Note 41 — PART I.—DESCRIPTION.

In a.d. 1453, though defeated, Mehmúd brought back from Gujarát the jewelled waistbelt of Gujarát, which in a daring charge he had taken from the tent of the Gujarát king Kutb-ud-dín Sháh.41 In a.d. 1441 Mehmúd’s father died at Mandisor. Mehmúd felt the loss so keenly that he tore his hair like one bereft of reason.42 After his father’s death Mehmúd made his son Ghiás-ud-dín minister, and conferred the command of the army and the title of Aâzam Humáyún on his kinsman Táj Khán. In a.d. 1469, after a reign of thirty-four years (a.d. 1436–1469) of untiring energy and activity Mehmúd died. Farishtah says of him: “His tent was his home: the field of battle his resting-place. He was polite, brave, just, and learned. His Hindu and Musalmán subjects were happy and friendly. He guarded his lands from invaders. He made good his loss to any one who suffered from robbery in his dominions, recovering the amount from the village in whose lands the robbery had taken place, a system which worked so well that theft and robbery became almost unknown. Finally, by a systematic effort he freed the country from the dread of wild beasts.”43