Siyar al-mutaʾakhkhirin 42.20
A Translation of the Seir Mutaqherin (Haji Mustafa) 42.20
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42.20.1
About the middle of Shaaban, the rainy season set in with such a violent storm of rain, as distressed the whole army, but did nowhere so much havoc as upon the men at the trenches, which it ruined intirely. The batteries, the scaffoldings, the cavaliers, raised by Ghazi-eddin-qhan's ingenuity, were all over set, and levelled with the ground. In the very heighth of the storm and rain, the General, Abdol-rezac, made a sally at the head of the bravest of the garrison, and overthrew everything in his way. The massacre and confusion were so great, that Selim-qhan-qhashy, who was reputed one of the bravest men of the army, flung himself in a miry-hole in the ground, and remained concealed; and Saf-shiken-qhan, who had greatly distinguished himself throughout the siege, and was already weakened by two wounds, finding what havoc was going on, dropped down in the water and mud, and kept himself amongst the dead. Djemshid-qhan, another officer of distinction, took to a corner, and in the darkness expected to escape, but he was discovered and taken prisoner. But Djelil, a slave-boy of the Emperor's, who had raised him to dignities under the surname of Serberah-qhan, was wounded and taken prisoner, with twelve officers of distinction.
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The Emperor hearing of such a disaster, ordered that seventy or eighty mountain-like elephants should be carried in the torrents occasioned by the storm, and served as so many bridges for the distressed to pass over, and especially for saving those of the trenches. The elephants were marched; but so far from being of any use, not one of them could stand the rapidity of the water, so far from approaching the trenches; and Haiat-qhan, the superintendent of the elephant-office, after having spent the whole day and part of a night in fruitless attempts, returned to camp. Meanwhile, the victorious, tired with both the slaughter and storm, returned to the fortress, and presented their principal prisoners to their master. This Prince entertained them during four days together; after which he dismissed them all with the utmost civility and regard, giving a dress of honour to each of them, and complimenting Serberah-qhan and Ghairet-qhan in particular, with each a horse besides. Before their departure, he desired Serberah-qhan to go round the fortress, and to take a view of the magazines of provisions, powder, ball, and every necessary to sustain a siege. The other, after a full survey, was amazed at the immensity of the provision; and on being dismissed, he was entrusted with a supplication and a message to the Emperor, both of the same purport. Abul-hassen made them swear by their master's head and life, that they would deliver them faithfully.
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But when the two officers arrived in camp, they met with a very cold reception from the Emperor, who seemed to look upon them with an evil eye. Ghairet-qhan, who had the rank of a thousand horse, and the command of two hundred, was put at the head of a body of five hundred, and without being spoken to by a single word, he was sent to serve in Bengal, that is, sent in exile. Serberah-qhan was used more harshly. The Emperor observed that there was nothing strange in a slave-boy's running away from an engagement, and in his being taken prisoner; and he then deprived him of his grade, but left that wretched (for such was his expression) the command of four hundred horse he had. As to the letter he brought, it was treated with the utmost disdain and superciliousness. He would not so much as look at it; but sent it to be perused by the General Ghazi-eddin-qhan, with orders to make him a report of any thing in it that might deserve notice. Serberah-qhan, having seized that moment to represent that he had a message to deliver, was ordered to bring it at ten o'clock at night, at the head of His Majesty's bed. The Emperor being then in bed, both reports were brought forth, and found to be of one and the same import. The letter was as follows, and it deserves to be recorded:— "After all these "hostilities, I still look upon myself to be one of your Majesty's humble servants. If I have been guilty, whether knowingly or otherwise, I have been abundantly punished;
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and now I hope from the benignity of the Imperial temper, that the time of forgiveness is come at last. Nor is my hope without grounds; for on the supposition that the fortress is taken, and your ever victorious Majesty should of course return to your Imperial city, there is no doubt but that this country, ravaged and ruined by a seven years' war, and become the habitation of bats and owls, would be recommended to the care of some one of your Imperial Court. What harm is there in my being left to be that some one? There is no doubt but such a one will ask for himself, for his troops, and for the expenses of Government, more than the country is likely to produce hereafter; he will ask a large sum likewise for emergencies; and that overplus must be disbursed from the Imperial treasury. What he shall ask, besides, for putting a country circumstanced as this is in a state of cultivation, cannot be an inconsiderable object, as such a sum and such an expenditure must be repeated for seven or eight years together, before the country can recover an air of population and cultivation. Now such a preposed as your humble servant, would save all those unavoidable expenses to your Majesty's treasury; and nevertheless, he would continue to send to your Imperial threshold, (that resort of the respects and homages of all mankind) the same tribute as I used to pay to your treasury in my days of dominion and prosperity.
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Besides that, should my humble requests be granted, and your victorious standards be prevailed upon to return towards Hindostan, I promise that at every cosse which they shall measure, on their return within the ruined dominions of this afflicted man, I will pay into the Imperial treasury one lac of rupees; and I will pay another such lac, as a nuzzur to your footsteps for every assault that shall have been given since your arrival here. Nor is it fear that can prompt me to such confessions; it is with a view to put an end to all that effusion of Musulman blood which has overflowed this country, and to enable the faithful of the victorious army to revisit their forsaken "homes, and to embrace and rejoin their forlorn families. Over and above all that, should my humble request not prove fortunate enough to obtain the Imperial favor, and should it be the Imperial pleasure that the victorious army should lose some more time before these walls, I propose, in alleviation of the miseries of the suffering Imperial soldiers, to distribute five or six hundred thousand maunds of grain which Djelil, the slave-boy of your household, has seen in the magazines of this place."
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In answer to all these reasonable and advantageous proposals, the Emperor contented himself with saying, "That, if Abul-hassen was really so submissive, and so much his servant, he had nothing more to do, but to come of himself to his presence, with his hands bound before him, or else to let the Imperial officers bring him with his neck and hands bound; after which," added he, "I shall act as my goodness shall prompt me." This negotiation took up the whole night. The next morning, contrary to Abul-hassen's expectation, the Emperor dispatched an order to the Divan of the Province of Barar to forward to camp a variety of military stores, and in particular fifty thousand bags of canvas, two yards in length and one yard in breadth. A report of this order having been spread throughout the army, excited a general murmur, and even the common soldiers asked, "Where was the wisdom, where was the expediency, of sending for fifty thousand empty bags to fill up the ditch, instead of ordering them to be brought full of grain; after emptying which they might answer equally well? And had he not better accept the compassionate proffers of Abul-hassen's, and save the remaining army from perishing with distress and famine?" But the Emperor, without minding these murmurs, enforced the order by a number of corz-berdars guards, which were sent with the letter.
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Meanwhile, on the nineteenth of Shaaban, notice was given the Emperor that the mines were loaded and ready, and the miners waited only for the order to set fire to them. On this intelligence, the Emperor ordered that the guards at the trenches, with a great number of other people, should set up a general uproar as for an assault, to bring the besiegers upon the wall, and that then only fire should be given to the mines. All this scheme produced nothing. The brave and sagacious General, Abdol-rezac, alias Mustepha-qhan, had guessed the mines, and taken care to oppose them by three counter-mines, which he pushed against the enemy by the means of the stone-diggers in the place; and he was so lucky as to find out the enemy's three mines, and to take away the whole powder of one of them, after having poured water upon the two others, and gutted them of as much powder as he could take away with safety. The people in the trenches having made their appearance as for an assault, raised a general outcry; and this having brought vast crowds upon the crest of the wall, the miners, who waited only for such a moment, gave fire to one of the mines. But as the powder of that part was entirely wet, and nothing good remained but what was on the side of the trenches, the mine had a retrograde effect, and blew up an infinity of men about the trenches who were ready to mount to the assault, as well as a vast number of spectators;
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it also filled the trenches with rubbish, and it overthrew a great part of the parapet. This event happened in the year 1097, of the Hedjrah, a number which by a strange fatality happened to tally exactly with the number of men killed by that accident; and several of these were men of great characters. On the smoke ceasing, no breach could be discovered in the wall, nor any appearance like it, that might favour the troops ready to mount to the assault. So far from that, they lost courage, and fell into confusion; and this being soon discovered by the besieged, they fell upon the besiegers like a storm, and put to the sword everything they met in the trenches or in the environs. Assistance came, and after a great loss the trenches were at last cleared of the enemy, and filled with men again. And people were yet busy in counting the survivors, when the second mine was fired, and this likewise having had a retrogade effect, up flew an infinity of stones and clods of earth, which, by falling again, killed and wounded an infinity of people, whose screams reached the cupola of heaven; and this accident killed double the numbers that had been lost by the former. On sight of this, the besieged rushed out again, cleared the trenches, and did everything in their power to make themselves masters of the circumvalation, behind which the whole army was encamped, and which had cost full six months' labour.
42.20.9
The General Ghazy-eddin-qhan, seeing the consequence of what they intended, marched in person to oppose them. A scene of mutual slaughter took place, and notwithstanding every effort made to drive the besieged, they remained masters of the field; and here again the number of the slain proved equal to what the two former actions had cost. So many disasters, one after another, could not but kindle the Imperial anger. That anger, capable to set the world on fire, was kindled into a flame. He sent for an elephant, and mounting directly, was followed by all his Generals and Grandees, and by all the braves of the army. Being arrived at a place, where the balls were whistling in every direction, he ordered his moving throne to be laid upon the ground, unconcernedly took his seat in it, and ordered the besieged to be driven back. Whilst he was speaking, one of his guards, who was laying his hand upon the throne, had it carried away by a ball of cannon; and this accident did not affect the Emperor. He took no notice of it, and without betraying the least concern or trepidation, he continued to give his orders, and to exhort his people to behave manfully. At this moment, the clouds opening, a violent rain fell, and prevented either the Emperor's victory or his defeat. In a moment the plain was covered with waves, as if it had been an open sea. A stop was put to all further operations, and every one, without purposing any thing else, thought only of seeking shelter at home.
42.20.10
The works, the trenches, the batteries, those lofty cavaliers that seemed to reach the cupola of heaven—all that was overset; and the Emperor, wet to the skin as well as others, thought proper to return with his whole Court. At this sight the besieged, always intent on turning every opportunity to their own profit, rushed out of their gates, and falling upon the trenches, levelled them with the ground instantly; whilst others, finding in the mud those large guns that had cost so much money and time before they could be fixed upon the cavaliers, dragged some of them with a great deal of ease to the gates, and spoiled or rendered the rest unserviceable. They, likewise, carried away some thousand bags that had been filled with earth and thrown in the ditch. Amongst these was one that had been sewn by the Imperial hands, and this also was carried away in triumph, and was with the others employed in mending the breaches of the walls. In this sortie the Imperial General did not spare his own person; he was everywhere, but to no purpose. Matters were past remedy. The Emperor's own elephant, a favorite animal, that had cost forty thousand rupees, after having greatly suffered from the rain, mire, and wind, was killed by a cannon-ball. That day also proved a blank one, and nothing at all could be done. The second day, the Emperor mounted early, and gave orders to fire the third mine. But no fire would take effect. Every one wondered at such an event;
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when some spies gave advice that the besieged had taken away, from within, part of the powder, had wetted the rest, cut away the saucissons, and rendered all that work of no use. The Emperor, confounded and afflicted at such a series of reverses, was obliged to return to his quarters, after having put up the assault for some other day. Every thing remained quiet for some days, as numbers of Generals and Lords had been wounded and disabled, and the Generalissimo Ghazi-eddin-qhan, himself, had received two wounds, which obliged him to remain at home, and to leave the operations of the siege to the Imperial Prince, Azem-shah, in compliance with the Emperor's pleasure. The Monarch, meanwhile, who made no account of Abul-hassen, whether dead or alive, settled a regular government at Haïder-abad, which city he ordered to be mentioned in the accounts and records under the name of Theatre of Sacred War. He appointed a Governor and a Divan or intendant in that city, established collectors and a revenue office, and instituted several Courts of Justice; and all that was done with as much unconcern and sang-froid, as if the Haider-abadian King had never existed. Abdul-rahim-qhan was preposed to take an account of the houses and inhabitants of that great city; and the Emperor hearing that Abul-hassen had permitted some sectaries to settle in the suburbs, and also had given vogue to some sects of Deists, he ordered these people to be driven away;
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and levelling their habitations to the ground, together with some temples of idols, he ordered a number of mosques to be erected in their stead.