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2 CHAPTER XIX.
3 MUHAMMAD FARRUKHSEER.
4 ARRUKHSEER was still on the battle-field when he ascended the throne at
5 daybreak on 1st January 1713 a.D., and gave public audience. Enter-
6 ing Delhi on the 9th of that month, he commenced his reign of terror.
7 Sayad Abdulla Khan received the dignity of wazir, with a rank of 7,000,
8 and thetitle “ Kutb-ul-Mulk Yari W4fdddr Zafarjang.” His younger brother,
9 Husein Ali Khan, was raised to the office of commander-in-chief, with a rank
10 of 7,000 and the title “ Amfr-ul-omerah Ihtamam-ul-mulk.” Mubammad Amin
11 Khan was created “Itimad-ud-doula,’ and Chin Kilich Khan was honoured
12 with the title of “ Nizim-ul-mulk Bahadur Fattehjang” and invested with the
13 viceroyalty of the Dekkan. Zulfikar Khan, having bound his hands together
14 with his turban, presented himself before the emperor with his old father,
15 Asad Khan, and implored pardon. His majesty, with every appearance
16 of kindness, commanded Zulfikar Khan’s hands to be released and presented
17 him with robes and jewels. He then ordered Asad Khan to return home,
18 and desired Zulfikar Khan to wait in an outer tent. Here the ex-minister
19 was surrounded with a number of nobles and their servants, who taunted
20 him for having been the cause of the death of Azim-ush-shan, the emperor’s
21 father, and Muhammad Karim. But he returned rough and sharp
22 answers, and thereupon a leathern thong was thrown round his neck and
23 pulled tight. He strove to disentangle the cord, but was assailed by a
24 number of men with daggers and instantly despatched. The same day,
25 Jahdéudar Shah was taken out of the small and dark room in the Zirpolie
26 in which he was confined, and strangled. The emperor then directed that
27 Jahandar Shah’s head should be stuck upon a spear and carried through the
28 most frequented parts of the city on an elephaut, with the body of the late
29 emperor thrown across the animal. The body of Zulfikar Khan was tied
30 to the tail of the elephant, with the head downward, while the venerable
31 old man, Asad: Khan, attended by all the ladies of his family, in veiled
32 carriages, followed the elephant on a palanquin. After being thus paraded
33 through the whole city, the bodies were thrown down at the gate of the
34 fort. The body of the late emperor was sent to the burial place of the
35 family within the precincts of Humdytn’s tomb. On account of his old
36 age Asad Khan’s life was spared, but he was confined for life in Khan
37 Jahdn’s palace, and all his assets and those of his son were sequestered.
38 Most of the princes of the blood and the nobles of the old court were
39 murdered in cold blood, and Az-ud-din, son of Jahéndar Shah, Wala Tabar,
40 son of Muhammad Azim Shah, and Hamdyiin Bakht, younger brother of
41 Farrukhseer, a boy ten or eleven years old, were deprived of their sight by
42 red-hot needles being-drawn across their eyes. The tongue of Rdja Soba-
43 Chand, Zulfikar Khan’s treasurer, who had exercised too much freedom in
44 his speech, was cut off. ,
45 The empire did not prosper under Farrukhseer, He was weak and
46 timid, destitute of morals and capacity, and lavished favours on low pcople.
47 The Wazir Abdulla Khan, on attaining power, gave himself up_to pleasure
48 Sri Satguru J agjit Singh Ji eLibrary
49 Farrukhseer ascends
50 the throne, 1713.
51 The rise of the Sayad
52 brothers, Abdullah
53 and Husein Ali.
54 The humiliation of
55 Zulfikar Khan,
56 His tragic nnd eruel
57 death,
58 Jahandar Shah
59 executed,
60 Barbarous acts of
61 the new emperor,
62 Murder of the
63 princes royal,
64 Barbarous punish-
65 ments,
66 NamdhariElibrary@ gmail.com