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Medieval Muslim court life was an infernal machine with the devilish ruler as its hub and the hierarchy of ax-grinding henchmen for its many cogs.
To keep that machine running it had to be constantly fed with bribery, nepotism, murder, massacre, rape and rapine. The machine used to grind fine and in the process pulverized the Hindus.
The Muslim usurpers and their coterie used to lead a fast life. The machine, as if always ran at full speed emitting deadly stench and heat. Those not insulated against it by matching treachery, lechery and butchery, got badly mauled, singed and ruined. Raziya's life was a graphic example.
Raziya, the orphaned daughter of Altmash, whose sex made her highly vulnerable in Muslim court life, got badly caught up in the fast moving belt of that machine. Rudely thrown off her throne, Raziya's royal honor and womanly modesty, were reduced to smithereens in no time.
Among the many beggarly Muslim graves that litter the Delhi terrain, is one of Raziya. She was taken prisoner at Kaithal and was then brought and killed in the streets of Delhi. Raziya's body is buried where she was murdered, under a humdrum sepulchral mound about a furlong inside the Turkman Gate of Old Delhi.
Altmash's death toward the end of April, 1236 A.D. was followed by the inevitable scramble for the throne among his sons. Sonhood was a very nebulous, all-encompassing status in medieval Muslim court life because the rulers' huge harems used to be more prolific than poultry farms. While the ruler used to be the harem's king-rooster, there were hundreds of others who surreptitiously ruled the roost. The progeny was inevitably ascribed to the Muslim ruler whose kingly chest expanded a little every time a new birth was announced in the harem; each such birth meant an additional feather in the ruler's cap.
Since the royal heirs were countless, the war of succession soon turned into a virtual free for all in which slaves, nephews, bodyguards, cousins, uncles, aunts, grannies, foster- mothers, cooks, servants, eunuchs, footmen, ministers and panderers, all locked in an inextricable mele.
One of Altmash's elder sons, Nasiruddin Mohammed died a premature death. It is said that he died of venereal disease. The youth was a reckless lecherous character. However, that didn't prevent Muslim chroniclers to describe him as a learned, intelligent, brave and benevolent son of the royal family. And it is a pity that India's history books reflect the false records, suppressing the truth and thus harming the educational system irreparably.
Author : Shri Purushottam Nagesh Oak
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