Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c38.s2.11

v3.c38.s2.11

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.