1894] 
W. Irvine —Guru Gob in cl Siygh and Bandah. 
127 
took refuge within the fort near Rahun, which they had prepared before 
the battle. There they were invested and could only reply by musketry- 
fire and the firing of rockets. They had a supply of the munitions of 
war and of food, which they had brought together from the houses in 
Rahun, the inhabitants having fled for their lives, leaving everything 
behind. Thus they were able to hold the position for several days, and 
at night parties issued forth to harass the outlying posts of the Muham¬ 
madans, destroying many a horse and man. Both sides suffered, but 
especially the Sikhs. After a time they evacuated their entrenchments 
during the night, and Shams Klian pursued for some miles, capturing one 
gun and several loaded camels and oxen. He then returned in triumph 
to Sultanpur. The next day, however, about one thousand men came 
back, ejected Shams Khan’s officer, and re-occupied Rahun; but beyond 
this no hold was then obtained by the Sikhs upon the Jalandhar Duab. 1 
Let us next trace the Sikh fortunes in another direction. As 
soon as the Sikh expedition eastwards had crossed the Jamuna, ‘All 
Hamid Khan, faujdar of that part of the country, took fright, and in 
spite of offers by the Af gh an and other leading Muhammadans to repair 
the walls and stand on the defensive, that very night marched away 
from Saharanpur, and took the road to Dihli. The Sikhs, learning 
that the imperial officer had abandoned the town, made all haste to the 
spot, soon overcame the resistance of the inhabitants, and plundered it 
as they had done Sirhind. The whole country, far and near, was in a 
panic. Those people, who were rich enough or lucky enough to obtain 
means of conveyance, carried off their goods and families. The rest, 
taking their wives and children by the hand, fled on foot. Women who 
had rarely been outside the courtyard of their own house, and had never 
gone one step outside of it on foot, were forced to walk distances of thirty 
and forty miles. Many women threw themselves into wells to avoid 
outrage. In this way, half of the sirhar of Saharanpur fell into the 
hands of the Sikhs. 8 
Next, the Sikhs wrote to Jalal Khan. 9 former faujdar, calling upon 
1 The report of Shams Khan (entitled Shamsu-d-dln Khan) was received by 
the Emperor on the 18th Sha‘ban, 1122 (11th Oct., 1710) (Kamwar Khan, entry of 
that date). He was a nephew of Husain Khan of Qasur (Fatuhat Nmnah-i-Samadi 
fol. 24 a.) 
2 Mirza Muhammad, and KhafI Khan, IT, 654. The latter calls the faujdar Ali 
Muhammad Khan. 
3 Jalal Kh an, son of Hazar Mir, Warakzai Afghan, MIranzai Khail, died about 
the 22nd Muharram, 1130, Farrnkhsiyar’s sixth year (Kamwar Khan, entry of that 
date). He is there described as Thandddr of Thana Bhim, the parganah capital, 
three miles south of Jalalabad. Dost Muhammad Khan, founder of the Bhopfd State, 
in Central India, was of the same tribe. (Rustam All, Tarikh-i-Hindi, fol. 279 a). 
J. i. 17 
