The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c22.8

c22.8

Vanguard. This was called either Harāwal or muqaddamah-ul-jais. The former word harāwal, harol, or arāwal is defined by P. de Courteille, 10, 515, as “troupe qui marche en avant de l’armée pour l’éclairer, troupe envoyée en avant pour soutenir l’avant garde”. Steingass, 1494, has “vanguard, running footmen”. Muqaddamah-ul-jais is the Arabic phrase, meaning “front-part of the army (jais)”, and is often used instead of harāwal. Horn, 60, speaks of certain families among the Moghuls having hereditary claims to certain positions. In India the right to fight in the vanguard was conceded, from the time of Akbar, to the Bārhah sayyads, and the fact is often referred to in later times as one of their best titles to honour. In the Bādshāh-nāmah, i, 214, line 8, I find ʿAbd-ul-ḥamīd speaks of troops sent ahead of an army by the name of manqalah. The expression is not very common; I have met with it once spelt manqalā in Khūshḥāl Chand, Berlin Ms. 495, fol. 1127b, and several times in the Maʿāsir-ul-umarā (written c. 1155 H., 1742), as for instance on p. 543 of vol. i. It is used in Tārīkh-i-ʿAlamgīr Sānī, on fol. 105b. It is said to have also the form manghalāe, the latter a Moghul word meaning “forehead, front” (Steingass, 1331, 1333).