Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c27.s3.13

v2.c27.s3.13

Zafarullah Khan (the brother of Ubaidullah) at the command of Mahdi Quli Khan (the chief adviser of Imād) tempted the Emperor Alamgir II to visit the Kohtila of Firuz Shah, by falsely telling him that a very saintly darvish possessed of miracle-working power had come from Lahor and taken up his residence there. When in the afternoon the party from the palace reached the spot, the Emperor entered a chamber under one of the bastions of the Kohtila, the door of which was guarded by a party of Central Asian troops of Bālābāsh Khān, the wazir's captain. Only one eunuch was admitted with him and all his other attendants (including Prince Mirzā Bābā) were detained outside. Bālābāsh Khan stabbed the Emperor to death with his dagger, came outside, disarmed Mirzā Bābā, and seizing him by the wrist took him back to Delhi. The Central Asian troops plundered the horses and all other property of the imperial cortege, and flung the Emperor's corpse down on the river bank below the Kohtila, circulating a false story that he had died (like Humāyun two centuries ago) by an accidental fall from the wall of that ruined fort. The murder of Alamgir II was an insane and absolutely profitless crime, because, if Imād had spared that meekest of meek usurper's hoary head, it would not in any way have added to the number of his enemies, nor weakened his own strength, which was already reduced to nothing.