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43 Burhanpur for help, which was sent, and Malik Ambar had the effrontery to send a message deprecating interference and alleging that the quarrel between him and Ibrahim Adil Shah was a private matter which the parties should be left to settle between themselves. The reinforce- ments, however, continued to advance, and Malik Ambar withdrew from Bijapur. When the Bijapuris and their allies approached his position and demanded that he should retreat, he put them off with excuses, at the same time expressing contrition and humbling himself, thereby inducing his enemies to believe that he would not fight. Having thus misled them, he fell upon them and utterly defeated them, slaying their commander and capturing several imperial officers. He then laid siege to Ahmadnagar, but abandoned the siege almost immediately and invested Bijapur and Sholapur, at the same time ravaging the Bij apur territories. Sholapur fell and Malik Ambar despatched Yaqut Khan, his fellow- countryman, with a large army to besiege Burhanpur, Yaqut Khan received assistance from Shahjahan, who was still in rebellion, and captured the city of Burhanpur, but was unable to reduce the citadel, which held out until news of the approach of Sultan Parviz and the Khan-i-Khanan arrived, when the Deccanis retired.

In 1626 Malik Ambar died in the eightieth year of his age. Jahan- gir, who never mentioned him when Uving without undignified abuse, did justice to his memory thus: — '* Ambar, whether as a commander or as a strategist, was without an equal in the military art. He kept the bad characters of that country (scil. the Deccan) in perfect order, and to the end of his days lived in honour. There is no record else- where in history of an Abyssinian slave attaining to such a position as was held by him."

In the same year Yaqut Khan, who had been deputed by Malik Ambar to besiege Burhanpur, and Fath Khan, Malik Ambar's son submitted in Jalna to the imperial governor, Sarbuland Rai. Their accession to the imperial cause was welcomed and they were well received. Yaqut soon rose to be a commander of 5,000, but after a time returned to his old allegiance. Fath Khan's submission was even shorter lived than that of Yaqut, for in the same year he was despatched by Murtaza Nizam Shah, who still retained in Daulatabad the semblance of sovereignty, on an expedition towards Berar, and the