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FAMINES IN THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT, 1500 to 1767
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1525 (a) [to 1526]: Gujarat1525 map
Documented causes: drought
Documented effects: hardship alleviated by official action

M.S. Commissariat, "A Brief History of the Gujarat Saltanat (Part II)" (in "Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society" vol. 25 no. 2, 1920)
p289: [reign of Muzaffar II in Gujarat] "Muzaffar Shah died in 1525, and the details of his last illness illustrate a singularly unselfish and amiable character. The rains had failed, and the tender-hearted Sultan could not bear the sight of the unhappy victims of the famine that afflicted the land. He lifted up his hands in prayer to God and said: 'O Lord, if for any faults of mine my people are afflicted, take me from this world, and leave my people unharmed, and relieve them from this drought.' Since the prayers of a Sultan are entitled to acceptance, 'the arrow of his prayers reached its mark, and the rain of mercy fell from the heavens.' From this time the king's health began to fail. One day he was listening to the reading of the Quran, and observed: 'I read more of the Quran now, in the days of my sovereignty, than I did before I came to the throne. This morning I have heard half of the reader's commentary. I trust to hear the other half in heaven.' Finding that he was getting worse, the Sultan left Muhammadabad for Baroda, and thence by easy stages arrived at Ahmadabad, where his favourite residence was the palace of Ghattamandal on the Kankariya lake. He directed considerable sums to be given over in charity, gave salutary advice on government to his eldest son Sikandar, and finally took leave of all his household and establishment and asked for their forgiveness. He died on a Friday, the Muslim sabbath, and was buried by the side of his father …"
Sir E.C. Bayley (ed.) "The history of India as told by its own historians. The local Muhammadan dynasties. Gujarat" (1886)
p333, from the "Mirat-i-Sikandari": [following the taking of Muhamadabad, modern Champaner, by the forces of Bahadur Shah in summer 1526:]
"A famine now set in, and the Sultan dispersed his army in detachments. Wherever he went he dispensed his charity, and to no one did he give less than a gold ashrafi."
Ali Muhammad Khan (trans. M.F. Lokhandwala), "Mirat-i-Ahmadi: A Persian History of Gujarat" (1965)
pp58-9 (Chap. 15): [events of late 1526, following Sultan Bahadur's arrival in Ahmedabad (932 AH)] "In this very year, there was a famine. The Sultan ordered a number of bede-houses to be opened. He gave one ashrafi to every poor man when he mounted a horse. …" [NB: "Bede-houses" in England are residences for the poor in which residents were expected to pray for the founder; this translator uses the term when referring to the non-residential langar khana charitable public kitchens]

1525: Life under siege, Multan
Documented causes: siege (hence included only as background information)
Documented effects: official looting

Sir Henry M. Elliot, "Bibliographical index to the historians of Muhammedan India" (vol. 1, 1850)
p201: [Following the assassination in AH 931 (1524 CE) of Sultan Mahmud of Multan during negotiations with invaders from Sindh (led by Mirza Shah Husain Arghun), his son-in-law Sheikh Shuja'u-l-Mulk Bukhari assumed power as viceroy for Mahmud's young son, and was consequently besieged in the city's fort] "The protection of the fort was committed by Sheikh Shuja'u-I-Mulk to the charge of a vagabond, named Jadu, who had three thousand militia of the country under him. That wretch entered all the houses wherever he had the least expectation of finding grain, and plundered them so unscrupulously, that the people earnestly desired Sheikh Shuja'u-l-Mulk's destruction."
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