The nobles unite with Meean Munjoo in raising Ahmud to the throne. — Yekhlas Khan institutes an enquiry into his origin. — His pretensions to royal descent disputed. — Meean Munjoo and his minion are besieged in the fort by Yekhlas Khan. — He obtains the release of Nehung Khan and Hubbush Khan, two chiefs confined in Dowlutabad; and being unable to obtain possession of the Prince Bahadur, the son of the late King, he procures a boy of the same age in the bazar of Ah-mudnuggur, and proclaims him King. — Meean Munjoo sends a deputation to the Prince Moorad Mirza, the son of Akbur Padshah of Dehly, inviting him to march to Ahmudnuggur. — Dissensions among Yekhlas Khan's party. — Meean Mun-joo attacks and defeats it. — The Prince Moorad Mirza reaches Ahmudnuggur with an army of thirty thousand men. — Meean Munjoo resolves to oppose them — takes measures to defend the fort. — Leaves Chand Beeby there, and quits the fort with Ahmud Shah. — Chand Beeby procures the assas­sination of the governor of the fort, and proclaims her grand­nephew, Bahadur Nizam Shah, King. — Forms a regency. — Ahmudnuggur besieged. — Four pretenders to the throne. — Chand Beeby unites with one of the parties headed by Nehung Khan, an Abyssinian chief. — The King of Beejapoor sends a division of twelve thousand men to co-operate with Chand Beeby under Soheil Khan. — Meean Munjoo and Yekhlas Khan also join him. — The King of Golconda sends an army of six thousand cavalry to assist in repelling the Moguls. — The Moguls storm Ahmudnuggur. — Gallant defence of the garrison. — Intrepidity of Chand Beeby. — The Moguls are repulsed. — A treaty concluded, by which the Nizam Shahy state formally cedes the sovereignty of Berar. — The Moguls retreat. — The allies arrive at Ahmudnuggur. — The claims of Bahadur Shah established. — Chand Beeby appointed regent — and the late King Ahmud is provided with an estate by Ibrahim Adil Shah of Beejapoor.

AS Yekhlas Khan and his adherents, with the other chiefs, had by their folly and imprudence ruined the thoughtless young man, Ibrahim Ni­zam Shah, Meean Munjoo, arriving at Ahmud-nuggur, took possession of the treasury and fortress. Upon the arrival of Yekhlas Khan and the other officers, Meean Munjoo sent for them into the fort, to consider the most advisable plan for conducting the government. Most of the Abyssinians espoused the cause of Chand Bee-by, aunt to the late king, and proposed that the King's only son Bahadur, an infant in arms, should be proclaimed under her regency. Meean Munjoo, deprecating this plan, it was agreed that Ahmud, said to be descended from the Nizam Shahies, then at Dowlutabad, should be placed on the throne; and accordingly a formal deputation was sent there with great pomp, to bring Ahmud the son of Shah Tahir, who

Zeehuj 10.
A. H. 1003.
August 6.
A. D. 1594.

was crowned on the 10th of Zeehuj, A. H. 1003, and the Khootba read in the name of the twelve Imams. The chiefs divided almost the whole of the kingdom into estates for themselves; and having removed Bahadur, the late king's orphan son, from the charge of his aunt, sent him by force to the fortress of Chawund. Shortly afterwards it was discovered that Ahmud Shah was not of the Nizam Shahy family, and that his preten­sions to the crown were unfounded. On which Yekhlas Khan, and the other Abyssinians, re­pented of their consenting to his accession. The following is the true account of this youth's pedigree.

When Boorhan Nizam Shah the First, son of Ahmud Nizam Shah, died, and was succeeded by his son (Hoossein Nizam Shah), his five brothers,

1. Mahomed Khoodabunda,
2. Shah Ally,
3. Mahomed Bakur,
4. Abdool Kadur,
5. Shah Heidur,

concluding that they should fall victims to the jealousy of their brother on the throne, fled the kingdom. In the latter end of the reign of Moortuza Nizam Shah, a person calling himself Shah Tahir, arrived at Dowlutabad, giving out that Mahomed Khoodabunda died on a certain day in Bengal, and that he (Shah Tahir) was his own begotten son, and that being reduced to distress, he had come into the Deccan. The nobles of Moortuza Nizam Shah, desirous of as­certaining the fact, represented the circumstance to the King, and particularly to the famous Sulabut Khan. The facts were not then satisfactorily cleared up, owing to the distance of Bengal, and with reference to the period which had elapsed; but as Shah Tahir claimed royal descent, and might one day set up pretensions to the throne, he was confined in a fortress. Some time after­wards persons of respectability, acquainted with the late Prince Khoodabunda, were sent to Agra to Boorhan Nizam Shah, afterwards King of Ah-mudnuggur, but then at Akbur Padshah's court, in order to ascertain the fact. That prince re­futed Shah Tahir's story, by stating that his uncle, the Prince Khoodabunda, died in his (Boorhan Nizam's) house; that his family, male and female, who were still alive, were at present with him at Agra; and if any person had stated himself to be the son of the Prince Khoodabunda, the assertion was false, and the individual an impostor. The minister Sulabut Khan, however, said, that as this person had declared himself to be the son of Prince Khoodabunda, it would be difficult to per­suade the people of the fraud; and it would always give him a plea on which to found pretensions to the crown; it therefore appeared advisable that he should be confined in some fort for life. Shah Tahir was accordingly imprisoned, and died some years afterwards, leaving a son whose name was Ahmud, and whose claim to affinity to the blood royal was supported by Meean Munjoo, who proposed his elevation, as we have seen. Yekhlas Khan, with the Movullids and Abyssinians, when they discovered the truth, deserted his cause; and Meean Munjoo, with the Deccanies, encamped in a large body on the plain of the Kala Chubootra, near the fort of Ahmudnuggur. Meean Munjoo despatched his son Meean Hussun, with seven hundred horse, to disperse the mob under Yekhlas Khan; and himself, accompanied by Ahmud, went upon a cavalier, from whence they could see the result. The two parties en­gaged, and the struggle was long doubtful, till a shot from the insurgents striking the King's canopy occasioned great confusion in the fort.

Page 296 and 296 are missing. (PHI)

hadur Shah King of Ahmudnuggur, taking the whole management of affairs into her own hands, assisted by Mahomed Khan. She also induced Shumsheer Khan Abyssinian, and Afzul Khan Borishy, with many of their adherents, to join her in the fort.

Rubbee-oos-
Sany 23.
A. H. 1004.
December 14.
A. D. 1595. On the 23d of Rubbee-oos-Sany of the same year, the Prince Moorad Mirza appeared on the northern face of Ahmudnuggur; and upon his ar­rival at the Eedgah, a few shot passed between his line and the fort. The Mogul army encamped in the Husht-i-Behisht gardens, formed by Boorhan Nizam Shah I. The Prince Moo-rad immediately sent off a strong guard to pro­tect the inhabitants of Boorhanabad, (founded by Boorhan Nizam Shah II.) with directions to treat them with lenity; and the troops were also ordered to proclaim protection to all the natives, so that they relied entirely on the good dispo­sition of the Moguls towards them. On the second day the Prince in person went out, and, with the advice of his engineers, marked out the ground for the trenches against the fort, and allotted to each division of the army its separate post round

Rubbee-oos-
Sany 27.
A. H. 1004.
December 17.
A. D. 1595.

the garrison. On the 27th of the same month, Shahbaz Khan, one of the Mogul generals, (who was notorious for his tyranny over his troops, and cruelty to all classes of inhabitants,) mounted, and, under pretence of hunting, sallied forth towards Boorhanabad, and there, in spite of the Prince's orders, encouraged his men to plunder, himself setting the example: the consequence was, that in the course of an hour the towns of Ahmudnuggur and Boorhanabad were completely sacked. The Prince no sooner heard of this tran­saction than he ordered several of those actually taken with plunder to be hanged in front of the lines; but the inhabitants, no longer relying on the faith of the Prince's promises, deserted both towns during that night.

At this period it must be observed, that besides the government in the fort the Nizam Shahies were divided into three other parties.

First, Meean Munjoo and his minion Ahmud Shah, who were encamped on the Adil Shahy borders so­liciting the assistance of Ibrahim Adil Shah.

Secondly, Yekhlas Khan, in the vicinity of Dowlutabad, who had procured another child, called Moty, in that neighbourhood, declaring him to be the rightful heir to the crown.

Thirdly, Nehung Khan, the Abyssinian, who went to the Beejapoor territories, and induced Shah Ally, * the son of Boorhan Nizam Shah I., then upwards of seventy years of age, to emerge from his retirement at Beejapoor, and consent to assume the royal canopy.