Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c38.s2.4

v3.c38.s2.4

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.