Jumal-ood-Deen Anjoo, a contemporary, told me*, that the governor of Purenda persisted in declaring he heard the trumpets of Boorhan Nizam Shah when he was forty miles distant, and this proved to be nothing but the buzzing of a gnat in his room. The third day after his flight, the empty fortress was occupied by the Nizam Shahy troops; and Boorhan Nizam Shah having restored it to Khwaja Jehan Deccany, retreated to Ahmudnuggur. † A. H. 957. On the following year, Boorhan Nizam Shah marched his army through great part of the Beejapoor territory without opposition, and had a conference with Ramraj in the vicinity of the fort of Rachore, when it was resolved that they should both aggrandise themselves by attacking the Beejapoor territories; that Ramraj should take the forts of Rachore and Moodkul, with their dependencies on the south of the Krishna, and that Boorhan Nizam Shah should attack Sholapoor and Koolburga.. Sholapoor was accordingly besieged, and after a blockade of three months was carried by assault. Boorhan Nizam Shah was about proceeding to Koolburga, when hearing that Ramraj had already reduced Rachore and Moodkul, and had returned to Beejanuggur, he also thought it advisable to retreat to Ahmudnuggur. A. H. 961. In the year 961, Boorhan Nizam Shah A.D. 1553. again formed an alliance with Ramraj, Ferishta was a contemporary, and thus verifies the facts of his own times. + The above sentence contains also a repetition of the events and marched towards Beejapoor, while Ibrahim Adil Shah, unable to cope with him, retired to Punala. * Beejapoor was besieged by the allies, when Boorhan Nizam Shah was suddenly seized with a violent disorder in his bowels, which obliged him to return to his capital, and he soon after expired. His body was embalmed, and sent to Kurbela, where he was entombed near the burial-place of Hussun, the son of Ally, and the grandson of the Prophet. Boorhan Nizam Shah died at the age of fiftyfour, after a reign of forty-seven years. He left two sons, Hoossein and Abdool Kadur, by his favourite wife Ameena, and two others, Shah Ally and Meeran Mahomed Bakur, by Beeby Muryum, the daughter of Yoosoof Adil Shah. He had also another son, Shah Heidur, married to a daughter of Khwaja Jehan Deccany. * The hill-fort of Kolapoor. HOOSSEIN NIZAM SHAH I. Ascends the throne at the age of thirteen, and is supported by the foreign troops - his brother Abdool Kadur disputes his title, and is supported by the Deccanies. - The King's half-brothers fly to their uncle the King of Beejapoor. - The King declares war against Beejapoor- besieges Sholapoor.- Death of the King of Beejapoor.- The war prosecuted. - Hoossein Nizam Shah retreats to Peitun is besieged in Ahmudnuggur.Peace concluded. The fort of Ahmudnuggur strengthened. -War renewed.- The King of Golconda joins in an alliance with the King of Ahmudnuggur against the King of Beejapoor and the Raja of Beejanuggur.- The King of Ahmudnuggur loses six hundred pieces of cannon in one action. — Ahmudnuggur besieged a second time. The enemy lose twenty-five thousand men by the swelling of the Sena river during the night.-Peace concluded. — Confederacy of the Moslem kings of the Deccan against Ramraj Raja of Beejanuggur, who is defeated and slain. - Death of Hoossein Nizam Shah I. HOOSSEIN NIZAM SHAH Succeeded his father in the thirteenth year of his age. His full-brother, the Prince Abdool Kadur, with the other princes, fled from the capital on the same day, and from that moment two parties were formed in the government: the foreigners and Abyssinians embracing the cause of Hoossein Nizam Shah, and the Deccanies (both Mahomedans and Hindoos) that of Abdool Kadur, who was, however, at length deserted by his party, and flying to Berar, sought an asylum with Imad-ool-Moolk. Shah Ally and Meeran Mahomed Bakur fled to their uncle, Ibrahim Adil Shah, at Beejapoor, and Khwaja Jehan Deccany, at Purenda, laid claim to the throne. Hoossein Nizam Shah hesitated not to march against the pretender, Shah Heidur, who with Khwaja Jehan was obliged to seek refuge at the court of Beejapoor, and Purenda fell to the Nizam Shahy forces. On the occurrence of this event, Ibrahim Adil Shah openly espoused the cause of Shah Heidur and Khwaja Jehan, and declaring war against Hoossein Nizam Shah, marched to the fort of Sholapoor, which had been taken during the last reign. In the mean time, Hoossein Nizam Shah having formed an alliance with Imad Shah of Berar, and receiving from that prince a reinforcement of seven thousand cavalry, moved to raise the siege of Sholapoor, an account of which expedition has been given in the history of Ibrahim Adil Shah. Seif Ein-ool-Moolk, who had left the Nizam Shahy service and gone over to Beejapoor, being driven from that kingdom, asked leave to return to Ahmudnuggur, which was granted him by Hoossein Nizam Shah, by whom he was subsequently treacherously put to death. His family, however, was saved by the gallantry of his chief dependent, Kubool Khan, who conducted it in safety to Golconda, where the latter was received into the service of Ibrahim Kootb Shah. Seif Ein-ool-Moolk was celebrated throughout the Deccan for his courage, and for the efficiency of his party of horsemen, with whom he lived on the terms of a brother. At this time, Ibrahim Adil Shah dying at Beejapoor, Hoossein Nizam Shah, in concert with Ibrahim Kootb Shah of Golconda, marched to invade that country; but the latter not entering with zeal into the cause, and returning to his capital, Hoossein Nizam Shah was also compelled to fall back on Ahmudnuggur. Ally Adil Shah, the successor of Ibrahim, now formed an alliance with Ramraj and Ibrahim Kootb Shah; while Hoossein Nizam Shah made fresh overtures to Imad-ool-Moolk of Berar, who having met him in the year 967, at the town of Sonput, on the banks of the Godavery, received his daughter in marriage on that occasion. In the same year, also, Hoossein Nizam Shah detached Mahomed Wostad Nyshapoory and Chuleby Roomy Khan against the fort of Reevadunda, built by the Portuguese on the sea-coast, who having made peace, promised not to molest the subjects of the Ahmudnuggur state. He also carried his arms into Kandeish, and subdued the fortress of Galna. A. H. 967. In the mean time, the allied sovereigns of Beejapoor, Golconda, and Beejanuggur, invaded the Nizam Shahy territories, and the forts of Kulliany and Sholapoor were demanded as the terms of peace; which being refused, the confederates reached Ahmudnuggur with an army amounting to one hundred thousand horse and nine hundred thousand infantry. * This officer cast, at Ahmudnuggur, the famous brass gun now at Beejapoor, of which mention is afterwards made, vide note p. 243. The tomb of Roomy Khan at Ahmudnuggur has been lately converted into an English officer's quarter, and the mould in which the gun was cast lies neglected in the |