him Kootb Shah of Golconda, and with this aid he attacked Chungiz Khan, the peshwa of Ahmudnuggur. But Toofal Khan was completely defeated; and being closely pursued and much harassed, was eventually besieged in the fort of Narnala, while his son took refuge in Gavulgur. The former of these places being strongly situated on the top of a hill, and not to be taken by ordinary means, Moortuza Nizam Shah merely invested it for a time, and at length resolved to return to Ahmudnuggur. Chungiz Khan, however, succeeded in gaining over some of the garrison, part of which escaped to him from the fort. These deserters being well rewarded, and provisions becoming scarce within, others daily followed their example, till at length only twelve artillery-men remained to work the guns. Chungiz Khan, who obtained the best information from the deserters, contrived, with great labour, to drag a gun up the hill, sufficiently near to batter one of the bastions; and one night twenty-eight men and a trumpeter, headed by an officer, approached the breach, and got over the wall, when the trumpeter was ordered to blow his trumpet. Toofal Khan, supposing that a large party had gained the works, and himself being left with a very few attendants, fled into the contiguous hills, without making any attempt to defend the place. The next day, Moortuza Nizam Shah seized all that was worth taking, and permitted the fort and town to be sacked. Syud Hoossein Astrabady, who was sent in pursuit, overtook Toofal Khan on the third after which, the fort of Gavul was taken by capitulation, and Shumsheer-ool-Moolk, the son of Toofal Khan, was also made prisoner. Moortuza Nizam Shah, instead of placing the captive monarch on the throne of Berar, sent him with the usurper Toofal Khan, and his son Shumsheer-ool-Moolk, to be confined in one of the Nizam Shahy forts, where, it is said, they were all three subsequently strangled by the King's order. Others assert, that their whole families, amounting to forty persons, died in one night, in consequence of the cruelty of their keepers; who, wanting to extort part of the money allowed for their subsistence, and not being gratified by compliance, shut them up in a small dungeon on a hot night, where they perished before daylight. Thus the family of Imad Shah and that of the usurper Toofal Khan became extinct. CHAPTER III. SECTION VI. THE HISTORY OF THE KINGS OF BIDUR, ENTITLED KASIM BEREED. SEVEN persons of this family have reigned until the present period, since their first establishment in the capital of Ahmudabad Bidur. Kasim Bereed Toork was brought by Khwaja Shahab-ood-Deen Ally Yezdy to Bidur, and sold as a Georgian slave to Sooltan Mahomed Shah Lushkurry Bahmuny, by whom he was admitted among the Georgian attendants of that monarch. In his reign he distinguished himself by his bravery against the rebel Marrattas residing between Peitun and Chakun, whom he was deputed to reduce. One action in particular took place, in which Kasim Bereed was victorious, and having slain Sabajee Marratta, the King gave the de |