Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/484

 476 MAN course. anxiety to the Government, whose demands they set at nought, and whose irksome restrictions they determined to submit to no longer, Taluqdars' forces defeated by Saadat Khan.--Over such men as these was Akbar Ali Khan, son of the governor Muhammad Khan Bangash, left to rule. A mere youth, without any capacity for administration, and addicted to pleasure, he left the affairs of his charge to take their own The result may be imagined. Disaffection, confusion, and oppression reigned rampant. At length in 1149 Hijri (A.D. 1736); Saádat Khan, Burhan-ul-mulk, viceroy of the adjoining province of Oudh, received the emperor's commands to proceed with a force and punish the insurgents. Saadat Khan encountered the Rajput forces under Rája Bhagwant Singh at Kora, gave them battle, and signally defeated them. He was unable, however, to follow up his success, as the complication of affairs in the Mahratta country demanded his presence in support of the imperial troops, "for Saádat Khan," says Elphinstone, " with a spirit very unlike his contemporaries, issued from his own province to defend that adjoining." Different governors of Subah Allahabad.Meantime Mubázir-ul-mulk had been appointed to the Allahabad command, and he appears to have been as inefficient and as unable to cope with the rebellion of the zamin- dars as his predecessor ; for the Rajputs were again in a state of open revolt, while Rúp Ráe, son of Rája Bhagwant Singh, had actually taken forcible possession of sarkár Karra, with its twelve parganas. While these events were passing in the province of Allahabad, the Mughal empire was receiving the severest blow it had yet sustained at the hands of the Per- sian conqueror, Nadir Shah, (A.D. 1751). After the departure of that prince, and the restoration of the throne to Muhammad Shah, Umdat-ul- Taulk, a favourite of the emperor, but who had unfortunately incurred the jealousy of the court, was deputed to the governorship of Allahabad. He remained in office from 1153 to 1156 Hijri (A.D. 1740 to 1743); and during this period he overcame the insurgent Rúp Ráe, and recovered the sarkár Karra. He also succeeded in effectually coercing the other rebellious taluqdars, and in restoring partial order throughout his jurisdic- tion. On his return to Delhi, he left Khan Alain Baqá-ulla Khan, his nephew, in charge of the province. The administration of this official ag governor lasted but one year; for on the death of his uncle in 1157 Hijri, the governmeat was bestowed on Salábat Ali Khan, commonly called Nána Bába, a relative of the emperor; but the newly appointed governor neither took up the reins of office himself, nor appointed a deputy. He adopted the somewhat novel course of farming out the province to Khan Alam. Narab Safdar Jang, Subahdar of Allahabad. Soon after this Safdar Jang, nephew of Saádat Khan, the late viceroy of Oudh, received on his appointment as wazír the governorship of the province of Ajmere, retain- ing at the same time his hereditary viceroyalty in Oudh: By a mutual arrangement he and Salábat Ali Khan exchanged provinces, and Safdar Jang became governor of Allahabad. He then divided the Subah of Allahabad into two portions. Over one portion, consistingof the sarkárs of. Mánikpur, Karta, Kora, Allahabad, and Kanauj, he appointed the ex-Mus-