The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c24.22

c24.22

Stratagems of War. Dr. Horn, 70, states that deceit and stratagem did not play a leading part in Moghul warfare. This may be so, still they were not unknown. Of a character similar to the pretended desertion, in order to obtain information of the enemy’s plans and strength, which was employed by Rūmī Khān at Chunār in 1538 (Horn, 71, quoting Erskine, ii, 140, note), is a plot put into execution once by Nizām-ul-mulk. In the middle of 1720, when about to fight for supremacy in the Dakhin against Sayyad ʿAlim ʿAlī Khān, governor of Aurangābād, he arranged with one of his principal officers that a fictitious dispute about pay should be raised, that the officer should behave disrespectfully, and after receiving his money, should desert to ʿAlim ʿAlī Khān’s camp. So said, so done. After an altercation, Nizām-ul-mulk paid the man and let him go. When he reached the Sayyad’s camp, this officer was received with honour and taken into the Sayyad’s service. But on the day of battle, as secretly agreed on with Nizām-ul-mulk, the deserter turned his men traitorously on ʿAlim ʿAlī Khān’s rear, and bringing him under two fires contributed materially to his defeat (Shiū Dās, fol. 42b).