, there were revolts in Bengal, Gujarat, Arabic.
Warangal, Sindh and other places. The Bahmani After the death of Firoz Shah Tughluq in 1388, a
and the Vijayanagara kingdoms came up in the war of succession broke out and many governors
Deccan and South India respectively. No other declared their independence. Soon after his death,
Delhi sultan had faced so many revolts as he. He the Delhi Sultanate reduced to Delhi and its
had to undertake several battles only to suppress surrounding areas.
revolts. And he died in 1351 when he was going
to Sindh to suppress a revolt. The Tughluq dyansty suffered heavily when Timur
invaded in 1398. The Tughluqs came to power for
Firoz Shah Tughluq a brief period after Timur returned, but this
Firoz Shah Tughluq was the cousin of dynasty finally came to an
Muhammad-bin Tughluq and ascended to the end in 1414 due to weak
throne after the latter’s death in 1351. He realised successors who were finally
that he had to win the confidence of the ulema defeated by Khizr Khan who
and the nobles, so he started to give them favours. became the sultan of Delhi,
During the Sultanate period, the sultans gave iqtas and thus the Delhi Sultanate
(land) to the nobles for the realisation of taxes and passed into the hands of the
maintenance of army. These iqtas were Sayyid dynasty. Timur the Lame
transferable, that is, the sultan could take them
Info Bits
back whenever he desired so. On the death of an Info Bits
iqtadar , the iqta went back to the sultan.
However, Firoz Shah Tughluq made iqtas Zia-ud-din Barani was a chronicler who wrote the
hereditary, that is, now these passed from father to Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi. He has critically remarked
the son. To please the ulema, he introduced the about the rule of Muhammad-bin Tughluq that he
Quaranic laws and gave grants to them. As a lacked political judgement and was incapable to
result, the nobles and the ulema became very rule.
powerful.
Comparison between Ala-ud-din Khalji
However, these steps resulted in revolts in Bihar and Muhammad-bin Tughluq
and Bengal. Mewar and Marwar too seceded from A comparison between Muhammad-bin Tughluq
his Sultanate.
and Ala-ud-din Khalji will not be out place here.
1. Delhi was attacked twice during the reign of
Ala-ud-din Khalji, so he raised a new garrison
at Siri for his large standing army. On the other
hand, Delhi was attacked by the Mongols in
the early Tughluq years, so Muhammad-bin
Tughluq ordered the shifting of capital to
Daulatabad (Devgiri) in the south. He also
ordered all citizens to vacate the city which
was then used as a garrison for his army.
Kotla Firoz Shah Fort in Delhi
Contemporary Social Science-7
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