THE people, who for many years and for generations had been natives and inhabitants of the land, were broken-hearted. Many, from the toils of the long journey, perished on the road, and those who arrived at Deogir could not endure the pain of exile.*
In despondency they pined to death. All around Deogir, which is an infidel land, there sprung up graveyards of Muslims. The Sultan was bounteous in his liberality and favours to the emigrants, both on their journey and on their arrival; but they were tender, and they could not endure the exile and suffering. They laid down their heads in that heathen land, and of all the multitudes of emigrants, few only survived to return to their home. Thus this city, the envy of the cities of the inhabited world, was reduced to ruin. The Sultan brought learned men and gentlemen, tradesmen and landholders, into the city [Delhi] from certain towns in his territory, and made them reside there.* But this importation of strangers did not populate the city; many of them died there, and more returned to their native homes. These changes and alterations were the cause of great injury to the country.
some names modernised
* Ibn Battuta confirms that the Sultan soon revised his policy, but the harm had been done. “Sometime after, he wrote to the inhabitants of different provinces, commanding them to go to Delhi and repeople it. They ruined their own countries, but they did not populate Delhi, so vast and immense is that city. In fact, it is one of the greatest cities in the universe. When we entered this capital we found it in the state which has been described. It was empty, abandoned, and had but a small population.”