Muhammad bin Tughluq
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Muhammad bin Tughluq (Arabic: محمد بن تغلق) (born c.1300, d. 1351) was the Sultan of Delhi from 1325 to 1351. He was the eldest son of Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq. Ghiyas ud din sent the young Muhammad to the Deccan to campaign against the Kakatiya king Pratapa-rudra of Warangal. He succeeded to the Delhi throne after Ghiyas ud din's death in 1325.
Muhammad was committed to maintaining the Sultanate's expansion into the newly-conquered provinces of peninsular India. To have better administration of these southern parts of the Empire, Muhammad moved the capital from Delhi to Daulatabad in the Deccan in the early part of his reign, renaming that city Deogir also known as Daulatabad. Instead of moving just his government offices there, he forcibily moved the entire population of Delhi to the new capital. The plan failed due to inadequate water supply arrangements in Devagiri; the capital had to be shifted back again to Delhi after two years. A vast amount of the population died during the moves due to the inadequate travel arrangements. It was said that Delhi was a ghost town for years after the move back.
Muhammad also had the idea of introducing token currency for the first time in India, modelled after the Chinese example, using brass or copper coins, backed by silver and gold kept in the treasury. However, very few people exchanged their gold/silver coins for the new copper ones and the tokens were easy to forge, which led to heavy losses. It is said that after the plan failed, there were heaps of copper coins lying around the royal offices for years.
It is widely believed that Tughluq may have been planning the invasion of Persia and China. Such grandiose, unsuccessful policy experiments made Muhammad maverick in the minds of many of his contemporaries.
By the end of his reign, many of the further provinces of the empire were in revolt. Due to his follies, his last name became synonymous with "wacky" in popular usage in India. Muhammad died while campaigning in Sind. He was succeeded by his cousin Firuz Shah Tughluq.
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