ALTHOUGH the name of Hafiz Rehmut Khan is familiar to most persons in India, few are acquainted with any particulars of his history; and I think it probable that the following memoir, written by his son the Nuwab Moostujab Khan, may not prove wholly uninteresting.
In the original, many trivial occurrences are noticed, which I have altogether omitted; and the repeated encomiums lavished by the Nuwab on the generosity and intrepidity of his lamented parent, though honourable to his feelings as a son, would be deemed extravagant by the generality of readers, and indeed would scarcely admit of translation.
A residence of many years in Rohilcund, where the memory of Hafiz Rehmut is held in the highest veneration, may perhaps have led me to attach a greater degree of importance to the work than it merits; but as Hafiz acted a distinguished part on the theatre of India for thirty years, and was personally engaged in almost every great action fought during that time, his life may furnish some materials to aid in the compilation of a history of that period: and with this view, I have taken considerable pains to correct some chronological errors in the original.
It is necessary to add, that Mr. Hamilton’s History of the Rohillas will in some parts be found at variance with this narrative; that gentleman appears to have derived his information from the friends of the Nuwab of Oude, who would not be disposed to speak favourably of Hafiz Rehmut Khan; and as that work was published about the time of Mr. Hastings’s trial, it might have been intended to frame an excuse for his permitting a British army to join in the attack on Hafiz in 1774.
C. E..