Riyaz al-salatin 114.1
The Riyazu-s-salatin (Abdus Salam) 114.1
- Language
- English
114.1.1
Nawab Jafar Ali Khan had sent to Calcutta his kinsman, Mir Muhammad Qasim, who was a son of Nawab Imtiaz Khan, surnamed Khalis, to represent him at the Conference regarding the Administration and settlement of the apportionment of 10 annas of the revenue to Jafar Ali Khan and six annas to the English, and regarding the enjoyment of the office of Diwan by Jafar Ali Khan. On the death of Sadiq Ali Khan, the Army demanding their pay which had fallen into arrear for some years mutinied in a body, besieged the Nawab in the Chhil Satiin Palace, and cut off supplies of food and water. In consequence, the Nawab wrote to Mir Muhammad Qasim Khan to the effect that the army had reduced him to straits for demand of arrear pay. Mir Muhammad Qasim Khan, in concert with Jagat Set, conspired with the English Chiefs, and induced the latter to write to Nawab Jafar Ali Khan to the effect that the mutiny of the army for demand of pay was a very serious matter, and that it was advisable that the Nawab abandoning the Fort should come down to Calcutta, entrusting the Fort and the Subah to Mir Muhammad Qasim Khan. Mir Muhammad Qasim with full self-confidence, on attaining his aim, returned to Murshidabad. The English Chiefs leaguing with Mir Muhammad Qasim Khan brought out Nawab Jafar Khan from the Fort, placed him on a boat, and sent him down to Calcutta. Mir Qasim Khan entered the Fort, mounted the masnad of Nizamat, and issued proclamations of peace and security in his own name.
114.1.2
He sent a message to Rajballab to bring back the Emperor to Azimabad, whilst he himself afterwards set out for Azimabad, in order to wait on the Emperor, after attending to and reassuring his army, and making some settlement in regard to their arrears of pay. Leaving his uncle, Mir Turab Ali Khan, as Deputy Nazim in Murshidabad, Mir Qasim carried with himself all his effects, requisites, elephants, horses, and treasures comprising cash and jewelleries of the harem, and even gold and silver decorations of the Imambara, amounting to several lacs in value, and bade farewell to the country of Bengal. After arriving at Monghyr, and attending to the work of strengthening its fortifications, he marched to Azimabad (Patna), in order to wait on the Emperor. Before Mir Qasim's arrival at Azimabad, the Emperor had returned to that place, and the English going forward to receive him had accommodated His Majesty in their own Factory. Subsequently, Qasim Ali Khan also arrived, had the honour of an audience with the Emperor, and received from the latter the title of Nawab Ali Jah Nasiru-l-mulk Imtiazu-d-daulah Qasim Ali Khan Nasrat Jang. But the officers of the Emperor marking some change in the conduct of Qasim Ali Khan marched back with the Emperor to Banaras, without giving any intimation thereof to the aforesaid Khan.
114.1.3
Nawab Qasim Ali Khan followed to Monghyr and resided there in 1175 A.H., after having finished his expeditions to Tirhut, Shahabad, and Azimabad, and after having left Rajah Naubat Rai as Deputy Subadar of Patna, in place of Ramnarain and Rajballab who were imprisoned. (See Seir, Vol. II, p. 711). Two days every week, the Nawab dispensed justice, attended personally to every State affair, and listened patiently to the complaints and grievances of everyone, however humble his position, and did not permit corruption or bribery to thwart the course of justice. He paid assiduous attention to the happiness of his people and to the comfort of his army, which he placed in a highly efficient state. He was, however, a terror to enemies and wrong-doers, and his vigorous personality pervaded all affairs of the State. Friends and foes alike respected him, and even the English regarded him as a real power in the land, and not as a shadow like Mir Jafar. He respected learning and the learned, and appreciated the company of scholars, savants, and saints. The one fatal mistake that he made was that he trusted implicitly the Armenian cut-throat, Gurgan Khan, who was the generalissimo of his Army and who was secretly bent on ruining him, and this one fatal mistake which embroiled him in a quarrel with the English subsequently proved disastrous to his power. See Seiru-l-Mutakherin, Vol. II, p. 712.
114.1.4
them up to the confines of Baksār and Jagadīshpur, and after pillaging those places returned to Azimabad, halted at the residence of Ramnarain, and set himself to the work of administration of the affairs of that place. When Qasim Ali Khan demanded from the English duties on their trade-goods, the latter refused to pay the same, and carried on their trade duty-free. Nawab Qasim Ali Khan remitted thereupon the duties leviable from all the traders of Bengal and Behar, and declared that so long as he failed to levy duties from the rich, he would hold back his hand from doing so, in the case of the poor. Owing to this cause, and owing to some other matters, a misunderstanding set in between him and the English chiefs. The Nawab now hatched plans for exterminating them. At length, he formed the resolution of putting them all to the sword on one day. In pursuance of this plan, he sent despatches to his Deputies and Faujdars in Bengal to the effect that on a certain fixed date everywhere, they should by means of treachery or violence massacre all the English residents. And after personally giving peremptory injunctions to the Generals of his army to kill and capture and pillage and plunder the English, he returned to Monghyr. And when on the day fixed, the army of Qasim Ali Khan prepared to discharge their commissioned task, a battle ensued with the English army.
114.1.5
At length after successive onslaughts, Nawab Qasim Ali Khan's army triumphed, and engaging in capturing and killing slew all the English, and plundered their factories. But Sadru-l-Haq Khan, Faujdar of Dinajpur, and the Rajah of Bardwan held back their hands from this wretched work. account of these events is neither so detailed nor so lucid as that of the Seiru-l-Muta'akherin, whose author Ghulam Husain Khan was an actor in, or actual spectator of, most of these scenes. From the Seir, it appears that after the re-capture of Patna, the next battle between the English and the Nawab's troops was fought at Katwah. The Nawab's Faujdar of Birbhum, Muhammad Taqi Khan, fought at this battle most gallantly, but his gallantry was of no avail, as Syed Muhammad Khan, Deputy Nazim of Murshidabad, failed, owing to jealousy that he bore, to support him, and prevented Jafar Khan, Alam Khan, and Shaikh Haibatu-l-lah also from re-inforcing him. (See Seir, Vol. II, pp. 729 to 731). After this, the English with Mir Jafar entered Murshidabad (Seir, Vol. II, p. 731). The news of the fall of his brave officers Muhammad Taqi Khan, disconcerted the Nawab, who hurried up re-inforcements under Sumroo, Mallear Armenian, and Asadullah, and directed them to concentrate at Suti with the vanquished troops of Katwah. Major Adams commanded the English army. At the battle of Suti, the Nawab's troops were defeated, and the English won the victory (See Seir, Vol. II, pp. 732-733).
114.1.6
On hearing of the defeat at Suti, the Nawab sent his Begams and children to the fort of Rohtas, whilst he himself set out with his general, the Armenian Gurgin Khan, to re-inforce his army that was now concentrated on the banks of the Adhua nalla, a stream taking its rise from the hills north of Rajmahal and flowing to the Ganges. This position was considered to be of strategic importance and impregnable, as it was accessible by only one secret passage. (See Seir, Vol. II, p. 734). On 24th Muharram in 1177 A.H., in the night, the Nawab marched out from the Monghyr Fort. Suspecting treachery from his officers as well as from his prisoners, and his suspicion being fanned by the Armenian Gurgin Khan, the Nawab before leaving Monghyr killed his prisoners, namely, Rajah Ramnarain, the quondam Naib Subadar of Behar, Rajah Rajballab, the quondam Diwan of Nawab Shahamat Jang, Rai Raian Umid Ram, Rajah Fateh Singh, Rajah Buniad Singh (zamindar of Tikari), Shaikh Abdullah, as well as others. The Nawab caused Ramnarain to be thrown into the river below Monghyr fort with a pitcher filled with sand tied to his neck. Gurgin Khan, not satisfied with this work of butchery, incited the Nawab to kill also his English prisoners, consisting of Mr. Elison and Dr. Fullerton and others of the Patna Factory. The Nawab, however, refused to kill them and placed extra guard on them.
114.1.7
Kamgar Khan Muin also joined the Nawab, who was encamped at the Champanagar nalla, but was sent away to Birbhum by the traitor, Gurgin Khan. (Seir, Vol. II, p. 735). At this time, Mir Ruju-d-din, son of the late Nawab Saif Khan of Purniah, deserted Mir Qasim's army, proceeded to Purniah, and made himself its master, and opened correspondence with Mir Jafar Khan and the English (Seir, Vol. II, p. 736). At Adhua, the Nawab's troops When Nawab Qasim Ali Khan made his entry into Monghyr, he summoned to his presence all the officers of the Nizamat of were wont for some time to sally out in the night by the secret passage, and to do havoc amongst English troops. Once they went so far as to attack Mir Jafar Khan's Camp, Mir Jafar Khan having come to Adhua with the English army. Mir Jafar was about to run away, when the English army re-inforced him. The English were thrown into consternation by these destructive night-attacks, and were at a loss to find out the passage by which the Nawab's troops approached the English entrenchments. At this time, an English soldier who had long ago left the English army and taken service under the Nawab, informed the English army of the secret passage (Seir, Vol. II, p. 737), and undertook to guide them to the Nawab's entrenchments at Adhua. With the help of this man, Colonel Goddard, with an English regiment, moved to the Nawab's entrenchment in the night.
114.1.8
The Nawab's army were in a false sense of security, fancying the position impregnable, and thinking that the secret passage to it was unknown to the English. The Nawab's army under Asadullah Khan, the Frenchman Sumroo, the Armenians, Malkar and Antony, were surprised by this night-attack of the English and defeated (Seir, Vol. II, p. 738), and dispersed on 26th Safar, 1177 A.H. On the second or third day, the news of this disaster reached the Nawab, who now moved to the Monghyr Fort. After halting there two or three days, he left that place with Gurgin Khan and others, placing the Fort in charge of one Arab Ali Khan, a protege and creature of Gurgin Khan, and reached the Kohua nulla. At this time, a leading nobleman named Ali Ibrahim Khan counselled the Nawab to release the English prisoners, named Messrs. Ellis, Jee, and Lushington and others, or at least to send their wives by boat to Major Adams. The Nawab referred Ali Ibrahim Khan to Gurgin Khan, the Armenian evil genius of the Nawab. The Armenian said no boats were available, and refused to listen to the humane counsel of Ali Ibrahim Khan. On the way, Gurgin Khan was hacked to pieces with the sword by some horseman, whose pay was in arrear. The Nawab moved from Kohua nulla to Barh, where Jagat Set and his brother Sarupchand were put to the sword under Nawab's orders.
114.1.9
From there the Nawab moved to Patna, where he received news that Arab Ali Khan, commandant of the Monghyr Fort, and a creature of Gurgin Khan, had accepted a bribe from the English, and treacherously made over the Fort to the latter. (Seir, Vol. II, p. 741). The Nawab was exasperated; he was filled with suspicion, and his annoyance knew no bounds. He ordered the Frenchman, Sumroo, to kill the English prisoners. This Sumroo, though of one religion with the English prisoners, willingly accepted this murderous errand, and on the night of the last day of Rabi-al-Awal, 1177 A.H., he shot down the English prisoners, who were lodged at the time in the house of the late Haji Ahmad, brother of Mahabat Jang. That house has since become the English burial-ground in Patna, (See Seir, Vol. II, p. 739). None escaped except Dr. Fullerton (Seir, Vol. II, p. 740). The Nawab accused Dr. Fullerton of treachery, which the latter Bengal, and set himself to the work of administering the several disavowed. The Nawab then spared his life. Dr. Fullerton subsequently escaped to Hajipur and joined the English army there (Seir, Vol. II, p. 741). The English next invaded Patna, and stormed the fort there [Seir, Vol. II, p. 742). The Nawab now crossed the Karamnassa river, and entered the territory of Nawab-Vizier Shujau-d-daulah. [Seir, p. 743).
114.1.10
The Nawab (Mir Qasim) now met the Nawab-Vizier Shujau-d-daulah and the Emperor near Allahabad, and induced them to help him in driving out the English from the Subahs of Behar and Bengal (Seir, Vol. II, p. 745). The Emperor, the Nawab-Vizier and the Nawab now marched to Benares where they encamped for some time, in order to invade Behar (p. 746 Seir). Dreading the approach of the Nawab-Vizier Shujau-d-daulah, the English with Mir Jafar, who had gone in pursuit of Mir Qasim, now retired from Baksar towards Patna. Shujau-d-daulah with his huge army and with Mir Qasim now overtook the English near Phulwari (p. 749, Seir, Vol. II). There were skirmishes, followed by a battle in which the English army reeled, but the result was indecisive, owing to absence of concerted action between Mir Qasim and Shujau-d-daulah (pp. 749-750, Seir, Vol. II). At the same time, Mir Mehdi Khan, who had before fought so bravely for Mir Qasim and re-captured the Patna Fort from the English, now deserted his old master, Mir Qasim, and joined the English (p. 750, Seir, Vol. II).