Twilight of the Sultanate c15.s1.84

c15.s1.84

The arrest of Miān Bhuā and the assassination of Jalāl Khan, though acts of heinous cruelty in themselves, were nothing compared to the uncalled for arrest of Āzam Humayūn Sarwānī and his son. In ordering their confinement the Sultan had brought the hornets' nest about his ears. True Āzam Humayūn had joined Jalāl Khan formerly, but he had made sufficient expiation by deserting him and fighting for the Sultan. His work in Gwalior was also without blemish and his arrest, which he had courted with a hero's grace,⁷⁵ was simply revolting. The mere fact that "at this time Sultan Ibrāhīm had lost faith in the Amīrs of his father's, and he imprisoned most of the great Khans",⁷⁶ is no justification for such deeds of deliberate provocation. Veteran nobles were being incarcerated and killed and a new class of parvenus was coming up—this was