Later Mughals v2.c14.s22: Sec. 47.—Hamid Khan's Government.
Later Mughals v2.c14.s22
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Sec. 47.—Hamid Khan's Government.
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We now return to our narrative. When Nizam-ul-mulk heard that Haidar Quli Khan had abandoned Ahmadabad, he discontinued his advance on that place and sent a letter to Safdar Khan Babi a prominent local leader, directing him to take charge of the province until the arrival of a new deputy. Safdar Khan thereupon entered on possession of the governor's palace known as the Bhadar. Meanwhile, the 12th Feb. 1723, Nizam-ul-mulk had appointed his uncle, Hamid Khan, to be his deputy with Fidwi Khan as provincial diwan. Certain parganas were removed from the Khalsa register and converted into jagir lands, five of the most productive of these being absorbed into Nizam-ul-mulk's own jagir, and Godhra granted in jagir to his brother-in-law, Mutawassil Khan.
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∗ M. U. ii. 708; K. K. 965. Irvine's account of Gujarat affairs in Muhammad Shah's reign is almost entirely based upon the Mirat-i-Ahmadi of Ali Muhammad Khan, the diwan of the province and an eye-witness of many of them. The information from this source is here and there supplemented by a few details or variants from Khafi Khan and Kamwar Khan, and, more rarely, Khush-hal Chand. Irvine had made his first draft from the works of Khafi Khan and Kamwar, but he afterwards cancelled it in favour of the fuller and more correct narrative given in the Mirat. The text of the last-named history lithographed at Bombay is incomplete and stops with the year 1715 in the governorship of Daud Khan Panni; it is therefore useless for our period. English readers will find an excellent summary of the Mirat account (by Col. Watson) in Bombay Gazetteer, vol. i. pt. i, pp, 295-345. For purely Mahratta affairs, Irvine has relied on Grant Duff, with one or two references to Forrest's Selections. [J. Sarkar.]
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Hamid Khan was met on his way by Salabat Muhammad Khan and Jawan-mard Khan, the sons of Safdar Khan Babi, and at Dohad he picked up Mihr Ali Khan, the late diwan, who had been detained there by illness. Shujaat Khan joined him at Godhra and Rustam Ali Khan at Thasra.* When he had arrived near the city, he pitched his camp near the Kakariya lake, in the grove of Mihr Ali Khan. On the 5th April 1723 he made his formal entry into the city. [Mirat.]
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Things now went on in the usual way in the subah. Sayyid Nasir Khan, chief of the imperial mace-bearers, arrived from Dihli with robes of honour for the deputy governor. About this time there was a fight between Kripa Shankar Nagar, a military officer, and the underlings of the city faujdar. Hamid Khan ordered his artillery to besiege the man's house in the Rajwara quarter, and the disturbance lasted until nightfall. Rustam Ali Khan, who thought the culprit a valuable officer, then interfered, carried him off to his own house, and next day presented him to Hamid Khan. Pardon was granted to Kripa Shankar, and he was admitted into the deputy's service.
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After a time Hamid Khan marched out into the districts to collect peshkash. Rustam Ali Khan undertook to pay a lump sum on account of the collections from the country on the banks of the river Watrak, which flows into the Sabarmati on the left bank about twelve miles south of Ahmadabad, after a course of over 80 miles. The youngest brother, Ibrahim Quli Khan, was sent out to obtain the money and pitched his camp on the banks of the Watrak. When Hamid Khan was at the fort in Nariad, about 24 miles south-east of the capital, certain enemies of the brothers persuaded the deputy governor that he had now a good opportunity of attacking and getting rid of one of them. Ibrahim Quli Khan was informed of the plot and made ready to defend himself. Pretended friends in Hamid Khan's camp wrote that he ought to withdraw. He refused. Rustam Ali Khan turned out from Ahmadabad during the night to his brother's protection, and reached him at daybreak. Hamid Khan had already started from Nariad, but on his way learnt that Rustam Ali Khan had already joined Ibrahim Quli Khan. Giving up his purpose, Hamid Khan sent friendly messages to the brothers and returned to the city. The brothers went together towards parganas Pitlad and Baroda, of which they were in charge. There they attacked and burnt the village of Dhawan, belonging to the Kolis, built a small fort there, and placed a garrison in it. [Mirat.]
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∗ Thasra, about 36 m. e. of Ahmadabad. K. K. 965-968 makes Shujaat Khan resist Hamid Khan on his first arrival in Gujarat. But as Hamid Khan started from Jhalod in Feb. 1723 and Shujaat Khan was not killed until Nov. 1724, it seems impossible to bridge over this interval. Therefore I treat Khafi Khan's account as referring to the later period when Shujaat Khan was re-appointed deputy of Sarbuland Khan. This is in the true order of events as found in the Mirat-i-Ahmadi.