The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c26.24

c26.24

*Towers (Sībā).* In connection with this siege of Gurdāspur, we are told of the building of high wooden towers, on which guns were mounted, the inside of the fortified place being thereby commanded, so as to make it untenable. The following passage gives a description of these towers by a contemporary, who was present. "At a distance of two arrows' flight, batteries were erected of a size sufficient to allow of the guns being worked. They were about three cubits (4½ feet) in height and in shape like bastions. A constant fire was kept up on both sides. Whenever a gunner shewed his head above the top of the earthwork, he would be fired at by one of the Sikhs concealed behind the battlements. In the same way a head showing above the wall was immediately fired at. The Sikhs answered shot for shot, and the imperialists were unable to move out to an attack in the open. Then, at the battery of ʿĀrif Khān, ʿAbd-uṣ-ṣamad Khān prepared a tower over-topping the fort wall, and mounted his guns upon it. This device disconcerted the besieged, as the interior of the fort was now commanded and their movements thereby hampered. Similar towers were raised on two other sides of the attack, where Zakarīyah Khān and Qamr-ud-dīn Khān commanded respectively", Ghulām Muḥī-ud-dīn Khān, fol. 57*a*.