Chapter I: Preface: To the Original Edition

The success of the several series of “Romantic Tales of History” already published has induced the publishers of these works to extend them in order to embrace a portion of history generally considered extremely exuberant in romantic features. The present series will be confined to the Mahomedan conquests in India, in the records of which are to be found numerous events of signal and stirring interest, which, while they develope the character of a distant people in a remote age, serve also to confirm many fine axioms of moral truth by exhibiting how, under all the variations of clime and fluctuations of circumstance, the great result of human actions is everywhere the same.

This being a portion of history with which the general reader is less familiar than with that embraced in the preceding series of this work, the choice has been made under the impression that it may lead to a more extended reading of those annals which contain some of the most interesting facts to be found in the records of ages.

But while I feel that the subject is an important one, I have not been insensible to the difficulties with which it is encompassed, and in proportion to the success of those volumes already before the public has my consciousness of these difficulties been raised, for, feeling that I have had greater impediments to success to overcome, I cannot but be less sanguine in the expectation that I have realized what has been so well done by my predecessors in a similar field.

Romantic as are many of the events which the Mahomedan annals supply, they are nevertheless all of one tone and colouring. They want the delightful blendings and tintings of social circumstances. Their princes were despots, their nobles warriors, their governments tyrannies, and their people slaves. The lives of their most eminent men, who were distinguished chiefly for their deeds in arms, present little else than a series of battles. Their principal amusement was the chase, in which similar perils to those presented in war were courted for the stern glory which followed desperate achievements.

If, therefore, in the following tales the variety should appear less than in those found in the volumes of the same work which have preceded these, the cause, and consequently the excuse, must lie in the materials. Besides this, those beautiful features of domestic life so frequently witnessed in our western world have little or no existence in the land to which the present volumes are devoted. Women confined in harems, and not admitted to the tender and endearing enjoyments of family intercourse, degraded below the dignity of their nature and of their reason, treated as secondary beings, as mere instruments of pleasure, and as created for no better purpose than to perpetuate the human race, are no longer objects either for the rich colouring of romance or the graver delineations of moral narrative.

Great variety of character is not to be found among those isolated beings who are so well calculated to cast a glory upon the human pilgrimage,--not that variety of character does not exist, but it is not developed. All the pictures of life, therefore, among such a community will necessarily possess a certain sameness inseparable from their very nature. I have, however, endeavoured to vary the materials as much as was consistent with the régime of the history, though I sometimes found them very intractable. I can scarcely hope that I have succeeded in a labour of no common difficulty, but trust, nevertheless, that this last series of “Romantic Tales of History” may not be found undeserving of public patronage.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

THE TRAVELLER’S DREAM 3

THE IDOL OF SOMNAT 23

THE ROYAL MERCHANT 71

THE ABYSSINIAN SLAVE 100

THE RAJPOOT MARRIAGE 125

THE MAHOMEDAN NIMROD 167

THE RIVAL BROTHERS 203

THE SIEGE OF GUALIOR 240

THE PARIAH 266

THE DEFENCE OF CHITTORE 304

THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD 335

THE PRINCE AND THE FAKEER 393

THE OMRAH’S DAUGHTER 424

THE REVOLT OF THE FAKEERS 456

THE MAHRATTA CHIEF 474

HISTORICAL SUMMARY.

Heg. 351. (A.D. 962.)--Aluptugeen, governor of Khorassan, broke out into open rebellion and marched to Ghizny, which he subdued, and there established an independent power. Munsoor, King of Bokhara, hearing of this defection, conferred the government of Khorassan upon Abool-Hussun Mahomed, son of Ibrahim Sunjur Toorkoman, and thrice sent armies to attack Aluptugeen, which were on both occasions defeated. Aluptugeen retained his independence fifteen years, during which his general Subooktugeen frequently defeated the Indians.

Heg. 365. (975.)--Aluptugeen died, and was succeeded by his son Aboo Isaac, who survived his accession but two years.

Heg. 367. (977.)--Subooktugeen was unanimously proclaimed king of Ghizny by the nobles and chiefs. He had married the daughter of Aluptugeen, and became as celebrated for his justice in the administration of his government as for the extraordinary popularity he acquired among his subjects of all conditions. During the first year of his accession, Subooktugeen conquered the province of Candahar. Resolving on a war with India, he marched in that direction, and having taken certain forts, caused mosques to be built, and then returned with considerable spoil to Ghizny.

Jeipal, a powerful prince of India, of the Brahmin caste, raised a numerous body of troops to oppose the Mahomedans, and brought together a great number of elephants, with a design to attack them in their own country; but the King of Ghizny, sending an army to oppose the Indian chief, the hostile forces came in sight of each other on the confines of Lumghan. Here some smart skirmishing ensued, and Mahmood, the son of Subooktugeen, afterwards celebrated as the conqueror of India, though then but a boy, gave proofs of that valour and conduct which so eminently distinguished his future life.

Jeipal’s troops having suffered from a dreadful storm of hail which killed the cattle of the army and several thousand soldiers, their general made proposals for peace, which, contrary to the advice of Mahmood, were accepted by the King of Ghizny.

Jeipal, on reaching his capital, refused to fulfil the conditions, and Subooktugeen again marched his forces towards Lahore. The Indian general advanced to meet and give him battle. The Hindoos were everywhere defeated, and pursued with prodigious slaughter to the banks of the Neelab. By this victory the conqueror acquired immense wealth, and a considerable accession of territory, causing himself to be acknowledged king over the conquered country, and appointing one of his officers with ten thousand horse to the government of Pishawur.

About this time died Munsoor, King of Bokhara; he was succeeded by his son Nooh, against whom a formidable rebellion was raised by a chief named Faik. Nooh having formed an alliance with the King of Ghizny, the rebel was attacked and defeated by the latter, for which signal service the sovereign of Bokhara conferred upon Subooktugeen the title of Nasir-ood-Deen, Hero of the Faith; and upon his son Mahmood that of Syf-ood-Dowla, Sword of the State.

The rebel Faik having again collected his forces, attacked Mahmood unexpectedly and defeated him, taking his baggage. The father hearing of his son’s disaster, marched to his relief, routed the insurgents a second time, and thus completely quashed the rebellion.

Heg. 387. (997.)--Subooktugeen fell into a lingering disorder. Being at this time at Bulkh, he determined to try change of air, and accordingly commenced a journey to Ghizny. He had travelled only a few miles when he was obliged to stop at Toormooz, a town not far from Bulkh, where he expired, his remains being carried to Ghizny for interment.

The Traveller’s Dream.