Qutbuddin Mubarak Shah


Qutb-ud-din Mubarak Shah I was a ruler of the Delhi Sultanate of present-day India. A member of the Khalji dynasty, he was a son of Alauddin Khalji.
After Alauddin's death, Mubarak Shah was imprisoned by Malik Kafur, who appointed his younger brother Shihabuddin Omar as a puppet monarch. After Malik Kafur's murder, Mubarak Shah became the regent. Soon after, he blinded his brother, and usurped the power. After ascending the throne, he resorted to populist measures, such as abolishing the heavy taxes and penalties imposed by his father, and releasing thousands of prisoners.
He curbed a rebellion in Gujarat, recaptured Devagiri, and successfully besieged Warangal to extract a tribute. He was murdered because of a conspiracy by his slave general Khusrau Khan, who succeeded him on the throne.

Early life

Mubarak Shah, also called Mubarak Khan, was a son of Alauddin Khalji and Jhatyapali, the daughter of Ramachandra of Devagiri. After Alauddin died on 4 January 1316, his slave-general Malik Kafur appointed Alauddin's 6-year-old son Shihabuddin as a puppet monarch, and himself held the power as regent. At Shihabuddin's coronation ceremony, Mubarak Shah and other sons of Alauddin were ordered to kiss Shihabuddin's feet.
Later, Kafur started persecuting Alauddin's family members, whom he considered a threat to his control over the throne. Mubarak Shah, who was a major threat as one of the few adult sons of Alauddin, was imprisoned. The former bodyguards of Alauddin, who disapproved of Kafur's actions, freed Mubarak Shah after killing Kafur. According to an account mentioned by the 16th century chronicler Firishta, Kafur had sent some paiks to blind Mubarak Shah, but the captive prince gave them his jeweled necklace, and convinced them to kill Kafur instead. However, this account is a later-day fabrication: according to the earlier chronicler Ziauddin Barani, the paiks took the initiative to kill Kafur on their own.

Regency

After Kafur's murder, the nobles offered the post of regent to Mubarak Shah. However, Mubarak Shah believed that as a regent, his life would be in constant danger. Initially, he rejected the offer, and instead requested to be allowed to flee to another country with his mother. Nevertheless, the nobles persuaded him to accept the regency.
Mubarak Shah thus became the regent of his younger step-brother Shihabuddin. Some weeks later, he accused Shihabuddin's mother Jhatyapalli of trying to poison him. Subsequently, he had Shihabuddin imprisoned in Gwalior and blinded, and usurped the throne.

Ascension

Mubarak Shah ascended the throne with the title Qutubuddin on 14 April 1316, when he was 17 or 18 years old. Mubarak Shah retained Alauddin's officers and governors, which ensured a stable government during the first year of his reign. He also made some new appointments:
  • Malik Dinar, who held the office of shuhna-i pil under Alauddin, was given the title of Zafar Khan. Later, Mubarak Shah married his daughter.
  • Muhammad Maulana, a maternal uncle of Mubarak Shah, was given the title Sher Khan.
  • Maulana Ziauddin, the son of the Sultan's calligraphy teacher Maulana Bahauddin, was given the title Qazi Khan and the office of sadr-i jahan. A gold dagger studded with jewels was also presented to him.
  • Malik Qara Beg, one of Alauddin's senior officers, was given around 14 offices. His sons also received high posts.
  • Malik Fakhruddin Juna, a son of Tughluq, was given the office of Amir Akhur.
  • The slave Hasan was given the title Khusrau Khan, with the fief of Malik Kafur. Later, within Mubarak Shah's first regnal year, he was promoted to vazir.
The paiks who had killed Malik Kafur claimed credit for putting Mubarak Shah on the throne, and demanded high positions in his court. Mubarak Khan had them beheaded instead.
Mubarak Shah attributed his rise to power to the divine will. He once asked his courtiers if any of them had expected him to become the king. When they replied in negative, he declared that Allah had made him the king, and only Allah could remove him from that position. He assumed the title Khalifatullah, which appears on his coins.

Policies

To win popular support, Mubarak Shah revoked several of Alauddin's decisions:
  • Alauddin had ordered imprisonment of around 17,000-18,000 officers for a variety of reasons, including corruption and political offences. Mubarak Shah ordered the release of all these prisoners, who remained grateful to him.
  • During the last years of his reign, Alauddin had stopped receiving public petitions. Mubarak Shah revived the petition system, and very often, issued orders favouring the petitioners.
  • Alauddin's administration had incorporated a number of private lands in the crown territory. Mubarak Shah reinstated these lands to their private owners.
  • Mubarak Shah abolished severe fines and taxes, and prohibited the revenue ministry from using harsh measures such as flogging and imprisonment to recover taxes.
  • * The lower land taxes improved the conditions of the landholders and the peasants. Ziauddin Barani, an orthodox Muslim, lamented that the Hindus who had been reduced to destitution during Alauddin's reign, now wore fine clothes and rode on horses.
  • He also revoked Alauddin's price-control measures, leading to increased inflation.
  • * The prices of grains and commodities rose substantially. According to Barani, the Multani merchants rejoiced at Alauddin's death, and now openly resorted to profiteering.
  • * The price of beautiful slave girls, eunuchs and young boys rose to 500 tankas, and sometimes, as high as 2,000 tankas. Besides inflation, the high demand was also a factor in this price increase: the new Sultan was fond of sensual pleasures, and the general public followed suit.
  • * The average wages increased four-fold. The annual pay of servants increased from 10-12 tankas to as high as 100 tankas.
  • Mubarak Shah rewarded the army soldiers with an amount equal to six months of salary, and increased the officers' allowances and stipends.
  • He also increased the grants to the Sayyids and the ulama.
  • Mubarak Shah continued Alauddin's prohibition on intoxicants, but the implementation was lenient, and liquor was brought into the city.

    Military career

Suppression of rebellion in Gujarat

Before his death, Malik Kafur had conspired to kill Alp Khan, the governor of Gujarat. Because of this, the Sultanate's army in Gujarat, led by Haidar and Zirak, had revolted. Kafur had dispatched the Devagiri governor Ayn al-Mulk Multani to suppress the rebellion. During his march to Gujarat, near Chittor, Multani received the news that Kafur had been killed. His officers then decided to abandon the march until further orders from Delhi.
After ascending the throne, Mubarak Shah sent Malik Tughluq to Multani's camp, asking him to continue the march to Gujarat. However, Multani's officers suggested waiting for 1-2 months before implementing the orders, as they had not seen the new Sultan, and were not convinced that his rule would be stable. Tughluq determined that the dissenting officers wanted their posts to be guaranteed under the new regime. Therefore, he marched back to Delhi, and advised Mubarak Shah to send each officer a firman and a khilat. The Sultan agreed, and when Malik Tughluq returned to Chittor, the officers agreed to continue their march to Gujarat. Tughluq led the vanguard, while Multani held the supreme command of the army.
Multani convinced most of the rebels to join his forces. Haidar, Zirak and their supporters had to flee Gujarat. Mubarak Shah then appointed his father-in-law Malik Dinar Zafar Khan as the governor of Gujarat. The new governor compromised with the Hindu chiefs, and governed the province well. He collected a large sum of money from the chiefs and landholders of Gujarat, and sent it to Delhi.
In his second regnal year, Mubarak Shah executed Zafar Khan for unknown reasons, and appointed his homosexual partner Husamuddin as the governor of Gujarat. After Husamuddin was deposed by the local umara for apostacy, Mubarak Shah appointed Wahiduddin Quraishi as the new governor of Gujarat. Quraishi was also given the title Sadrul Mulk. After Ayn al-Mulk Multani was sent to govern Devagiri, Quraishi was recalled to Delhi, and appointed wazir with the title Tajul Mulk.

Devagiri expedition

The Yadava kingdom, with its capital at Devagiri in the Deccan region, had become a tributary state to Delhi during Alauddin's reign. Alauddin had decided against annexing the Deccan kingdoms to his empire, because of the difficulty of controlling and governing these distant territories remotely from Delhi. However, after the rebellion of the last Yadava tributary Bhillama, his general Malik Kafur had taken charge of Devagiri, and had received letters of submission from the various chiefs. After Malik Kafur was recalled to Delhi, Ayn al-Mulk Multani acted as the governor of Devagiri, but later, he too was recalled to crush a rebellion in Gujarat.
Taking advantage of this, the Yadavas seized Devagiri, and declared their independence. They were led by Harapaladeva, who was probably a son-in-law of the former Yadava monarch Ramachandra, and his prime minister Raghava.
Mubarak Shah wanted to recapture Devagiri immediately after his ascension, but his counsellors had advised him against attempting to do so without consolidating his rule in Delhi first. In April 1317, during the second year of his reign, Mubarak Shah marched to Devagiri with a large army. Before leaving Delhi, he assigned the administration to his father-in-law Shahin with the title Vafa Malik.
Mubarak Shah followed the well-known route to Devagiri, assembling his forces at Tilpat near Delhi, and then marching to Devagiri in around two months. When the army reached Devagiri, all the local chiefs except Raghava and Harapaladeva accepted Mubarak Shah's suzerainty without offering any resistance.
Raghava and his nearly 10,000-strong cavalry, as well as Harapaladeva, fled to the hilly region near Devagiri. The Delhi generals Khusrau Khan and Malik Qutlugh led an army to pursue them. The Delhi forces completely routed Raghava's army. Khusrau Khan dispatched a force led by amir-i koh Malik Ikhtiyaruddin Talbagha to pursue Harapaladeva, who was wounded and captured after 2-3 skirmishes. Harapaladeva was presented before Mubarak Shah, who ordered his beheading. The body of Harapaladeva was hung at the gates of Devagiri.
Mubarak Shah spent some time consolidating his rule in Deccan. Malik Yaklakhi, who had served as Alauddin's Naib-i-Barid-i-Mumalik, was appointed as the governor of Devagiri.