Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c38.s2: § 2. Najaf Khan's four lieutenants ; their character
Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c38.s2
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§ 2. Najaf Khan's four lieutenants ; their character
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Afrāsiyāb Khan was by birth a Hindu grocer's boy whom Mīrzā Najaf had captured as an orphan, converted to Islam and made his favourite slave and his adopted son in all but the name. But he had none of his master's military capacity, power over men, or passion for strenuous endeavour. He lacked even the born soldier's dauntless courage and therefore could not command the confidence of the army. The Mughalia captains refused to obey a slave; the foreign Muhammadans despised him as India-born and Hindu of blood. His one source of strength was that portion of Mīrzā Najaf's wealth which he had been able to appropriate during his late control of his indolent master's affairs. In addition, the dying Najaf had recommended him to the Emperor as his chosen successor in office and master of his troops and fiefs. For some time after Najaf Khan's death Afrāsiyāb Khan enjoyed the favour of his sister Khadija Sultān Begam, who was universally honoured for her late brother's sake. But when in a few months Afrāsiyāb alienated her, he lost every outside supporter. His new rank and power completely turned his head, and his harshness of speech and violence of temper soon drove all men away from his side, and hastened his downfall.
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∗ Character : *Afrasiyab*, bania boy, no soldier (Gw. v. 25) slave (*Ibr.* ii. 87, 34), bad temper (*Ibr.* 36, 78, 69, 34), demands Najaf's daughter (G. Ali 211.) *Ibr.* 41, 88. *Shafi*, Muna Lal 256, 273 276. BM. 25,021 *f.* 113. G. Ali 161 (temper.) *Najaf Quli*, Muna Lal 255, G. Ali 157, 209. *Ibr.* 43. *Md. Beg*, Muna Lal 271, '73, '74. *Ibr.* ASB ms. ii. 145. *Zain-ul-abidin*, Muna Lal 242. G. Ali 175.
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The second favourite slave and lieutenant of Mirzā Najaf was a Persian named Najaf Quli Khan after his patron. But this officer was constantly sunk in the enjoyment of opium wine and women. His habitual indolence was broken by occasional fits of reckless fighting, but he lacked true generalship and the power of far-sighted scheming. In diplomacy and intrigue he was a mere child and became a tool in the hands of shrewder men.
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The most natural successor of Mirzā Najaf would have been his nephew's son Mirza Muhammad Shafi, who could claim the "royal blood of Persia" and with it the homage of the Irāni party. But throughout Najaf's lifetime he had filled only subordinate posts (except in the recent Sikh campaign) because of his extreme youth, so that at the time of his grand-uncle's death he had acquired neither the force nor the prestige requisite for a Mir Bakhshi. Moreover, he bore a frank unsuspicious character; but that world of intrigue treachery and violence was not a place for a simple good-natured man. The result was that during his short enjoyment of the supreme power all his plans miscarried, he bungled in dealing with his rivals, and the uncongeniality of that atmosphere of universal crooked dealing and hypocrisy so bewildered and irritated him that he burst into frequent fits of temper which alienated his friends. His elder but less prominent brother Zain-ul-abidin Khan was made of a sterner stuff and proved a far abler actor for that stage of fraud and crime.
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The most sinister figure among Mirzā Najaf’s captains was Muhammad Beg Hamadāni, who combined the treachery and ferocity of the Afghan with the martial efficiency and mercenary spirit of the Turkish soldier of fortune. The small bands under Mughalia sardars long settled in India as professional soldiers ready to join the highest bidder, naturally flocked to Hamadāni on account of his known generalship and firmness of character mingled with diplomatic cunning and address, even more than for the sake of his being a brother from *vilāyet*. His nephew Ismail Beg, too, was one of the best generals of the time. But neither of them could hope for any support from Najaf Khan’s Shia sister and personal retainers; they were kept at a distance as mere hirelings unfit to be leaders of the party.
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§ 3. Emperor's policy. General survey of events from 1782 to 1784.
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The history of the next two years and a half was the history of the dissolving and newly forming combinations among these four generals.
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into which further complication was introduced by the selfish intrigues of the Oudh general Latāfat Ali Khan, the infinitely patient and timid secret diplomacy of the Emperor, and the cunning moves of the ex-regent Abdul Ahad Khan who for a time emerged from confinement and tried to play the supreme part in the administration once again. Finally, all these forces spent themselves by their internecine contests, three of them (Latāfat, Shafi and Afrāsiyāb) were murdered, Abdul Ahad imprisoned for life, Muhammad Beg stripped of all power, and the stage left absolutely clear at the end of 1784 for the supremacy of Māhādji Sindhiā.
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Reduced as the Emperor had been for several years past to impotence, his sole concern was for money,—a regular and copious flow of it,—which could not be expected from the impoverished and mostly alienated Crownlands, nor from the tributes which his vassals were now too strong to pay willingly. At the same time, the large army assembled by Najaf Khan could not get their pay regularly even during that great chief's life time, and after his death the soldiers, with their salaries fallen still more into arrears and starving in the midst of that three years' drought, often broke out in riots, insulting and threatening their officers.
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So, the Emperor put a price on the succession to the post of Najaf Khan. Afrāsiyāb thoughtlessly promised him five lakhs and secured the appointment. The inevitable trouble came when he was called upon to keep his word. For the property and treasure accumulated by Najaf Khan a squabble immediately broke out among Afrāsiyāb Khan, Khadija Sultān (who later supported Shafi) and the Emperor. Shah Alam durst not apply the law of escheat to his deceased Mir Bakhshi's legacy, and he therefore asked instead for a heavy sum of first fruits from the new Mir Bakhshi as well as the surrender of the Crownlands to royal agents. Afrāsiyāb, while basking in Mirza Najaf's favour and enjoying in popular report the title of his adopted son, had managed his master's estates and treasury without ever being called to account. Najaf Khan had been too busy with war and Court management to look after his own private affairs; when he needed any money he used to take the amount from Afrāsiyāb without caring to inquire how much was left. Thus, at his death Afrāsiyāb was reported to have appropriated all his wealth amounting to thirty lakhs of Rupees, besides his horses, elephants &c.
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The late Mir Bakhshi had left behind him two little daughters, but Afrāsiyāb Khan denied to them the least share in their patrimony. These girls remained in Najaf Khan's Delhi residence in charge of his sister Khadija Sultan, who controlled his personal belongings, ready cash and jewels in the house, and old attendants, as well as the artillery that guarded his mansion. But her chief source of influence lay in the respect and devotion with which the entire Indian world, from the Emperor downwards, regarded her by reason of her being the sole representative and nearest blood relation of that great noble. Shortly after his death she formed the plan of giving Najaf's elder daughter (then in her eleventh year) in marriage to Mirzā Shafi, getting the post of Mir Bakhshi and the support of Najaf's old adherents for the bridegroom, and governing the State from behind the *parda* through her nominee.
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Najaf Khan's extensive fiefs and the Crown-lands which he administered as Regent of the empire were held by his agents at the time of his death: the middle Doab (Aligarh and Jaleswar districts) by Afrāsiyāb Khan, Saharanpur with nominal right to the Karnal district across the Jamuna by Mirzā Muhammad Shafi, Shekhāwati and Mewāt with its centre at Kanud by Najaf Quli Khan, and the Agra-Dholpur region including the conquests from the Jats by Muhammad Beg Hamadāni. These districts now threatened to break up into four independent baronics. Besides, Mirzā Najaf's prolonged and mortal illness, followed by the confusion and fighting for the succession to his post, caused a paralysis of government for nearly a year (1782.) Every local chief and petty military fief-holder seized the lands of his neighbours and extended his estates in defiance of law and right. Defeated rebels like the Rajah of Bharatpur came out of the refuge of their forts and began to recover their lost possessions up to the very walls of Agra city. The Sikhs and the Ruhela remnant of Najib-ud-daulah’s house became even more daring than before.
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But the Emperor, his administrative officers and the army were bound to starve unless these Crownlands were brought back to the management of his own collectors and the unauthorised extensions of fiefs were wrested from the hands of the usurping captains. This was a task beyond the power of Shah Alam and the attempts made by his successive regents after Najaf’s death to effect it only led to mutinies and their downfall, till at last a supremely strong regent like Māhādji Sindhiā imposed his will and his master’s authority on these countless rebels,—and that too after a most dangerous and all but fatal challenge to his authority in 1787-1788.