The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c16.171

v4.c16.171

Akbar has been charged with gross perfidy in inveigling Bahādur into his toils and in detaining him in spite of solemn engagements, but the perfidy was not all on one side, and each strove to outwit the other. Akbar’s terms included personal submission but made no specific mention of the surrender of the fortress. Bahādur must, however, have known that the demand would be made and had taken precautions for evading it. He had instructed Yāqūt, the African commander of the fortress, to hold it to the last, disregarding any orders purporting to be his which he might receive from the imperial camp, his object being to represent the garrison as rebels who defied his authority and thus escape responsibility. Yāqūt had opposed his leaving the fortress for Akbar’s camp and bitterly resented his meanness of spirit but faithfully obeyed his orders, and when his own son, Muqarrab Khān, arrived from the imperial camp with Bahādur’s orders that the fortress was to be surrendered he refused to hear him, and Muqarrab, on his return, reported that his father would never surrender the fortress, and was shortly afterwards stabbed to death by Akbar’s orders. This atrocious murder is one of the darkest blots on Akbar’s name.