History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c62.s4.2

v4.c62.s4.2

Even before the sick king had closed his eyes, quarrels broke out among the nobles for the division of his territory. Abdul Muhammad alone remaining true to the interests of the State. Ali Adil Shah II. died on 24th Nov. 1672, and immediately afterwards Khawas seized the supreme power with the help of the late king's favourite body-servant Mirza Yusuf, and crowned the boy Sikandar, the last of the Adil-Shahis, destined to reign as the captive of his ministers and to die as the captive of the Mughals. The new prime minister broke his word to the other nobles and refused to yield to them the forts he had promised. At this, the able and experienced ex-wazir Abdul Muhammad left the Court in disgust. "The infancy of the king and the incapacity of the regent threw the monarchy into a decline. Disturbances broke out on all sides." First Shivaji, "the enemy at the elbow," made large conquests at the expense of Bijapur. As for the Mughal Emperor, the Bijapur Government tried to propitiate him by offering him presents worth 4 lakhs of Rupees, as a sort of succession fee, (11th January, 1673.) But, "though all Mughal invasions had hitherto been defeated, now with a boy-king on the throne, weak counsels at Court, and and for the next five years misgoverned the unhappy and disunited country, deserting his post only on the eve of the extinction of the dynasty by Aurangzib.