Indian Antiquary Vol 36

SR No.: 032528
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 430
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 15 MB

Page 21

JANUARY, 1907.]
we learnt that two days before Jangbaz Khan had been sent off by the Shah to slay and plunder in parganah Mirath.
AHMAD SHAH AND IMAD-UL-MULK.
17
The masaqchis said to the Mir Şahib: "Your best plan now is to go to the division of the "chief minister, and put up there. Outside his camp you will find a place where you will be "safe. We have now to present ourselves for duty at the Darikhanah,13 and the Khargahls "of the Shah, and this duty is imperative." The Mir Sahib gave them a second present of twenty rupees. For the time the nasaqchis wore satisfied and agreed to continue as our guides. When one and a half hours of the night had passed, we came to the standard of the chief minister. This standard stood all by itself in the open plain, while the tents were scattered round it at a distance of two musket-shot. We made the camels sit down close to the flag-staff, and were about to unload them, when, all of a sudden, two nasaqchi-troopers came out of a tent, rushed their horses at us, and began to beat the camel-men, saying in the Turks tongue: "Get "away from here, this is no place for camping upon."
Aḥmad Khan, Afghan, who had come with the Mir Sahib from Farrukhābād, and knew Turki, began to argue with them. Then one of the two drew his sword and came at him, saying: "Thou dost not listen to my orders, I will decapitate thee." While this talk was going on, a horseman rode up from the left hand, and said to the Mir Sahib: "My commander, "one 'Ugman Khan of Qasur parganah, is serving with the Shah; he saw you from his tents "and noticed that you were Hindustanis and he has kindly sent for you to come and pitch "your tents close to his. You should not argue with nasagohis, for a lot more will swarm round, and, without any hesitation, will have recourse to their swords."
Thus the Mir Sahib went to Usman Khan. The said Khin was most hospitable, and forthwith had another tent put up for himself, and gave his own up to the Mir Sahib. He also treated us as his guests and had a quantity of food sent to the Mir Sahib, such as Peshawar rice, the mutton of a fat-tailed sheep (dumbah), and thin bread (nän-i-tanak), prepared in the Hindustani mode by the slave-girls who accompaned that Khin Sahib. We passed the night there in great comfort.
Usman Khan was in command of 7,000 horsemen, and was a noble of position, with the rank of a Haft Hazari, and the Shah had given him a jewelled aigrette with a plume of feathers. The Shah's practice is that, except famed commanders, no one is allowed to place on his cap (taj) any jewelled aigrette or a plume. This is the sign by which the nobles can be distinguished.
To resume. There was one Maulvi Mahmud, a Kashmiri, who formerly acted as wakil (agent) for Ali Quli Khan, the Six-Fingered, in the camp of Nawab Safdar Jang. At this time, Ali Quli Khan being dead, this man was in attendance on the Mir Sahib. When threequarters of an hour remained of the night, he was sent to visit 'Imad-ul-mulk and lay our case before him.
Imad-ul-mulk said: "Let the Mir Sahib come to me, I am quite anxious to see him. "Arise and in all haste bring him, saying, that after I have seen him I will attend to the "carrying out of whatever it is wisest to do." That very moment the Maulvi came back and said: "I have been to 'Imid-al-mulk, and he sits waiting for a visit from the Mir Sahib, and has "said thus and thus" The Mir Sahib replied: "On no account shall I go first to visit "the Indian Wazir, seeing that Ghazanfar Jang will imagine that his affairs have been arranged "through his intervention. First of all I shall visit the chief minister [of the Abdali], and do
18 These are kinds of tents, but, as we are told further on, the first name was applied to the office-tents and the second to the Shah's own quarters.
Qastr is to the 8.-E. of Labor, and the head-quarters of a colony of Khweshgi Afghans. 18 He had died on the 1st Rajab 1100 H., 31st March 1753, Tarih-i-Muḥammadi, year 1169.