The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c21.s1.32

v4.c21.s1.32

At Delhi the quarrel between the emperor and his minister had reached an acute stage. Safdar Jang returned to the city, after the departure of Ghāzī-ud-dīn for the Deccan. He laid the blame for the disgraceful treaty with the Abdālī entirely on the eunuch Jāvīd Khān, but when the first storm of his rage was passed he dissembled, made overtures for a reconciliation, and in August invited the eunuch to a banquet, where he was stabbed to death. The murder deprived Ahmad Shāh of the only adherent whom he could trust and alarmed him for his personal safety. After the death of Ghāzī-ud-dīn his son, Shihāb-ud-dīn Khān, an able, violent, unscrupulous, and utterly fearless youth of eighteen, became a person of importance, and the emperor and Safdar Jang vied for his support. The former conferred on him at once his father’s titles of Ghāzī-ud-dīn Khān Bahādur and Firūz Jang, and the latter obtained for him the high title of Amīr-ul-Umarā, but both were destined to disappointment. Ghāzī-ud-dīn II, notwithstanding his learning, his skill in calligraphy, his knowledge of many languages, his poetic gifts and his valour, was utterly bad and specially forgot his patrons. He first allied himself to the emperor and the court party, and encouraged Ahmad Shāh to require of Safdar Jang the resignation of the command of some appointments which he held in conjunction with the great offices of minister of the empire and viceroy of Oudh.