Muntakhab al-tawarikh 4: Sultan Muhammad 'A'dil, otherwise called 'Adali, son of Nizam Khan Sur.
Muntakhabu-t Tawáríkh of 'Abdu-l Kádir Badáúní (extracts) 4
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Sultan Muhammad 'A'dil, otherwise called 'Adali, son of Nizam Khan Sur.
4.1
[Text, vol. i. p. 413.] His real name was Mubariz Khan; but when he ascended the throne, with the accord of the ministers and nobles, he assumed the title of Muhammad 'Adil. The people, however, used to call him 'Adali, and went so far as to alter the letters of this name and convert it into Andhali, which means "blind." Ibrahim Khan, after an unsuccessful action at Khanwa, fled to Bayana, which is a strong fort in a commanding position. Himun immediately invested it, and skirmishes were of daily occurrence between the contending parties. The fort was well supplied with guns and ammunition, and Ghazi Khan, Ibrahim's father, who was in Hindun, used to throw supplies into it by way of the hills to the west of Bayana. Himun invested the fort for three months, and devastated the whole of the country in the neighbourhood, and my father's library in Basawar was almost entirely destroyed.
4.2
At this time a dreadful famine raged in the eastern provinces, especially in Agra, Bayana and Dehli, so that one sir of the grain called juwari rose to two and a half tankas, and even at that price could not be obtained. Many of the faithful closed their doors, and died by tens and twenties, and even in greater numbers, and found neither coffin nor grave. Hindus perished in the same numbers. The common people fed upon the seeds of the thorny acacia, upon dry herbage of the forest, and on the hides of the cattle which the wealthy slaughtered and sold. After a few days, swellings rose on their hands and feet, so that they died, and the date is represented by the words khashm-i izad, "Wrath of God." The author with his own eyes witnessed the fact that men ate their own kind, and the appearance of the famished sufferers was so hideous that one could scarcely look upon them. What with the scarcity of rain, the famine and the desolation, and what with uninterrupted warfare for two years, the whole country was a desert, and no husbandmen remained to till the ground. Insurgents also plundered the cities of the Musulmans.
4.3
Amongst the remarkable incidents of the year 962, during the war between Sikandar and Ibrahim, was the explosion in the fort of Agra, of which the following is a brief account. When the army of 'Adali Khan had left Agra, Ghazi Khan Sur sent his own officers with a garrison to protect the property, to keep the fort in a state of preparation, and to lay in provisions, for which purpose they had to examine the several storerooms and workshops. By chance, early one morning, as they were going their rounds with a lamp, a spark fell into a room filled with gunpowder. In the twinkling of an eye it ignited, and rising up to heaven, the earth quaked, so that the inhabitants of the city thought that the Day of Judgment had come, and prayed devoutly when they were roused thus suddenly from their slumbers. Planks, enormous stones and columns were sent flying several kos to the other side of the Jumna, many people were destroyed, and the limbs of men and of animals were blown away, full ten or twelve miles. As the name of the citadel of Agra was originally called Badalgarh, the date, 962, was found in the words Atash-i Badalgadh — "The fire of Badal."
4.4
While Himun was encamped before Bayana, the people died with the word "bread" upon their lips, and while he valued the lives of a hundred thousand men at no more than a barley-corn, he fed his five hundred elephants upon rice, sugar, and butter. The whole world was astounded and disgusted. Himun, once every day, eat with his own followers in public, and calling the Afghans to his own table, he would invite them to eat, telling them to take up large handfuls, and he would shamefully abuse any one whom he saw eating slowly, and say, "How can you with such a slender appetite expect to fight with any rascally Mughal?" As the Afghans had now nearly lost their power, they could not muster spirit enough to reply to the unclean infidel; and laying aside the bluntness and hastiness for which they are so celebrated, they consented, whether from fear of consequences or hope of reward, to swallow his foul language like so many sweetmeats, adopting the following verses as their maxim: "Place not your hands submissively on my feet; Give me only bread, and lay your slipper on my head."