Later Mughals v2.c14.s9: Sec. 34.—Nizam-Ul-Mulk's Campaign in Gujarat and Malwa.
Later Mughals v2.c14.s9
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Sec. 34.—Nizam-Ul-Mulk's Campaign in Gujarat and Malwa.
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In the first few months after the defeat of Sayyid Abdullah Khan, before the arrival of Nizam-ul-mulk at Dihli and his appointment as chief minister, Haidar Quli Khan, head of the artillery, had been in the highest favour. Probably he entertained hopes of succeeding to the chief place when it fell vacant upon the death of Muhammad Amin Khan. At any rate, the appointment of Nizam-ul-mulk seems to have been far from pleasing to this noble, and he set to work to counteract the measures of the new minister so far as lay in his power. A hint was conveyed by the new Wazir to Muhammad Shah, who spoke to Haidar Quli Khan. The latter was highly incensed, but thought it better to give way. He therefore obtained an order to take over charge in person of the Government of Gujarat, which had been conferred on him a year or so before this time. He quitted Dihli on the 1st April 1722, leaving Khan Zaman Mewati as his substitute in the office of Mir Atash or head of the artillery. [Warid 101, K. K. 940, Ghulam Ali 45a, Kamwar 251.]
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When he had reached his head-quarters at Ahmadabad, where he arrived a little before 28th June 1722, Haidar Quli Khan commenced by assuming possession of those lands of which the revenue had been assigned to various nobles and officers or to Court favourites. Complaint was made to the Emperor and an order was sent to the governor forbidding his interference with these jagir lands. To this no attention was paid by him until his own assignments, which were upon lands not far from Dihli, were resumed in retaliation for those he had appropriated in opposition to orders. [K. K. 940, Kamwar 251.]
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Other acts of presumption were committed by him. He granted fringed palkis to some of the officers in his subah, an attribute of royalty or of the very highest nobility, just as if he were an independent ruler. From the port of Surat, which was within his province, he summoned a number of Arabs, ‘unbelieving pedlars’, Ethiopians and Franks, and took them into his service on high rates of pay. His conduct showed in other ways an intention of declaring his independence. He heard complaints seated in audience, and when he rode out caused the streets to be cleared and guarded as was done for the Emperor. From many sources, official and private, rash words of his were reported, which showed an intention to throw off the imperial authority. [Warid 8.]
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At length Nizam-ul-mulk was able to overcome Muhammad Shah’s reluctance to interfere with a favourite officer; and on the 24th Oct. 1722 the province of Gujarat was taken from Haidar Quli Khan and conferred on Nizam-ul-mulk, either in his own name or in that of his eldest son, Ghazi-ud-din Khan Firuz Jang. The audience of leave-taking was given on the 11th Nov. 1722, and Ghazi-ud-din Khan was left at Court as his father's deputy. With the Wazir went his second son Ahmad Khan and the nobles, nearly all of them his relations or connections by marriage, Azim-ullah Khan, Mutawassil Khan, Shukr-ullah Khan, Fathyab Khan, Hirz-ullah Khan, Hifz-ullah Khan and Talib Muhi-ud-din Khan. The Nawab was at Mathura on the 25th Nov. He passed through Agra, where he received some equivocal excuses by letter from Haidar Quli Khan. The camp was at Sarangpur in Malwa on the 9th January 1723, at Dhar on the 13th Feb. 1723, and on the 16th of that month he marched towards Ahmadabad. [K. K. 946, Kamwar 261—261, Ghulam Ali 45a.]
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Meanwhile Haidar Quli Khan looked about him for means of resistance. His son, Kazim Khan, was sent off to Dihli to work upon the Emperor's mind; he was received in audience there on the 26th Feb. 1723, Nawab Roshan-ud-daulah being his introducer. Next Haidar Quli Khan turned to the nobles of the province, whose favour he had tried to secure by gifts of money and honours. One more eagerly than another they declined to join him in resistance, on the plea that it was not in a private quarrel, but in opposition to the sovereign that he wanted their assistance. He had been dismissed from his office, and they were no longer under his orders. [Warid 10, Kamwar 261, Siyar text 74.]
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On learning this determination of the nobles, which was entirely contrary to what he had hoped, that very same day Haidar Quli Khan began to feign madness* and absolutely declined to eat. His physicians, it is said, resorted to an artifice. One of them rushed into his presence crying out that an order had arrived direct from Nizam-ul-mulk that if Haidar Quli Khan did not take his food he was to be bound and sent to him (N-ul-m). As soon as he heard this, Haidar Quli Khan called hurriedly for food. His chief employés Raghunath Das and others, finding him in this state, constituted Rustam Ali Khan his locum tenens, and carried him off towards Dihli. They were so afraid of being followed, that they covered two sometimes three stages a day, passing through Udepur. But Nizam-ul-mulk did not trouble himself and gave no orders to pursue him. As we have already mentioned, the Emperor sent reassuring messages to the fugitive when he was at Rewari (6th April 1723) not far from Dihli, and gave him a new command against Rajah Ajit Singh then at Ajmer. Upon this the madness left him as suddenly as it had fallen upon him. [Rustam Ali 250b, Mirat-i-Ahmadi.]
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∗ Rustam Ali (251 a) says that he acted thus on the advice of his diwan Rajah Raghunath.
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Nizam-ul-mulk marched from Dhar on the 16th Feb. 1723. By this time Haidar Quli Khan appears to have quitted Ahmadabad; for it was reported to the Emperor on the 11th March, that on the 5th March 1723 he was about 32 miles on the Dihli side of Udepur, and that Maharana Sangram Singh had sent him several trays of food and sweetmeats. On the 28th Feb. Nizam-ul-mulk had been joined at his camp near Jhalod by a force of Dakhin troops under Iwaz Khan, Abdur-rahim Khan, Reayat Khan, and some of the Rajahs of that region. Iwaz Khan and the other Mughal chiefs were sent back to the Dakhin; and the Wazir's uncle Hamid Khan, nicknamed the Jangla Shahzada, was appointed as deputy governor in charge of the Ahmadabad Gujarat province. [Kamwar 261, Mirat, K. K. 947.]
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Nizam-ul-mulk now turned back to Malwa, where he had an old score to settle with Dost Muhammad Khan of Bhopal. Some years before (1720), this man had joined the force under Sayyid Dilawar Ali Khan sent by the Sayyid brothers to arrest Nizam-ul-mulk. He had escaped in safety from the field where so many were slain; but the time had now come to wreak vengeance upon him. By the 23rd March 1723 the Wazir was again in Malwa; and a force was despatched against Dost Muhammad Khan who had taken refuge in his fort of Bhopalgarh, where some fighting between the two sides occurred. Finally, it was reported to the Court on the 24th May 1723 that the small fort of Islamgarh had been taken. Yar Muhammad Khan had been sent in by his father to plead excuses and make due submission; Nizam-ul-mulk was satisfied by these overtures, and terms were arranged. At Sironj, on the 25th May 1723, the Wazir appointed his second cousin Azim-ullah Khan, son of Reayat Khan, to be deputy governor of Malwa, while Chandar Bans, son of Rao (Khan or Jan) Chand, was made commandant of Islamgarh. The return march to Dihli was then commenced, the artillery and heavy baggage being left behind at Sironj. On the 7th June 1723 the Wazir was at Narwar. On the 2nd July he had arrived at Khizrabad, a mile or two south of the capital, when Samsam-ud-daulah was sent out to escort him to Court. The next day he was received in audience, his younger son, Ahmad Khan, accompanying him. [Rustam Ali 251b, Kamwar 263-265, Warid 12.]