Indian Antiquary Vol 52

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 272

256
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
SEPTEMBER, 1923
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In the meantime Jamal Khan received news of the capture of Mirza Khân, who was the originator of the rebellion and the prime cause of the general massacre of the Foreigners. He immediately reported the news to the king, and Mirza Khan was by Jamal Khan's orders imprisoned beside Jamshid Khan and others.
The next day Burhan Khan, one of the valiant men of the army, was entrusted with the execution of that gang, and he put to death Jamshid Khân, Sayyid Hasan and his brothers, and the son of Sayyid Murtaza, a youth of great wit and great personal beauty.317 He then loaded the gun-Malik-i-Maidan-with the bodies of these high born Sayyids and fired it, so that each fragment of their bodies fell in some spot where it could neither be seen nor identified. They then mounted the wretch Mirza Khân on an ass and paraded him through the streets and bazars as an example, while crowds of the people followed, reproaching and cursing him. He was then flayed like a sheep and sent to his reckoning with every circumstance of disgrace, to the accompaniment of his cries of anguish and the eyes, which had been upraised in pride and haughtiness before sun and moon, were trampled at last, as a reward of their treachery, in the dust of disgrace, and the head, which in its pride was lowered before no Cæsar and no Fachfür, was kicked to nothingness as a reward for its treason. And in truth that which was done to Mirza Khân seemed to fall short of his deserts for his base actions and cruelty. The punishment of which he was worthy was rather that he should again live & hundred times in each moment and each time suffer the same punishment. If his father attempted his own life that wretch had deprived a whole people of life and had disgraced a party318 which had hitherto always been able to boast of its sincerity, its truth and its fidelity, making it a by-word in the mouths of the gentle and simple, and as a reward for his treachery lost not only his life, but also his religion and his faith. He had consented to the murder of the prince of the age and received his punishment in the disputes which followed and hastened to the next world, and the hidden meaning of the verse "This, because God changeth not the favour with which He favoureth & people, so long as they change not what is in their hands," 319 had its effect on that people.
But when the fire of that world consuming strife leapt into flame its sparks spread to another party which had in no way consented to the murder of the king, but on the contrary had feared its results. They, nevertheless, were involved in the calamities which ensued on the acts of the traitors, which indeed flowed over the whole city like a destructive food, destroying the lives of both, the evil and the good, both bond and free, and overthrowing them. A succession of calamities destroyed the peaceful country of this party and threw it into such confusion as reigns in the country of an unjust king, so that peace and prosperity disappeared from the earth and from the age and were succeeded by oppression and rebellion.
When fate took pity on the ruined remnant, and the intercession of Farhad Khân, like the prayer of IgA, revived them, some who had the strength and means to travel were dispersed among the various cities and countries, while a small body, hungry and naked, cast down from their former place by weakness and inanition, gathered together in the eunuchs' quarters and ever prayed to God for the arrival of His Majesty the Sahib Qirân, 320 the protector of Foreigners.
317 These, according to Firishta, were Jamshid Khan Shirazt, his brothers Sayyid Husain and Sayyid Muhammad, and his son Sayyid Murtagi.-F. ii, 293.
318 The Foreigners. 319 Qur'an viii, 36. 320 Burhan Nigam Shah II.