Later Mughals v1.c6.s7: Sec. 7.—Bahadur Shah's Stay at Agra and Appointments to the Principal Offices.
Later Mughals v1.c6.s7
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Sec. 7.—Bahadur Shah's Stay at Agra and Appointments to the Principal Offices.
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As soon as he had returned to Bagh Dahr-Ara near Agra, Bahadur Shah held public audience and received congratulations upon the previous day's victory. Numerous promotions and appointments were made. The four Princes received new titles, Muizz-ud-din was created Jahandar Shah Bahadur and given the governorship of Tattha and Multan; Muhammad Azim became Azim-ush-shan Bahadur and received the provinces of Bengal and Azimabad (Patna); Rafi-ul-qadr became Rafi-ush-shan Bahadur with charge of the province of Kabul, and the fourth son, Khujista-Akhtar, was now made Jahan Shah Bahadur with rule over the province of Malwa. Their rank (mansab) was raised to 30,000 zat, 20,000 horsemen; large sums were disbursed to them from the accumulations in Agra fort, and they were directed to name deputies to take charge of their respective Governments.
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Munim Khan, in spite of a wound from a musket ball, had kept the battlefield, and throughout the day displayed the greatest activity. When the victory was won he was so exhausted that he was obliged to be carried on a cloth and laid before his master. Bahadur Shah took him into his arms and embraced him saying, "All I have won is due to your exertions". Naim Khan, the minister's son, had also been wounded. As the minister's wounds were so severe as to prevent his presenting himself at the audience, the Emperor in person visited his quarters to enquire as to his condition. His title of Khan Zaman was converted into that of Khan Khanan Bahadur Zafar Jang, and his rank raised from 1,500 to 7,000 (7,000 horse), with a grant of two krors of dams in cash and goods. His eldest son Muhammad Naim (Khanazad Khan) became Mahabat Khan Bahadur; his younger son, Mukarram Khan, was made Khan Zaman. [Iradat, Qasim 14, K.K. 598, Kamraj 34 a, Dil. 167 a.]
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The policy of Bahadur Shah was throughout his reign one of conciliation. It is difficult to decide how far he was influenced in this conduct by his chief minister Munim Khan. But from the first this spirit was shown. It was laid down that to have joined Azam Shah was not in itself to be treated as an offence. The Emperor met any remonstrances by saying that if his own sons had been present in the Dakhin, they would have been forced, in order to save themselves, into adopting their uncle's cause. (K.K. 600.) All who chose to present themselves were readmitted into the imperial service. In pursuance of this policy, letters were sent to Gwaliyar addressed to Asad Khan, Alamgir's Wazir, and his son, Zulfiqar Khan, directing them to bring in to Agra the Emperor's sister, Zinat-un-nissa Begam and the other members of Alamgir and Azam Shah's family left behind at that place, together with all the baggage and establishments. Similarly, offers of immunity and invitations to Court were sent to Ghazi-ud-din Khan Bahadur Firuz Jang, his son, Chin Qilich Khan, the subahdar of Aurangabad, and his cousin, Muhammad Amin Khan Chin Bahadur Sadar-us-sadur in the late reign. [Kamwar 14.]
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Early in Rabi II. 1119 (July 1707), Asad Khan, the late Emperor's Wazir, and his son Zulfiqar Khan arrived in Agra, escorting the Emperor's sister, Zinat-un-nissa. Many of the leading men, who had marched from the Dakhin in the train of Azam Shah, came in with them. Asad Khan and Zulfiqar Khan presented themselves with their hands bound; the bonds of the first were untied by Bahadur Shah himself, those of the second by Jahandar Shah, his eldest son. Asad Khan was offered the position of Wakil-i-mutlaq, that is, Vice Emperor, an office superior to that of Wazir, which had been held in the reign of Shah Jahan by Asaf Khan that Emperor's father-in-law. The office of Wazir had been already promised at Lahor to Munim Khan. With this arrangement Asad Khan was, in his heart, far from pleased, he would have liked to exercise, as before, the full powers of minister. This reluctance was learnt by Bahadur Shah through the Princes, his sons, and he hesitated to give final orders. Perhaps, as some say, this tenderness for Asad Khan arose out of deference to the wish expressed in Alamgir's will that he should be retained as Wazir. In consultation with his youngest and then favourite son Jahan Shah, he sent the Prince's chamberlain, Lutfullah Khan Sadiq, to conciliate Asad Khan. The latter was induced to consent, but abated little of his pretensions. In his written petition he asked first to be made Wazir. If not, then let whatever the Emperor liked be done. "What can a slave claim? His master's orders are right." But he sent a separate list of the powers exercised by and the dignities conferred on the late Yamin-ud-daulah Asaf Khan, and these he asked for himself. They were as follows: Asaf Khan used to attend the evening audience for the purpose of laying all business before His Majesty, then next day he went to his own office. There the two chief officials attended; one, Afzal Khan, sat behind him, the other, Sadiq Khan, owing to his relationship, was allowed to sit on the right at a distance of two yards from his cushion. On the left at a distance of four yards sat the Tan Bakhshi. Sadiq Khan brought before Yamin-ud-daulah i.e., Asaf Khan, all appointments and removals of subahdars, faujdars and diwans. Afzal Khan brought forward the office reports about resumption or exchange of land assignments (jagir). Yamin-ud-daulah signed the orders and went home. Then Sadiq Khan used to proceed to the Emperor's audience-hall and report what had been done. It was not till this report was made that His Majesty sanctioned the promotions, appointments and grants. In addition the Wakil-i-mutlaq kept the seal, received a copy of the reports from the provinces and of every paper filed by the chief diwan, his seal and signature were attached to all warrants of appointment, the Court reporter appeared before him daily with all new intelligence. Asad Khan also claimed the rank of 9,000 (9,000 horsemen), the togh (yak's tail) and tuman, the governorship of Lahor, the right to sit in the audience-hall, permission to beat his drums next after those of the royal Princes, and when the Court was moving about to come in his litter as far as the enclosure (jali), and when it was stationary to come into the courtyard of the public and private audience-halls, or if the audience had begun, then as far as the doorway. [Kamwar 14, Tarikh-i-Muzaffari, Qasim 17.]
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In reply Bahadur Shah explained that the special services performed by Munim Khan justified his appointment as Wazir. That office could not be justly given to any one else. Asad Khan would be named as Wakil-i-mutlaq with the rank of 8,000 (8,000 horsemen, Duaspah), the duties in case of absence to be performed by Zulfiqar Khan as his father's deputy. All the other demands were agreed to, and it was pointed out that Yamin-ud-daulah's higher rank was due to his relationship to the then sovereign and the special services rendered in the contest for the throne. Asad Khan's titles were increased to Nizam-ul-mulk, Asaf-ud-daulah, while his son was raised to 7,000 (7,000 horse), with the titles of Samsam-ud-daulah Amir-ul-umara Bahadur Nusrat Jang, his old office of First Bakhshi being confirmed to him. [Kamwar 15.]
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The division of authority in this way between a former Wazir and a new minister was not likely to endure. Munim Khan soon objected to the formalities which made him nominally, if not really, the subordinate of Asad Khan. The rules required that, when Asad Khan held his audience as Wakil, the chief minister, Munim Khan, should appear before him and after making obeisance stand while the official documents were signed. This was considered by Munim Khan to be an indignity. The pretext was therefore found that Asad Khan, having arrived at a great age, should now retire to Dihli and rest from the fatigues undergone in the constant campaigns and marchings of the preceding reign. His son, Zulfiqar Khan, remained at Court as his deputy with charge of the Wakil's seal to the end of the reign; this seal was impressed after that of the Wazir upon all written orders and warrants of appointment in the military and civil departments, but in no way had Asad Khan any longer the least influence in the affairs of the realm. [K.K. 601.]
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When Asad Khan, having been also made in addition to his other offices subahdar of Dihli, took his departure for that city (1st Sept. 1707), he received charge of the Emperor's sister, Zinat-un-nissa Begam, and the women and children of the late Azam Shah's household. Zinat-un-nissa had arrived from Gwaliyar towards the end of Rabi II. 1119 (July 1707), and on the excuse of her mourning for Azam Shah, had declined to send any congratulations to the victor. In spite of his vexation at this slight, Bahadur Shah doubled his sister's allowances and created her Padshah Begam. Suitable allowances were fixed for all those who had been dependent on Azam Shah. [K.K. 600, Kamwar 17.]
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In the end the principal offices in the State came to be thus distributed: As already stated the high office of *Wakil-i-mutlaq* was held by Asad Khan, Alamgir's *Wazir*; Munim Khan Khan Khanan was *Wazir* or Prime Minister; Zulfiqar Khan Nusrat Jang, son of Asad Khan, first *Bakhshi*; Mirza Shah Nawaz Khan Safawi, second *Bakhshi* as before; Mahabat Khan, son of Munim Khan, third *Bakhshi*; Inayatullah Khan Kashmiri *diwan* of the Khalsa and Tan; Mukhtar Khan Khan Alam Bahadur-Shahi was *Khan-saman* or Grand Chamberlain. Hamid-ud-din Khan Alamgir-Shahi, and Rustam Dil Khan, were the first and second Masters of the Ceremonies (*Mir Tuzak*). [Kamraj 35 *a* & *b*, *Dil.* 167, *T. Mdi.*]
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On the 10 Shaban 1119 (5th Nov.), the Mughal leaders Chin Qilich Khan Bahadur, Muhammad Amin Khan Chin Bahadur and the latter's son, Qamr-ud-din Khan, with many others arrived at the Court in Agra from Aurangabad, in response to the letters sent to them after the victory over Azam Shah. They were presented through Munim Khan. This minister had no reason to love Muhammad Amin Khan Chin, for it was on that chief's report complaining of neglect to reinforce him at the siege of Khelna (1702) in the Dakhin, that five years before this time Munim Khan had fallen into disgrace and received the great affront of a reduction in his rank. This reason accounts in part, no doubt, for the fact that in Bahadur Shah's reign Muhammad Amin Khan and the other Turani soldiers of fortune were kept comparatively in the background. Their presence, too, in the Dakhin, where they had so long served and had so many friends, would have been in itself dangerous, while Zulfiqar Khan's own projects in that direction required that the field should be cleared of any powerful rivals.* For one or other of these reasons, Ghazi-ud-din Khan Firuz Jang, the blind subahdar, was transferred from the Dakhin to Ahmadabad; his son, Chin Qilich Khan, (newly created Khan Dauran Bahadur, 7,000 *zat*, 7,000 horse) was posted as *subahdar* of Oudh and *faujdar* of Gorakhpur; and his nephew, Muhammad Amin Khan Chin Bahadur, was made *faujdar* of Muradabad in the subah of Dihli. [Kamwar 21, *M.A.* 464.]
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∗ Ghazi-ud-din Khan also seems to have been the man who poisoned Alamgir's mind against his son Mhd. Muazzam (Shah Alam) and caused the latter's disgrace and imprisonment, a fact which can never have been overlooked or forgotten. (Yahya Khan.)
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The rainy season was passed by the Emperor in his camp at Bagh Dahr-Ara near Agra, where he was occupied in making the numerous appointments usual when a new sovereign ascends the throne. In this interval it was found that the affairs of Rajputana called most urgently for the Emperor's presence in person, and it was resolved to march by way of Amber and Ajmer to Jodhpur.* A start was made on the 12th November 1707. [Kamwar 19.]