Page:Historic Landmarks of the Deccan.djvu/53

41 Early in 1616 there was disaffection in Malik Ambar's camp. Some of his principal officers, including the leaders of the Maratha irregulars, betook themselves to Shahnavaz Khan, who was then commanding ihe imperial troops stationed at Balapur in Berar, and offered their services to him. He welcomed them effusively and bestowed on each a horse, an elephant, a robe of honour, and a sum of money, and then, taking the deserters with him, marched against Malik Ambar. Shah- navaz Khan dispersed a small force which opposed him and advanced to within about a day's march of Khirki. Here Malik Ambar, whose troops had been reinforced by contingents from Bijapur and Golconda, made a stand, but was defeated, and on the following day the imperial troops entered Khirki, which they first laid waste and then renamed Fathabad, " the town of victory." Shahnavaz Khan found it impossible to hold a position so advanced as Khirki, and after a short stay in the town retreated to Rohankhed in Berar.

In 1617 Sultan Khurram, afterwards the emperor Shahjahan, recovered Ahmadnagar and many other forts which had been recaptured by the Deccanis from the imperial troops, but Daulatabad remained the capital of the tottering Nizam Shahi dynasty. Later in this year Malik Ambar set himself to deal with those who had deserted him and joined the imperial army. He succeeded in detaching Adam Khan, the Abyssinian, from his allegiance to the emperor and imprisoned him in Daulatabad until he found it convenient to put him to death ; but his troops sustained a defeat while they were attempting to capture Uda Ram, another of the renegades.

In 1620, during Jahangir's absence in Kashmir, Malik Ambar once more embarked on a war against the imperial troops, and besieged Khanjar Khan in Ahmadnagar. Darab Khan inflicted a defeat on Ambar's troops, but the imperial army was so beset by the Maratha horse, which cut off all supplies, that it retreated to Balapur, pursued by Malik Ambar. He was worsted in a skirmish in the neighbourhood of Balapur, but by this time the Deccanis had overrun so much of the imperial dominions that Shahjahan was once more appointed to the army of the Deccan. Although Malik Ambar had collected an army of 60,000 horse, the imperial army had advanced, before the arrival of Shahjahan, as far as Mehkar, which now became the prince's