History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c44.s6: §6. Afridi rising of 1672; disaster to Md. Amin Khan's army.
History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c44.s6
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§6. Afridi rising of 1672; disaster to Md. Amin Khan's army.
v3.c44.s6.1
In 1672, however, began a formidable danger. The tactless action of the *faujdar* of Jalalabad bred discontent among the Khaibar clans. The Afridis rose under their chieftain Acmal Khan,* a born general, who crowned himself king, struck coins in his own name, and proclaiming war against the Mughals, summoned all the Pathan clans to join the national movement. With a following "more numerous than ants and locusts," he closed the Khaibar Pass.†
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† For the passes of the Afghan frontier, see Markham's paper in *Proceedings of Royal Geogr. Soc.* Jan. 1879, pp. 38-62.
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In the spring of 1672, Muhammad Amin Khan, now viceroy of Afghanistan, after passing the winter in the milder climate of Peshawar, started for Kabul, with his army and suite, and accompanied by their families and household property. At Jamrud he learnt that the Afghans had blocked the way ahead. But the son of Mir Jumla was notorious for his insane pride and self-will, which he did not care to curb even in the Emperor's presence, and which turned his subordinates into trembling flatterers. When they at last mustered courage to inform him of his danger and to advise a parley with the Afghans, they met with an angry rebuff. Intoxicated with wealth and power, ignorant of the enemy's numbers and despising their prowess, he rushed blindly in to his doom. Advancing to Ali Masjid (21st April) he entrenched. At night the Afridis descended from the hillside and cut him off from the stream whence he drew his water supply. Next day men and beasts in the imperial army began to perish of thirst from the heat of the sun. The Khan now opened negotiations, but the Afghans demanded a special blackmail in addition to the restoration of their annual subsidies. He rejected the terms and sent a body of veterans under his son Abdullah and other high officers to dislodge the foe. The Afghans assailed them with a storm of missiles. From the lofty peak of Tartara, 3,400 feet overhead, stones were rolled down on the doomed men crowded in the narrow gorge below. The leaders were soon killed, and disorder seized the Mughal army. "Horses, elephants and men were mixed up in confusion." The Afghans now charged down the hillside, slaying and plundering the entire Mughal camp. "Every one fled to the hill or desert.........Sons were separated from fathers, daughters from mothers, wives from husbands, masters from servants."
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∗ So the name is spelt by Biddulph, while K.K. ii. 232 and M.U. i. 281 have 'Aimal', and *Akhbarat* has 'Aiman,' evidently a copyist's error. The provocation given to the Afghans is mentioned by Ishwardas, 63a, and Manucci (*Storia*, ii. 199).
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Utterly humbled and exhausted, Muhammad Amin Khan, and some of his high officers, succeeded in escaping to Peshawar with their bare lives; but everything else was lost. "Ten thousand men fell under the enemy's sword in the field, and above two krores of Rupees in cash and kind was looted by the enemy. They captured twenty thousand men and women and sent them to Central Asia for sale."* The viceroy's family—his mother, wife and daughter,—had been made captive, and though he secured their release by paying a huge ransom, his wife in bitterness of disgrace refused to return to him and took the veil as a nun at a local saint's tomb. Among the slain were his son Mir Abdullah, his son-in-law Mirza Sultan, Jahangir Quli Khan, and Mirza Bakhshi.
v3.c44.s6.6
Returning to Peshawar, Muhammad Amin Khan took impotent vengeance, for the consequences of his own folly. "In anger he killed Mustajab, one of the chief men of Peshawar, who had accompanied him but had not reported anything about the wickedness of the Afghans though he knew of it. In his death agony Mustajab cried out for a little water to drink. The Khan answered, 'Many Muslims have died of thirst. It is not wrong that you should die of the same cause, as a reparation for it.' "*
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∗ The booty taken was enormous, as M. Amin Khan had inherited the fabulous wealth of Mir Jumla. Khush-hal sings, "Forty thousand Mughals were cut to pieces. Their wives and their daughters were the prisoners of the Afghans, And strings on strings of horses, camels, and elephants were taken." (Caubul, 196.) See also Manucci (Storia, ii. 199, 201) for his wealth.
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The disaster was complete. For the nearest parallel to it men had to go back a hundred years to the reign of Akbar, when an entire Mughal army, under Rajah Bir Bal, had been cut off by the Afghans in the same province. This signal victory increased the prestige and resources of the Afridi leader. The tale of his rich booty went the round of the hills, and lured recruits to his banners.