Page:History of India Vol 3.djvu/129

THE ACCESSION OF ALA -AD -DIN 99 and took up his residence in the Red Palace. His poli- tic conciliation of the late king's officers was abandoned as soon as the royal family were safely caged; but the new Sultan's wrath, curiously enough, fell upon those of the officials and nobles who had deserted Firoz and taken his murderer's money. All of them were arrested and locked up. " Some were blinded and some were killed. The wealth which they had received from Ala- ad-din, and their property, goods, and effects were all seized. Their houses were confiscated to the Sultan, and their villages were brought into the public exchequer. Nothing was left to their children; their retainers and followers were taken in charge by the amirs who sup- ported the new regime, and their establishments were overthrown." The only three of the officers of Firoz who were spared were three who had never abandoned him nor taken gold from his supplanter. " They alone remained safe, but all the other Jalali nobles were cut up root and branch." It w r as a lesson for turn- coats. We have other details of the same kind preserved in the writings of Ziyad-ad-din Barani, the historian of the period. Barani 's father and uncle were both in Ala-ad-din's employ, the one as deputy at Baran, the other at Karra and Oudh. The historian therefore had ample means of information regarding the Sultan and his manner of government, even if the statements be not always wholly trustworthy. Sultan Ala-ad-din, who entered upon his reign with these trenchant measures, was first and foremost a sol-