Khan Jahan Huseyn Quli Khan Zulqadar
24. Khán Jahán Husain Qulí Khán1, son of
Wali Beg Zulqadr.
He is the son of Bairam Khan’s sister. His father Wali
Beg Zulqadr was much attached to Bairam, and was captured in the fight in the
Parganah of دکدار (Jalindhar’ vide p. 317, l. 5,) but
died immediately afterwards from the wounds received in battle. Akbar looked
upon him as the chief instigator of Bairam’s rebellion, and ordered his head to
cut off, which was sent all over Hindustan. When it was brought to Itawah,
Bahadur Khan (No. 22) killed the foot soldiers (tawachis) that carried
it. Khan Jahan had brought Bairam’s insignia from Mewat to Akbar, and as
he was a near relations of the rebel, he was detained and left under charge of Áçaf
Khán ‘Abdulmajíd, Commander of Dihli. When Bairam had been pardoned, Khan Jahan
was released. He attached himself henceforth to Akbar.
In the 8th year (end of 971), he was made a
Khan, and received orders to follow up Sharafuddin Husain (No. 17). Ajmir and
Nagor were given him as tuyul. He took the Fort of Jodhpur from Chandar
Sen, son of Rai Maldeo, and distinguished himself in the pursuit of Udai Singh
during the siege of Chitor.
In the 13th year (976), he was transferred
to the Panjab, whither he went after assisting in the conquest of Rantanbhur.
In the 17th year, he was ordered to take
Nagarkot, which had belonged to Rajah Jai Chand. Badaoni says (II, p. 161) that
the war was merely undertaken to provide Bir Bar with a jagir. Akbar had Jai
Chand imprisoned, and Budi Chand, his son, thinking that his father was dead,
rebelled. Khan Jahan, on his way, conquered Fort Kotlah, reached Nagarkot in
the beginning of Rajab 980, and took the famous Bhawan temple outside of the
Fort. The siege was progressing and the town reduced to extremities, when it
was reported that Ibrahim Husain Mirza and Mausud Mirza had invaded the Panjab.
Khan Jahan therefore accepted a payment of five mans of gold and some
valuables, and raised the siege. He is also said to have erected a Majid in
front of Jai Chand’s palace in the Fort, and to have read the Khutbah in
Akbar’s name (Friday, middle of Shawwal 980).
Accompanied by Ismail Quli Khan and Mirza Yusuf Khan I
Rizawi (No. 35), Khan Jahan marched against the Mirzas, surprised them in the
Parganah of Talbanah, 40 kos from Multan, and defeated them. Ibrahim
Husain Mirza escaped to Multan, but Masud Husain and several other Mirzas of
note were taken prisoners.
In the 18th year (981), when Akbar returned
to Agrah after the conquest of Gujrat, he invited his Amirs to meet him, and
Khan Jahan also came with his prisoners, whom he had put into cow skins with
horns on, with their eyelashes sewn together. Akbar had their eyes immediately
opened, and even pardoned some of the prisoners. The victorious general
received the title of Khan Jahan, a title in reputation next to that of Khan
Khanan. About the same time Sulaiman, ruler of Badakhshan (p. 312) had come to
India, driven away by his grandson Shahrukh (No. 7), and Khan Jahan was ordered
to assist him in recovering his kingdom. But as in 983 Munim Khan Khanan died,
and Bengal was unsettled, Khan Jahan was recalled from the Panjab, before he
had moved into Badakhshan, and was appointed to Bengal, Rajah Todar Mall being
second in command. At Bhagalpur, Khan Jahan was met by the Amirs of Bengal, and
as most of them were Chaghtai nobles, he had, as Qizilbash, to contend with the
same difficulties as Bairam Khan had had. He repulsed the Afghans who had come
up as far as Garhi and Tandah; but he met with more decided opposition at Ak
Mahall, where Daud Khan had fortified himself. The Imperialists suffered much
from the constant sallies of the Afghans. Khan Jahan complained of the willful neglect
of his Amirs, and when Akbar heard of the death of Khwajah ‘Abdullah
Naqshbandi, who had been purposely left unsupported in a skirmish, he ordered
Muzaffar Khan, Governor of Bihar (No. 37) to collect his Jagirdars and join
Khan Jahan (984). The fights near Ak Mahall were now resumed with new vigour.
During a skirmish a cannon ball wounded Junaid i Kararani, Daud’s cousin2,
which led to a general battle (15th Rabi’ II, 984). The right wing
of the Afghans, commanded by Kala Pahar, gave way, when the soldiers saw their
leader wounded, and the centre under Daud was defeated by Khan Jahan. Daud
himself was captured and brought to Khan Jahan, who sent his head to Akbar.
After this great victory, Khan Jahan despatched Todar
Mall to court, and moved to Satganw (Hugli), where Daud’s family lived. Here he
defeated the remnant of Daud’s adherents under Jamshed and Mitti, and reannexed
Satganw, which since the days of old had been called Bulghakkhanah3,
to the Mughul empire. Daud’s mother came to Khan Jahan as a suppliant.
Soon after Malku Sain, Rajah of Kuch Bihar sent
tribute and 54 elephants, which Khan Jahan despatched to Court.
With the defeat and death of Daud, Bengal was by no
means conquered. New troubles broke out in Bhati4, where the Affhans
had collected under Karim Dad, Ibrahim, and the rich Zamindar Isa (عیسی). With great
difficulties Khan Jahan occupied that district, assisted by a party of Afghans
who had joined him together with Daud’s mother at Goas; and returned to
Çihhatpur, a town he had founded near Tandah. Soon after, he took ill, and died
after a sickness of six weeks in the same year (19th Shawwal 986).
Abulfazl remarks that his death was opportune,
inasmuch as the immense plunder collected by Khan Jahan in Bengal, had led him
to the verge of rebellion.
Khan Jahan’s son, Riza Quli (No. 274) is mentioned
below among the Commanders of Three Hundred and Fifty. In the 47th
year he was made a Commander of Five Hundred with a contingent of 300 troopers.
Another son, Rahim Quli, was a Commander of Two Hundred and fifty, (No. 333).
For Khan Jahan’s brother vide No. 46.
1 Husain Quli Beg. Maasir.
2 The Ed. Bibl. Indica of Badaoni (II, 238) has
by mistake cousin. Badaoni says that the battle took place near Colgong
(K’halganw).
3 This nickname of Satganw is evidently old. Even the
word bulghak (rebellion), which may be found on almost every page of the
Tarikh i Firuz Shahi, is scarcely ever met with in Historical works from
the 10th century. It is now quite obsolete.
4 For Bhati, vide below under No. 32.
The Ain-i Akbari by Abul Fazl ’Allami, translated from the original
Persian, by H. Blochmann, M.A. Vol. I. ― Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1873,
pp. 329―331.
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