1351-88: Siraj Shams Afif, in Tarikh I Firoz Shahi recounts the following: A report was brought to the Sultan Firoz Tughlaq that an old infidel persisted in publicly performing the worship of idols in his house; and that the people of city, both Mussalman and Hindus, used to resort to his house to worship the idols. He constructed a wooden muhrak (tablet), which was covered within and without by painting of demons and other objects. On days appointed, the infields went to his house and worshipped the idols, without the fact becoming known to the public officers. The Sultan was informed that this man had perverted the Muhammad women and led them to revert back to their original faith. An order was accordingly given that this man with his tablet should be brought in the presence of the Sultan at Firozabad. The judges, doctors, and elders and lawyers were summoned, and his case was submitted to their opinion. Their declared that either he converts to the true faith (Islam) or be burned. He refused to be converted. Orders were given for raising a pile of faggots before the door of the Darbar. The infidel was tied hand and foot and cast into it; the tablet was thrown on top and the pile was lighted. According to Shams Siraj Afif, who witnessed the execution says that “the wood was dry and the fire first reached his feet, and drew a cry from him, but the flames quickly enveloped his head and consumed him. Behold the Sultan’s strict adherence to law and rectitude, how he would not deviate in the least from its decrees…’ (Siraj Shams Afif, Tarikh I Firoz Shahi, p 365).
Afif, Shams Siraj, Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi, Bib, Ind., Calcutta, 1890.
Elliot H.M. and Dowson, J. History of India as told by its own Historians, Vol III, London 1867-77,
