Editing Muhammad bin Tughluq (section)

== Moving of the capital ==

[[File:Map of the Delhi Sultanate.png|thumb|Map of the Delhi Sultanate under Muhammad bin Tughlaq]]

In 1327, Tughluq ordered to move his capital from Delhi to [[Daulatabad Fort|Daulatabad]]  (also known as Devagiri) (in present-day [[Maharashtra]]) in the [[Deccan Plateau|Deccan region]] of India. Muhammad bin Tughlaq himself had spent a number of years as a prince on campaign in the southern states during the reign of his father. Daulatabad was also situated at a central place so the administration of both the north and the south could be possible.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.historydiscussion.net/biography/biography-of-muhammad-bin-tughluq-1325-1351/3044|title=Biography of Muhammad-Bin-Tughluq (1325–1351)|date=13 January 2015|website=History Discussion – Discuss Anything About History|language=en-US|access-date=17 May 2016|archive-date=15 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160815234330/http://www.historydiscussion.net/biography/biography-of-muhammad-bin-tughluq-1325-1351/3044|url-status=live}}</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=September 2016}} These elite colonists from Delhi were [[Urdu-speaking people|Urdu-speakers]], who carried the [[Urdu language]] to the Deccan.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j2F9BgAAQBAJ&dq=colonists+dakhni&pg=PA42 |title=The Sufis of Bijapur, 1300–1700 |date=2015 |author=Richard Maxwell Eaton |publisher=Princeton University Press |page=41 |isbn=978-1-4008-6815-5 |access-date=19 March 2023 |archive-date=7 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230607093943/https://books.google.com/books?id=j2F9BgAAQBAJ&dq=colonists+dakhni&pg=PA42 |url-status=live }}</ref> These immigrants included [[Ala-ud-Din Bahman Shah|Hasan Gangu]], a celebrated general who would later found the [[Bahmani Sultanate|Bahmanid Empire]].<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=O_WNqSH4ByQC |page= 34 |title=Mediaeval Deccan History: Commemoration Volume in Honour of Purshottam Mahadeo Joshi |date= 1996 |publisher= Popular Prakashan |author1=A. Rā Kulakarṇī |author2=M. A. Nayeem |author3=Teotonio R. De Souza |isbn= 978-81-7154-579-7 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=9PYRAAAAYAAJ&dq=for+the+first+thirty+years+of+his+life+labourer&pg=PA15 |title= A History of the Deccan|volume= 1 |page= 16 |author= Gribble |date= 1896 |publisher= Luzac and Company |access-date= 19 March 2023 |archive-date= 10 May 2023 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230510212646/https://books.google.com/books?id=9PYRAAAAYAAJ&dq=for+the+first+thirty+years+of+his+life+labourer&pg=PA15 |url-status= live }}</ref>

A broad road was constructed for convenience. Shady trees were planted on both sides of the road; he set up halting stations at an interval of two miles. Provisions for food and water were also made available at the stations but most of the people died during the shifting as the ruler was not able to provide them with enough food and water for their survival. Tughluq established a [[khanqah]] at each of the stations where at least one [[sufi]] saint was stationed. A regular postal service was established between Delhi and Daulatabad. In 1329, his mother also went to Daulatabad, accompanied by the nobles. By around the same year, Tughluq summoned all the slaves, nobles, servants, [[ulema]], sufis to the new capital.<ref name=":2" /> The new capital was divided into wards called ''mohalla'' with separate quarters for different people like soldiers, poets, judges, and nobles Grants were also given by Tughluq to the immigrants. Even though the citizens migrated, they showed dissent. According to Ibn Batuta's accounts, the reason for the transfer of capital was that Tughluq shifted the capital  for protection from Mongol and Afghan Invasion which was later confirmed by Historian Garner Brown. In the process, many died on the road due to hunger and exhaustion as there were not enough resources. Moreover, coins minted in Daulatabad around 1333, showed that Daulatabad was "the second capital".{{sfn|Chandra|2004|p=101}}

In 1334, there was a rebellion in [[Madurai|Mabar]], led by the North Indian Muslim soldier, [[Jalaluddin Ahsan Khan|Jalaluddin Ahsan Khan Kaithali]], a native of [[Kaithal]] in [[North India]], who founded the [[Madurai Sultanate]].<ref>{{Cite book |page=142 |author=Qanungo |title=Historical Essays |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KUIQAAAAIAAJ&q=Besides+the+above+-+mentioned+Sayyid+Hasan+Kaithali+,+Tarikh |date=1960 |quote=Sayyid Hassan Kaithali...half a dozen Hasans, each distinguished from the other by an epithet indicative either of domicile or of birth |access-date=19 March 2023 |archive-date=7 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230607093941/https://books.google.com/books?id=KUIQAAAAIAAJ&q=Besides+the+above+-+mentioned+Sayyid+Hasan+Kaithali+,+Tarikh |url-status=live }}</ref> While on his way to suppress the rebellion, there was an outbreak of [[bubonic plague]] at [[Bidar]] due to which Tughluq himself became ill, and many of his soldiers died. While he retreated back to Daulatabad, Mabar and Dwarsamudra broke away from Tughluq's control. This was followed by a revolt in [[Bengal Sultanate|Bengal]]. Fearing that the sultanate's northern borders were exposed to attacks, in 1335, he decided to shift the capital back to [[Delhi]], forcing the citizens to return to their previous city.<ref name=":2" /> This caused many more deaths.

=== Impact ===
While most of the Medieval historians, including Barani and Ibn Battuta, tend to have implied that Delhi was entirely emptied (as is famously mentioned by Barani that not a dog or cat was left), it is generally believed that this is an exaggeration. Such exaggerated accounts simply imply that [[Delhi Sultanate|Delhi]] suffered a downfall in its stature and trade. Besides, it is believed that only the powerful and nobility suffered hardships if any. Two Sanskrit inscriptions dated 1327 and 1328 C.E. confirm this view and establish the prosperity of the Hindus of Delhi and its vicinity at that time.<ref name=":0" />

Although this decision was unpopular among the Muslim elite, one impact of this decision was that Islamic rule in [[Deccan]] lasted centuries longer than Delhi's own unstable authority over the south. If not for Tughlaq's creation of a Muslim elite at Daulatabad, there would have been no stable Muslim power like the [[Bahmani Sultanate]] to check the rising power of the Hindu [[Vijayanagara Empire]].<ref>{{cite book |author= P.M. Holt, Ann K.S. Lambton, Bernard Lewis |title= The Cambridge History of Islam|volume =2A |url= https://archive.org/stream/CambridgeHistoryOfIslamVol2B/Cambridge%20History%20of%20Islam%20Vol%202A#page/n31/mode/2up |publisher= Cambridge University Press |date= 1977 | page= 15}}</ref>