ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>FAT&#362H&#256T N&#256MAH-I-SAMAD&#298</TITLE> <style type="text/css"> .BODY { background-color: #EAF1F7; background-image: url('images/gtbh.jpg'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; background-position: center; color: #0066CC;} .C1{text-align: justify;color: #0066CC;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .BIB{text-align: center;color: #000099;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .CONT{text-align: right;color: #FF0000;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} </style><META http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></HEAD> <BODY class="BODY" oncontextmenu="return false" ondragstart="return false" onselectstart="return false"> <FONT ALIGN="JUSTIFY" FACE="Tahoma"> <p class="C1">&#65279<i>FAT&#362H&#256T N&#256MAH-I-SAMAD&#298</i>, an unpublished Persian manuscript preserved in the British Library, London, under No. Or. 1870, is an account of the victories of 'Abd us-Samad <u>Kh</u>&#257n. Naw&#257b Saif ud-Daulah 'Abd us-Samad <u>Kh</u>&#257n Bah&#257dur Diler Ja&#7749g was appointed governor of the Punjab by the Mu<u>gh</u>al Emperor Farru<u>kh</u>-S&#299yar on 22 February 1713, with the specific object of suppressing the Sikhs who had risen under Band&#257 Si&#7749gh commissioned by Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh himself, shortly before his death, to chastise the tyrannical rulers of Punjab and Sirhind. 'Abd us-Samad <u>Kh</u>&#257n immediately marched out and besieged Band&#257 Si&#7749gh in his stronghold of Lohga&#7771h Fort, in the &#346iv&#257lik foothills. The latter stood his ground for six months and then escaped into the hills in the beginning of October 1713. After destroying the Fort of Lohga&#7771h, the Naw&#257b turned his attention to the supression of the recalcitrant Kharal, Gondal, Bha&#7789&#7789&#299 and R&#257ñjh&#257 tribes of the <i>b&#257r</i> area [modern Faisal&#257b&#257d and Shei<u>kh</u>&#363pur&#257 districts] of Pakistan. He had hardly started his campaign, when Band&#257 Si&#7749gh reappeared in the plains and captured Pa&#7789h&#257nko&#7789 and Gurd&#257spur. As he was operating around Ba&#7789&#257l&#257, north of Amritsar, 'Abd us-Samad <u>Kh</u>&#257n, with a 25,000 strong force sent from Delhi and Sirhind to reinforce him, set out against him. 'Abd us-Samad's son, Zakar&#299y&#257 <u>Kh</u>&#257n, then <i>faujd&#257r</i> of Jamm&#363, advanced from the north. Their combined troops moved swiftly. Band&#257 Si&#7749gh, unable to retire to the Fort of Gurd&#257spur, which he had lately strengthened and provisioned, took up position in a <i>havel&#299,</i> or walled house, with a large compound at Gurd&#257s-Na&#7749gal, a village six kilometre west of Gurd&#257spur. The imperial army invested the house, blocking all possible routes of escape and cutting off all supplies of food and fodder. The siege continued for eight months, from April to early December 1715. Reduced to desperate straits, Band&#257 Si&#7749gh was captured on 7 December 1715. The book also describes 'Abd us-Samad <u>Kh</u>&#257n's campaigns against '&#298s&#257 <u>Kh</u>&#257n Mañjh, a minor chief to the south of the River Sutlej, and Husain <u>Kh</u>&#257n Keshg&#299 of Kas&#363r, and his part in the court intrigues at Delhi leading to the downfall of the king-making Sayyid brothers.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The author of <i>Fat&#363h&#257t N&#257m&#257h-i-Samad&#299</i>, <u>Gh</u>ul&#257m Muh&#299y ud-D&#299n, who had taken part in the siege of Gurd&#257s-Na&#7749gal, gives an eyewitness account of several such happenings covering the period 1713-22. The work, according to the chronogram given in the preface, is dated AH 1135/AD) 1722-23. What makes the manuscript especially relevant to Sikh history is the space devoted in it to the last phase of Band&#257 Si&#7749gh's struggle against the Mu<u>gh</u>als. Excluding the 14-page preface, the first 117 pages of the 175-page document deal with the Sikhs. The author is no admirer, not even sympathizer, of the Sikhs. He is clearly hostile as is evident from his pejorative phraseology and invective. Yet the overall picture of Sikhs' character and of their political and social ideas and practices that emerges from his narrative is far from discreditable.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <u>Gh</u>ul&#257m Moh&#299y ud-D&#299n has not divided his narrative into chapters, but has given separate headings to the events narrated. The introduction, consisting of 29 pages, from 14 to 42, furnishes a background to the rise of the Sikhs under Band&#257 Si&#7749gh Bah&#257dur, highlighting the circumstances leading to the estrangement between the Sikhs and the Mu<u>gh</u>als during the time of Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh. Further, some of the information provided by the author regarding the early victories of the Sikhs under Band&#257 Si&#7749gh over the Mu<u>gh</u>al officials is at once new and pertinent. "They expelled Waz&#299r <u>Kh</u>&#257n's garrisons from <i>th&#257n&#257s</i> everywhere," writes the author, "and brought the entire countryside right up to the cities and towns of Sirhind under their control." Elated with the victory attained, they erected <i>khamb&#257,</i> or wooden tower, on the other side of the plain of Th&#257nesar touching the north western boundary of the Delhi empire. "The implication of their claim [by setting up a <i>khamb&#257</i>]," he explains, "was that if the Emperor of Hindust&#257n with all his victorious armies and conquering hordes, chose to direct his attention to this part of the land, this tower should, like a cloud of dust, serve to remind him that he had to cry a halt to his march and that his jurisdiction ended there." The implication is clear that Band&#257 Si&#7749gh's was not merely a predatory campaign, as some historians have tried to depict it; he clearly aimed at establishing a sovereign Sikh State. Another point the author makes is that while upper class urban Hindu population was by and large loyal and faithful to the Mu<u>gh</u>al government, the low-caste Hindus, whom he terms as <i>khas-o-<u>kh</u>&#257sh&#257k-i-han&#363d-i-jahanam&#299 waj&#363d,</i> i.e. the dregs of the society of Hindus condemned to hell, volunteered to become Sikhs. Hindus even from distant Iran, Turan, K&#257bul, Qandah&#257r and Mult&#257n embraced the faith in large numbers. These people, after joining the ranks of the "N&#257nak prast&#257&#7749" or worshippers of N&#257nak, became so powerful that the author considers them a terrible calamity and exclaims : <i>&#8220T&#257qat-i-ins&#257n&#299-ba &#257fat-i-&#257sm&#257n&#299 kuj&#257 hampñj&#257 shawad</i>? (How could human power contend with calamity from the heavens?) In a poem inserted in the prose narrative, he praises the Sikhs for their mastery over the arts of archery and swordsmanship. At another point., he applauds their skill in manufacturing guns from hollowed trunks of trees. Moral values the Sikhs uphold are scarcely slurred by the contumelious epithets used for them by the author. To quote an instance, "They [Sikhs] are dirty, wretched, unclean and verily devils incarnate, a calamity on earth descending from the heavens, <i>but they never take a woman except for a mother."</i></p> </ol><p class="CONT">Gurbax Si&#7749gh<br></p><BR> </font> <img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""> </HTML></BODY>