The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c22.29

v3.c22.29

He had rested for no longer than four days in the capital when he received news of a serious rebellion in Jaunpur, where the Hindu landholders assembled an army of 100,000 horse and foot and put to death Sher Khān, brother of Mubārak Khān Lohānī, governor of Kara. Mubārak himself escaped from Kara, but was seized by his Hindu boatmen at a ford near the present city of Allahabad and delivered to the raja of Phāphāmau, who imprisoned him. Bārbak Shāh of Jaunpur was utterly unable to cope with this formidable insurrection, which seems to have been due to the intrigues of Husain Sharqī in Bihār, and withdrew to Daryābād, between Lucknow and Gonda, whence he joined Sikandar, who was marching on Jaunpur, at Dalmau on the Ganges. The raja of Phāphāmau, alarmed at Sikandar’s approach, released Mubārak Khān and sent him to the royal camp, but the king’s advance on Jaunpur was opposed by the rebel army, but he attacked it, defeated it with great slaughter, dispersed it, and took much plunder, and, continuing his march to Jaunpur, reinstated his brother and retired towards Oudh, where he proposed to enjoy the chase, but was almost immediately recalled by the news that Bārbak was helpless before the rebels. The facts of the case are obscure, but it appears that Bārbak had been coquetting with the rebels and also with Husain. Sikandar dealt promptly with him by sending some of his principal nobles to Jaunpur to arrest him, and he was brought before the king and delivered into the custody of Haibat Khān and ‘Umar Khān Shirvānī. From the neighbourhood of Jaunpur Sikandar marched to Chunār, where a number of Husain’s nobles were assembled. He defeated them but was not strong enough to attempt the siege of the fortress, and marched to Kuntit, on the Ganges, a dependency of Phāphāmau, where Bhīl, the raja of Phāphāmau, made his obeisance, and was confirmed in the possession of Kuntit, as a fief. Sikandar marched on to Arāīl, opposite to Allahabad, and the raja, who accompanied him, became apprehensive for his personal safety and fled, leaving his camp and baggage in the king's hands. Sikandar, to reassure him, courteously sent his property after him. Arāīl was laid waste, and the army marched to Dalmau by way of Kara, and thence to Shamsābād, where Sikandar halted for six months, visited Sambhal, and returned to Shamsābād, destroying on the way the inhabitants of two villages who had been guilty either of rebellion or brigandage.