ʿAmal-i Shalih 4: Mu'azzam Khan joins Aurangzeb. Capture of several fortresses belonging to Bijapur. Defeat of 'Adil Khan's army.
'Amal-i Sálih, of Muhammad Sálih Kambu (Elliot & Dowson, extracts) 4
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Mu'azzam Khan joins Aurangzeb. Capture of several fortresses belonging to Bijapur. Defeat of 'Adil Khan's army.
4.1
[Mu'azzam Khan departed from Court, and marched with the army under his command to Prince Aurangzeb, whom he joined on the 12th Rabi'u-s sani. On the same day the Prince, making no delay, marched on his enterprise with all the Imperial forces and his own followers. In the course of fourteen days he reached Chandor. There he left Wali Mahaldar Khan with a force of matchlockmen, etc., to keep open the communications and provide supplies. Next day he encamped under the fort of Bidar. This fortress was held by Sidi Marjan, an old servant of Ibrahim 'Adil Khan. He had been commander of the fortress for thirty years, and had kept it fully armed and ready. He had under him nearly 1000 horse and 4000 infantry, consisting of musketeers, rocketmen and gunners. The bastions and walls and works were carefully looked after, and he made every preparation for sustaining a siege. As soon as Prince Aurangzeb reached the place, he resolved to reduce it. This strong fortress was 4500 yards (dara') in circumference, and twelve yards high; and it had three deep ditches twenty-five yards (gaz) wide, and fifteen yards deep cut in the stone. The Prince went out with Mu'azzam Khan and reconnoitered the fort on all sides. He settled the places for the lines of approach, and named the forces which were to maintain them.
4.2
Notwithstanding the heavy fire kept up from the bastions and the citadel, in the course of ten days Mu'azzam Khan and the other brave commanders pushed their guns up to the very edge of the ditch and began to fill it up. Several times the garrison sallied forth and made fierce attacks upon the trenches, but each time they were driven back with a great loss in killed and wounded. The besiegers by the fire of their guns destroyed two bastions and battered down the battlements of the wall. On the 23rd Jumada-s sani, in the thirty-first year of the reign, Muhammad Murad, with a body of musketeers and other forces, sallied from his trenches to make the assault. As soon as he reached the bastion opposite the trench of Mu'azzam Khan, he planted scaling ladders in several places, and ascended the wall. Marjan, the commandant, had dug a great hole in the rear of this bastion, and had filled it with gunpowder, rockets and grenades (hukka). With his eight sons and all his personal followers he stood near this bastion, and with the greatest courage and determination endeavoured to resist the assault. Just then, through the good fortune which at all times attends the royal arms, * * a rocket directed against the besiegers fell into the above-mentioned hole, and ignited the gunpowder. A tremendous explosion followed, which destroyed many of the enemy. Sidi Marjan and two of his sons were severely burnt. Those who escaped the explosion bore him and his sons back into the citadel.
4.3
The brave assailants took advantage of this accident, and pouring into the fortress on all sides, they killed or bore down all who resisted, and raised the flag of victory. * * The commandant of the fortress, with great humility, sued for quarter, and as he was mortally wounded and unable to move, he sent his sons with the keys of the fortress. They were graciously received by the Prince, who presented them with khil'ats, and promised them the Imperial favour. On the day after the giving up the keys, the Prince entered the city, and proceeding to a mosque which had been built two hundred years before, in the reign of the Bahmani Sultans, he caused the khutba to be read in the name of the Emperor. * * This strong fortress was thus taken in twenty-seven days. Twelve lacs of rupees in money, and eight lacs of rupees in lead, gunpowder, stores, and other munitions of a fortress, were obtained, besides two hundred and thirty guns.
4.4
Bidar is a pleasant, well-built city, and stands on the borders of Telingana. It is related in the histories of Hindustan, that Bidar was the seat of government of the Rais of the Dakhin, and that the Rais of the Karnatik, Mahratta (country), and Telingana were subject to the Rai of Bidar. Daman, the beloved of King Nala of Malwa, whose story Shaikh Faizi has told in the poem entitled Nal o Daman, was daughter of Bhim Sen, the marzban of Bidar. Sultan Muhammad, son of Sultan Tughlik, first subdued the place. After that, it passed into the hands of the Bahmanis, and subsequently into the possession of the Kings of Bijapur. By the favour of God, it now forms part of the Imperial dominions.
4.5
Intelligence reached the Prince that large bodies of the forces of 'Adil Khan were collecting at Kulbarga, and preparing for war. He consequently sent Mahabat Khan with fifteen thousand well-mounted veteran cavalry to chastise these forces, and not to leave one trace of cultivation in that country. Every building and habitation was to be thrown down, and the land was to be made a dwelling for the owls and kites. The Khan had not got far from Bidar, when, in the middle of the next day, two thousand of the enemy's horse, at about three kos from the Imperial army, seized a number of bullocks, belonging to the Banjaras, while they were grazing, and were driving them off to their quarters. Mu'azzam Khan and * * led a detachment of the Imperial forces after them, to inflict chastisement upon them, and release the cattle. Pressing forward with all speed, they overtook the enemy, killed a great many of them, and rescued all the cattle. Such of the enemy as escaped made off with great difficulty, and the royal forces returned. The wretched Afzal, who had advanced very boldly, when he heard of this disaster, was paralyzed, and fled in consternation from Kalyani, without even waiting for the fugitives to come in, and fell back upon his other forces. Mahabat Khan then ravaged Kalyani, and continued his march. Every day the black-coated masses of the enemy appeared in the distance, but they continued to retreat. * *
4.6
On the 8th Rajab, Jan Muhammad and Afzal and Rustam, the son of Randaula, and others of the enemy, with about 20,000 horse, made their appearance near the royal army, and were very bold and insolent. * * Mahabat Khan left his camp in charge of Subhan Singh, and marched out against them. The enemy began to discharge rockets upon the right wing under the command of Diler Khan, and a battle followed. * * Mahabat Khan was a good soldier; and when reports were brought to him from all parts of the field, he saw that Ikhlas Khan and Diler Khan were hard pressed. * * So he charged the enemy with such impetuosity that they were filled with dismay and fled. The victors followed in close pursuit, and many of the fugitives fell by their swords. Aurangzeb, having left Mu'azzam Khan and Ikbal Khan in charge of Bidar, on the 23rd Rajab marched against Kalyani. On the 29th he reached that place, and on the same day he reconnoitered the fortress and invested it. * * On the 8th Sha'ban the approaches were advanced to the edge of the ditch, and the besieged were hard pressed. [Several actions with and victories over the enemy. The country ravaged. Kulbarga occupied.]
4.7
When the ditch was filled with stones and earth, and the bastions and ramparts had been well battered, on the 27th the assailants placed their ladders and mounted a bastion which had been much damaged, and began to undermine and throw down the wall. The besieged made a gallant resistance, and kept up a heavy discharge of rockets, arrows, and muskets. Grenades, naphtha-balls, and trusses of burning straw were thrown from the top of the walls. But the assailants pressed bravely on, and victory was not far off. At this juncture Dilawar Habshi, who with 2500 men held the place for 'Adil Khan, felt himself in great danger of destruction, and on the 29th wrote a letter begging for forgiveness and offering to surrender. Most of the garrison were Musulmans, so the commandant and all his men were allowed to march out with their property and their wives and families. On the 1st Zi-l ka'da, 1068, the keys of the fortress were given up, and the Prince entered and had the khutba read. The commandant sought and obtained permission to go to Bijapur.]