The Institutes of Akbar 259: 36. Mahdi’ Qasim Kha’n.

259

The Tabaqat mentions him among the Commanders of Five Thousand. He served first under M. ’Askari, Babar’s third son, whose foster brother he was. His brother was Ghazanfar Kokah. Humayun, after the conquest of Gujrat, had appointed ’Askari to Ahmadabad. One night, when half drunk, M. ’Askari said, “I am king and the shadow of God;” when Ghazanfar gently replied, “Thou art drunk, and hast lost thy senses,” at which all who were present laughed. Askari got enraged, and imprisoned Ghazanfar; but he escaped, went to Sultan Bahadur, king of Gujrat, who had retreated to Fort Diu, and betrayed the plans of ’Askari. Bahadur thereupon collected an army, marched to Ahmadabad, and drove the Prince away (vide No. 12).
Mahdi Qasim Khan joined Humayun on his return from Persia, and was made, in the beginning of Akbar’s reign, a Commander of Four Thousand. In the 10th year, Abdul Majid Asaf Khan (No. 49) had been ordered to pursue Khan Zaman (No. 13); but entertaining doubts regarding his own safety, he fled to Garha (Jabalpur). M. Q. Kh. was, therefore, sent to Garha, after Akbar had, in 973, returned from Jaunpur to Agrah, and was ordered to capture ’Abdul Majid. When M. Q. Kh. arrived at Garha, ’Abdul Majid fled to Khan Zaman; but the wretched state of the country displeased M. Q. Kh. so much, that without asking Akbar’s permission, he left Garha and went to Makkah. From there he returned over Persia and Qandahar, and arrived, towards the end of the 13th year, at Rantambhur, which Akbar besieged, and asked to be forgiven, sending at the same time a fine batch of Persian horses as a present. Akbar pardoned him, restored him to his old rank, and gave him Lak’hnau as tuyul.
‘Nothing else is known of him’ (Maasir). He had been dead for some time in 1001, when the Tabaqat was completed. Husain Khan Tukriya (No. 53) was the son of his sister and his son-in-law.
He had a villa at Lahor, which was called Bagh i Mahdi Qasim Khan, vide Badaoni II, 90, 292, and Calcutta Review for October, 1869 (Jahangir’s Death).