The Sultan Poem by Sadiqullah Khan

‘Now my mind is tranquil and my wrath appeased.’
The Sultan

The Sultan Muhammad Bin Tughlaq mounted one night
To the roof of his palace, and looked out over Delhi,
Where there was neither fire nor smoke nor lamp, and
Hath thus said, as above. Ibn Battuta.

The only cripple left was hanged,
And the blind dragged to Daulat Abad.
Words fail, and the ferocity unleashed
On the inhabitants of the capital and everywhere.

O terror, yours are horrifying tales,
O cruelty, yours is a test on human suffering,
O tyrants, of your little hands,
And O bravery, of the commonalty harboring –
Insane and lunatic despots.

May the Great Almighty save us!
And make us resolve,
Never to let it happen, never ever again.

-Ibn Battutah reached Delhi via Kabul and Multan in 1334 and remained there for 7 years. In Delhi the Khilji dynasty had given way to another Turkish dynasty, the Tughlaqs in 1320. Muhammed Bin Tughlaq was ruling in Delhi when Ibn Battuta lived there. “This king is of all men the most addicted to the making of gifts and the shedding of blood. His gate is never without some poor man enriched or some living man executed....”

Sadiqullah Khan
Gilgit
June 8,2015.