The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c16.115

v4.c16.115

Akbar left Fathpur Sīkrī on 22 August, 1585, but not before he had received the first Englishmen who visited his court. These were Newbery, Fitch and Leedes, a jeweller, the first of whom bore a letter of recommendation from Elizabeth. We know nothing of the nature of their reception, but Akbar took Leedes into his service. From Kalānaur Akbar sent a mission to Yūsuf Shāh of Kashmīr, summoning him to his camp to do homage for his kingdom, and Ya‘qūb, Yūsuf’s son, who was in the imperial camp on a conciliatory mission, fled on learning of the demand. Akbar’s envoys rejoined him when he reached Hasan Abdāl and reported that though Yūsuf had received them well he had refused to do homage in person. Akbar, therefore, resolved to enforce obedience, and on the last day of 1585 an army, nominally under the command of Shāh Rukh Mīrzā but in fact under that of Bhagwān Dās, marched from Attock into Kashmīr. At the same time an expedition under Zain Khān was sent into Swāt and Bājaur to subjugate the Yūsufzāis. Zain Khān reported that his force was not strong enough to humble the enemy, and Akbar sent him reinforcements under the command of Rājā Bīrbal, the court wit, and Hakīm Abu-’l-Fath, a physician. The amateur soldiers had plans of their own for the campaign, and Zain Khān, fearing Bīrbal’s personal influence with Akbar, dared not oppose his insane project of a military promenade through the difficult passes of Swāt. The army, demoralised by earlier misadventures, was attacked by the Yūsufzāis in the Mālandarai Pass, and Zain Khān, after fighting a most difficult rearguard action, was defeated and narrowly escaped with his life. The Yūsufzāis fell on the rest of the disorganised host, each man of which fought where he stood. Of the twelve officers personally known to Akbar who fell, the most important was Bīrbal, “who, from fear for his life, took the road of flight, and was slain, and entered the ranks of the dogs of hell, where he received a part of what was due to him for his base actions”.¹ Eight thousand men—about half of the army—perished, and on 24 February, 1586, Zain Khān and Abu-’l-Fath led the remnant into Akbar’s camp. Akbar, overwhelmed with grief for the loss of his intimate friend and early disciple, refused to see them and severely blamed Abu-’l-Fath for his insubordination to Zain Khān, but of the two amateurs Bīrbal had been the more to blame. The responsibility for the mishap was Akbar’s, who had appointed a jester and a physician to a military command. Todar Mal was sent to retrieve the disaster, and established fortified posts throughout the Yūsufzāi country.