1 The Syad defeats
2 Sultan Muhanad and
3 occupies Peshawar,
4 1830,
5 The Maharaja
6 marches from Lihore
7 to take the field against
8 the Byad,
9 Temporary success.
10 The Maharéja’s return
11 to Lahore,
12 The Syad enters into
13 terms with Sultan
14 Muhammad Khan.
15 Rising at Peshawar
16 against the Syad's
17 authority.
18 Peshawar lost to him,
19 830,
20 His growing unpopu-
21 lavity among the
22 Afghans.
23 His edict regarding
24 compulsory marriage
25 of Afghan young
26 women,
27 Vis new doctrine
28 distasteful to the
29 mullahs,
30 442 ‘ HISTORY OF THE PANJAB.
31 by Syad Ahmad and his host of Ghdzis. The power of the Syad was now
32 at its height. Elated with success, and the sanctity of his declared mission;
33 the destruction of the infidel Sikhs, he assumed the title of Khalif, and
34 is believedto have struck coins in his name, bearitg the inscription :—
35 “ Ahmad the Just, Defender of the Faith, the glitter of whose sword scat-
36 tereth destruction among infidels.” .
37 The news of the fall of Peshdwar and the destruction of the Barakzai
38 troops by a fanatic chief was received with alarm at Ldhore, and the
39 Mahardj& was induced to take the field in person in order to chastise the
40 pretender. The Sikhs crossed the Attak, and appeared on the plains of
41 Peshdwar ; but the Syad, on their approach, again fled to the hills, and the
42 rebel forces, which had occupied Peshawar and the adjacent places, fled in
43 all directions, Ranjft Singh, finding nothing tangible on which his ven-
44 geance could be wreaked, recrossed the Attak, after reinstating Sultén
45 Muhammad Khan in his government of Peshawar, and leaving a detachment
46 of troops tosupport him. No sooner, however,-had the Sikh ruler turned his
47 back than the Indian adventurer again appeared on the scene, with the
48 insurgent forces, and, for the second time, carried Peshawar. Sultdn Muham-
49 mad Khan, unable to expel the Syad, found it convenient to enter into
50 terms with him. These were, the acknowledgment of the Syad’s supremacy,
51 the payment of Rs. 8,000 a month to him as nazrdéndé, a free passage for
52 mien and money proceeding to join the Ghazis, the administration of justice
53 in Peshawar by the moulvis of the new faith established by the reformer,
54 and implicit obedience to the doctrines propounded by him. Upon
55 these conditions the government of Peshawar was restored to Sultdn
56 Muhammad Khan, who adhered to the agreement for some time, and paid the
57 stipulated nazrdndé. But Syad Ahmad had no sooner retired to his hill
58 fastnesses than a popular tumult, broke out in Peshawar, and the kazi and
59 the two moulyis, who had been left to administer justice on reformed
60 principles, were slain by the populace. Peshdwar was thus lost to the Syad,
61 who, moreover, met with no better success in the hills. His Eusafzai hosts
62 had become tired of his yoke, and began to look upon his authoritv as a
63 burden. The peasants had-paid him a tithe of their goods willingly
64 enough, for such payment to a warrior in the name of God was in accordance
65 with. their religious notions; but the Syad gave them cause for extreme
66 provocation, by passing a decree that all young women who had attained
67 a marriageable age should be married to his Indian followers. The reformer’s
68 motives for this innovation were impugned, and the dissatisfaction against
69 him was loud, for not only did the announcement and its partial enforcement
70 interfere with the liberty which the wild mountaineers had hitherto
71 enjoyed, but they thought a forced matrimonial alliance of thelr unmarried
72 women with the needy Indians a disgrace to the tribes, who took a pride
73 in the traditions of the bravery of theirancestors. His public preachings,
74 declaring that no person professing Isl4m should bow before the shrines of
75 saints, or pay benedictions to tombs, or offer food or money for the benefit
76 of the souls of the dead, since such ceremonies could not profit them, his
77 disbelief in the miracles of the saints, and his other doctrines, which he had
78 imbibed from the Wahabi moulvis of Nejd, in Arabia, were particularly
79 distasteful to the mullahs, as they had a direct effect on their perquisites
80 aud emoluments as religious leaders. They unanimously declared the Syad
81 to be an impostor, and he was soon compelled to leave the Eusafzai hills,
82 with his immediate adherents, who had throughout followed his fortunes; but
83 he continued to exercise an influence over the insurrectionary chief of Mozuf-
84 xc retires tow Sif S atu} agiih Ginigh hit! iitatys in the neigiamdhadedbray@ dmailcomit Singh