Muntakhab al-tawarikh 78.11.1

78.11.1

‘The air again was so hot that, even in running water, The crab through heat laid its breast on the ground, Even the moist river, from the mouth of which water ever flows, Through fever became dry-lipped, like a bilious person.’ And when the town of Sakit had became the camping-place of the imperial army, news came in that Khan Zaman had raised the siege [of Shergarh], and fled towards Manikpur, where was his brother Bahadur Khan. Accordingly, from the town of Bhojpur the Emperor detached a body of 6,000 veteran troopers under the command of Muhammad Quli Khan Barlas, Muzaffar Khan, Raja Todar Mal, Shah Budagh Khan, and his son ‘Abd-ul-Matlab Khan and Husain Khan (who at that time had arrived from Satwas) to march towards Oudh to oppose Sikandar. At first Husain Khan was appointed to lead the vanguard of this division of the imperial army; but, since he had arrived in a most deplorable and poverty-stricken state, on account of the protracted seige he had sustained in the fortress [of Satwas], he went to the parganna of Shamsabad to obtain supplies for his army, and found it so refreshing that some little delay took place in his rejoining the army: consequently Qiya Khan was appointed in his place.