Siyar al-mutaʾakhkhirin 9.7

9.7

I am not informed which Governors succeeded Nusret-yar-qhan in the government of that province. I only know that in the year 1140, Fahr-eddöolah, brother to Zaafer-qhan, having obtained the government of that province, remained five years in it ; but as he was a man that could neither read nor write, and was light-headed besides, his actions savoured of neglect and ignorance. He was also very proud, and very prone to anger, and at the same time so inconsiderate, that for a small subject, he fell out with Sheh-abdollah, a man of consequence in those parts, who seemed to be the main hinge of all the Government business in that province, for he had been for a length of time always employed by every Governor, either as his deputy, or as a general-farmer of the revenue. He had connections with almost all the Zemindars, was greatly respected by every one of them, and had acquired the good-will of the troops, as well as of every individual in the province, where he was universally respected. Fahr-eddöolah incited by a sense of jealousy, set up several chicanes against him, and he made him so uneasy, that the other thought it expedient to quit his house at Azim-abad (a house which he had bought with his own money), and to repair to the other side of the Ganga, where he had built a mud-fort, about the town of Sevan, and bought several villages with a deal of ground, where he now retired much discontented. The Governor not satisfied with this retreat, crossed the river after him, and besieged him in the said castle ; and he wanted no less than to obtain possession of the fort, and to seize and ill use his person. The man reduced to extremities, applied to Saadet-qhan, Governor of Aud, his next neighbour, to whom he exposed his situation, with the subject of the difference; and on his being sent for by him, he sallied out of the fort, forced bravely his passage through Fahr-eddoülah's camp, and effected his retreat by a valorous action, in which he eluded Fahr-eddoülah's inimical designs, and approved himself a soldier as well as a financier. Sheh-abdollah being arrived at Saadet-qhan's court, was received with distinction and honour; and the inimical Governor having missed his prey, returned to the capital, where he some time after commenced a quarrel with Qhadja Mutaassem, whom he greatly disobliged. This Qhadja or fakir was no less a man than a brother of Qhandoüran's, who under the garb of a fakir, and the resignation of a religious retired from business, lived at Azim-abad in all the splendour of a nobleman of the first rank. Shocked at the imprudence and the imperiousness of the Governor's behaviour, and at the levity of his actions, he quitted Azim-abad, and repaired to the capital, where on his brother's enquiring about the subject of his coming, the other informed him of the Governor's tyrannical conduct. The Minister who had already heard of it, procured Fahr-eddoülah's dismission from his appointment, and having annexed the Government of Azim-abad to that of Bengal, he sent the patents of it to Shudjah-qhan, who on the demise of Djaafer-qhan, his father-in-law, had succeeded him in that government. And as those Eastern countries are now going to cut a capital figure in our history, it will not be improper to introduce their actual ruler to the reader's acquaintance.