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Rh There were even notable Muhammadans, such as Nawáb Sarfaráz Khán, Khoda Yár Khán, Fakír Aziz-ud-dín, Sheikh Emam-ud-dín, Khálifa Syad Muhammad Khán, and Syad Muhammad Hussein. With such a widely ranging and diversified list of courtiers, governors, and commanders, besides Sikh Sardárs, and with the conflicting interests involved, in the absence of any strongly recognized succession to the throne the control of the State was not unlikely to fall to pieces once the mighty hand of the great ruler was removed.

Up to the close of the Afghán war Sir George Clerk and Henry Lawrence alone knew more or less thoroughly the character and bent of these several men, and Lawrence alone possessed the necessary experience of their fighting qualities, as well as of their tendency to insubordination. After the great Mahárájá's death they were entirely out of hand, and under real obedience to no one, and few knew this better than Ghuláb Singh, their nominal commander. The Court and its supporters had no influence with them, either collectively or individually, and the only person who, in addition to those already mentioned, rose into prominence after Ranjít Singh's death was the Raní Jindan, one of his wives, a woman of the most dissolute character, who had shortly before given birth to a son, Dhulíp Singh. This child was, later on, publicly recognized as legitimate, and in the line of succession to the throne.

On Ranjít Singh's death, in 1839, anarchy, to a