The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c26.30

c26.30

*Scaling ladders.* The name for scaling ladders was *nar-dubān*, Steingass, 1395. Bābar mentions them more than once. Their use in the reign of Humāyūn, 963 H., 1555-6 is proved by a passage in Budāonī, text, i, 465, Ranking 600. The words employed there are *zīnah-pāe*, the round of a ladder or step of a stair, and *kamand*, which Ranking translates literally “noose”, though from the context “rope-ladder” would be better. Again they were used in Shāh-jahān’s reign, (1044 H. 1634-5), at the siege of Urchhah, *Bādshāhnāmah*, i, part 2, p. 107, line 15. From time to time we hear of their being used at a much later period. For instance, at the end of 1719, when Girdhar Bahādur was besieged in Allāhābād fort by Ḥaidar Qulī Khān and other imperial officers, we read that a general attack in two directions was ordered. One of these was headed by Sher Afgan Khān, Dāūd Khān, an officer under Muḥammad Khān, Bangash, and others. They drove the besieged back to the very foot of the wall, then “Dāūd Khān, Bangash, brought up the scaling ladders, hoping to make an entry, but after much struggle and effort, he was obliged to abandon the attempt”, *Siwāniḥ-i-khiẓrī*. In 1710 the Sikhs had scaling ladders with them when they tried to take Jalālābād in the upper Ganges *Dūābah*, Khāfī Khān, ii, 657.