The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.515.2

v3.c20.515.2

He continued his march towards Delhi, and before reaching the neighbourhood of the city received such accessions of strength as to find himself at the head of 50,000 horse, and he was able to take up his quarters in the Jahānnumā palace in the old city. On April 29 some fighting took place at Fīrūzābād between the troops of the rival kings, but the arrival of Bahādur Nāhir from Mewāt so strengthened Abu Bakr that on the following day he marched out to meet his uncle and inflicted on him so crushing a defeat that he was glad to escape across the Jumna into the Doāb with no more than 2000 horse. He retired to Jalesar, which he made his headquarters, and sent his second son, Humāyūn Khān, to Sāmāna to rally the fugitives and raise fresh recruits. At Jalesar he was joined by many discontented nobles, including Malik Sarvar, lately chief of the police at Delhi, whom he made his minister, with the title of Khvāja Jahān, and Nasīr-ul-Mulk, who received the title of Khizr Khān, by which he was afterwards to be known as the founder of the Sayyid dynasty. Muhammad was thus enabled, by July, again to take the field with 50,000 horse, and marched on Delhi, but was defeated at the village of Khondlī and compelled to retire to Jalesar.