Mubarak Shah – From a Regent to a Ruler

Who was Mubarak Shah?

Mubarak Shah was the son of Alauddin Khalji and Jhatyapali, the daughter of king Ramachandra of Devagiri. Though he was the chief ascendant of the throne, he was also viewed as a threat by Malik Kafur to access his control over the throne. That’s why he along with his brothers and family members was imprisoned. At the time of the coronation of Shihabuddin Omar, they all were ordered to kiss the feet of Shihabuddin.

After Malik Kafur was murdered by Alauddin’s bodyguards as they disapproved of Malik Kafur’s power and actions, they released Mubarak Shah from prison who was later appointed as a regent to Sultan.

Mubarak Shah as regent

After the death of Malik Kafur, the post of regent was offered to Mubarak Shah by the nobles. Initially, he was not willing and did not agree to the responsibility due to the constant threats on his life and wished to move to another country with his mother but later was forced by the nobles to accept the post as a regent.

So, Mubarak Shah was now the regent of his stepbrother Shihabuddin Omar. But it is said that greed for power makes a person blind. In the same way, greed also rose in the eyes of Mubarak Shah and within one of the conspiracies he accused Jhatyapalli of trying to poison him. Within a few weeks, Shihabuddin was also imprisoned and blinded, making the way to the throne clear for Mubarak Shah.

Mubarak Shah as Sultan

Mubarak Shah took the throne in 1316, by the title of Qutubuddin. He was about 18 years of age at the time of succession. He made a strategy for running a stable government. He re-appointed all the nobles and ministers that were loyal to Alauddin and gave them higher positions with higher rewards. He gave many of them new offices and new titles, seeking their support in the administration. The bodyguards of Alauddin, who had killed Shihabuddin and freed Mubarak, also demanded higher positions in the administration but Mubarak Shah took harsh steps as per the character of the bodyguards. All the bodyguards were beheaded for their actions.

Mubarak Shah was not a very able ruler but the only choice at that time. He was an overconfident ruler, attributing his proclamation to the throne as a result of divine will i.e., Allah had made him the King and only Allah had the power to dethrone him. He also assumed the title of Khalifatullah ("Representative of God"). This title was also represented on his coins.

Some of his most important ministers were Malik Qara Beg (Alauddin’s loyal officer), Ghazi Malik, Malik Fakhruddin Juna (Son of Ghazi Malik), and Khusrau Khan, who became the wazir in the upcoming time.

Administration during Mubarak Shah

Alauddin Khalji was the person who brought all the major reforms during his reign and to which the development of the Delhi Sultanate was attributed. But the coming of Mubarak Shah to power was seen as a disaster from the view of reformation as he undid most of the reforms and spoiled many of the policies made by Alauddin for the betterment of the administration.

He re-gave Ulamas significant power due to which their role in the administration was also raised. Though he continued with Alauddin’s policy for a ban on liquor and intoxicants, the leniency was there, and it was easily bought and sold in the markets. He tried to control the market through price control measures, but this all went in vain as inflation hit the market badly. To access control over the military he rewarded a 6-month salary amount to all the soldiers due to which the financial status was pushed even backward.

Further, some of the good steps taken by him were the releasing of about 18,000 prisoners that were imprisoned by Alauddin, he revived the petition system in the Sultanate, and abolished some of the fairs and taxes. Mubarak Shah was against the use of harsh methods of punishment. His policy was named the policy of forget and forgive. The confiscated lands were given to their original owners.

There has been the mention of the high influence of a Shepherd over Sultan Mubarak Shah, who was raised to the highest position and given regular rewards. The name of the Shepherd was Hassan and he was given the title of Khusrau Khan.

Political crisis during the reign of Mubarak Shah

Mubarak Shah proved to be a weak ruler and this was seen as an opportunity by many of the officers and vassals. The Delhi Sultanate was expanded to the extreme south during the time of Alauddin but gradually the rulers of Deccan and South rose to rebellion or stopped paying tributes to Delhi Sultanate after the death of Alauddin.

• Rebellion in Gujarat: 

The rebellion in Gujarat was more of an army mutiny under the leadership of Haidar and Zirak. The reason behind this is the murder of Alp Khan, the governor of Gujarat by the conspiracy led by Malik Kafur. The revolt rose around the time of the death of Alauddin Khalji. To suppress the revolt, Malik Kafur had ordered the then Devagiri governor ‘Ayn al-Mulk Multani’ to dispatch the forces. The march started but before the march could reach Gujarat, Multani received information about the death of Malik Kafur. This was the time when the army had already reached Chittor, so the army declined to return until further orders from Delhi.

But at the same time, Multani and his soldiers were fearful of whether the new Sultan’s rule would be stable or not. That’s why they decided to wait for about two months even after getting the order to continue the march from Mubarak Shah. This problem was understood by Ghazi Malik (Tughlaq), who had brought the message to Multani about the attack. He marched back to Delhi and advised Mubarak Shah to release a Farman (official notification) about ensuring the military officers and army of their posts in the new regime. The advice was considered and the march to Gujarat continued under the leadership of Multani and Tughlaq leading the vanguard.

The rebellion was suppressed without much use of violence, as Multani convinced most of the rebel leaders to join his forces. Haidar, Zirak, and their supporters managed to escape Gujarat somehow. ‘Malik Dinar Zafar Khan’, father-in-law of Mubarak Shah was appointed as the new Governor of Gujarat.

• The Devagiri crisis:

Devagiri was the kingdom of Yadavas, which has a long history of wars and conflicts with Khaljis. The acquisition of Devagiri was made at the time of Alauddin Khalji and it was made a vassal of the Delhi Sultanate in return for paying regular tributes to the throne. After the 1313 rebellion of Devagiri, Malik Kafur took the charge of Devagiri. But when he was called Delhi due to the health of Alauddin, Multani was made the governor of Devagiri. But soon Multani too was ordered to crush the rebellion in Gujarat.

Taking this as an advantage, the opportunist Yadavas took back control of the throne of Devagiri and declared independence. Harapaladeva (or Hirpal), son-in-law of the former Yadava monarch Ramachandra, and his prime minister Raghava (or Raghu) were at the lead.

Devagiri was an important kingdom in terms of wealth and that’s why Mubarak Shah was eager to recapture Devagiri as soon as possible. But he delayed it for a year after his accession on the advice of his nobles. In 1317, during the second year of his administration, he decided to attack Devagiri himself and marched with a large army. He assigned the administration to his father-in-law Shahin with the title Vafa Malik. 

As the army of Mubarak Shah reached Devagiri, all the local chiefs and officers surrendered without any resistance, except Raghava and Harapaladeva. They both, along with a cavalry of about 10,000 horses fled to the hilly regions near Devagiri. Khusrau Khan and Malik Qutlugh were the main officers who accompanied Mubarak Shah in the attack and they both led an army to follow and pursue Raghava and Harpaladeva. Raghava along with his army was completely besieged by the Delhi army while Harpaladeva after giving a tough resistance to the army of Khusrau Khan was wounded and captured. Mubarak Shah ordered Harpaladeva to be beheaded and his body to be hung at the gates of Devagiri.

Malik Yaklakhi, who had served as Alauddin's Naib-i-Barid-i-Mumalik, was now made the governor of Devagiri.

• Attack on Warangal:

As Devagiri, Warangal was also a vassal state and used to pay tributes to Delhi Sultanate after its conquest under the leadership of Malik Kafur. But now, after the death of Alauddin and Malik Kafur, the kingdom thought of finding the way out and stopped paying the tributes. Mubarak Shah decided to march a part of the army to attack Warangal under the leadership of Khusrau Khan, while Sultan himself for this time resided near Ellora.

The officer sent to accompany Khusrau Khan was Khwaja Haji, who was a part of the earlier siege of Warangal and Malik Qutlugh. The Delhi army soon surrounded the entire kingdom of Warangal, forcing the Kakatiya king Pratapdurga to surrender. Pratapduga surrendered and got ready to negotiate after a little struggle. He once again surrendered a huge wealth and agreed to pay tributes. Along with the entire loot, the army marched towards Delhi and got merged with the rest of the army at the banks of River Narmada.

Khusrau Khan’s Conspiracy

Sultan Mubarak Shah was fond of Khusrau Khan, trusted him blindly, and also promoted him to the highest position. Several of the records also state that Mubarak Shah and Khusrau Khan shared a homosexual relationship.

Khusrau Khan originally is said to belong to a Hindu military caste called Baradu and convinced the Sultan to allow him to raise an army of Baradu Hindus, as all the nobles had their own group of followers. But actually, this was part of a conspiracy to capture the throne. Khusrau Khan’s Baradu included an army of about 10,000 horsemen, commanded by Hindu chiefs. Over time, Khusrau Khan made all the rivals of the Sultan, or the people who were against him, a part of his Badaru. Such as Bahauddin, Yusuf Sahi, and Shaista.

Khusrau Khan also acquired the permission of the Sultan for the entry of some Baradus inside the royal palace. Hence about 300-400 Badarus entered the royal palace and gathered in the former room of Malik Kafur, the place assigned to Khusrau Khan. In July 1320, a huge number of Baradus entered the palace hiding the daggers along with the maternal uncle of Khusrau Khan ‘Randhol’. They killed all the guards and supervisors. At this time, Sultan was on the upper floor along with Khusrau Khan. Jaharya and other Baradus went to the upper floor and killed the chief guards of Khusrau Khan. Sultan realised that this was a rebellion against him and tried to save his life but couldn’t. Khusrau Khan stopped him by holding him by his hair. Jaharya arrived at the location and stabbed Sultan in the chest with an axe. He then beheaded the Sultan. Many of the royal guards were killed while others fled from the palace. All the royal household members who had the Khalji bloodline were killed.

All this led to Khusrau Khan rising to power.