Twilight of the Sultanate c15.s1.4

c15.s1.4

After about four weeks Khan-i-Jahān Nūhānī, governor of Rapri, who had learnt with disapproval¹⁵ about the division of sovereignty, came to Agra.¹⁶ His mission ostensibly was to congratulate the new Sultan, but in fact it was to address the ministers (vazīrs) and nobles on the folly of their decision to divide the Empire. On arrival he reproached them, declaring that sovereignty could not flourish in partnership just as two swords could not fit in one scabbard.¹⁷ His arguments impressed the nobles, more so because the partisans of Jalāl Khan had already gone away with him and there was nobody in the capital to speak in his support. How sincere Khan-i-Jahān was in his intentions, it is difficult to say, but his appeal contained seeds of a civil war. The Sultan, the nobles and officers of Delhi now put their heads together to find a way to nullify the ill-advised partition. They thought that Prince Jalāl was still at Kalpi; he had not yet fully established himself in Jaunpur, and a reconsideration of the question was still possible. Consequently it was decided to invite Jalāl Khan to Agra to discuss the issue of partition once again. The nobles, however, do not seem to have been sincere or quite decided in their minds as yet. According to Ni'āmatulla what they really wanted was to open up the whole issue of sovereignty once again on the arrival of Jalāl, and were determined to keep up the discussion for their own sake, "as they never considered it convenient that public affairs should be under the restraint of one absolute monarch."