Later Mughals v1.c6.s19.1

v1.c6.s19.1

The first news of the Sikh outbreak was brought to Bahadur Shah on the 2nd Rabi II. 1122 (30th May, 1710), when he was approaching Ajmer on his return march from the Dakhin. A peace was forthwith patched up with the Rajputs and attention was turned to the new trouble. Some difference of opinion seems to have arisen between Bahadur Shah and Munim Khan, his Wazir. The Emperor wished to make a rapid march with such troops as could keep up with him. Munim Khan, arguing that it would be derogatory to the Emperor's dignity thus to rush in haste to suppress an enemy that had never been heard of before, preferred a more deliberate advance. If it were thought that delay would enable the rebel Guru either to make his position impregnable or to escape, Munim Khan would bind himself by solemn oaths to be answerable for the capture of the rebel. Some state that Bahadur Shah's unwonted eagerness arose from the chance of conducting what he looked on as a *jihad*, or holy war against the infidel, such as had not been the good fortune for many years of any Emperor in Hindustan.*