Shams Khán, with four or five thousand horse and thirty thousand foot, armed with matchlocks, bows and all kinds of weapons, which they had possessed for a long time or newly acquired, went forth accompanied by the zamíndárs. Gentlemen of every tribe, peasants, and mechanics, principally weavers, came forth boldly to stake their lives and property in resisting the infidels. They pledged themselves to support each other, and contributed their money for the general good. More than a hundred thousand men so assembled, and went forth from Sultánpúr with great display. The infidels, on hearing of these bold proceedings of Shams Khán, and of his coming forth with such an army and implements of war, moved with their whole force, amounting to seventy or eighty thousand horse and foot. They had with them the guns they had brought from Sihrind, their plank constructions, bags full of sand for making lines, and lead and gunpowder. Plundering everywhere as they went, they came to Ráhún,* seven kos from Sultánpúr. There they had halted, and took post by a brick-kiln, all the bricks of which they used for making a sort of fort; and having thrown up lines all round, they made ready for battle. They sent out patrols in all directions, and they wrote threatening orders to the chaudharís and kánúngos calling upon them to submit.
Shams Khán had many thousands of brave Musulmáns on his right hand and his left, all animated with desire for a holy war and hope of martyrdom, who encouraged each other and said, “If Shams Khán is defeated and killed, our lives and property and families are all lost.” Vying with and inspiriting each other, they advanced boldly to within cannon-shot of the enemy. At the close of the first watch of the day, the battle began with a discharge of guns and muskets. Ten or twelve thousand balls and stones from slings came rattling like hail upon the forces of Islám, but by God's mercy produced no great effect, and no man of note was killed. Shams Khán forbade haste and a useless discharge of ammunition. He went steadily forward, and after a volley or two from the infidels, he sent forward an elephant supported by forty or fifty thousand Musulmáns who had come together from all parts. They raised their war-cry, charged the infidels, and killed and wounded great numbers.
The infidels, after fruitless struggles, were overpowered, and being discouraged, they took refuge in the fort of Ráhún, of which they had obtained possession before the battle. This was invested, and a general fire of muskets and rockets began. The garrison of the fort of Ráhún had left in it their warlike stores and provisions when they evacuated it, and of these the infidels took possession and stood firm in the fort. They were invested for some days; but at night parties of them came out, and attacked the forces of Islám, killing men and horses. Both sides were in difficulty, but especially the enemy. They evacuated the fort at night and fled. Shams Khán pursued them for some kos, and took from them a gun and some baggage, camels and bullocks, with which he returned to Sultánpúr.
Next day about a thousand of the enemy attacked the garrison which Shams Khán had placed in Ráhún, drove them out and occupied it themselves. The enemy then proceeded to plunder the neighbourhood of Láhore, and great alarm was felt in that city and all around. Islám Khán, the Prince's díwán, and náíb of the súba of Láhore, in concert with Kázim Khán, the royal díwán, and other officials, after setting in order the fortifications of the city, went out with a large muster of Musulmáns and Hindús, and encamped four or five kos from the city, where he busied himself in cutting off the patrolling parties of the enemy. The people in Láhore were safe from danger to life and property, but the outskirts up to the garden of Shálimár, which is situated two kos from the city, were very much ravaged.
For eight or nine months, and from two or three days' march of Dehlí to the environs of Láhore, all the towns and places of note were pillaged by these unclean wretches, and trodden under foot and destroyed. Men in countless numbers were slain, the whole country was wasted, and mosques and tombs were razed. After leaving Láhore, they returned to the towns and villages of Shádhúra and Karnál, the faujdár of which place was slain after resisting to the best of his ability. Now especially great havoc was made. A hundred or two hundred Hindús and Musulmáns who had been made prisoners were made to sit down in one place, and were slaughtered. These infidels had set up a new rule, and had forbidden the shaving of the hair of the head and beard. Many of the ill-disposed low-caste Hindús joined themselves to them, and placing their lives at the disposal of these evil-minded people, they found their own advantage in professing belief and obedience, and they were very active in persecuting and killing other castes of Hindús.
The revolt and the ravages of this perverse sect were brought under the notice of His Majesty, and greatly troubled him; but he did not deem its suppression so urgent as the putting down of the Rájpút rebellion, so the royal armies were not sent against them at present. Giving the Rájpút difficulty his first attention, the royal army marched from Ujjain towards the homes of the Rájpúts.
[vol. ii. p. 661.] The march of the royal army to lay waste the
land of the Rájpúts awakened these rebellious people to a sense of
their danger. They sent representatives to make friends of Khán-
[vol. ii. p. 663.] An order was given (near the end of the previous year of the reign) that the word wasí (heir) should be inserted among the attributes of the Khalif 'Alí in the khutba.* When this order reached Láhore, Ján Muhammad and Hájí Yár Muhammad, the most eminent learned men in that city, in accord with many other good and learned men, went in a crowd to the houses of the Kází and the Sadr, to forbid the reading of the word wasí in the khutba. In the same way the learned men and elders of Ágra, supported by a large number of Musulmáns, raised a disturbance and forbade the reading of the khutba in the form directed. Similar reports were sent by the news-writers of other cities. From Ahmadábád it was reported that a party of Sunnís with a crowd killed the khatíb* of the chief mosque, who had read the word wasí in the khutba.
After the order for the insertion of the word wasí in the khutba reached Ahmadábád, the Sadr wrote to Fíroz Jang, the Súbadár, for official directions as to the course he was to pursue, and in reply received an autograph letter, directing him to act in obedience to the orders of the Khalífa (the Emperor). On the following Friday the khatíb used the word wasí in the khutba. Some men of the Panjáb and some notables of Túrán came noisily forward, and harshly addressing the khatíb, said, “We excuse you this Friday for using the word, but next Friday you must not pronounce it.” He replied that he would act in obedience to the orders of the Emperor, the Názim (viceroy), and the Sadr. On the following Friday, when the khatíb ascended the pulpit, one of the Mughals said to him, “You must not use the word wasí.” The doomed khatíb would not be restrained; but the moment the word wasí fell from his tongue, a Panjábí rose, seized him by his skirt, dragged him from the top of the pulpit, and treated him with harsh scorn. A Túrání Mughal jumped up, drew his knife, stuck it into the stomach of the khatíb, and threw him down under the pulpit. A general disturbance followed, and all the people started up. The khatíb, half dead, was dragged out into the forecourt of the mosque, and there he received so many stabs from daggers and blows from slippers that he died ignominiously. For a night and a day his heirs had not the courage to remove his corpse and bury it. On the second day the parents of the deceased petitioned Fíroz Jang for permission to inter him. He gave them some rupees of Government money and his authority for the burial.