Ferouz Shah, the 3rd Sultan of the Turkic Tughlaq Dynasty of North India

Compiled by: Syed Ali Shahbaz
On September 20, 1309 AD, Ferouz Shah, the 3rd Sultan of the Turkic Tughlaq Dynasty of North India, died in Delhi at the age of 79, after a peaceful reign of 37 years. The son of Rajab and a Hindu princess, he succeeded his eccentric cousin, Sultan Mohammad Tughlaq, but ruled a much shrunken empire, as Bengal, Gujarat and the Deccan had already seceded as independent Muslim dynasties.
Ferouz Shah did not pursue any expansionist policy and worked to improve the infrastructure of the parts of the realm under his control, building canals, hospitals, and caravanserais, and creating and refurbishing reservoirs. He founded several cities, including Jaunpur, Ferouzpur and Hissar-Ferouza. In the mid 1350s he built a new city near Delhi, calling it Ferouzabad. Most of that city was destroyed as subsequent rulers dismantled its buildings and reused the materials, while the rest was subsumed as New Delhi was built in the time of the British.
Ferouz Shah Tughlaq kept both the Amirs and Ulema happy so that he could rule the kingdom peacefully. He was ably assisted by his loyal vizier, Malik Maqboul Khan-e Jahan Telangani, who born as Yugandhar in a noble Hindu family of the Kakatiya Kingdom of Warangal, embraced the truth of Islam, and was often referred by the king as 'brother'.
Ferouz Shah was fond of learning and had a large personal library of books in Persian, Arabic and other languages. During his reign Sanskrit books, including Hindu religious works, were translated into Persian. The famous Persian history of his reign is "Tárikh-e Ferouz Shahi" of Shams-e Siraj Afíf. He was followed by a series of weak and indolent rulers, and ten years after his death Hindustan (North India) fell to the fearsome Turkic conqueror, Amir Timur.