The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c14.92

v4.c14.92

Sikandar Shāh, on learning of the defeat of his troops, himself took the field, marched with 80,000 horse, and elephants and artillery, from Delhi to Sirhind. He entrenched himself before the city, and the Mughul officers strengthened its fortifications and sent a message to Humāyūn begging him to join his army without delay. He was indisposed, but sent his young son, Akbar, to represent him and left Lahore as soon as his health permitted, arriving at Sirhind on 27 May, 1555. Here he spent nearly a month in perfecting its defences, while occasional combats took place between his troops and those of Sikandar Shāh. On 22 June Khvāja Mu‘azzam, Atga Khān and some other officers attacked the Afghāns with a considerable force, and though Humāyūn, as usual, was not prepared for a general action, other troops were drawn in, to support those already engaged, until the action became general. Sikandar Shāh had received reinforcements, but his army, now numbering nearly 100,000 horse, was defeated after a well-contested fight and fled, losing heavily in the retreat. Sikandar took refuge in the skirts of the Himālayas, and the leaders of the victorious army were received on their return with much honour, until the generals disturbed their master’s ease by disputing one another’s title to the credit of the victory. Humāyūn summarily settled their dispute by naming his son Akbar, in the despatch announcing the victory, as the commander of his army. It was now discovered that Khvāja Mu‘azzam had been in treasonable correspondence with Sikandar Shāh, and he was imprisoned, but it seems difficult to believe that he can have had any object in aiding Sikandar’s cause, and it is not improbable that his correspondence was designed to involve his dilatory master in a general action, and that his message to Sikandar had the same object as that of Themistocles to the Persians before Salamis.