Page:History of India Vol 3.djvu/109

FALL OF QUEEX RAZIYA 79 perfectly innocent so far as any evidence goes, roused the jealousy of the dominant Turks. The slave system had grown stronger by the suc- cessful careers of Aybek and Altamish. The latter had formed a corps of Turkish mamluks known as " the Forty," and these men, profiting by the removal of their sovereign's hand, shared among themselves the wealth and power of the kingdom. The free-born men who had served Altamish with great abilitv in various d? / offices were removed, and all control was in the hands of " the Forty." These Turko- Afghan nobles, called khans, or " lords/' were not likely to endure the insult of seeing an Abyssinian set over them by a partial woman. They rose in rebellion, and though at first the gallant queen made head against them, she was finally taken prisoner by the rebel governor Altuniya, in 1240. Even then she subdued her captor and became his queen, arid the two set forth to regain her throne. But her brother was already proclaimed in her stead; her army was beaten; and Raziya and her husband, deserted by their troops, fled into the jungles and were killed. There is no need to dwell upon the brief and in- glorious reigns of Bahrain and Mas'ud, the one a brother, the other a nephew, of Raziya. The former is described as " a fearless, intrepid, and sanguinary man: still he had some virtues he was shy and un- ceremonious, and had no taste for gorgeous attire." His two years of power were spent in plots and counter- plots, treacherous executions, and cruel murders, and he was killed after a siege of Delhi by the exasperated