Indian Antiquary Vol 47

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 198

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[JULY, 1918
of affairs in the fortress. Muqarrab Khân was next sent to the imperial camp and, having obtained Akbar's promise that Bahadur should be maintained in his kingdom, returned to the fortress and persuaded Bahadur to descend to the imperial camp and make his submission. Bahadur left the fortress with the leading men of his army and was received at some distance from Akbar's camp by the Khân-i-Ayam and by him conducted into the imperial presence. " And that," says the author of the Zafar-al-Walih," was the end of his reign over his kingdom and his mountain."
Bahadur's stratagem failed, for he soon discovered that Akbar's promise to maintain him in his kingdom was contingent on the surrender of Asîrgash, and as the fortress continued to hold out the promise was held to be void. From the Akbarnáma it would appear that the obstinacy of the garrison was due to secret instructions from Bahadur, but the author of the Zafar-al-Walih gives a different account. He says that among those who remained in the fortress was Malik Yâqût, Muqarrab Khân's father, who was old and blind, and he assembled in the royal palace in the fortress all the sons of Mubarak Shâh and their sons, and said to them. “The fortress is as it was and the garrison is as it was. Which of
you will accept the throne and will protect the honour of your fathers?” And not one of 'them answered him anything, and he said to them, "Would to God that ye were women!"
And they excused themselves, and it happened that as he was defending the fortress there 'came up to it his son Muqarrab Khân with a message from the king, and Malik Yâqût said to his son, "May God not show me thy face. Go down to Bahadur and follow him." And he went down and obeyed his order, until at length in the assembly of Abul Fayl he stabbed himself in the belly with his dagger, in abasoment that his father was not content * with him, and he died. But Malik Yaqut Sultâni, when he despaired of all the offspring
of Mubarak Shah, went out to his house, made his will, bathed himself, and had his shroud * brought. Then he summoned his family and went out to the mosque which he had built, * and prayed, and distributed benefits and gave alms, and he caused to be dug a grave in a * spot which be desired, and then he ate opium, for his jealous patriotism was strong upon
him, and he died and was buried there. And they said, “Search for a text in God's book," * and this was found, "Say : O my servants who have transgressed to your own hurt, despair
not of God's mercy, for all sins doth God forgive ! Forgiving and merciful is He!" May . God pardon him and have mercy upon him! Then the people of the fortress were summoned
to come down and take assurance, and in accordance with their answer Shaikh Abul Fazł. of Dihli went up the mountain and took his seat on the stone platform known as that of
Tafa'ul Khân, and gave permission to them to descend with their families, and this they * did, and the reduction of the fortress in A.H. 1009 (A.D. 1600-01) was attributed officially 'to Shaikh Abul Fazl.
The beginning of the rule of the Farûqis in Burhanpûr was in A.H. 784 (A.D. 1382) and from that date the name of Burhanpûr (as applied to the province) was disused, and the province was known from them as Khandesh ("the country of the Khâns ") of the dependencies of Dihli, and in the reign of Bahadur Shah, son of 'Adil Shah, after 225 years, the province was again, as formerly, included among the dependencies of Dihli. And the kingdom is God's, be He praised !'
The exact date of the surrender of Asîrgash, as given in the Akbarnáma, was January 26. 1601, which may be taken as the date of the extinction of the dynasty founded in 1382 by Raja Ahmad or Malik Raja, and according to the same authority it was not Shaikh Abul Fazl himself, but his son, Shaikh 'Abd-al-Rahman, who received the surrender of the fortress.