l authority at Delhi. The invasion of Taimur
(1388-9) dealt a fatal blow to an authority already crumbling. The
chief authority lingered indeed for twelve years in the hands of the
then representative, Sultan Mahmud. It then passed for a time into
the hands of a family which did not claim the royal title. This
family, known in history as the Saiyid dynasty, ruled nominally in
Northern India for about thirty-three years, but the rule had no
coherence, and a powerful Afghan of the Lodi family took the
opportunity to endeavour to concentrate power in his own hands.

The Muhammadan rule in India had indeed become by this time the rule
of several disjointed chiefs over several disjointed provinces,
subject in point of fact to no common head. Thus, in 1450, Delhi,
with a small territory around it, was held by the {28} representative
of the Saiyid family. Within fourteen miles of the capital, Ahmad
Khan ruled independently in Mewat. Sambhal, or the province now known
as Rohilkhand, extending to the very walls of Delhi, was occupied by
Darya Khan Lodi. Jalesar, now the Itah district, by Isa Khan Turk:
the district now known as Farukhabad by Raja Partab Singh: Biana by
Daud Khan Lodi: and Lahore, Dipalpur, and Sirhind, as far south as
Panipat, by Behlul Lodi. Multan, Jaunpur, Bengal, Malwa, and Gujarat,
each had its separate king.

Over most of these districts, and as far eastward as the country
immediately to the north of Western Bihar, Behlul Lodi, known as
Sultan Behlul, succeeded on the disappearance of the Saiyids in
asserting his sole authority, 1450-88. His son and successor, Sultan
Sikandar Lodi, subdued Behar, invaded Bengal, which, however, he
subsequently agreed to yield to Allah-u-din, its sovereign, and not
to invade it again; and overran a great portion of Central India. On
his death, in 1518, he had concentrated under his own rule the
territories now known as the Punjab; the North-western Provinces,
including Jaunpur; a great part of Central India; and Western Bihar.
But, in point of fact, the concentration was little more than
nominal. The Afghan nobles, to whom from necessity the Lodi Sultan
committed the charge of the several districts, were indeed bound to
their sovereign by a kind of feudal tenure, but within the circle of
his own charge each of them made his own will {29} absolute, and
insisted on obedience to his decrees alone.

The result of this arrangement was that when Sultan Sikandar died the
sever