sent (to Humayun) with this injunction, " As thanks be to God ! the rebels have fled, do you, as soon as this messenger arrives, appoint a few suitable begs to Junpur, and come quickly to us yourself, for Rana Sanga the Pagan is conveniently close ; let us think first of him ! "
After (Humayun's) army had gone to the East, we appointed, to make a plundering excursion into the Blana neighbourhood, TardI Beg (brother) of Qfjj Beg with his elder brother Sher-afgan, Muhammad Khalll the master-gelder (akhtarbegi) with his brethren and the gelders (akhtach'ldr),x Rustam Turkman with his brethren, and also, of the Hindustani people, Daud Sarwani. If they, by promise and persuasion, could make the Blana garrison look towards us, they were to do so ; if not, they were to weaken the enemy by raid and plunder.
In the fort of Tahangar2 was 'Alam Khan the elder brother of that same Nizam Khan of Blana. People of his had come again and again to set forth his obedience and well-wishing ; he now took it on himself to say, " If the Padshah appoint an army, it will be my part by promise and persuasion to bring in the quiver-weavers of Blana and to effect the capture of that fort." This being so, the following orders were given to the braves of TardI Beg's expedition, " As 'Alam Khan, a local man, has taken it on himself to serve and submit in this manner, act you with him and in the way he approves in this matter of Blana." Swordsmen though some Hindustanis may be, most of them are ignorant and unskilled in military move and stand (yiirilsh u tilrush), in soldierly counsel and procedure. When our expedition joined 'Alam Khan, he paid'no attention to what any-one else said, did not consider whether his action was good or bad, but went close up to Blana, taking our men with him. Our expedition numbered from 250 to 300 Turks with somewhat over 2000 Hindustanis and local people, while Nizam Khan of Blana's Afghans and sipahis 3 were an army of over 4000 horse and of foot-men themselves again, more than 10,000. Nizam Khan
1 Cf. f. 15* note to Qambar-i-'all. The title Akhta-begi is to be found translated by "Master of the Horse", but this would not suit both uses of aihta in the above sentence. Cf. Shaw's Vocabulary.
2 i.e. Tahangarh in Karauli, Rajputana.
3 Perhaps sipahi represents Hindustani foot-soldiers.
