Page:The Tarikh-i-Rashidi - Mirza Muhammad Haidar, Dughlát - tr. Edward D. Ross (1895).djvu/49

 22 gaining a complete victory, while Mirza Haidar is said to have propitiated Salim Khan, by sending him the heads of the slain Niázi as a peace-offering. Which of these two accounts is the more correct, it is not easy to judge, but it seems that Mirza Haidar had, about this time, some transactions with the Afghan Shah of Hindustan, and may possibly have felt it necessary to propitiate him. At any rate, Firishta relates that he sent ambassadors with presents to Delhi in 1550, and that Salim, in return, deputed an envoy with horses, muslins, etc., to Srinagar. What brought about this exchange of courtesies, or what came of it, the historian does not state.

In the same way, the events of the ensuing year, 1551, relating to Mirza Haidar's death, are to some extent at variance. The only two historians (as far as I am aware) who record them in any detail are Abul Fazl and Firishta; but, as the former seems somewhat uncertain of his facts, the account of the latter may perhaps be more advantageously followed.

General Briggs' version of Firishta records, quite briefly, that Mirza Haidar had appointed one Kirán Bahádur, a commander of Moghul horse, to the government of the district of Bhirbal. The measure gave great offence to the inhabitants, who resisted Kirán's authority, and eventually proceeded to attack him. Mirza Haidar, in order to support his officer, put himself at the head of his Moghuls, and marched towards the scene of the disturbance. On the road, a night attack was made upon his camp, the Moghuls were defeated, and he himself was killed by an arrow in the course of the fight. The exact date of the event in 1551 is nowhere recorded, but it would appear to have taken place on one of the last days of Rámzán, or about the beginning of October. In Mr. Rodgers' version, the circumstances are related in much greater detail, but some of the particulars are not quite intelligible. The substance, however, is the same, and the account makes it appear that the locality where Mirza Haidar fell, must have been somewhere near Báramula on the Jhilam. It points also to his death haying been caused through being accidentally struck by an arrow, discharged by one of his own men, in the darkness.

During the ten years (counting from the battle of 2nd August, 1541) over which Mirza Haidar's regency extended, he is said,