“The king was freed from his people and they from their king”. On whose death did Badauni comment thus ?

The remark “The king was freed from his people and they from their king” is conventionally ascribed to Abdul Qadir Badauni about the death of Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq. Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq came to the throne after Ghiyas-ud-din’s death in 1325, an event recorded in contemporary chronicles and summaries of the early Tughlaq accession [1]. Badauni’s historical work, the Tarikh-i-Badauni, treats earlier Delhi rulers and is a key source for attitudes toward Sultanate rulers, confirming Badauni as the commentator who assessed medieval sultans’ legacies [2]. Badauni, the well-known Badayun-born historian of Akbar’s age, frequently offered pointed judgments on past monarchs, which explains the terse, evaluative phrasing attributed to him about Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq’s death [3].

Sources

1. [1] History , class XI (Tamilnadu state board 2024 ed.) > Chapter 10: Advent of Arabs and Turks > Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq (1320 - 1325) > p. 144
2. [2] https://www.msuniv.ac.in/images/distance%20education/learning%20materials/ug%20pg%202023/pg%202021/MA%20history%20%202023%20%20english%20medium/SHYM21-II%20Sem-HistoryofMedievalIndia1206-1707CE.pdf
3. [3] https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/144525327.pdf