Later Mughals v1.c7.s1.2

v1.c7.s1.2

The conduct of the four brothers betokened that they were at enmity ; that there could be little hope of a peaceful solution. Their dread of each other was shown in many ways, among others by an incident related by Iradat Khan.* During the Emperor's last illness, Jahandar Shah and Azim-ush-shan were seated near his bed. Azim-ush-shan took up a jewelled dagger lying near the pillow and began to toy with it, admiring the exquisite workmanship and the beauty of the blade. As he drew it from the sheath, Jahandar Shah, overcome with sudden terror, started up, and in his hurried retreat knocked off his turban at the tent-door, forgot to put on his shoes (a sign of great perturbation),† and, when he got outside, fell over the tent-ropes. As soon as his servants had picked him up, he mounted and rode off in all haste to his own tents. On a previous occassion a violent outbreak had been expected. On the 24th Rabi I. 1123 H. (11th May 1711), the day on which the Satlaj was crossed, Jahandar Shah and Jahan Shah went over the bridge of boats first and took up a threatening position upon the further bank. Messengers brought word that those two Princes and Rafi-ush-shan had made a plot together to attack the treasure carts of Azim-ush-shan as they were coming off the bridge. It was only by the exercise of the strongest pressure that the Emperor, who was extremely angry, was able to avert an outbreak. Another indication of the same strained relations between the four brothers may, I think, be detected in a sudden attack made upon Jahan Shah on the 15th Zul Hijja 1123 H. (23rd January 1712) near the kettle-drum stand, as he was leaving the camp after an audience. A man with a drawn sword rushed at his retinue, wounded a stick-bearer, and was himself cut to pieces. [Kamwar, 70, 100.]