1 Ie fixes his eye on
2 India,
3 Crosses the Indus.
4 Shahniwss Khan
5 for akes the cause of
6 the Abdali.
7 S4bir Shah, the
8 family nigh priest of
9 Ahmad Shah,
10 Qe is sent as a pleni-
11 potentinry to the Court
12 of Lahore.
13 His high reputation
14 asa faqir,
15 Tis prognostication.
16 The faqir's Insnlenee
17 tu the Luhore governo +
18 Sri Satguru J agjit Singh Ji éLi
19 216 ~- HISTORY OF THE PANJAB.
20 spent the winter in Kandahar,-in setting the affairs of the conquered
21 districts and arranging his plans for future expeditions, he left it, in the
22 spring of 1748, at the head of 12,000 Durrani fighting men. He reduced
23 the Khilzdis, and put to flight Nddir’s governor at Ghazni. His eyes were
24 fixed on India, as the source of wealth and the most productive field of
25 conquest and glory, and, having reduved Kabul and Peshawar, and expelled
26 the Governor Nasir Khan,* who had declared for the Great Moghal, he,
27 with incredible celerity, crossed the Indus, expelling from Atak and Chach
28 the imperial officers, whose feeble resistance was well chastised.
29 In the meantime, the usurping viceroy of Léhore had been taunted with
30 treason by his uncle, the grand-wazir at Delhi, who, appealing to his
31 nephew’s sense of honor, urged upon him the necessity of standing firm in his
32 allegiance to the hereditary sovereign of their family and country. The young
33 man’s pride was touched, and, generosity prevailing over policy, he resolved
34 upon opposing the arms of the invading Durrdnis. Uza Khan, an amir of the
35 Durrdui king’s, who had been deputed by his master to Lahore, to settle terms
36 with the Lahore governor, finding that the wind had ceased to blow in his
37 favour, returned in despair to Atak, without waiting for the king’s instructions.
38 Not discouraged by the unfavourable issue of his first negotiations with the
39 Lahore governor, Ahmad Shah now sent his family priest, Baba Sdbir
40 Shah, to renew them, hoping that his saintly position would enable him
41 to win over the governor to his side. Sdbir Shah, on coming to Lihore,
42 endeavoured to intimidate the governor into a surrender, but lost his life
43 in the arrogant attempt. The particulars were thus related to Khwéja
44 Abdul Karim by Muhammad Yar Khan, Ahmad Shah’s minister, who was
45 intimately acquainted with the darvesh.+
46 Béba Sdbir, a handsome youth, was the son of a farrier of Lahore.
47 From an early age he had an inclination to abandon worldly concerns, and
48 leaving his own country, while yet very young, he travelled to Kabul, Kanda-
49 har and Herat. A short time before the assassination of Nddir Shah, the
50 youthful darvesh was seen pitching a small tent, and they asked him, “ Faqir,
51 what do you mean by this?” He replied: “The empire of Nadir Shah has
52 ceased to exist; 1 am setting up the tent of Ahmad Shah.” As predicted
53 by him, Ahmad Shah became king, and this is said to have greatly increas-
54 ed the influence of Sdbir Shah with the Abddli king. It was on the ad-
55 vice of Sabir Shah that Ahmad Shah, on assuming sovereign authority,
56 adopted the title of Durri Duuran, or the “ Pearl of the Age,” whence
57 he and his Abddli descendants were called Durrdnis. When the fugir
58 came to Ldhore, the spies of Shahnawdz Khan informed him that the
59 magician of Ahmad Shah had come with the object of bewitching all the
60 guns. His person having been seized, he was brought into the presence
61 of Shahnawdz Khan, who, however, at the intercession of Adina Beg Khan,
62 and knowing that he had been sent as the agent of the Abdali king, re-
63 ceived him in open darbar, with the civility and respect to which his rank
64 entitled him. But the holy man, puffed up with the idea of his religious
65 greatness, and of his being the plenipotentiary of the Durrdni sovereign,
66 looked on all around him with scorn, and began to address Shahnawdz Khan
67 as a subordinate. He censured him for his conduct in first inviting the
68 * Jahin Khan, the commander-in chief of the Afghans was, at this_time, joined by Abdul
69 Samad Khan, Muhammadzai of Iskinagar, 16 os north of Peshawar. Nasir Khan, being unable
70 to encounter the Shah’s army, crossed the Atak and fled to Chach Hazard. Sardar Jahan Khan
71 Was sent to pursue him with a detachment of troops, and he expelled the chief from Hazara.
72 Nisiv fled to Lahore and his valuables and munitions of war fell into tlie hands of tha
73 Afehan commander.—dlemoirs of Abdul Karim Ulvi. :
74 tT Memoirs of K eet ul Karim.” ae :
75 rary NamdhariElibrary@ gmail.com