Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/316

286 The boy's birth, initiation into Islam, and commencement of education, were all celebrated with the pomp and ceremony worthy of a prince of the blood, and he publicly rode through the capital in the style of the heir to the throne. His right to ascend the throne was apparently not questioned by the Bijapur nobility and officers of the army, though they soon afterwards began to quarrel about the division of power and influence. But such internal discords were the usual case at Bijapur and in every other country where the king is weak and his officers strong and selfish. Against Aurangzib's theory that Ali was a lowborn lad smuggled into the harem, stands the fact that at the time of his birth (August 1638), Muhammad Adil Shah was only 29 years old. Are we to believe that at this early age he and his queen had given up all hope of having any issue, and had contrived the fraud of proclaiming a stranger's child as their son? Some scandalous tale about the private life of Muhammad Adil Shah was told after his death by a Bijapur officer who had deserted to Aurangzib, (Adab 91a), but we do not know of its precise nature. Aurangzib himself utters a pious cry of disbelief in it! Who Ali's mother was is not explicitly stated in the Bijapur history. In the record of an event a few years after his accession, the chief Dowager Queen, Bari Sahiba, is spoken of as his walida, but the term may mean nothing mor than adoptive mother, because in the account of Ali's birth even this lady is never once described as his mother. Possibly he was the son of a slave-girl of the harem. But under Islamic law children of such birth are not debarred from inheritance. [The history of Ali Adil Shah II from his birth to accession is given in the Basatin-i-salatin, 345-347. Tavernier, i. 183, repeats the prevalent story that Ali was merely an adopted child. Also Bernier, 197.]

The Bijapur history asserts that the prime minister, Khan Muhammad, surnamed Khan-i-khanan, was corrupted by Aurangzib, and gives the following account of his treachery and its punishment:—

"Adil Shah had appointed Khan Muhammad, with a large army to guard the kingdom. He took post on the frontier. Spies brought him news that the Delhi army was crossing a pass only two or three days' march off. Khan Muhamamad by a forced march at night barred the road. Famine