The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c24.15

c24.15

After a time the men of Khān Daurān, Haidar Qulī Khān, Sa‘ādat Khān and Muhammad Khān, Bangash, surrounded the ex-wazīr, and an arrow struck him on the forehead, inflicting a skin wound. The soldiers then tried to make him a prisoner. But, clad although he was in chain-mail, he leapt to the ground sword in hand, with the intention of fighting to the death. In spite of their knowing his practice of fighting on foot at the crisis of a battle, the ex-wazīr’s troops, when they saw his elephant without a rider, imagined that their leader must have fled, and each man began to think of his own safety. Then Tālī ‘Yār Khān charged at the head of his men, and cut down Shekh Nathū, commanding ‘Abdullah Khān’s artillery; the Rājpūts, coming up, took possession of the Shekh’s body, and carried it to the imperial camp. Najm-ud-dīn ‘Alī Khān and Ghāzī-ud-dīn Khān did their best to rally their men, but no one paid them any heed. Shujā‘at-ullah Khān, Zulfiqār ‘Alī Khān, and ‘Abdullah Khān, Tarīn, fled. Even Saif-ud-dīn ‘Alī Khān, the ex-wazīr’s brother, thought the day was lost, and left the field along with two or three hundred men, taking with him Prince Ibrāhīm, who abandoned his elephant and mounted a horse. His elephant and imperial umbrella were afterwards found, and taken by Muḥammad Shāh’s men. The feebleness of the defence would be fully proved, if we believe, as Wārid tells us, that after two days’ fighting, only forty men were left dead on the field.