The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c21.s1.9

v4.c21.s1.9

After returning from the inglorious though successful campaign against Ahmad Shāh, they were employed in a redistribution of the great offices at the capital and in the provinces. Mu‘īn-ul-Mulk, a son of the late minister, had already secured the Punjab and had been permitted to leave Sirhind for Lahore after promising to remit large sums to Delhi as tribute, a promise which he was never able to redeem. The vacant place of minister was filled by Safdar Jang, the viceroy of Oudh, who governed his province by deputy. Nizām-ul-Mulk, now an old man in a very feeble state of health, had at once marched northward, but had not passed Burhānpur when he heard first of the defeat of the invader at Sirhind and immediately afterwards of the death of Muhammad and the accession of Ahmad Shāh. Turning back, he died on 1 June 1748 close to Burhānpur. His eldest son being at court, he was succeeded in the Deccan, as a matter of course, by his second son, Nāsir Jang.¹ His title of Amīr-ul-Umarā, with its privileges, was bestowed by Ahmad Shāh on Sādāt Khān, entitled Zu-’l-Fiqār Jang, who had already held high office as governor of the capital.