Storia do Mogor 149: Muhammad Amin Khan defeated by the Pathans.
Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 149
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Muhammad Amin Khan defeated by the Pathans.
149.1
But let us proceed and see what happened to Muhammad Amin Khan with the Pathans. It looks as if God had inspired me with this resolve not to go with him in order to save my life. When he reached the territories of Kabul, puffed up with pride as he was, he tried to interfere with the Pathans, and was not content to do as other viceroys had done. They had managed to keep friends with these most warlike folk. But he, as soon as he arrived, sent word to the Pathans that he required them to pay tribute; otherwise he would make war, and oblige them to do by force what they declined to do from affection. This was enough to give the Pathans an opportunity of destroying him. Taking no notice [154] of the affront, they allowed Muhammad Amin Khan with forty thousand horse, in addition to infantry numbering two hundred thousand and his baggage, to enter into the mountains near Pexor (Peshawar). When the imperialists had advanced into the hills, the Pathans blocked the routes. One morning, while it was still dark, all the Pathans came, marching on foot, and having manned the tops of the surrounding hills, they began to shout as with one voice, so frightening the men of Muhammad Amin Khan that they were like a pinha (a pine-tree — i.e., they trembled ?). Then the hillmen descended on the Moguls with a great rush, their bare swords in their hands.
149.2
Muhammad Amin Khan issued forth, and finding himself in the last extremity, he sent an embassy to the Pathans through a holy man of Balkh. He said he would pay them a great deal of money and comply with their wishes. But the enraged Pathans would not hear a word, and, cutting off the holy man's head, fell upon Muhammad Amin Khan's soldiers, sparing not a single one. Muhammad Amin Khan had recourse to a device to save his own life. That is to say, he ordered his secretary, Muhammad Riza, to take the seat on his elephant, and thus he was destroyed, the Pathans supposing that it was Muhammad Amin Khan himself. They contented themselves with cutting off this man's head and carrying it into the mountains. Muhammad Amin Khan, with the aid of some Pathans in his service, clothed himself in their manner, and these men conducted him until he had got out of the hills and arrived at Peshawar. When they reached the city it was night, and the commandant would not open the gate, fearing some treachery. Nevertheless, through the urgent petitions forwarded to him by Muhammad Amin Khan, the commandant sent men to examine well by torch-light the marks on his face, so as to see if it were really Muhammad Amin Khan. He had to suffer this affront in order to save his life. But how did the Pathans deal with the wealth and the family of Muhammad Amin Khan ?
149.3
All were made prisoners, except Mirza 'Abdullah, son of Muhammad Amin Khan, who on seeing the enemy make a prisoner of his father's wife, the one who showed me her daughter's face thereby to overcome me, cut off her head himself. After this the Pathans killed him ('Abdullah) along with Mirza Sultan, brother-in-law of Muhammad Amin Khan, a well-made man of grave demeanour, a Persian by birth. They took prisoners the mother, the sister, and the daughter of the fugitive. The last-named lady had already been named to Sultan Akbar, the fourth son of Aurangzeb, but after this the marriage was not carried out [155]. It was thought an indignity for a prince of the blood royal to marry one who had been taken and put to ransom by so barbarous a people as are the Pathans of those mountains. So barbarous were they, that they were not aware of the wealth they had acquired by the overthrow of their enemies, and gave the gold coins away for nothing, taking them to be of base metal. It was on this occasion that a jewel-box was lost containing all the most lovely jewels and the largest diamonds belonging to the widow of Mir Jumlah. She had refused to give them to Aurangzeb, who had asked for them, assigning as her reason that, being an old woman, the said jewels would serve her as torches to lighten her old age. Some say that when Mahabat Khan was sent back afterwards to govern Kabul a second time, he found means of recovering these valuables, but it is not known for certain.
149.4
When the king sent Mahabat Khan to Kabul again as governor, Netu Ji, officer of Shiva Ji, succeeded in escaping ; but the attempt did not end as he wished, for he was caught at once, and they brought him to Lahor, where they put him into a cage until the arrival of the royal orders. These orders were that if he did not consent to become a Mahomedan his head was to be cut off. He pretended to change his religion and recovered once more his rank, but was ordered to go across the river Indus. After some months had elapsed he disappeared and made for the country of Shiva Ji, and fought anew against the Moguls in the accustomed way. Those who escaped death were afterwards ransomed ; Muhammad Amin, unlocking his treasure-house at Peshawar, ransomed his mother, who had been wounded in the side, his sister, and his daughter. If anyone wants to know if Muhammad Amin Khan was rich, he can conceive an answer from what was said to him by his secretary — that is to say, that without drawing pay or income from the king, he could of himself, with the rank he had, maintain twelve thousand horsemen for eighty years.