Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c37.s2.2

v3.c37.s2.2

Having to attend Court as the head of the entire administration, Mirzā Najaf could not himself go out on tribute-collecting expeditions, nor safely send out his best troops from Delhi for the purpose, as the Sikh danger hung over the north like a constant cloud and the Sikhs had once been Abdul Ahad’s allies. Of his four lieutenants, Afrāsiyāb occupied the middle Doab (Aligarh), Md. Shafi the upper Doab (Mirat), Najaf Quli Mewāt and Rewāri, and Md. Beg Hamadāni was engaged in dealing with Rao Pratap Singh Narokā and the Jat Rajah and subduing the Dholpur-Bari region westwards to the as-yet-unsettled Bharatpur-Alwar-Jaipur frontier. None of them could be withdrawn from his post without running risks. Mirzā Najaf was, therefore, compelled to seek out some other instrument for achieving any new enterprise.