Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c22.s3.10

v2.c22.s3.10

So, Imād sent Sayyid Jamil-ud-din Khan with 10,000 horsemen and ten eunuchs to kidnap her. This Jamil-ud-din had been a favourite lieutenant of Muin-ul-mulk, and had commanded the contingent sent by that governor to Delhi to assist the Emperor in his war with Safdar Jang in 1753. He had won the good opinion of Imād by devoted service under his eyes. And now, by a continuous rapid march, Jamil-ud-din reached Lahor before any one could know of his approach, encircled the Begam’s mansion, forced her upon an elephant, and sent her off to the wazir’s camp at Machhiwara, where she arrived on 28th March. All her property was seized. Mir Mumin, ‘the leading nobleman of Lahor’, was again appointed subahdar of the Panjab, with Sayyid Jamil-ud-din as his deputy and actual governor. The Sayyid was an honest God-fearing and experienced man; he administered the province justly, in strict accordance with the Islamic Canon Law, punished offenders without fear or favour, and tried to maintain peace as far as he could with the actual muster out of the 5,000 Mughal soldiers assigned to the province on paper. He sought to lower the unfairly enhanced price of grain by publicly flogging the headman of the markets, and led some expeditions against the Sikhs, whom he defeated after severe fighting.*