Muhammad bin Tughluq

This article is about the Sultan of Delhi. For 1971 film of the same name, see Muhammad bin Tughluq (film). For 1968 play of the same title, see Muhammad bin Tughluq (play).

Tughra of Muhammad bin Tughlaq.

Muhammad Salman Khan Tughluq (Arabic: محمد بن طغلق‎‎) (also Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq, Prince Fakhr Malik, Jauna Khan, Ulugh Khan; died 20 March 1351) was the Turkic Sultan of Delhi through 1324 to 1351. He was the eldest son of Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq. He was born in Kotla Tolay Khan in Multan. His wife was the daughter of the raja of Dipalpur. Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq sent the young Muhammad to the Deccan to campaign against king Prataparudra of the Kakatiya dynasty whose capital was at Warangal in 1321 and 1323. Muhammad succeeded to the Delhi throne upon his father's death in 1325. Muhammad Tughlaq was a scholar of logic, philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, physical sciences and calligraphy. He was also interested in medicine and was skilled in several languages — Persian, Arabic, Turkish and Sanskrit. Ibn Battuta, the famous traveller from Morocco, was a guest at his court. From his accession to the throne in 1325 until his death in 1351, Muhammad contended with 22 rebellions, pursuing his policies consistently and ruthlessly. It is said that he deliberately killed his father Ghiyasudden Tughlaq to ascend the throne of Delhi, although modern historians do not support this theory. From the chronicles of Barani, we came to know that, on his return from a campaign, Ghiyasuddin was watching the parade of the elephants he got as war booty and then the stage along with the Sultan himself, collapsed. It is noteworthy that the salary of the wazir of Muhammed-Bin-Tughlaq was equal to the income of the then Iraq under the Persian Shah.

Reign

As his reign began, Muhammad attempted, without much success, to enlist the services of the ulemas, the Muslim divines, and the sūfīs, the ascetic mystics. Failing to win the ulemās over, he tried to curtail their powers, as some of his predecessors had, by placing them on an equal footing with other citizens. The Sultan wanted to use the sūfīs’ prestigious position to stabilize his authority as ruler. Yet they had always refused any association with government and would not accept any grants or offices except under duress. Muhammad tried every measure, conciliatory or coercive, to yoke them to his political wagon. Although he humiliated them, he could not break their opposition and succeeded only in dispersing them from the towns of northern India.

The transfer of the capital in 1327 to Devagiri (now Daulatabad) was intended to consolidate the conquests in southern India and protect against Mongol incursions. In 1328-9, he ordered a large-scale—in some cases forced—migration of the people of Delhi to Devagiri, a distance of 1,500 km. In effect, it became a "second capital".

Contemporary historians like Barani, Ibn Battuta and Islamic left terrible accounts of the events surrounding the shifting of the capital from Delhi to Daulatabad. Through their writings they showed how the entire city was forced to move leaving a devastated city in its wake. However, the sultan was known to have arranged for all the comforts of the people during their journey to Daulatabad. Shady trees were planted all along the route, free food and water was supplied to the people after every two miles during the journey, and all were provided with means of transport and compensated for the losses which they incurred in leaving their assets at Delhi and all were provided free residence at Daulatabad.

The plan became a failure and the people were allowed to return to Delhi in 1335-7. However, Daulatabad became a center of Islamic learning.

The consequences for Delhi were very grave because not only had he lost her people but also her former prosperity and grandeur. The sultan tried his best to make amends and invited many scholars and artistes to settle in the city. However the impact of this incident was far-reaching and when Ibn Battuta came to Delhi in 1334 he found certain parts of the city still deserted.

There was widespread resentment against the sultan and the bitterness stayed on for years to come. He earned the epithet of ‘pagla Tughlaq’. When he finally died in 1351, one very contemporary observer, Badauni observed, ‘…and so the king was freed from his people, and they from him.’

Between 1328 and 1329 the Sultan increased the land tax, which led the peasants in the Doab region revolted. The Sultan ordered his revenue and military officials to "lay waste and plunder the country" in retaliation. Famine started in 1334-5 and lasted 7 years.

Another failed experiment was the Qarachi expedition of 1333 into Himachal, which resulted in the annihilation of the 10,000 strong army.

Muhammad’s last expedition, against the rebel Ṭaghī, ended with his death near Thatta on 20 March 1351. "He had extended the Delhi empire to its farthest limits, but before his death he lost everything to the south of the Vindhyas."

Collapse of the empire

Tughluq died in 1351 on his way to Thatta, Sindh in order to intervene a war between members of the Gujjar tribe. He had lived to see his empire fall apart. During his reign new kingdoms broke away in south India and the Deccan. Several south Indian rulers like Prolaya Vema Reddy of the Reddy dynasty, Musunuri Kaapaaneedu and the Vijayanagara Empire liberated whole south India from the Delhi Sultanate and the Bahmani kingdom was founded by Hasan Gangu. The unpopularity and failures of this person also led to the collapse of the empire.

Coins

Muhammad Tughlak orders his brass coins to pass for silver, A.D. 1330

Muhammad Bin Tughluq needed to replenish the royal treasury so he decided to issue bronze coins by passing a royal order (firman) that these coins were to be accorded the same value (i.e. same purchasing power) as silver coins. In other words, he wanted the markets to mentally consider bronze as silver itself, so that a 1g coin of bronze could buy the same goods as a 1g coin of silver. However, the bronze coins were very easy to forge, which led to their depreciation, and foreign merchants refusing to do business in India. Eventually, Tughlaq had to withdraw his order, and redeemed the bronze coins for gold and silver. Ziauddin Barani said that after the plan failed, there were heaps of bronze coins lying around the royal offices.

The large influx of gold from his south Indian campaign led him to increase coinage weights (but decrease the percentage of gold in it. This is a form of dilution of the currency and leads to inflation). He enlarged the gold dinar from 172 grains to 202 grains. He introduced a silver coin, the adlis, which was discontinued after seven years due to lack of popularity and acceptance among his subjects.

All his coins reflect a staunch religiosity, with such inscriptions as "The warrior in the cause of God", "The trustier in support of the four Khalifs – Abu Bakr, Umar, Usman and Ali". The kalimah appeared in most of his coinage. Both at Delhi and at Daulatabad coins were minted in memory of his late father. There were also mints at Lakhnauti, Salgaun, Darul-I-Islam, Sultanpur (Warrangal), Tughlaqpur (Tirhut), and Mulk-I-Tilang. More than thirty varieties of bullion coins are known so far, and the types show his numismatic interests.

Following the Chinese example, of using brass or copper tokens, backed by the silver and gold kept in the treasury, Tughluq had two scalable versions, issued in Delhi and Daulatabad. The currency was issued in the two different standards, undoubtedly to follow the local standards which preexisted in the North and in the South respectively. He engraved "He who obeys the Sultan obeys the compassionate" to fascinate people in accepting the new coinage. However, very few people exchanged their gold or silver coins for the new copper ones.

Forced token currency coin

Gallery

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  A coin of Muhammad bin Tughlug
  

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  Brass Forced Token Tanka Hz Dehli Mint

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  Billon Tanka INO Khalifa Haqim

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  Copper Gani

Religious tolerance

Muhammad bin Tughluq was relatively liberal and permitted Hindus and Jains to settle in Delhi. The policy was continued by his cousin Firuz Shah Tughluq, who patronized the Jain monk Mahendra Sūri, who composed the Yantra-rāja, the first Sanskrit text on the astrolabe.

In popular culture

• Muhammad bin Tughluq (Tamil: முகமது பின் துக்ளக்) is a socio-political satire written and first staged by Cho Ramaswamy in 1968.
• Thuglak (Tamil: துக்ளக்) is a weekly Tamil newsmagazine started by Cho Ramaswamy in 1970.
• Muhammad bin Tughlaq is the central character in Tughlaq(Kannada - ತುಗಲಕ್): a play Kannada in thirteen scenes, by Girish Karnad published in 1964.
• Muhammad bin Tughlaq - a 1972 Telugu movie Directed by B.V. Prasad, lead role Nagabhushanam.

External links

• Encyclopædia Britannica – Muhammad ibn Tughluq
• Encyclopædia fastinformativesearch – Muhammad bibn Tughluq

Preceded by Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq

Sultan of Delhi 1325–1351

Succeeded by Firuz Shah Tughluq