a feeling of universal commiseration, which has survived to the present time-among her old people. Capture of Ahmednugger by the Moghuls. The infant king sent to the Emperor Akbur. Moortuza Nizam Shah succeeds. Mullik ministration. After the queen's death, the Moghuls pressed the siege more rapidly. Their mines were sprung, and in the storm which followed, the garrison was put to the sword, for the Moghuls gave no quarter. The infant king, with all the members of the royal family, were sent to the Emperor Akbur, and were confined in the fort of Gwalior. But there was still some vitality in the State. Moortuza, the son of Shah Ally, who was the son of Boorhan Nizam Shah I., proclaimed himself king, under the title of Moortuza Nizam Shah II., and was supported by the famous Mullik Umbur, who, as Umbur's ad- minister-in-chief, and viceroy of the province of Dowlatabad, long preserved what remained of the old kingdom, and carried out in detail those surveys of village lands, registrations of property, and revised assessments which have rendered him ever since famous throughout a large porHis character. tion of the Deccan. Mullik Umbur was one of those Abyssinians who, little better than savages in their own country, displayed in the Deccan abilities as statesmen and generals which were hardly exceeded by the more civilised Persians. The king continued to reside at Owsa for some time, but was afterwards removed to Purainda, which became for a brief period the capital of the kingdom; but Mullik Umbur, in 1607, having overcome his rival, Meean Rajoo, who had held nearly half the Nizam Shahy dominions, removed the king to Joonair. The power of the Moghuls was, however, progressing rapidly, and the details of the final extinction of the Nizam Shahy dynasty belong more particularly to the general history of the succeeding period. CHAPTER XIX. OF THE KOOTUB SHAHY DYNASTY OF GOLCONDAH (continued from Chapter XXI., Book III.), 1550 To 1611. THE principal incidents of Ibrahim Kootub Shah's reign have connection with the kingdoms of Beejapoor and Ahmednugger, into whose constant disputes he was frequently drawn; but these need not be repeated here. He formed one of the confederate allies for the reduction of Ramraj, and in the act displayed, it may be thought, a bad return for the refuge and hospitality he had experienced for many years at Beejanugger; but the events 6 the Rajah of of the intervening years had been productive of many disagreements, and a remonstrance addressed by Ramraj to the Remarkable king, on the occasion of his attack on Beejapoor in letter from concert with the King of Ahmednugger, deserves to be Beejanugger. quoted as a good specimen of the political correspondence of the period. Be it known to your Majesty,' writes Ramraj, 'that it is now many years since the two courts of Beejapoor and Ahmednugger have been in a constant state of warfare, and that the balance of power between them was so equal, that although every year each of these sovereigns had been in the habit of making a campaign on each other's frontiers, yet no advantage accrued to either. It now appears that your Majesty, whose ancestors never interfered in these disputes, has marched an army to turn the scale in favour of Hoosein Nizam Shah, without having any cause of enmity against Ibrahim Adil Shah of Beejapoor, who has sought our alliance. As a friendship has long subsisted between our court and your Majesty, we have thought fit to lay these arguments before you, to induce you to relinquish the offensive alliance which your Majesty has formed, and by returning peaceably to your capital, show a friendly disposition to both parties, who will afterwards conclude a peace, and put an end to this long-protracted war.' This dignified letter had, for the moment, a good effect; but the subsequent conduct of Ramraj in the campaign against Ahmednugger, with other transactions and frontier disputes, seemed to have obliterated all good-feeling between them. The Golcondah historian League records, that the suggestion to the Kings of the Deccan against to undertake a crusade against Ramraj proceeded from Ibrahim Kootub Shah; but there is greater probability, perhaps, in Ferishta's account of the opening embassy to Golcondah from Beejapoor, by which the measure was first mooted. There is no doubt that Ibrahim cordially engaged in the war, and that by his ambassador, Moostufa Khan, the details of the confederacy were finally arranged; and the results of the great battle fought on January 25, 1565, have been elsewhere related. By this event, the king recovered all the territory which he had lost during his latter disputes with Ramraj, and was left at liberty to pursue his conquests to the south. Beejanugger. murdered. In the year 1567, Ruffat Khan, an able commander, undertook a campaign against the Hindoo Prince of Rajahmundry, King Henry which was entirely successful, and the whole of his Darnley territory was annexed to the kingdom; and before the James VI. close of the king's reign, many of the Hindoo rajahs king of whose territories lay immediately south of the Krishna river were in succession overcome, though not without prolonged Scotland. resistance, and in many instances very obstinate combats. Ibrahim Kootub Shah dies, 1580. His acts and character. On June 2, 1580, the king died, in the thirty-first year of his reign and fifty-first of his age. During his life he had been constantly in the field, and had behaved with much personal bravery on many occasions. His civil government was also good; and, under his tolerance, Hindoos were freely employed in State affairs, attaining, in some instances, the very highest rank. Many of his great public works survive him: the fortifications of Golcondah; the almshouses, and the embankments of the great lake-reservoirs of Hoosein Ságor and Ibrahimputtun. He encouraged trade, and Golcondah became a mart for the sale of the produce and manufactures both of Europe and all parts of Asia. The king was succeeded by Mahomed Koolly, his third son, the two elder having died pre Mahomed Kootub Shah Philip II. takes Portugal. viously. Henry III. of France murdered. For some years after the king's accession, a constant war was maintained with the Rajah of Penkóndah, the representative of the Beejanugger family, and with other Hindoo princes south of the Krishna; but it does not appear that the Mahomedans made much progress to the south or south-east, and their possession of the province of Condbeer, or Guntoor, was fiercely disputed. In 1589, as Golcondah had become overcrowded and unhealthy, and the Hyderabad supply of water was scanty, the king laid the foundafounded, 1589. tion of the present city of Hyderabad, on the right bank of the Moosy river, about eight miles from the fort. He named it Bhágnugger, after his beautiful Hindoo mistress Bhágmutty (a title still used by all Hindoo bankers); but after her death it was changed to Hyderabad, after his son Hyder. The city was well laid out with broad streets, then sheltered by rows of trees, and the supply of water from a dam in the river above Golcondah was, and continues to be, abundant. The king adorned the city with many fine buildings, which are still perfect; and among them the noble Jooma mosque, and the Char Minar, or four minarets, hospitals, almshouses, and palaces, attest the splendour of his reign. Mahomed Koolly, although, during the whole or greater part of his reign, there was a perpetual frontier war in progress with the Hindoos, never appears to have taken part in it; and continued to reside at his new capital, employing himself with Public edifices of Hyderabad. Munificence of the king in public works. much ability in the civil affairs of his government, and in public works. During his reign three millions sterling had been expended by the king, and the noble irrigation works throughout the provinces were kept in perfect repair. The king's example was followed by his nobility; Koolly and public and not only at Hyderabad, but throughout the dominions of the Kootub Shahy dynasty, the number of handsome mosques, palaces, and other edifices, is not surpassed, if indeed it is equalled, in any other of the Mahomedan kingdoms of the Deccan. In Mahomed December 1611, the king was suddenly taken ill, and Kootub Shah died on the 17th of that month, after a reign of thirty- dies, 1611. four years, much regretted by his subjects. During his His private life 24,000l. sterling was annually distributed to the charities. poor, besides a munificent support and endowment of colleges, schools, hospitals, and almshouses throughout his dominions. He was succeeded by his son Abdoolla, under the title Abdoolla of Sooltan Abdoolla Kootub Shah; but the separate Kootub Shah history of the dynasty ceased with his father's reign, 1611. and subsequent events, till the subversion of the Kootub Baronets Shahy kingdom by Aurungzebe, are only to be traced in the account of Moghul progress in the Deccan. It is evident from the record of the local historian of Golcondah, that little substantial impression had been made on the Hindoos of the southern States. Their armies were numerous, and though often defeated, yet resisted bravely and defiantly any annexation of territory; and beyond a portion of the present Guntoor Sircar, the Kootub Shahy dynasty made no conquests south of the Krishna river. succeeds, created. CHAPTER XX. OF THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR JEHÁNGEER, 1605 TO 1627. Jehángeer, succeeds Dehly, 1605. Gunpowder UNDER the proud title of Jehángeer, or 'Conqueror of the World,' the Prince Selim was crowned at Agra soon after his The Prince father Akbur's death. His sullen temper, and habitual Selim, excess in drinking, afforded little prospect of a happy Akbur as reign; nevertheless, his first acts gave promise of emperor of amendment. Many of his reforms exceeded those of his father in practical utility, particularly in regard to plot. the abuses in levying customs duties, and in respect to The first the admission of complainants to his presence. He acts of the also affected a stricter observance of the forms of the reign. Mahomedan faith, and issued a prohibitory edict against the use of wine or spirits, opium, and other intoxicating drugs and compounds. The breach between the emperor and his Rebellion of eldest son Khoosroo had however become wider: his eldest and in March 1606, the young prince left Agra in defeated and open rebellion. He was pursued by his father into captured. emperor's Bon, who is The emperor's Henry IV. of France murdered, 1610. emperor the Punjab, by which time he had collected 10,000 men, was defeated, and again fled westward, in the hope of reaching Kabool; but the ferry-boat in which he was crossing the Ravee or Hydaspes, ran on a sand-bank, and the prince was taken in chains to his father. Now followed one of the most horrible scenes of cruelty ever perhaps witnessed in the world. No cruelty. less than 700 of the prince's followers were impaled on stakes in a line from the gate of Lahore, and while most were still living, and writhing and shrieking in agony, the emperor directed his son, placed on an elephant, to be carried down the line. The account, as written by himself, in his Memoirs, is too revolting to be quoted; and had it not been confirmed by his own journal, it is probable such an event would have been hardly credible. The prince remained in chains, but was not sent into a distant imprisonment: he accompanied his father to Kabool, where, in 1607, a conspiracy to assassinate the emperor and raise Khoosroo to the throne was discovered and defeated. With the exception of a campaign against the Rana of Oodypoor, no great event marks the period between 1607 and 1610. The had returned from Kabool to Agra, where he had been visited by Captain Hawkins, the commander of the English ship 'Hector;' and had promised him extensive privileges of trade, with the results already detailed; and by Hawkins's account of his life at court, it does not seem that the emperor's habits of drinking had been overcome, though they were in some measure regulated. In 1610, affairs in the Deccan took Events in an unfavourable turn. Khan Khanán, the general in the Deccan. command, had been defeated by Mullik Umbur, the great Ahmednugger minister and general. Ahmednugger had been recaptured, and the imperial forces had been obliged to retreat on Boorhanpoor, and for the present to abandon their most southern conquests. Mullik Umbur had taken advantage of the rebellion of the Prince Khoosroo to attack the imperial forces, and to consolidate his own power. As the Moghuls held Ahmednugger, he had founded a new capital near Dowlatabad; Umbur's in and while the King Moortuza III. resided at Owsa, position. near the southern frontier of the kingdom, governed the northern portion of the dominions; nominally in his behalf, but in reality in an almost independent position, during which period he carried out his great revenue reforms. He had also rallied around him many of the Mahratta chiefs, who had gradually risen into military consequence, and were becoming a new, but powerful, element in the affairs of the Deccan. For the present the emperor contented himself with transferring the command of the southern armies from Khan Khanán to Khan Mullik dependent |