Allahyar Khan Turkman
His father was Iftikhar Khan Turkaman, who in the time
of Jahangir was one of the auxiliaries in Bengal. When Islam Khan Cisti became
the governor of that province, he sent a force under the command of Shuja’at
Khan Shaikh Kabir against Usman Khan Lohani, who was rebelling in that quarter.
The command of the right wing was entrusted to Iftikhar Khan. When the battle
was imminent1 and the two forces were confronting one another, Usman
drove forward a warlike elephant against the imperial vanguard and defeated it
and turned against Iftikhar. He stood firm and stretched forth the arm of
battle, and after a number of his old servants and followers had been slain,
Iftikhar was also killed2.
Allah Yar, after the heroism of his father, became a
favourite of Jahangir and in time rose to be an Amir. In the end of that king’s
reign and the beginning of Shah Jahan’s he attained the rank of 2,500, and
according to old custom was enrolled among the auxiliaries of Bengal. Qasim
Khan, the governor of Bengal, sent his son ‘Inayat Ullah along with the Khan to
take the port of Hoogly, which is one of the leading ports in Bengal. The
leadership and control were entrusted to the Khan. He did good service in this
victory and by his skill and bravery rooted out in the fifth year the tree of
infidelity and of the sway of the Frank which had put down its veins and fibres
(rag u resha) in that country, and in place of the naqus3
(wooden-gong) he caused the voice of God’s praise to resound. As a reward he
received an increase in horsemen and in rank. After that, he during the
government of Islam Khan (Mashhadi) together with Islam Khan’s brother Mir
Zainu-d-din ‘Ali S’aadat Khan led4 an army into Kuc Haju in the
north of Bengal and did good service in extirpating the Assamese who attempted
to help the ruler of Kuc Haju and who trespassed into the imperial territory.
He reduced the arrogant to obedience and returned safe and full of plunder. He
was raised to the rank of 3,000 with 3,000 horse. In the same province (of
Bengal) he died in the 23rd year, in the beginning of 1060, 1650. He
had sons and other kindred. His sons Isfandiyar, Mah Yar and Zu-l-fiqar
obtained suitable fiefs and appointments in that province. The second son died
in the 22nd year in his father’s lifetime, and the third in the 26th
year after his father’s death. Rahman Yar, the brother of Allah Yar, obtained
in the 25th year, at the request of Prince Muhammad Shuja, the
governor of the province, the rank of 1,500 with 1,000 horse, and the office of
the charge of Jahangirnagar (Dacca). Afterward, he got the title of Rashid
Khan, and in the 23th year he had been appointed as Prince Muhammad Shuja’s
deputy to the charge of Orissa. He delayed to go there and occupied himself
with his former employment (at Dacca). When Shuja retreated before Aurangzeb,
he went off to Bengal in a ruined condition and vainly tried to oppose the
pursuit of M’uazzam Khan Khan-Khanan, and in the 2nd year of
Aurangzeb established himself in Tanda in order to spend the rains there. When
he heard that Rashid Khan was recalcitrant and that a number of the landholders
in that part of the country had joined with him in opposition and that he wished
to take the imperial fleet and join M’uazzam Khan, he deputed his eldest son
Zainu-d-din5 along with Saiyid ‘Alam Barha in order that when he
(the son) came to Dacca he might arrange to kill Rahman Yar. By fraud and
pretext he (Zainu-d-din) one day summoned him to the hall of audience and gave
a signal to his men. They all attacked Rahman Yar with their weapons and killed
him.
1 Karzar tarazu a similar phrase to jangtarazu used
in the notices of Abu-l-Maali and Jahangir Quli.
2 Literally “After a number of the old servants and helpers had decked
the face of courage with the rouge of life-sacrifice, that drunkard with
bravery’s wine manfully drained the bowl of death.”
3 See Hughes’ Dict. Of Islam. The naqus
is used in some eastern churches, but here must be understood to mean the
bells. For account of siege of Hoogly see Elliot VII, 31.
4 Padshahnama II, 75. It was in the 10th year of the reign
1047, 1637-1638. See also Khafi Khan III, 559.
5Khafi Khan I, 570 and 618 has Zainu-l-‘abidin, but at II, 49 he has
Zainu-d-din. In the Blochmann MS. and the I.O. 628 we have ke instead of
ta in the third last line of the biography. The account in text is taken
from the ‘Alamgirnama, p. 515, where the name of Shuja’s son is given as
Zainu-d-din. It was Zainu-d-din, who went to Dacca and had Rashid Khan alias
Rahman Yar put to death.
Shah Nawaz Khan, The Ma'athir-ul-Umara, Being Biographies of the
Muhammadan and Hindu Officers of the Timurid Sovereigns of India from 1500 to
about 1780 A.D. Beveridge, H. (tr.). Revised, annotated and completed by Baini
Prasad, vol. I, Calcutta, 1941, pp. 210―212.
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