d in them at the
prescribed times, and always went to prayers five times a day
himself.[10] He was rigidly temperate himself in his habits, and
discouraged all intemperance in others. These things secured him
panegyrists throughout the empire during the twenty-seven years that
he reigned over it, though perhaps he was the most detestable tyrant
that ever filled a throne. He would take his armies out over the most
populous and peaceful districts, and hunt down the innocent and
unoffending people like wild beasts, and bring home their heads by
thousands to hang them on the city gates for his mere amusement. He
twice made the whole people of the city of Delhi emigrate with him to
Daulatabad in Southern India, which he wished to make the capital,
from some foolish fancy; and during the whole of his reign gave
evident signs of being in an unsound state of mind.[11] There was at
the time of his father's death a saint at Delhi named Nizamuddin
Aulia, or the Saint, who was supposed by supernatural means to have
driven from Delhi one night in a panic a large army of Moghals under
Tarmasharin, who invaded India from Transoxiana in 1303, and laid
close siege to the city of Delhi, in which the Emperor Ala-ud-din was
shut up without troops to defend himself, his armies being engaged in
Southern India.[12] It is very likely that he did strike this army
with a panic by getting some of their leaders assassinated in one
night. He was supposed to have the 'dast ul ghaib', or supernatural
purse' [literally, 'invisible hand'], as his private expenditure is
said to have been more lavish even than that of the Emperor himself,
while he had no ostensible source of income whatever. The Emperor was
either jealous of his influence and display, or suspected him of dark
crimes, and threatened to humble him when he returned to Delhi. As he
approached the city, the friends of the saint, knowing the resolute
spirit of the Emperor, urged him to quit the capital, as he had been
often heard to say, 'Let me but reach Delhi, and this proud priest
shall be humbled'.

The only reply that the saint would ever deign to give from the time
the imperial army left Bengal, till it was within one stage of the
capital, was '_Dihli dur ast_'; 'Delhi is still far off'. This is now
become a proverb over the East equivalent to our 'There is many a
slip between the cup and the lip'. It is probable that the saint had
some understanding with the son in his plans for the mu