Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c22.s2.2

v2.c22.s2.2

The next officer to raise his head in ambition was Qāsim Khān, an immigrant Turk, who had risen high by devoted personal attendance on Muin and had been the first to side with the Begam against Bihkāri Khan. For this service, Mughlāni had conferred upon him the faujdari of Pati in the Manjha country and lovingly called him her son. He recruited 300 foot-soldiers from the Badakhshānis newly arrived to seek their bread in the Panjab, and 100 Turki cavalry, besides a force of a few thousand foot and horse and some pieces of cannon placed under him by the Government. In his advance towards Pati, he encountered the Sikhs, gave up all his 300 Badakhshānis and many other followers to slaughter, and fell back towards Lahor in shameful retreat. But this disaster did not damp the foolish man's ambition. He planned to win over 8,000 Sikh fighters by friendly negotiation and pay, seize Lahor with their help, and then after enlisting more troops take Delhi and make himself Padishah! He was profuse in offering in anticipation high posts in his future empire to his friends, such as the chancellorship to a fugitive penniless ex-faujdar of Sarhind and the imperial Pay-master-Generalship to the page Miskin, a lad in his 15th year. Qāsim Khan distributed thousands of Rupees worth of matchlocks and other arms and material to his Sikh allies. This exhausted his treasury and his soldiers began to dun him for their arrears of pay. At last in utter despair they cut his tent ropes, seized and dragged him to the Begam, who kept him under strict guard within her palace enclosure.