The Book of Akbar 323.1

323.1

As yet the arranging mind was not at rest about the doings of Iskandar, and it was watching the commotion at Kabul, when news came to Jalandhar on 31 Mihr, divine month—8 Zi-Hajja (18th October, 1556), of the arrival of Hemu, in whose brain the ambition of sovereignty was stirring, and of whom some account has been already given; of his engaging in battle with the great officers, of their want of steadiness, and of his having taken possession of Delhi. The short account of these events is as follows: Battles took place between Hemu and Ibrahim, who was a claimant for the Sultanate, and the former was always victorious. Sultan Muhammad, who had assumed the kingly title in Bengal, was also defeated, and was made to tread the land of annihilation. Hemu also engaged in conflicts with Taj Kararani and Rukn Khan Nuhani and defeated them. He fought two and twenty battles with the opponents of Mubariz Khan, and was victorious in all of them. His victories impressed him with evil ideas, and he did not perceive that the victory of a futile person over one more futile than himself is no reason for being bold enough to tilt against a mountain of iron. At the time when H.M. Jahanbani, with the assistance of the armies of God, conquered India, Hemu was otherwise engaged, and his vain imaginings did not show themselves. Now that the masnad of the Caliphate was resplendent from the personality of H.M.