Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c34.s5.1

v3.c34.s5.1

As the dictator of Delhi and commander-in-chief (Mir Bakhshi) of the forces of the Empire, Najaf Khan naturally invites comparison with Najib-ud-daulah, his immediate predecessor in that office. At the zenith of his career, Najib-uddaulah was for ten years the regent of the Mughal Empire, his position and power undisputed by any Court rival or Muslim potentate in India. His strength lay in the fact of his being the head of a Ruhela clan and the recognised leader of the Afghan race in general throughout Hindustan, while at the same time he was up to 1767 backed, sometimes by the presence but oftener by the prestige and name of his unconquerable patron, the Durrānī Shāh. In India itself he was the Sunni champion besides being the head of the Afghan race. Even without Durrānī backing, he was manifestly the greatest Indian general of his age after the death of Asaf Jāh Nizām-ul-mulk. At the same time his possession of fertile and comparatively undisturbed jagirs in the Doab and upper Rohilkhand, which were carefully managed by his able and faithful land-stewards, ensured for him a large and steady income, so that at the time of his death he was the richest Muslim ruler of North India.