Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c7.s6.6

v1.c7.s6.6

Safdar Jang had been appointed Mir Atish in 1744. By virtue of this office he now became the working head of the imperial army, as its nominal Chief, the Mir Bakhshi, was Nizām-ul-mulk, who had been absent far away in the Deccan ever since 1740, leaving his son Ghāzi-ud-din I as his deputy at Court. Safdar Jang planned to win martial fame by conducting an expedition under his own leadership. He used to regard the Afghāns of Rohilkhand as "serpents in his path to Delhi", (Ashub, ii. 426,) and now induced the Emperor to sanction a war for curbing Ali Muhammad Ruhela. The wazir was not consulted, as he was publicly known to be the protector of this Ruhela rebel and even related to him by marriage; but the war once begun, the wazir could not in decency absent himself from the Emperor's side. So, Safdar Jang took the Emperor with him on this expedition as its ostensible head.