SULTAN, NOT SULTANA

[Intro]

My father counted sons. He counted them all.

Then he called the scribe and he wrote down me. Me, of all.

[Verse 1]

Gwalior, twelve thirty-one, he rode out with the drums,

Left the keys of Delhi in his daughter's thumbs.

[Verse 2]

I ran the city while he laid his siege,

Kept the wells, kept the grain, kept the peace.

He came home and he looked at what he'd got,

A girl who could govern and the boys who could not.

[Pre-Chorus]

Taj ul-Mulk, bring the ink. Write it plain.

The maliks said, you have sons. He said, I have a brain.

[Time]

[Drop]

Count your sons! Count them twice!

Pleasure in the palace never governed anything in life!

Iltutmish put my name on the heir's decree,

All his sons at the table and the throne came down to me!

[Verse 3]

They said a woman's hand can't hold a Turkish sword,

He said my sons are drunk and I can't afford

A Delhi run by boys who sleep till noon,

Mark the parchment, Taj, and mark it soon.

Minhaj wrote it down, but he wasn't in the room,

A daughter heard it first in the Delhi afternoon.

The heir is a girl. Say it, don't choke.

Shams ud-Din said it. The Sultan spoke.

[Drop]

Count your sons! Count them twice!

Pleasure in the palace never governed anything in life!

Iltutmish put my name on the heir's decree,

All his sons at the table and the throne came down to me!

[Outro]

Count your sons.

Then count me.

[Fade Out]

[End]

[Intro]

April, twelve thirty-six. My father's in the ground.

And my brother's on an elephant throwing gold around.

[Verse 1]

Firuz in the bazaar, drunk before the noon,

Tankas in the gutter, dancers and a tune.

[Verse 2]

His mother runs the palace, Shah Turkan holds the keys,

The harem learns to whisper, the harem learns to freeze.

She blinded little Qutb ud-Din, then she had him killed,

Then she turned her eyes on me. I know what she willed.

[Pre-Chorus]

Multan's gone, Hansi's gone, Lahore won't send a word,

The vizier walked off with the army. Yes, you heard.

[Time]

[Drop]

Gold in the gutter! Boy on the beast!

Six months and twenty-eight days of a drunken feast!

Mother in the palace and the brother's on the town,

Spend the Sultan's silver till the Sultanate falls down!

[Verse 3]

Junaidi left Kilokhri and he never came back,

Awadh is in revolt and the treasury's cracked.

Clowns and musicians eating off the plate,

Eunuchs at the door and the governors won't wait.

Iltutmish built the city stone by stone,

His son is spending Delhi from an elephant throne.

Mother sharpens knives, and the knives have a list.

I'm next on the list. And I have read the list.

[Drop]

Gold in the gutter! Boy on the beast!

Six months and twenty-eight days of a drunken feast!

Mother in the palace and the brother's on the town,

Spend the Sultan's silver till the Sultanate falls down!

[Outro]

Gold in the gutter.

Pick it up, Delhi.

You'll need it.

[Fade Out]

[End]

[Intro]

Friday. The courtyard full. A thousand men in rows.

I wore the colour that the wronged one wears. Everybody knows.

[Verse 1]

I didn't bring an army, I didn't bring a sword,

I brought my father's name and I brought my own word.

[Verse 2]

She killed my little brother, she's coming for me next,

Shah Turkan in the palace writing out the text.

You loved Iltutmish. You ate his bread for years.

His daughter's at the mosque. Lend her your ears.

[Pre-Chorus]

No general. No malik. No Turk with a knife.

Just the people of Delhi, and they chose my life.

[Time]

[Drop]

Delhi, rise! Delhi, roar!

A thousand hands on the palace door!

Pull the queen mother out of the dark,

The city picks a Sultan and the city leaves its mark!

[Verse 3]

Firuz rode back and he found his mother chained,

Found the gates were shut and his gold had drained.

Seven months of singing, now the song is through,

The maliks bend the knee like they always knew.

No blood on my hands, I didn't lift the latch,

I lit a little fire and the city was the match.

Sultan by the crowd, not a malik, not a lord,

The daughter takes the throne and the brother takes the sword.

[Drop]

Delhi, rise! Delhi, roar!

A thousand hands on the palace door!

Pull the queen mother out of the dark,

The city picks a Sultan and the city leaves its mark!

[Outro]

I wore red.

The city wore me.

[Fade Out]

[End]

[Intro]

Nineteen November. The year, twelve thirty-six.

I sat on my father's seat. The maliks swallowed their tricks.

[Verse 1]

They thought they'd put a daughter up like a flag on a pole,

Something soft to stand behind while the Turks took control.

[Verse 2]

Then Junaidi pitched his tents outside my city wall,

Four governors beside him, waiting for the fall.

I didn't send an army. I sent a quiet word,

Salari and Kabir Khan heard what nobody heard.

[Pre-Chorus]

Two came to my table. The others woke in fear,

Saw the empty tents, and the rebels disappeared.

[Time]

[Drop]

This is my chair! This is my hall!

Nizam ul-Mulk is running for the Sirmur hills, that's all!

I didn't lose a soldier, I didn't lose a day,

I split the camp with whispers and the whispers blew them away!

[Verse 3]

Minhaj will write it later in his careful hand,

Sagacious, just, the patron of the learned, warlike, grand,

Then one more line, the sting of a quill,

Pity she's a woman. Pity, yes. But still.

Ranthambore was starving, I brought the garrison home,

Gwalior lost, but the throne was not on loan.

Expected to be silk. Turned out to be steel.

The daughter on the throne. Delhi, how does it feel?

[Drop]

This is my chair! This is my hall!

Nizam ul-Mulk is running for the Sirmur hills, that's all!

I didn't lose a soldier, I didn't lose a day,

I split the camp with whispers and the whispers blew them away!

[Outro]

Nineteen November.

Write the date.

I did.

[Fade Out]

[End]

[Intro]

First year, the money said my father's name.

Second year, I took the die and I changed the game.

[Verse 1]

Strike it. Silver. Tanka. Read the line.

Sultan al-Mu'azzam. The Sultan. Mine.

[Verse 2]

Not Sultana, that's a wife, that's a mother, that's a bride,

I'm al-Sultan, write it masculine, write it with pride.

Jalalat ud-Din on the silver, Raziyya on the small change,

Delhi to Lakhnauti, my name on every exchange.

[Pre-Chorus]

Then I took the veil off. Folded it. Put it down.

Put on the qaba and the kulah and I walked into town.

[Time]

[Drop]

Sultan, not Sultana! Strike it in the mint!

Name on the money, every merchant takes the hint!

Veil on the floor, cap on my head,

If you want to see the Sultan she's riding on ahead!

[Verse 3]

Minhaj saw me mount the elephant in the open air,

All the people looking and the Sultan didn't care.

A tunic and a Turkish cap, a man's cut of clothes,

Not a disguise, a decision, and everybody knows.

Billon jital, horseman on the back,

Bint al-Sultan on the face of it. Daughter. That's that.

Money talks. Mine says exactly who I am.

Pay the army in my name and watch them understand.

[Drop]

Sultan, not Sultana! Strike it in the mint!

Name on the money, every merchant takes the hint!

Veil on the floor, cap on my head,

If you want to see the Sultan she's riding on ahead!

[Outro]

Sultan.

Not Sultana.

Check your pocket.

[Fade Out]

[End]

[Intro]

Hear the bells? That's the elephant. Hear the drums? That's mine.

The Sultan rides in front. Fall in line.

[Verse 1]

Twelve thirty-nine, Kabir Khan in Lahore says no,

I don't send a letter. I bring the army and I go.

[Verse 2]

A thousand hooves in the dust behind the howdah,

Naqqara on the camels, every mile a little louder.

He saw the dust from the walls and he counted what he saw,

Kabir Khan bowed before I ever reached the door.

[Pre-Chorus]

No veil, no litter, no curtain on the beast,

The Sultan's face is open from the west to the east.

[Time]

[Drop]

Bells on the elephant! Drums on the plain!

Lahore, open up, or you'll see me again!

Up on the howdah, cap on my head,

The army goes where the woman goes, and the woman goes ahead!

[Verse 3]

Elephants in front and the amirs in the rear,

The Turks don't like the order but the order's very clear.

They watched me ride and they didn't like the view,

A girl in a Turkish cap doing what they couldn't do.

Elephant knows the weight, elephant knows the way,

Twenty paces in the front where a Sultan ought to stay.

Minhaj wrote warlike. He wasn't being kind.

He was being accurate. Look behind.

[Drop]

Bells on the elephant! Drums on the plain!

Lahore, open up, or you'll see me again!

Up on the howdah, cap on my head,

The army goes where the woman goes, and the woman goes ahead!

[Outro]

Bells.

Drums.

Fall in line.

[Fade Out]

[End]

[Intro]

Forty men around a table. Forty beards. Forty knives.

Forty slaves my father bought, now they're running forty lives.

[Verse 1]

Amir of the stables, Jamal ud-Din Yaqut,

A black man in a Turkish job. The Forty went mute.

[Verse 2]

It wasn't about the horses. It was about the chair.

Every post I gave a stranger was a Turk who wasn't there.

They said he touched my arm when I climbed into the saddle,

I ride an elephant, boys. Go check the beast, then check your tattle.

[Pre-Chorus]

Forty men and a horse. Forty men and a lie.

A hundred years later Isami writes it down with a sigh.

[Time]

[Drop]

Forty men and a horse! One of them is black!

That's the whole indictment, that's the knife in my back!

Not the war, not the coin, not the cap or the law,

A Habshi holding the reins was the thing that stuck in the craw!

[Verse 3]

Barani gave them the number, a hundred years on,

Forty was a legend by the time the Forty were gone.

But the knives were real, I counted every blade,

Altunia in Tabarhinda, Aitigin in the shade.

I made them. I paid them. I gave them iqta land,

And every iqta came back as a fist instead of a hand.

Yaqut kept the horses fed. That's what he did.

Ask the Forty what they did. Then ask them where they hid.

[Drop]

Forty men and a horse! One of them is black!

That's the whole indictment, that's the knife in my back!

Not the war, not the coin, not the cap or the law,

A Habshi holding the reins was the thing that stuck in the craw!

[Outro]

Forty men.

One horse.

Guess who paid.

[Fade Out]

[End]

[Intro]

Third of April, back in Delhi, dust still on my boots.

A rider from Tabarhinda. Altunia's cut the roots.

[Verse 1]

Ten days later I'm marching west with my own men,

I didn't know the men were his. I know it now. Not then.

[Verse 2]

They turned in the camp. They came for Yaqut first.

A spear, a shout, a sunrise. That was the worst.

Then they came for me, the Sultan, with the chains in hand,

Ikhtiyar ud-Din Altunia and his iqta land.

[Pre-Chorus]

Twenty-first of April, Delhi crowns my brother Bahram,

Aitigin takes the deputy's chair. I take a cell at Bhatinda.

[Time]

[Drop]

Stone floor! Iron door!

Three and a half years a Sultan. Now I count the floor!

Yaqut's in the ground and the Forty hold the hall,

Tabarhinda keeps a Sultan behind a mud-brick wall!

[Verse 3]

The man who holds the key is the man who made the plot,

Altunia wanted Delhi. Delhi's what he hasn't got.

They gave the crown to Bahram and left Altunia the chore,

A Sultan in a cell and no reward for the war.

I watch him count his losses, I watch him count the hours,

A jailer with a grievance is the only door that's ours.

Fifth of May, they swear to Bahram one by one.

Nobody swears to Altunia. Now the real game's begun.

[Drop]

Stone floor! Iron door!

Three and a half years a Sultan. Now I count the floor!

Yaqut's in the ground and the Forty hold the hall,

Tabarhinda keeps a Sultan behind a mud-brick wall!

[Outro]

Tabarhinda.

Count the days.

I'm counting too.

[Fade Out]

[End]

[Intro]

He had the key. I had the name.

So we did the arithmetic. Two prisoners, one game.

[Verse 1]

Marry the jailer. Say the words. Sign the deed.

Ikhtiyar ud-Din, you wanted Delhi. Here's what you need.

[Verse 2]

He had a grudge and a fort and a thousand angry men,

I had a crown they stole and the right to it again.

Not love. Don't write love. Write a contract in the heat,

A Sultan and a rebel with one city to complete.

[Pre-Chorus]

Raise the drums. Hire the hills. Khokhar swords and Jat,

September at our back and Delhi's walls ahead of that.

[Time]

[Drop]

Marry the jailer! Open the gate!

Bride on the elephant, Delhi, don't be late!

Second time I come for you, the first time you came to me,

The crowd chose me once. Choose me twice. We'll see.

[Verse 3]

Bahram sent the army out. The Forty rode along.

In a field outside Kaithal we found out we were wrong.

Our hired men looked at the odds and did the hired thing,

By nightfall it was two of us and the crows began to sing.

I married for an army and the army walked away,

Still the only woman who ever made them pay.

October on the plain, the dust is in my mouth,

Sultan of two people, and the road runs out.

[Drop]

Marry the jailer! Open the gate!

Bride on the elephant, Delhi, don't be late!

Second time I come for you, the first time you came to me,

The crowd chose me once. Choose me twice. We'll see.

[Outro]

Marry the jailer.

It nearly worked.

Nearly.

[Fade Out]

[End]

[Intro]

Fourteenth of October, twelve forty, a field outside Kaithal.

Two of us walking. No army at all.

[Verse 1]

Hungry, tired, a Sultan in a stranger's coat,

The farmers took the jewels and they didn't take a vote.

[Verse 2]

The village found us sleeping and the village did the rest,

Nobody from the Forty had to put it to the test.

Altunia beside me. The jailer kept his word.

Three years and six months, and the rest is what you heard.

[Pre-Chorus]

Now they can't agree on where they put me down,

Three graves, three cities, one woman, one crown.

[Time]

[Drop]

Kaithal, Delhi, Tonk! Pick a grave, pick a stone!

Three towns want the Sultan, not one of them wanted the throne!

Bulbul-i-Khana, Turkman Gate, two slabs and no name,

Ibn Battuta saw the pilgrims and the dome, all the same.

[Verse 3]

Minhaj wrote it down, and this is what he penned,

A great sovereign, just, the patron of the learned, a friend

To her subjects, warlike, every kingly trait,

Then a pity she's a woman. Then he shut the gate.

No portrait on the coin, just my name in a line,

Sultan al-Mu'azzam. Go find one. It's still mine.

I took the veil off once and it never went back on,

Three graves in three cities and the daughter's name lives on.

[Drop]

Kaithal, Delhi, Tonk! Pick a grave, pick a stone!

Three towns want the Sultan, not one of them wanted the throne!

Bulbul-i-Khana, Turkman Gate, two slabs and no name,

Ibn Battuta saw the pilgrims and the dome, all the same.

[Outro]

Sultan.

Not Sultana.

Three graves. One name.

[Fade Out]

[End]