The story goes that Ghiyasuddin was in a huge hurry to build his fort, but many of his masons left to work for the powerful Sufi Saint, Nizamuddin Chisti. Away on a military expedition, the king was furious when he got word of this and forced the workers in the saint’s shrine to complete his own fort first.

The angry saint cursed the king –

 “Ya base gujjar, ya rahe ujjar!” (May this city be the abode of nomads or remain barren).

 One will never know whether he fell victim to the curse or to his son Mohammad bin Tughlaq’s lust for the throne, but Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq died in 1325 and Tughlaqabad was abandoned two years later.