A very pretty marble tomb, to the west of the alcoves, covers the remains of Imam Mashhadi, the religious guide of the Emperor Akbar; and a magnificent tomb of freestone covers those of his four foster-brothers.  This was long occupied as a dwelling-house by the late Mr. Blake, of the Bengal Civil Service, who was lately barbarously murdered at Jaipur.  To make room for his dining-tables he removed the marble slab, which covered the remains of the dead, from the centre of the building, against the urgent remonstrance of the people, and threw it carelessly on one side against the wall, where it now lies.  The people appealed in vain, it is said, to Mr. Fraser, the Governor-General’s representative, who was soon after assassinated; and a good many attribute the death of both to this outrage upon the remains of the dead foster-brother of Akbar.  Those of Ala-ud-din were, no doubt, older and less sensitive.  Tombs equally magnificent cover the remains of the other three foster-brothers of Akbar, but I did not enter them.[38]

Notes: 

1.  The Sultan, called by the author ‘the Emperor Tughlak the First’, as being the first of the Tughlak dynasty, was by birth a Karauniah Turk, named Ghazi Beg Tughlak.  He assumed the style of Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlak Shah when he seized the throne in A.D. 1320, and he reigned till A.D. 1325.

2.  This gigantic fortress is close to the village of Badarpur, about four miles due east of the Kutb Minar, and ten or twelve miles south of the modern city.  The building of it occupied more than three years, but the whole undertaking ’proved eminently futile, as his son removed his Court to the old city within forty days after his accession.’ (Thomas, Chronicles of the Pathan Kings of Delhi, 1871, p. 192.) The fort is described by Cunningham in A.S.R., vol. i, p. 212, whose description is copied in the guide-books.  See also Fanshawe, Delhi Past and Present (John Murray, 1902), p. 288 and plate.  That work is cited as ‘Fanshawe’.

3.  Also called Adilabad.  It is described in A.S.R., vol. i, p. 21; Carr Stephen, The Archaeology and Monumental Remains of Delhi, Ludhiana, 1876, p. 98; and Fanshawe, p. 291.

4. ’The Barber’s House.  This lies to the right of the road from Tughlakabad to Badarpur, and is close to the ruined city.  It is said to have been built for Tughlak Shah’s barber about A.D. 1323.  It is now a mere ruin.’ (Harcourt, The New Guide to Delhi, Allahabad, 1866, p. 88.)

5.  This fine tomb was built by Muhammad bin Tughlak (A.D. 1325-51).  It is described by Cunningham in A.S.R., vol. i, p. 213.  See also Ann.  Rep.  A. S., India, 1904-5, p. 19, fig. 11; H.F.A., p. 397, fig. 234; and Fanshawe, p. 290, with plate.  Thomas (Chronicles, p. 192) and Cunningham both say that the causeway, or viaduct, has twenty-seven, not only twenty-five, arches, as stated in the text.  The causeway is 600 feet in length.  The sloping walls are characteristic of the period.