The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c20.145

v4.c20.145

After securing himself on the throne Farrukh-siyar by the advice of Mīr Jumla put many members of his rival's party to death and created a reign of terror. Among the chief victims were Sa‘d-ullah Khān (the deputy minister), Hidāyat-kesh (the chief news-writer), Sīdī Qāsim (the police prefect of Delhi), Sabhā Chand (Zu-’l-Fiqār’s all-powerful man of business) and Shāh Qudrat-ullah of Allahābād, a learned Sūfī, whose fault was that though highly trusted and favoured by ‘Azīm-ush-shān he had not joined Farrukh-siyar in his march against Jahāndār. Sabhā Chand’s tongue was cut out, all the others were put to death. Next, Farrukh-siyar, in order to make it impossible for the Sayyid brothers to displace him and set up some other prince of the house of Bābur, resolved to blind the more prominent and more energetic of the members of the imperial family held in captivity, and this cruel form of mutilation was inflicted upon ‘Azz-ud-dīn (eldest son of Jahāndār), Wālā Tabār (son of Muhammad A‘zam Shāh) and Humāyūn Bakht (Farrukh-siyar’s younger brother, a boy of ten), on 21 January, 1714. A little later a heroic Qalmaq woman-servant named Shādmān (surnamed Razā Bahādur Rustam-i-Hind) and the witty but indelicate poet Ja‘far Zatallī were put to death for disrespect to the new reign.