The power of Jumal Khan is firmly established — he becomes leader of a sect called Mehdvies. — All the surviving fo­reigners in the dominions required to quit them. — The author quits Ahmudnuggur, and proceeds to Beejapoor. — Sulabut Khan, the exiled minister, leads an army from Berar to oppose Jumal Khan — is defeated. — The regent of Beejapoor also leads an army against him. — Peace concluded. — Jumal Khan pays eighty-five thousand pounds sterling to defray the expense of the war. — Chand Beeby, the Dowager of Ally Adil Shah, is required to be sent to Beejapoor. — The Em­peror Akbur supports the claim of Boorhan, the father of the young King, and who for many years had quitted the court and lived in exile, from apprehension of his brother Moortuza Nizam Shah the Mad. — Boorhan is also supported by the court of Beejapoor. — Jumal Khan defeats the Beejapoor army, and marches to oppose that of Boorhan. — A battle ensues. — Jumal Khan is killed. — The young King escapes from the field, but is afterwards taken and confined by his father, who ascends the throne under the title of Boorhan Nizam Shah II.

IT has been already mentioned in the history of Moortuza Nizam Shah, that his brother, Boorhan Nizam Shah, * having been foiled in an attempt to dethrone him, fled for protection to the court of the Emperor Akbur. On his departure, he left behind him his two sons, Ibrahim and Ismael, who were confined in the fortress of Lohgur. The younger being raised to the throne, on the death of Meeran Hoossein Nizam Shah, assumed the title of Ismael Nizam Shah, and was acknowledged by the successful partisan, Jumal Khan.

Jumal Khan being of the sect of Mehdvy per­suaded the King to embrace the same tenets, and to commit the power of government into the hands of his followers. In the beginning of his admin­istration, he obliged the few foreigners who had escaped the massacre in the last reign to quit Ah-mudnuggur, after seizing their effects. Most of these obtained service with the King of Beejapoor. Among them was the writer of this history, who subsequently obtained rank at that court. The Mehdvies are a schismatic sect of Mahomedans. They assert that in the year 960 (A. D. 1550) * a person of the Hunefy sect, styling himself Syud Mahomed, was in reality the promised Imam Mehdvy; and as there were some circumstances which the impostor turned to his advantage, repre­senting them to be the signs of the coming of the Imam Mehdvy, many people of India believed him to be the real Imam. Among these believers was Jumal Khan, commonly called Mehdvy, and who was considered as the leader of that sect in the service of Ismael Nizam Shah. He had at dif­ferent times distinguished himself by his personal courage, and particularly on the occasion of the accession of the King, who was now a mere pa­geant in the hands of this wily chieftain. He com­menced his power by persecuting all those not of his own persuasion, and by promoting to high offices, and retaining about his person, such as were Mehdvies. Among the discontented nobles were the chiefs of Berar, who, being at some distance from the capital, released Sulabut Khan, who had long been confined in the fort of Kehrla, on the Berar frontier. They joined his standard to oppose the Mehdvies, whom the Berar chiefs determined to expel from Ahmudnuggur; for which purpose they marched towards the capital. At the same period, also, Dilawur Khan, the Regent of Beeja-poor, during the minority of Ibrahim Adil Shah, marched from the southward for the same purpose.

Jumal Khan, undismayed at this double invasion, and encouraged by his adherents, marched, in the first place, against Sulabut Khan, and gave him a total defeat at the town of Peitun, on the Go-davery, obliging him to retreat to Boorhanpoor. Thence he countermarched to oppose the Beeja-poories, whom he encountered at the village of Ashty, where the two armies halted in the vicinity of each other for fifteen days, without making any hostile movement. At length a peace was con­cluded, in which it was agreed that Chand Beeby, the widow of the late Ally Adil Shah, and aunt to the present King of Ahmudnuggur, should be sent to the Beejapoor camp, and that the Nizam Shahy government should pay two hundred and seventy thousand hoons (Nalbaha), * for the purpose of defraying the expenses of the war.

A. H. 998.
A. D. 1589. In the year 998 Sulabut Khan, now in his seventieth year, sent a petition from Boorhanpoor, begging permission to be allowed to return to his country, in order that he might lay his bones there. The request was granted; and he retired to the town of Tulegam, * founded by himself: he, however, died during that year, and was buried in a mausoleum†, * erected during his ministry, on a hill lying south of Ah-mudnuggur. Intelligence of the commotions in the Nizam Shahy capital having reached the Emperor Akbur, he recalled Boorhan Nizam Shah from his jageer of Bungush, lying between India and Kabul, and offered him a force to recover the kingdom of his ancestors, now his right, but usurped by his own son, aided by a despotic minister. Boorhan Nizam Shah represented, that should he accept the as­sistance of the Moguls, the Deccanies would be alarmed, and object to his authority; but that if his Majesty would allow him to repair to the borders of the country with his own dependents, he would try to gain over his subjects by con­ciliation. Akbur, approving his proposal, permitted him to depart for the Deccan, and allotted the frontier district of Hundia for his support till he should regain his authority. At the same time he wrote to Raja Ally Khan, ruler of Kandeish, to afford him support. Boorhan Nizam Shah, having received overtures from many of the nobility, marched against his son, but was defeated. In a short time after this, however, he renewed his attempt, on being joined by a vast number of Nizam Shahy troops, as well as by an army from Beejapoor, which also made several marches to his assistance.

At this period Jumal Khan collected his troops, among whom were ten thousand Mehdvies; and having ordered Syud Umjud-ool-Moolk of Berar, with the whole of his force, to oppose Raja Ally Khan and Boorhan Nizam Shah, on the northern frontier, marched himself against the Beejapoo-ries. The two armies met at the village of Da-rasun: an action took place, in which the Beeja-poories were defeated with the loss of three hundred elephants; but four days afterwards, information being received that the Berar troops had gone over to Boorhan Nizam Shah, Jumal Khan coun-termarched his victorious army towards Berar, to oppose the pretender, while Ibrahim Adil Shah despatched the whole of his Bergy cavalry to follow Jumal Khan, and to cut off his supplies. Jumal Khan relying on the Mehdvies, whose very ex­istence was identified with his welfare, proceeded to the Rohunkehra Ghat, notwithstanding he was daily deserted by his other troops. On his arrival there he found the pass occupied; and not being disposed to risk the loss that would attend forcing his way, he took another road, which was almost impassable, and which offered very little water. He had just pitched upon a spot to encamp, when he was informed that six miles farther on there was plenty of water, to which place he marched; but he found that position already occupied by the allied forces. His army, now in the greatest distress, was constrained to encamp where it was, as from the heat and difficulties it had encountered it was equally unable to proceed or to retreat. The troops, in the first instance, having obtained water, Jumal Khan ordered them under arms, and determined to decide his fate by an action, which was very near terminating in his favour, when he was killed by a chance shot. His death was the signal of defeat; for his army, having no other leader, fled in all directions, accompanied by Ismael Nizam Shah, who being taken in a village, was afterwards confined by his father, and deprived of his throne, after a reign of two years.