Ascends the throne of his brother. — Remarkable mode of dis­tributing his property adopted by the late king. — Hoossein Khan causes his nephew, Ahmud, to be blinded. — Death of the ex-king. — Hoossein Shah receives an embassy from Akbur, and sends his daughter to Agra to marry that emperor. — The Kashmeer princess is sent back to her father. — This insult tends to break the King's heart. — His abdication and death.

AFTER the secession of Ghazy Shah he divided his personal effects into two lots, giving one to his children, and sending the other half to the shops, requiring the shop-keepers to pay him a certain sum of money. The demand being treble the value of the property, the merchants came to Hoos-sein Khan, and entreated him to advise his brother to give up so strange an intention as that of a mo­narch selling his personal effects. Ghazy Shah, who was reduced by age as well as disease to a state of second childhood, insisted on the shop­keepers purchasing his goods; and he became so enraged against Hoossein Shah that he regretted having abdicated in his favour, and now wished to establish his son, Ahmud Khan, on the throne; for which purpose he collected a force in the suburbs, with the intention of dethroning his bro­ther Hoossein. The new King, however, was enabled, without coming to action, to dismember the old King's army, and to reduce his brother to the necessity of retreating to Zeinpoor, where he remained three months, and then returned to Serinuggur. Meanwhile Hoossein Shah, being firmly seated on the throne, made new regulations

A. H. 972.
A. D. 1564.

for the financial departments. In the year 972 he sent his brother, Shunkur Chuk, to assume charge of the govern­ment of Nowshehra and Rajoory; but the latter shortly afterwards appeared at the head of a force in open rebellion. Hoossein Shah deputed an army under the command of Mahomed Khan Makry to attack his brother, whom having defeated, the general returned to the capital, where he was greeted by Hoossein Shah, who went out to meet and congratulate him. Shortly after the arrival of the army, some of the officers concerted a scheme to put the King to death; but he discovered the plot, and seizing the ringleaders, caused their eyes to be put out.

A. H. 973.
A. D. 1565. In the following year, 973, his prime minister, Khan-ooz-Zuman, was induced to attack the palace during his absence, with the intention, after seizing the treasures, of pro­claiming himself king; but his scheme was defeated by the exertions of Musaood Paik, the officer of the King's body-guard, who seizing the minister's son, and having cut off his head, exposed it to his party, which fled. The minister was shortly after secured, and the King ordered his execution; while Musaood Paik was elevated to the situation of minister, with the title of Moobariz Khan, and the estate of the district of Fankul was made over to him.

In the following year, Hoossein Shah, perceiv­ing that attempts were so frequently made to de­throne him, conceived it necessary, for his personal safety, to incapacitate his nephew and rival, Ahmud Khan, from reigning, by causing him to be blinded. The news of this event had such an effect on the old king, Ghazy Khan, who was still living, that he died of a broken heart.

A. H. 975.
A. D. 1567. In the year 975, the King growing jealous of the rising power of his minis­ter, Moobariz Khan, seized and confined him, and appointed one Booly Govind to his situ­ation; but the latter being detected in embezzling forty thousand bales of shawls, he was also im­prisoned, and Ally Koka was raised to the office of minister.

A. H. 976.
A. D. 1568. In the year 976, Kazy Hubeeb, a person of the Hunefy persuasion, after leaving the great mosque on Friday, went to pay his devotions at the tombs of some holy persons at the foot of the Maran hills. On this occasion one Yoosoof, a person of the Sheea persuasion, being present, drew his sword, and wounded the Kazy on the head. He levelled also another blow at the Kazy, who, in en­deavouring to save his head with his hand, had his fingers cut off. This attack arose out of no other cause than the animosity which existed be­tween the two sects. On this occasion, Mowlana Kumal, the Kazy of Seealkote, was present. Yoo-soof, after wounding Kazy Hubeeb, made his es­cape. The King, although himself of the Sheea persuasion, sent persons to seize Yoosoof; and he required several holy and learned men, such as Moolla Yoosoof, Moolla Feroze, and others, to investigate the matter, and to award punishment according to the law. It is related that these wor­thies said that it was lawful to put Yoosoof to death. The Kazy who was wounded declared, that as he had not died of his wounds the law did not admit of the culprit being executed. He was, however, notwithstanding, stoned to death. About this time a number of persons of the Sheea sect arrived with Mirza Mookeem and Meer Yakoob, who came as ambassadors to Serinuggur from Akbur, Emperor of Dehly. Hoossein Shah caused his own tents to be pitched for them at Heerapoor; and when they arrived there, he went forth to meet and escort them. After which, embarking in boats with the son of Hoossein Shah, they proceeded in state to the city of Serinuggur. Hoossein Shah did not go in the boat, but rode on horseback, and prepared the house of Hoossein Makry for the reception of the ambassadors. After some days, Mirza Mookeem, being of the same persuasion as the assassin Yoosoof, required of Hoossein Shah that he should send those learned men who had pronounced the sentence of death on that culprit to him; with which Hoossein Shah complied. Kazy Zein, himself a Sheea, insisted that the sentence pronounced by the persons by whom Yoosoof had been tried was erroneous. The judges said that they had not positively sentenced Yoosoof to death, but declared that it was lawful to execute a person convicted of the crime of which he was found guilty. Mirza Mookeem now ordered the judges into confinement, and made them over to Futteh Khan. Hoossein Shah left the city, and went in a boat to Kamraj; and Futteh Khan, at the instance of Mirza Mookeem, the Dehly ambas­sador, caused the holy men to be put to death; after which, ropes were tied to their feet, and they were dragged through the streets and markets of the town. Hoossein Shah, on his return, after pre­senting the Indian ambassadors with some valuable articles for their master, sent his daughter to be married to Akbur Padshah, and acknowledged his supremacy. In the year 977 (A. D. 1569) news arrived in Kashmeer that the Emperor Akbur, on hearing of the conduct of his ambassadors at Kash-meer, ordered them to be publicly executed at Agra; and as a token of his indignation and horror at the conduct of Hoossein Shah, who had sanc­tioned such a proceeding in his kingdom, he refused to receive his daughter, and sent her back to Kashmeer. * This circumstance had such an effect on the mind of Hoossein Shah, that he was seized with a violent illness, and was soon ren­dered totally unfit to transact public business. Most of the chiefs now quitting the court, waited on his brother, Ally Khan, at Shewpoor; whence they induced him to march to the capital. On his arrival within fourteen or fifteen miles of Seri-nuggur, the whole of the court-party deserted Hoossein Shah; and that monarch was compelled to abdicate his throne in favour of his brother. He accordingly sent to him the Koottas canopy, and the other insignia of royalty. Ally Khan was for­mally acknowledged King; while Hoossein Shah,

A. H. 977.
A. D. 1569.

leaving Serinuggur, went to Zeinpoor, where he died, three months afterwards, of dysentery, in the same year, viz. A. H. 977.