Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c28.s7.3

v2.c28.s7.3

Thus ended the career of the most powerful personality in India during these ten years. A poor illiterate Afghan of the Umr-khel clan, sprung from the humblest home and without a friend or patron in India when he migrated to this country as a grown-up man with a son, and sought his bread by entering Ali Muhammad Ruhela’s service in the capacity of a despised foot soldier, Najib Khan rose by sheer ability and strength of character to the highest position in the realm and guided the fortunes of the empire of Delhi as its supreme regent for a full decade. In the combination of first-rate military and administrative capacity, diplomatic skill, and tact in dealing with others, and above all in his instinctive perception of the realities of the politics of his day and concentration on the essentials, he had no equal in that age except Ahmad Shah Abdali. His defence of Delhi against the Jat-Maratha-Sikh army of Jawahir Singh, his running fight in grim pursuit of the Sikh invaders, and his storming of the mud-fort of Buana with mere dismounted cavalry and no guns, illustrate his consummate generalship in three different types of battle. The historian does not know what to admire most, his capacity as a leader of men in action, his unerring perception of the realities of every situation, or his inborn opportunism in instinctively seizing amidst darkness and confusion the course that would prove most advantageous to him.