The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c16.191

v4.c16.191

On 3 October Akbar fell sick of dysentery. A violent quarrel between the servants of Salīm and those of Khusrav, connected with an elephant fight, further embittered the relations between father and son and aggravated the emperor’s disorder, which did not yield to the treatment of Hakīm ‘Alī, his physician. Khān A‘zam and Mān Singh conspired to seize and imprison Salīm on a day on which it had been arranged that he should visit his father, but he was warned in time of their intentions and returned home without entering the palace. They then convened a meeting of the courtiers, and laid before them a proposal that Salīm should be set aside, but dissolved the meeting on discovering that they could not command a majority. Salīm’s supporters now bestirred themselves; Rām Dās the Kachhwāhā placed a guard of his Rājputs over the treasury in his interest, and the valiant Sayyids of Bārha declared for him. Mān Singh, on his failure to secure his nephew’s succession, prepared to carry him off to Bengal, but Salīm’s party converted many trimmers and some opponents by exacting from him two oaths, the first that he would protect Islām, and the second that he would refrain from punishing his son and others who had sought to deprive him of his birthright.