mudnuggur, and Berar, are formed. Yoosoof assumes the title of King — attempts to introduce the Sheea doctrines nearly loses his throne, and is induced to forego his intentions. -The Portuguese take Goa, which is shortly after retaken by Yoosoof Adil Shah. His death and character. ABOOL MOOZUFFUR YOOSOOF ADIL SHAH, the founder of the Adil Shahy dynasty, was the son of one of the emperors of Room, of the Ottoman family. His father, Agha Morad †, A. H. 854. dying in 854†, he was succeeded by his eldest son Mahomed; on which occasion the ministers observed, that as in the beginning of the late reign, a person named Moostufa, calling himself a son of Elderim Bayezeed, occasioned great commotions in the empire, it was desirable that in future only one prince of the family should be suffered to live. Sooltan Mahomed, assenting to the suggestion, gave orders for his brother Yoosoof, then a child, to be put to death; and the executioners came to demand him from his mother, in order that, having strangled him, the body might be publicly exposed. The Queen entreated them to spare the infant; or, if state policy demanded so cruel a sacrifice, to indulge her by deferring the execution for a day, that she might prepare her mind for so melancholy an event. The ministers having consented, the Queen improved the time to save her * Asia Minor. + Amurath II. According to Gibbon, vol. xii. p. 150., Amurath died on the 2d of February, 1451, and was succeeded by Mahomed II., who afterwards took Constantinople. son's life. She accordingly sent for Khwaja Imadood-Deen, a merchant of Sava, with whom she had been in the habit of making purchases of the products of Persia, and enquired if he then had any male slaves for sale. He replied, he had five Georgians, and two Circassians. Among these was a Circassian who, on the whole, bore some resemblance to the Prince; and him she purchased, at the same time committing Yoosoof to the merchant's care, together with a large sum of money, entreating him to convey him to a place of security, out of the Emperor's dominions. The Khwaja, for the sake of the money, accepted the commission, and began his journey, with the infant Prince, the same night. The next morning, the ministers coming to the door of the Queen's apartments, demanded her son; when having admitted one of them, on whom she could rely, candidly informed him of the deception, and bound him to favour it by large gifts. The Circassian slave was accordingly strangled; and the body being brought out, wrapped in a shroud, by the minister, whose integrity was not suspected, it was interred without examination. Khwaja Imad-ood-Deen carried the young prince • Gibbon, vol. xii. chap. Ixviii. p. 186., mentions the fact of Mahomed having, on his accession, ordered all his brothers to be put to death. In a note, also, he says, that one of them, Calipin, was saved, and became a Christian under the name of Callisthus Othomannus. It is, therefore, as probable, that another might also have escaped; and if we are to believe the romantic story regarding Yoosoof, it seems very unlikely that the circumstance should either have been known in Europe, or, at all events, form any portion of European history. The to Ardbeel, where he enrolled him among the disciples of the venerable Sheikh Suffy; after which he conveyed him to the city of Sava. When he was seven years of age the Khwaja made known to him the secret of his birth, and placed him at school with his own children. The next year the Queen sent a person to Sava to enquire after her child; and the messenger, after an absence of nine months, departed homewards, but was taken so ill at Alexandria, that he remained there a year and a half; after which he returned to the Queen, and presented her with a letter written by Yoosoof, giving her pleasing accounts of himself. Princess bestowed alms to the poor in gratitude for the preservation of her son; and shortly after sent his nurse, with her son Ghuzunfur Beg*, and her daughter Dilshad Agha, to Sava, accompanied by her former messenger, as also a large sum of money for the use of the Prince. Yoosoof remained at Sava till he was sixteen years old, when his nurse imprudently divulged the secret of his birth, which having come to the ears of the governor, a Toork of the tribe of Akkooinloo, he made the Prince pay him four hundred tomans †, to permit him to quit the place in safety. Yoosoof intended to remain at Koom till the governor of Sava should be removed; but after some time, * Ghuzunfur Beg accompanied Yoosoof Adil Khan to India, and was his most distinguished general after he ascended the throne at Beejapoor. Ghuzunfur Beg's sister, Dilshad Agha, also became very conspicuous in the insurrection which nearly cost Ismael Adil Shah his life. ↑ 400l. having left Koom, he proceeded to Kashan, Isfahan, and eventually to Shiraz, where a story is told that the prophet Khizr appeared to him in a dream, directing him to quit Persia and go to Hindoostan, where he should attain to sovereign power. Yoosoof accordingly left Shiraz, went to the sea-coast, and embarking at Gombroon for India, reached Dabul in the year 864. On his arrival there he became acquainted with Khwaja Mahmood Goorjistany, a merchant who had come to that port on business. Yoosoof's appearance and manners (being at that time only seventeen years of age) were at once striking and engaging, for he had received a liberal education at Sava. The Khwaja prevailed on him to accompany him to Ahmudabad Bidur, where he was sold, as a Georgian slave, to the minister Khwaja Mahmood Gawan for the royal bodyguard. This account the author received from Mirza Mahomed of Sava, the son of Gheias-oodDeen, prime minister of Yoosoof Adil Khan at the time he declared his independence at Beejapoor, under the designation of Yoosoof Adil Shah. The same story is related by Shah Jumalood-Deen Hoossein, the son of Shah Hoossein Anjoo, in his history; as also by Khwaja Nuzr, a member of the Bahmuny family. At the period of the marriage of Beeby Musseety* to the Prince Ahmud at Koolburga, that Princess took her seat above all the other ladies; and on remonstrance being made to her afterwards, she replied, as the daughter of Yoosoof Adil Shah, and the niece and * Daughter of Yoosoof Adil Shah. grand-daughter of two emperors of Room, she certainly considered herself inferior to no lady in the Deccan. Ameer Bereed of Bidur was afterwards at the trouble of sending persons to Constantinople to endeavour to falsify this statement; but the corroborating facts were so strong that the subject was not again agitated. Yoosoof Adil Khan is said to have derived the appellation of Savaee from the circumstance of his having been educated at Sava. After two or three months, Khwaja Mahmood Gawan, with the approbation of the Queen-mother, placed Yoosoof under Azeez Khan, master of the horse; who finding him fit for the task, and being old and infirm himself, committed to him the whole duty of his department; by which Yoosoof had frequent opportunities of going into the presence of Mahomed Shah, whose notice he attracted. On the death of Azeez Khan (at the recommendation of Khwaja Mahmood Gawan) he succeeded to the office of master of the horse; but not agreeing with the bramin who kept the accounts, he resigned the office, and attached himself to Nizam-ool-Moolk Toork, one of the nobles at court, whose friendship he acquired to such a degree that he used to call him brother. On Nizam-ool-Moolk's being appointed governor of Berar, he procured for his friend the title of Adil Khan, with the rank of a commander of five hundred horse, and took him with him. Nizamool-Moolk was afterwards killed at Kehrla +; when The Portuguese historians call him, indifferently, Sabayo and the Hydalcan. † Vide vol. ii. p. 480. |