The Institutes of Akbar 245: 24. Khán Jahán Husain Qulí Khán, son of Walí Beg Zulqadr.
The Áín i Akbari (Blochmann, Jarrett) 245
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24. Khán Jahán Husain Qulí Khán, son of Walí Beg Zulqadr.
245.1
He is the son of Bairám Khán’s sister. His father Walí Beg Zulqadr was much attached to Bairám, and was captured in the fight in the Parganah of Dikhdár (Jalandhar; vide p. 317, l. 5,) but died immediately afterwards from the wounds received in battle. Akbar looked upon him as the chief instigator of Bairám’s rebellion, and ordered his head to cut off, which was sent all over Hindústán. When it was brought to Itáwah, Bahádur Khán (No. 22) killed the foot soldiers (tuwáchís) that carried it. Khán Jahán had brought Bairám’s insignia from Mewát to Akbar, and as he was a near relation of the rebel, he was detained and left under charge of A’saf Khan ’Abdulmajid, Commander of Dihli. When Bairam had been pardoned, Khan Jahan was released. He attached himself henceforth to Akbar. In the 8th year (end of 971), he was made a Khan, and received orders to follow up Sharafuddin Husain (No. 17). Ajmir and Nagor were given him as tuyul. He took the Fort of Jodhpur from Chandar Sen, son of Rai Maldeo, and distinguished himself in the pursuit of Udai Singh during the siege of Chitor. In the 13th year (976), he was transferred to the Panjab, whither he went after assisting in the conquest of Rantanbhur.
245.2
In the 17th year, he was ordered to take Nagarkot, which had belonged to Rajah Jai Chand. Badaoni says (II, p. 161), that the war was merely undertaken to provide Bir Bar with a jagir. Akbar had Jai Chand imprisoned, and Badi Chand, his son, thinking that his father was dead, rebelled. Khan Jahan, on his way, conquered Fort Kotlah, reached Nagarkot in the beginning of Rajab 980, and took the famous Bhawan temple outside of the Fort. The siege was progressing and the town reduced to extremities, when it was reported that Ibrahim Husain Mirza and Mas’ud Mirza had invaded the Panjab. Khan Jahan therefore accepted a payment of five mans of gold and some valuables, and raised the siege. He is also said to have erected a Masjid in front of Jai Chand’s palace in the Fort, and to have read the Khutbah in Akbar’s name (Friday, middle of Shawwal 980). Accompanied by Isma’il Quli Khan and Mirza Yusuf Khan i Rizawi (No. 35), Khan Jahan marched against the Mirzas, surprised them in the Parganah of Talbanah, 40 kos from Multan, and defeated them. Ibrahim Husain Mirza escaped to Multan, but Mas’ud Husain and several other Mirzas of note were taken prisoners. In the 18th year (981), when Akbar returned to Agrah after the conquest of Gujrat, he invited his Amirs to meet him, and Khan Jahan also came with his prisoners, whom he had put into cow skins with horns on, with their eyelashes sewn together. Akbar had their eyes immediately opened, and even pardoned some of the prisoners.
245.3
The victorious general received the title of Khan Jahan, ‘a title in reputation next to that of Khan Khanan.’ About the same time Sulaiman, ruler of Badakhshan (p. 312) had come to India, driven away by his grandson Shahrukh (No. 7), and Khan Jahan was ordered to assist him in recovering his kingdom. But as in 983 Mun’im Khan Khanan died, and Bengal was unsettled, Khan Jahan was recalled from the Panjab, before he had moved into Badakhshan, and was appointed to Bengal, Rajah Todar Mall being second in command. At Bhagalpur, Khan Jahan was met by the Amirs of Bengal, and as most of them were Chaghtai nobles, he had, as Qizilbash, to contend with the same difficulties as Bairam Khan had had. He repulsed the Afghans who had come up as far as Garhi and Tandah; but he met with more decided opposition at Ak Mahall, where Daud Khan had fortified himself. The Imperialists suffered much from the constant sallies of the Afghans. Khan Jahan complained of the wilful neglect of his Amirs, and when Akbar heard of the death of Khwajah ’Abdullah Naqshbandi, who had been purposely left unsupported in a skirmish, he ordered Muzaffar Khan, Governor of Bihar (No. 37) to collect his Jagirdars and join Khan Jahan (984). The fights near Ak Mahall were now resumed with new vigour. During a skirmish a cannon ball wounded Junaid i Kararani, Daud’s cousin, which led to a general battle (15th RabI' II, 984).
245.4
The right wing of the Afghans, commanded by Kala Pahar, gave way, when the soldiers saw their leader wounded, and the centre under Da'ud was defeated by Khan Jahan. Da'ud himself was captured and brought to Khan Jahan, who sent his head to Akbar. After this great victory, Khan Jahan despatched Todar Mall to court, and moved to Satganw (Higli), where Da'ud’s family lived. Here he defeated the remnant of Da'ud’s adherents under Jamshed and Mitti, and reannexed Satganw, which since the days of old had been called Bulghakkhdnah, to the Mughul empire. Da'ud’s mother came to Khan Jahan as a suppliant. Soon after Mall Gosain, Rajah of Kuch Bihar, sent tribute and 54 elephants, which Khan Jahan despatched to Court. With the defeat and death of Da'ud, Bengal was by no means conquered. New troubles broke out in Bhati, where the Afghans had collected under Karim Dad, Ibrahim, and the rich Zamindar 'Isa ('isa). With great difficulties Khan Jahan occupied that district, assisted by a party of Afghans who had joined him together with Da'ud’s mother at G'hor'ag'hat; and returned to Sihhatpur, a town which he had founded near Tandah. Soon after, he took ill, and died after a sickness of six weeks in the same year (19th Shawwal 986). Abulfazl remarks that his death was opportune, inasmuch as the immense plunder collected by Khan Jahan in Bengal, had led him to the verge of rebellion.
245.5
Khan Jahan’s son, Razi Quli (No. 274) is mentioned below among the Commanders of Three Hundred and Fifty. In the 47th year he was made a Commander of Five Hundred with a contingent of 300 troopers. Another son, Rahim Quli, was a Commander of Two Hundred and Fifty, (No. 333). For Khan Jahan’s brother vide No. 46.