History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c44.s12: §13. Amir Khan, able governor of Afghanistan.
History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c44.s12
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§13. Amir Khan, able governor of Afghanistan.
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On 15th October, 1676, Prince Muazzam was appointed to the Kabul expedition. He was given the high title of *Shah-i-Alam* (King of the Universe), a hundred thousand gold pieces, and two lakhs of Rupees in jewellery, and sent from Delhi with a splendid train of the most distinguished officers, artillery, material, and a well-filled war-chest. Among his lieutenants was Mir Khan, the son of Khalilullah, who had previously distinguished himself by leading a successful punitive expedition against the Yusufzais of Shahbazgarhi and suppressing two rebellious Afghan chiefs in Bihar. Once he had fallen under royal displeasure on the suspicion of having encouraged Prince Azam in disloyal ambition. But the cloud had blown over; he had been reinstated and created Amir Khan* (January, 1675). And now he fought so well under the banners of Shah Alam that at the prince's recommendation he was appointed viceroy of Kabul (19th March, 1677), in the place of Azam Khan. The prince himself arrived at Kabul on 15th August, 1677 and after a few months' stay returned to India, reaching Delhi on 20th January, 1678. Throughout the year 1677 peace was observed between the Mughals and the Afghans, as both sides suffered from the effects of a seven months' drought and famine.
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∗ This is my view, based on Ishwardas (71a). But Manucci and Khush-hal Khan state that the Emperor returned with failure. It is evident that he had not achieved success.
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Amir Khan arrived at his post on 8th June, 1678, and continued to govern Afghanistan with signal ability till his death twenty years later. His first attack on Acmal's troops in the Jalalabad district having failed, he took to diplomacy. He set himself to win the hearts of the Afghans and enter into social relations with them, with such success that the chiefs of the clans "left their shy and unsocial manners and began to visit him without any suspicion." They became very friendly to him, and every one of them looked up to him for advice in conducting his domestic affairs. Under his astute management, they ceased to trouble the imperial Government and spent their energies in internecine quarrels. Once he broke up the confederacy under Acmal by secretly instigating that chieftain's followers to ask him to divide the conquered territory among them. Acmal declined the proposal, saying, "How can a small territory be divided among so many men?" The disappointed hillmen threw up his service and began to return home in anger. Acmal had at last to make a division of the land; but as he naturally showed greater consideration to his own clansmen and kinsfolk, his other followers were disgusted and left his camp. Much of Amir Khan's administrative success was due to the wise counsel tact and energy of his wife, Sahibji, a daughter of Ali Mardan Khan.
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∗ For the history of Amir Khan, *M.A.* 82, 113, 146; Ishwardas, 61b, 73a; *M.U.* i. 277-286; *Studies in Mughal India*, 111-115.
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§14. Emperor's Afghan policy; peace restored.
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The Emperor triumphed in Afghanistan by following the policy of paying subsidies and setting clan against clan,—or, to use his own metaphor, "breaking two bones by knocking them together." (K. T., 47a, 74a.) The imperial dominions were no longer invaded from beyond the border. The Khaibar route was kept open by paying regular pensions to the hillmen. And though some tribe or other continued refractory, the Emperor had no anxiety about that region during Amir Khan's viceroyalty.*
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This conciliatory policy created a division among the frontier clans. The Yusufzais, who had begun the trouble, submitted early, and the north Peshawar district was soon pacified. The Afridis remained in arms longer. But an Afghan confederacy is short-lived. Amir Khan's diplomacy broke up the following of Acmal. And when that self-styled king died, the Afridis made terms with the empire.
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§15. Khush-hal Khan continues resistance.
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The struggle was however continued for many years afterwards by the stern and unbending independent Khush-hal Khan Khatak, with the memory of his captivity in Aurangzib's dungeons rankling in his bosom. The Bangashes and Yusufzais,—his very son Ashraf,—were fighting against him in the Mughal ranks; but neither age, nor a growing sense of the hopelessness of his cause, could tame his bitterness of feeling and obduracy of spirit. Alone he kept the flag of Pathan freedom flying, till his own son betrayed him into the enemy's hands. As he complains,—
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∗ In *Kalimat*, 16b, Aurangzib describes the deceased Amir Khan's administrative methods,—how he was a just governor, possessed of practical skill and tact in dealing with all; how he used to make savings in the budgeted expenditure of the province and keep the passes open to traffic; and how he kept many of the hillmen usefully employed by enlisting them in the imperial service, and profusely bribed the clans out of the imperial coffers, his own income and his illegal exactions. Also 11b.
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"Gone are Acmal Khan and Darya, who had good
judgment ;
Now Khush-hal alone stands in the Mughal's way.
* * * *
I alone amongst them am concerned for my nation's
honour.
At ease are the Yusufzais cultivating their fields—
The Afridis, Mohmands, Shinwaris, what are they
about?
Spread is the Mughal army in Nangrahar,
With calls for succour to them am I wearied ;
Deaf are they, no attention is paid to my cries,
While all the other Pathans from Qandahar to Attock
Are openly or secretly combined in honour's cause."
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But one solace he had in his deathless hate of the unjust Emperor who had imprisoned him by stratagem. An exile from his country, a captive in the enemy's fortress, he could still boast,
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"I am he who has sorely wounded Aurang's heart.
Khaibar's pass have I made to the Mughals their
dearest purchase,
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In every spot have they paid taxes to the Pathans.
* * * * Of his armies destroyed what account is there? The treasures of Hindustan have been scattered before us, Swallowed by the mountains has been his ruddy gold."
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Ruinous as the Afghan war was to imperial finances, its political effect was even more harmful. It made the employment of Afghans in the ensuing Rajput war impossible, though Afghans were just the class of soldiers who could have won victory for the imperialists in that rugged and barren country. Moreover, it relieved the pressure on Shivaji by draining the Deccan of the best Mughal troops for service on the n.w. frontier. (*Storia*, ii. 203.) The Maratha chief took advantage of this diversion of his enemy's strength to sweep in a dazzling succession of triumphs through Golkonda to the Karnatak and back again through Mysore and Bijapur to Raigarh, during the fifteen months following December 1676. It was the climax of his career; but the Afridis and Khataks made its unbroken success possible.