Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c15.s8.3

v1.c15.s8.3

Jāvid Khan was killed in the evening of 27th August, 1752. Safdar Jang, after removing his sole rival, took prompt measures to establish his domination. Jāvid Khān’s property was escheated and his estate-manager and personal valet were confined to make them disgorge his treasures. [TAh. 41b.] On the fourth day after the murder, the wazir nominated his retainer Abu Turāb Khān *qiladār* and police-superintendent of the palace-fort in order to gain a strangle-hold on the Emperor in the inmost recess of his abode, and poor Ahmad Shah durst not object to it but gave the man his investiture of office. But even so Safdar Jang’s mind was not composed; he suspected that the Queen-mother would secretly correspond with his enemies. He therefore kept his own watch at the entrance and exit of the imperial harem and sent eight women agents to stay in the ladies’ quarter of the palace and read all letters that were sent out of it. But this was more than the Queen-mother, who ruled the palace, could bear; she angrily turned these spies out and Safdar Jang shrank from a contest with her. He sulked in his mansion in the city, refusing to attend Court unless his mind was reassured. The Emperor had to yield; on 23rd September he paid a visit with his mother to the wazir’s house and brought him back to the palace,—for the first time after Jāvid Khan’s death. The unhappy king of kings had to stoop still lower. On 28th September he pledged his word to Safdar Jang not to make any appointment without his consent. A wholesale transfer of posts now took place; Safdar Jang’s creatures displaced the old incumbents in numerous minor offices. On that day the wazir’s youthful son Shuja-ud-daulah was given charge of four important departments around the Emperor’s person, namely, the āhadis, confirmation of appointments and grants, mace-bearers, and personal riding establishment; and finally on 1st January 1753 he was made superintendent of Private Audience, with full control over the entree to the Emperor’s Court such as Jāvid Khan had exercised in his time. [TAh. 41a—43a, D. C.]