186 
LIVES OF THE MOGHUL EMPERORS. 
employments which were conferred on them at court 
attracted others. Thus the Mohammedan rule soon 
became the most influential, and the strangers occu- 
pied all the governments and all the great offices of 
state. Finally, the rajahs, who in the beginning were 
from necessity treated with consideration, fell by de- 
grees into contempt, and the Mohammedan became 
the prevailing religion.” 
In the distribution of the vanquished provinces, 
the emperor had bestowed upon his son Humaioon, 
the district of Sambhul, a division of Rohilcund, 
between the Ganges and the Goggra. The town 
and fortress of Sambhul being in a state of siege 
by an Afghan noble who had issued from the hills 
with a large body of fugitives and invested the place, 
Baber despatched a body of troops to its release. 
These obliged the enemy to raise the siege and again 
take refuge in the mountains. The fort was surren- 
dered to the emperor, who about the same time took 
Biana, to the south-west of Agra, and then reckon- 
ed one of the most important places in India from 
its vicinity to that capital, which it defended on 
the side of the Rajpoot states. Several places of 
importance now successively fell into the conque- 
ror’s hands, and he was soon firmly established in 
his new dominions by a total defeat of the Afghans, 
who almost alone disputed his pretensions to the go- 
vernment of the country which he had so bravely 
subdued. The insurgents mustered an army of fifty 
thousand horse, against whom the Prince Humaioon 
was sent with the choicest of the Moghul troops. 
Upon his approach, the enemy retreated to Juanpoor. 
