Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c38.s8.16

v3.c38.s8.16

The news of the murder of Mirzā Md. Shafi reached Delhi in forty hours, early in the morning of 25th September. Afrāsiyāb Khan’s complicity in the crime was suspected but could not be proved. Moreover, there was no other great noble in sight worthy of filling the deceased army chief’s place. Above all, Shah Alam and Abdul Ahad trembled in fear lest Major Browne, the English agent in Shafi’s camp, should form a collusion with Afrāsiyāb and crown Sulaimān Shukoh as his puppet with the promise of English armed support. Not a moment was therefore to be lost in securing Afrāsiyāb through his constant friend Abdul Ahad. Mirzā Najaf’s old diwan Rajah Manirām and his loyal adherent Md. Quli Khan sent to the Emperor an offer of three lakhs of Rupees if he gave Shafi’s posts to his brother Zain-ul-abidin. But the danger from Afrāsiyāb’s defection was supreme, and he was immediately appointed Mir Bakhshi and commanded to come back to the Court with the prince as soon as he could manage to do so. [DY. i. 92, 94.]