Firuz Shah Tughlaq

(?-1388)

   He was the son of Ghiyas al-Din Tughlaq's younger brother Sipah-salar Rajab by a Rajput wife. Firuz was proclaimed sultan by the nobles present in the army at the time of Muhammad bin Tughlaq's death (1351) in Sind during a military campaign. On reaching Delhi, Firuz Shah put to death Ah-mad bin Ayaz Khwaja Jahan, the wazir of the deceased sultan, for having placed a young boy of doubtful ancestry on the throne in the intervening period.

   Firuz Shah Tughlaq made a demonstrative break with Muhammad bin Tughlaq's repressive policy toward the nobles. By making as-signments (iqta's) to continue in most cases from fathers to sons, Firuz Shah enhanced the prestige as well as the clout of the nobles within their charges. There was no serious attempt to reassert the im-perial authority over the Deccan, Bengal, and Sind. This radically eased the tension between the central authority and nobles adminis-tering different provinces.

   Firuz Shah is remembered for his building of canals and barrages as a part of an attempt to extend agriculture in the famine-prone tract around Delhi. A positive aspect of his attitude of adhering strictly to the Islamic shariah was the abolition of barbaric punishments that were often meted out by earlier sultans to captured rebels; the aboli-tion of various taxes not permitted by the sacred law was another pos-itive aspect of this policy. But this policy also resulted in an attempt to impose the discriminatory jiziya on Hindus living in the towns, which led to protests by sections of the Hindu population of Delhi. Firuz Shah also demolished some of the temples within the Delhi sul-tanate that had purportedly been built during the previous reigns without the formal permission of the sultans. His demolition of an-cient temples at Kangra and Puri in the course of military campaigns were, in any case, a naked display of religious intolerance and van-dalism that had no justification in the Islamic shariah. See also FU-TUHAT-I FIRUZ SHAHI.