Page:History of India Vol 5.djvu/383

 AN INVASION OF TIBET 327 he added the name of himself and of his father. Now it received the addition of the name of his most gra- cious Majesty Shah Jahan. At the command of the emperor, a poem by Haji Mohammad Jan, the final verse of which contained the date, was placed upon the inside of the canopy in letters of green enamel. On his return to Agra, the emperor held a court and sat for the first time upon his throne/ The description given by Abd-al-Hamid of Shah Jahan 's invasion of Tibet in 1636 A. D. has a special interest because of the comparatively recent expedition by British forces to Lhasa. ' The late Emperor Jahangir had long entertained the design of conquering Tibet and in the course of his reign Hashim Khan, the son of Kasim Khan Mir- bahr, the governor of Kashmir, had invaded the country with a large force of horse and foot and local land- holders at the bidding of the emperor. Although he entered the country and did his best, he met with no success and was obliged to retreat with great loss and difficulty. In the tenth year of Shah Jahan 's reign, 1046 A. H. (1636 A. D.), the imperial order was given that Zafar Khan, then governor of Kashmir, should assemble the forces under his command and effect the conquest of Tibet. He accordingly collected nearly eight thousand horse and foot, composed of imperial forces, his own men, and retainers of the lords of the marches in his prov- ince. He marched by the difficult route of Karcha-barh and in the course of one month reached the district of