Hello and welcome to Season 7 Episode 8 of Bad Gaze, a podcast about evil and complicated queers in history.

I'm Ben Miller, a writer, researcher, and member of the board of the Shulis Museum in Berlin.

And I'm Hugh Lemmy, an author and artist.

And last week we talked about Martha Hannao, the French swindler, who conned millions of petty bourgeois citizens out of millions of their cash while

driving fast cars and draping herself in fine jewelry. Who are we talking about this week, Hugh?

Today we're discussing the life of Kudbuddin Mubarak Shah, the 14th century leader of the Delhi

Sultanate, whose brief reign was marked by bloodshed and war,

and whose tortuous love life, guess what, eventually led to his downfall.

What a surprise! I love it only cover brand new territory that we've never covered before.

So let's start with Mubarak Shah's family, as the story of the Delhi Sultanate at a time is

nothing, if not the sort of battling of bloodlines and dynes,

very game of thrones. His father was Al-Odine Calgi, the 13th Sultan of Delhi, who had assumed

his throne, having first married the daughter of the Sultan, his uncle, who had founded the

Calgi dynasty. Al-O-Din then revolted against his new father-in-law in 1295, 1226, and Al-Odean's reign

involved a lot of conflicts, including rebuffing Mongol invasions and massively expanding the

territory of the Sultanate in wars against neighbouring kingdoms. Before he had even taken to the throne,

when he was still loyal to his uncle and father-in-law,

Alohuddin had raided, Devigiri, the capital of the Yadava kingdom.

There he had forced the king, Ramachandra, to a peace treaty, as the king's army was away from

the city at the time with the crown prince Simhanna.

But as the treaty was being drawn up, Simhana returned of this army.

And when Al-Odin managed to defeat that army too, it meant that he could impose a much harsher demand for tributes in the eventual treaty.

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