The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c15.38

c15.38

*Farangi*. These must have been Europeans serving in the capacity of common soldiers. They were probably for the most part native Christians, or so-called Portuguese, either from Goa, or from the colonies of that nation settled about the mouth of the Ganges and Brahmputra. There may have been among them some fugitive sailors from ships lying at Surat or Cambay. More usually, however, such men entered the artillery. Ashob, fol. 266*a*, informs us that in 1739 there were still Franks in the Mughal service. They were all Frenchmen, either attached to the artillery or practising as surgeons, bone-setters (*shikastah-band*), or physicians. The chief of them, Farangī Khān and Farāshīsh Khān, were accounted nobles and drew nobles' pay. These Europeans lived in a special quarter called Farangīpurah just outside the Kābul gate, close under the hill Kālī Pahār. They killed some of Nādir Shāh's provosts (*nasaqchī*) and in retaliation the colony was wiped out.