Indian Antiquary Vol 52

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

Page 316

300
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ OUTOLER, 1923
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Nobody had had any idea that the army of the Muzhuls was so near at hand. Some thought it to be the army of Sa'adat Khân, while others thought that it was the army of the Africans. Shamshir Khân sent a man out to thein to ascertain the truth, and he returned with the news that the army was the Khân khânân's and was the advanced guard of the Mughuls. When the nobles and the garrison of the fort learnt of the arrival of the Mughul army, they sent out some guns against them and opened fire upon them with a view to breaking their line, which had now reached the edge of the plain of the Kala Chabútra, and used their utmost endeavours in repairing and strengthening the defences and preparing every thing that was necessary for the siege.
As the day had now drawn on to evening the khânkhânân's army did not halt longer in the neighbourhood of the fort, but retired and joined the Khânkhânån who had halted near the old garden of the watercourse, and kept careful watch all that night until the breaking of the true dawn on the following morning. Chånd Bibi Sultân also paid attention to the needs of her subjects and appointed Muhammad Khân vakil and amir-ul-umard as a reward for his great services, entrusting to him the duty of fortifying and defending the fort, and warning him to exercise all possible care in the execution of these duties. The protection of the poor subjects living without the fort and the duty of meeting the enemy in the field were entrusted to Mujahid-ud-din Shamshir Khân, with whoin were associated Nur Muhainmad Zamân and a number of other brave officers.
The next day was Tuesday, Rabi'us-Sânî 24 (December 27, A.D. 1595). The Khân khânán, detaching a number of his chief officers to protect the city and Burhånâbâd and to look to the safety of the poor inhabitants, proclaimed a general ainnesty to all, both small and great. A number of the poor and weak dwellers in the suburbs, who had remained in their houses because they had no means of transporting themselves and their property within the city, were much reassured by the proclamation of this amnesty, and took advantage of it to move into the fort and into other fortified posts.
On this day Nûr Muhammad Zaman was deputed to summon Sayyid Jalal-ud-din Haidar and brought that Sayyid and his noble sons to court, and Afzal Khân was deputed to summon the ambassadors of the Sultans of the Dakan and brought those two pillars of the faith and of the state to court, and on the same day a battle was fought between Mujahid-ud-din Shamshir Khan and his loyal army on the one side and a force of the Mughuls which had had the temer. ity to oooupy the plain of the Kala Chabútra on the other, and in the battle Nûr Muhammad Zamân displayed the valour which is ever the mark of Sayyids, and with a small force charged the compact mass of the Mughul army and scattered it. When the garrison of the fort saw the standards of the army of Abmadnagar borne triumphantly aloft in the hour of victory. their courage was renewed and the despair and discouragement which had afflicted them disappeared, so that they took the field valiantly, confident of victory.
In the evening of the same day the army of the highborn and successful prince Shah Murâd, with his great amirs and Khâns, such as Mirza Shahrukh, governor of Badakhshan, Shahbaz Khan, sadiq Muhammad Khan, Sayyid Murtaza and the rest of the amîrs and officers, an army swift to shed blood, covering with its hosts both mountain and plain, darkening the gun with its dust, and advancing like a tempestuous sea, arrived at the environs of the city, and encamped near the garden of the old watercourse, which is called the Bagh-i-Bihisht, where the prince's pavilion was set up.
(To be continued.)