And in this year Salīm Shāh summoned Ā‘am Humāyūn from Lāhor, but he advanced some excuse* for not coming in person, and sent Sa‘īd Khān his brother, who was renowned for courage and sound judgment.* Islem Shāh received him with the utmost show of favour, and made much of him, advancing him to the highest place of intimacy, but inwardly cherished the intention of putting an end to him; at last one day, having summoned him to a private interview within the palace, he shewed him the heads of the Amīrs who had been immured alive in the walls, for instance Zain Khān Nīyāzī* and the others, saying: Do you recognize these persons, who they are? He mentioned the names of some whom he recognized. Previously to this he had thrown* the abovementioned Amīrs, men of ability, into a chamber in Gwāliār, and setting fire to it with gunpowder had burned them all except Kawāl Khān Ghakkar, who remained under the protection of the All-cherisher safe in a corner of the room.* [It is said that the ^380. following was the reason of his escaping; the sister of Kawāl Khān, who had been united by marriage to Islem Shāh, became aware of the couference and sent word to her brother, saying: This very night they intend to blow up the prisoners with gunpowder. She also sent from inside (the palace) four quilts stuffed with cotton, and several skins of water. Kawāl Khān poured quanti­ties of water upon the quilts, and under pretence of taking a bath betook himself into a corner, apart from his friends, and rolling himself up in the quilts had gone to sleep when they set fire to the room, and all were burned to ashes, but he alone remained alive beneath the quilt. In the morning Islem Shāh came to inspect that prison house, and seeing Kawāl Khān alive said: It is right for me to release you seeing that fire had no power over you].* Then Islem Shāh having made him* take an oath that he would never again oppose him, released him, and appointed him to assist the Governor of the Panjāb to conquer the country of the Ghak-kars [where he arrived with all honour].* In short Sa‘īd Khān, who had been a witness of this sudden death, gave orders in obedience to which post horses were tied up along the road to Lāhor, so that he travelled the distance between Āgra and Lāhor within three nights. Day by day the scale turned more and more in favour of the Nīyāzī faction, and Ā‘am Humāyūn read the Khubah in his own name in Lāhor. Islem Shāh returned from that same camp and came to Āgra, and summoning a vast army from all sides marched for the Panjāb. Sazāwal Khān came from Mālwa to join this movement, and was received very graciously, and after bringing forward certain important matters took leave, while Islem Shāh, after halting for a few days in Dihlī and ordering his army, set out ^381. for Lāhor.* Ā‘am Humāyūn and Khawāṣṣ Khān, and ‘Īsā Khān* Nīyāzī as well, (who had come down from the hill country to join him), came from the Panjāb with armies strong as the hills to receive Islem Shāh. In the early part of the* winter time a fierce battle was fought in front of* the township of Ambāla, and on the evening preceding the day on which the battle was to be fought, Ā‘am Khān had asked Khawāṣṣ Khān: After the victory who will be selected as the successor to the throne? He answered: It may be that it will be ‘Ādil Khān who is the eldest son of Shīr Shāh* and is really fit to rule. It appears that the Nīyāzī faction said,* The kingdom is not by inheritance, but He who conquers, takes the booty.* It is a foregone conclusion, what sense is there in this that we should strike with the sword and the kingdom should come to others.

Khawāṣṣ Khān, who was heart and soul attached to the cause of Shīr Shāh, was displeased at this claim of theirs, consequently when the battle began to rage, he refused to fight,* and standing aloof left the battle field together with ‘Īsā Khān Nīyāzī. The Nīyāzī faction fought right manfully, without yielding a foot of ground, and were near carrying away the centre* of Islem Shāh's army, but in the end* pluck told,* and their efforts were of no avail.

Verse.

Thy wound which utters presage of thy death
When it feels thy salt closes its lips.

And Sa‘īd Khān, the elder brother of Ā‘am Humāyūn, attended by a body of men fully armed and equipped, disguised in such a way that no one would know him, came in under the pretext of offering congratulations, with the intention of putting an end to Islem Shāh, and with that object asked repeatedly, where is the Pādshāh that I may offer him my congratulations on his victory. An elephant driver of one of those elephants which had sur­rounded Islem Shāh recognised the voice of Sa‘īd Khān, and struck a blow at him with his spear, but he* made his way in safety through the crowd of elephants, great as it was,* and foiled in his purpose made his escape; the Nīyāzī faction fled ^382. and came to Dhankoṭ,* which is near Roh,* and the remainder were plundered by the Kawārs, while some were drowned in the nullahs of Ambāla. Islem Shāh pursued as far as Western Rohtās, and despatched Khwāja Wais* Sirwānī with a large army to oppose the Nīyāzīs, and returned towards Āgra. Leaving Āgra he went* to Gwāliār, and made it his capital.* When Khawāṣṣ Khān and ‘Īsā Khān Nīyāzī, who had made common cause, left the battle field, ‘Īsā Khān went to the hill country,* [while Khawāṣṣ Khān with five or six hundred cavalry* fled to Lāhor]; [and (Islām Khān)* Islem Shāh appointed Shams Khān Lūhānī as Governor of Lāhor; and at a time when Shams Khān had come out for some undertaking* to a distance of thirty krohs from Lāhor, Khawāṣṣ Khān,* with three* or four hundred cavalry, each individual man of whom could have withstood an army, advanced with the idea of taking Lāhor, and encamped* in the grove of Kāmrān Mīrza. The inhabitants of Lāhor shutting them­selves up in the fort held the city till the arrival of Shams Khān, and Khawāṣṣ Khān, having cut down the lofty trees* of Safīdār and Chinār* of that grove, had set about making Sāūr* and ladders, when* his cavalry brought news that Rāi Ḥusain Jilwānī and other Amīrs of Salīm Shāh's party with an army of thirty thou­sand ^383. cavalry had arrived in the neighbourhood of Lāhor. Kha­wāṣṣ Khān, after a conference with ‘Īsā Khān, abandoned the siege, and went out some five or six krohs to meet (his enemy), and with five hundred veteran cavalry well tried in war hurled himself against that wall of steel. Rāi Ḥusain said to his men, leave the way open so* that this black calamity may pass through our midst. Accordingly* he made a breach in the line of Salīm Shāh's army, and attacked them again from the rear and threw them into confusion. At this juncture he received a wound in the knee which bore him from his horse to the ground, but his opponents had not sufficient enterprise to come up to him and take him prisoner, and he was openly borne off the field upon a charpoy.*