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JUNE, 1918)
THE FARUQI DYNASTY OF KHANDESH
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reached Bâlâpûr and on its approach the army of Khandesh fled to Burhanpûr, and as the invaders continued their march northward Muhammad II left Burhanpur and took refuge. in Asîrgash. Murtaza I captured and sacked Burhânpur and then marched towards Asîrgarh sending Changiz Khân in command of his advanced guard. A force of seven or eight thousand horse which was sent by Muhammad II against Changiz Khan was defeated and the whole army of Ahmadnagar advanced against Asîrgash. The main body of Muhammad's army was encamped about the fortress, but fled on the approach of the invaders, leaving its camp and baggage behind, and was pursued as far as the borders of Akbar's dominions. The army of Ahmadnagar then formed the siege of Asirgash. The siege was likely to be protracted and as Muhammad II was most anxious to come to terms negotiations were opened which terminated in a treaty under which the army of Ahmadnagar agreed to evacuate Khandesh on payment of an indemnity of 900,000 muzaffaris.81
Muhammad II did not long survive his disastrous attempt to add Berar to his dominions, and died in 1576, leaving a young son, Hasan Khan and a uterine brother, Raja "Ali Khân, to dispute the succession. Firishta says that Raja 'Ali Khân was at Akbar's court at Âgra at the time of his brother's death, and Hasan Khân was enthroned but was deposed in favour of Raja 'Ali Khân on the latter's return from Agra, but the Zafar al Walih gives a detailed account of the events immediately following Muhammad's death. It seems that Raja Ali Khan was present at his brother's deathbed, and Lad Muhammad, the paymaster general, who entered while the question of the succession was under discussion, insisted on the enthronement of Hasan Khân, in the hope of profiting by a share in the guardianship of a minor sovereign. The other amire readily acknowledged the boy but Raja 'Ali Khân obtained the consent of Sayyid Zain-al-din, the vazír, to, an arrangement under which he became his nephew's guardian and king in all but name. This arrangement remained in force untilan extensive plot for the assassination of Raja 'Ali Khân was discovered. Its author was 'Ali Khân, the maternal uncle of Hasan, and the leading conspirators were Hasan's mother, Raihân, governor of Burhånpûr, and Khânjahân. The plot was discovered by means of an injudicious attempt by 'Ali Khân to gain over 'Arab Khân al-Yafi'i, who was a devoted adherent of Raja Ali Khan and disclosed the plot to his master. The conspirators were put to death, except Hasan's mother, who was generously pardoned, and Hasan was deposed, so that Raja 'Ali Khân became king in name, as well as in fact. According to Firishta 22 Raja 'Ali Khân, seeing that Akbar had obtained possession, not only of Hindâstân and Bengal, but also of Mâlwa and Gujarat, refrained from exciting his wrath by assuming or using the title of Shâh and always regarded himself as his vassal, while maintaining, on the other hand, the most friendly relations with the independent kings of the Dakan. This statement is not correct, at any rate of the early days of Raja 'Ali Khân's reign. According to the Zafar-al-Walih Raja 'Ali Khan assumed the title of Adil Shah IV, by which he is always described in that work, and he seems at first to have eherished the idea that the kings of the Dakan, by maintaining an unbroken and united tront, might be able to check the extension of the Mughul empire beyond the Narbada, or at all events beyond the northern frontier of Berar, but he was a wise monarch, and must soon have realized that it was impossible to unite the quarrelsome rulers of Abmadnagar,
21 Firishta says a million, but on this point the Burhan-i-Ma'áşir is probably the better authority It may be that the additional hundred thousand was a gift to the minister who arranged the treaty. This was usual in the Dakan.
2 ii, 562.
