Nasir-ud-Din Mahmud Shah II (; d. February 1413), also known as Nasiruddin Mohammad Shah, was the last sultan of the

Tughlaq dynasty The Tughlaq dynasty (also known as the Tughluq or Tughluk dynasty; ) was the third dynasty to rule over the Delhi Sultanate in medieval India. Its reign started in 1320 in Delhi when Ghazi Malik assumed the throne under the title of Ghiyath ...

to rule the

Delhi Sultanate The Delhi Sultanate or the Sultanate of Delhi was a Medieval India, late medieval empire primarily based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent for more than three centuries.

History

War of succession with Nusrat Shah

Nasiruddin Mahmud was a son of sultan

Nasir ud din Muhammad Shah III Nasir-ud-din Muhammad Shah III () was Sultan of Delhi from 1390 until 1394. He was a member of the Tughlaq dynasty. Life When Sultan Abu Bakr Shah Tughluq became ruler of the Tughlaq dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, Muhammad Shah as his unc ...

, who ruled the Delhi Sultanate from 31 August 1390 to 20 January 1394. Upon his death, his older son Ala ud-din Sikandar Shah became sultan, but he soon died of illness on 8 March 1394, and his younger brother Nasiruddin Mahmud succeeded him. However, the succession was challenged by his relative Nusrat Shah (also known as Nasrat Khan), triggering a war of succession that lasted for three years from 1394 until 1397. During this time, Nasiruddin Mahmud ruled from the city of

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

, while Nusrat Shah ruled from

Firozabad Firozabad () is a city near Agra in Firozabad district in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. It is the centre of India's glassmaking industry and is known for the quality of the bangles and glassware produced here. During the reign of Akba ...

Invasion of Timur

During Nasiruddin Mahmud's reign in 1398,

Timur Timur, also known as Tamerlane (1320s17/18 February 1405), was a Turco-Mongol conqueror who founded the Timurid Empire in and around modern-day Afghanistan, Iran, and Central Asia, becoming the first ruler of the Timurid dynasty. An undefeat ...

the Chagatai ruler invaded India. They clashed in a decisive battle near

. Timur eventually won and entered the city where he then massacred the population. He obtained a substantial number of treasures from the Delhi court that was accumulated by the Turco-Afghan predecessors over a period of 192 years (1206 CE-1398 CE). Soon after the invasion by

, the

fell into decline and eventually came to an end. The

Timurids The Timurid Empire was a late medieval, culturally Persianate, Turco-Mongol empire that dominated Greater Iran in the early 15th century, comprising modern-day Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, much of Central Asia, the South Caucasus, and parts of contem ...

took much of the wealth away from

such as gold back to their capital of

Samarkand Samarkand ( ; Uzbek language, Uzbek and Tajik language, Tajik: Самарқанд / Samarqand, ) is a city in southeastern Uzbekistan and among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central As ...

. This resulted in the significant weakening of the

and many regions of the sultanate began to declare their independence such as the

Gujarat Sultanate The Gujarat Sultanate or Sultanate of Gujarat was a late medieval Islamic Indian kingdom in Western India, primarily in the present-day state of Gujarat. The kingdom was established in 1394 when Muzaffar Shah I, the Governor of Gujarat, decla ...

under

Muzaffar Shah I Shams-ud-Din Muzaffar Shah I (born Zafar Khan; 30 June 1342 – 10 January 1411) was the founder of the Muzaffarid dynasty in Medieval India, reigning over the Gujarat Sultanate from 1391 to 1403 and again from 1404 to 1411. He was appoint ...

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

, the

Khokhar Khokhar () is a historical Punjabi clan primarily native to the Salt Range of Pakistani Punjab. Khokhars are also found in the Indian states of Punjab and Haryana. Khokhars predominantly follow Islam, having converted to Islam from Hinduism ...

s under Shaikha Khokhar in

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

, the

Bengal Sultanate The Bengal Sultanate (Middle Bengali: , Classical Persian: ) was a Post-classical history, late medieval sultanate based in the Bengal region in the eastern South Asia between the 14th and 16th century. It was the dominant power of the Ganges- ...

under

Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah Ghiyasuddin A'zam Shah (, ) was the third Sultan of Bengal and the Ilyas Shahi dynasty. He was one of the most prominent medieval Bengali sultans. He established diplomatic relations with the Ming Empire of China, pursued cultural contacts with ...

Bengal Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...

, the

Jaunpur Sultanate The Jaunpur Sultanate () was a late medieval Indian Muslim state which ruled over much of what is now the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and southern Nepal between 1394 and 1494. It was founded in 1394 by Khwajah-i-Jahan Malik Sarwar ...

under

Malik Sarwar Sultan-ush-Sharq Atabak-i-Azam Malik Sarwar was the first sultan of the Jaunpur Sultanate and the founder of the Sharqi dynasty. Early life Malik Sarwar was an eunuch of common birth, possibly a slave of African descent, in the Delhi Sultanate. ...

Awadh Awadh (), known in British Raj historical texts as Avadh or Oudh, is a historical region in northern India and southern Nepal, now constituting the North-central portion of Uttar Pradesh. It is roughly synonymous with the ancient Kosala Regio ...

and

Mewat State The Mewat State was a sovereign kingdom ruled by the Khanzadas of Mewat. They were a ruling dynasty of Muslim Rajputs from Rajputana who had their capital at Alwar. The Khanzadas were Muslim Rajputs who descended from Raja Sonpar Pal who was a ...

under Khanzada Bahadur Khan in

Mewat Mewat (; ) is a historical and cultural region which encompasses parts of the modern-day states of Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh in northwestern India. Geography The loose boundaries of the Mewat region generally include parts of th ...

. Due to these regions breaking away, the

shrunk significantly and began to weaken.

Successor

Nasir-ud-Din Mahmud Shah Tughluq died in February 1413. The succeeding sultan of the

was

Khizr Khan Khizr Khan (reigned 28 May 1414 – 20 May 1421) was the founder of the Sayyid dynasty, the fourth ruling dynasty of the Delhi sultanate, in northern India soon after the invasion of Timur and the fall of the Tughlaq dynasty. Khizr Khan was Go ...

, the first of the

Sayyid dynasty The Sayyid dynasty was the fourth dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, with four rulers ruling from 1414 to 1451 for 37 years.See: * M. Reza Pirbha, Reconsidering Islam in a South Asian Context, , Brill * The Islamic frontier in the east: Expansion ...

was the governor of

Multan Multan is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, fifth-most populous city in the Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab province of Pakistan. Located along the eastern bank of the Chenab River, it is the List of cities in Pakistan by populatio ...

and was appointed as the

Sultan Sultan (; ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be use ...

himself. Khizr Khan had to pay tribute however to the

References

Tughluq sultans

Tughluq The Tughlaq dynasty (also known as the Tughluq or Tughluk dynasty; ) was the third dynasty to rule over the Delhi Sultanate in medieval India. Its reign started in 1320 in Delhi when Ghazi Malik assumed the throne under the title of Ghiyath a ...

14th-century Indian monarchs 15th-century Indian monarchs {{India-hist-stub