1879.]  W. Irvine—The Bangash Nawdbs of Farrukhabad. 69 
request. The executioners advanced towards the prisoners, and the Nawabs 
competed with each other as to who should first offer up his life. When 
all five had been slaughtered, the bodies were buried within the fort, and it 
was believed that the vows were granted of any one who offered a prayer 
at their tomb.* 
Execution of the Five Chelas. 
The Wazir’s order to put the five chelas to death reached Jalal-ud-din 
Haidar, the Wazir’s son (afterwards known as Shuja’-ud-daula) ; and on 
the 20th Ramzan (12th August, 1750), he directed their jailor, Zain-ul- 
’Abidain, to bring them forth. He went to their prison with a palki and 
ealled out—“ O Shamsher Khan! to-night the Wazir has ordered your 
“ quarters to be changed, and I have brought a palki to carry you.” The 
Khan replied that he knew the place to which he would be taken, and re- 
quested that the other four might go first, leaving him the time for wash- 
ing the corpse and forthe funeral prayers. Zain-ul ’Abidain had a great 
affection for him, but was unable to show it. As requested he took away 
the other four chelas in the pdé/ki. When they reached the place of execu- 
tion, an order to despatch them having been given, the executioner forth- 
with separated their heads from their bodies. 
Meanwhile Shamsher Khan bathed, put on new clothes, rubbed them 
with scent, and having said the burial prayers for his own death, commen- 
ced a recitation of the Kuran. Then Zain-ul-’Abidain returned with the 
palki and said ‘‘O Shamsher Khan! arise and enter the palki.” Placing 
his Kuran in its cover, he presented it to Zain-ul-’Abidain, and gave him 
fifty gold coins to be presented for the table of Murtazza Ali through the 
hands of some Sayyad. He put aside his shoes as a gift to any one going 
barefooted. He made over his signet ring to his attendant, telling him to 
deliver it to Hasan Ali Khan, his son; and his own rosary, with a firdn 
to hang round a child’s neck, were for Sher’Ali Khan. Then barefooted he 
set out towards the place of execution. Zain-ul ’Abidain urged him to get 
into the pd/ki, but he refused, saying, that though many of his slaves had 
risen to ride in pdlkis or on elephants, all earthly ambition for him was 
now over. 
As he reached the place of execution, seeing the dead bodies of his 
fellow chelas, he exclaimed, “ Brothers! I will soon follow you.” Jalal-ud- 
* The author of the ‘‘ Améd-us-Sa’dat” (p. 45) pretends to throw doubt on the 
above story, but Hisim-ud-din says he had it from Sayyad Piydri of Gwaliydr, who was 
living in Allahabad at the time. The more popular version is that the five Sahibzddas 
were built up alive into one of the walls of the fort. 
