'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from September 1850 to June 1852. Edited by the Secretary. Volume X.' [‎9] (142/458)

1 to govern |
under oni
ll!s son Ii mi|
lar ohy and coir
at Peslian
it six miles east
3 province,) !•
red into a w
be chief of tls
, Afghans, mostlj
to surprise tlifi
to Timur, A
lowever, forti 1
>f the Glioolam
jels with peal
rrived at Peslr
n army fo 1 ’ ^
to have ^
years, he ^
the latter?^
idus, when 11
0 f Persia) ° n
ch he rea * 1
ON THE PROVINCE OF PESHAWUR. 9
on the 3 J January 1796. In November of the same year, he returned
from Kabul, and assembled an army of 30,000 men, and proceeded to
Lahore, which he entered in the month of January 1797, He ad
vanced again on Lahore in 1798, and returned toPeshawur the next
year ; where, after a short stay, he proceeded to Herat, In the year
1800, Shah-i-Zeman, again came to Peshawur; but, hearing shortly after
of the fall of Kandahar into the hands of Futtih Khan, he departed for
Kabul to oppose the coming storm, leaving Shujah-ul-Mulk, his brother,
in charge of his family and treasure, with a strong force for their pro
tection.
During the disturbed reign of Zeman and his successor, most of the
wealthy inhabitants fled from Peshawur, to escape the tyranny and op
pression of the Affghans. Robbers assembled in the streets in bands
of fifty and a hundred at midday, and at night, with lamps in their
hands, boldly issued forth to plunder the wealthy and the defenceless.
The Shah’s Nazim was himself a mere robber, for whenever lie heard of
a man being possessed of wealth, he contrived, by false accusation or
some other rascally means, to get possession of his wealth and property.
During the stormy years that followed the flight of Shah Shujah, up
to the period when the province fell into the hands of the Seiks, these
robbers continued to infest tlie city, after whicli time the strong mea
sures adopted by the Seik Governor effectually put a stop to their
depredations.
We must now for a short time turn back to the year 1801, when
Shujah, on hearing of his brother’s defeat by Futtih Khan, assembled
a large force at Peshatvur, and advanced on Kabul, but sustained a
defeat. In 1802, Futtih Khan, on his way to Kashmir, levied a contri
bution on the city of 50,000 Rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. . In 1808 Peshawar fell into the
hands of Prince Kaisir, son of Shah Zeman, who, during the absence of
his uncle Shah Shujah in Sindh and Mooltan, had been proclaimed
King by the Mukhtar-ud-Dowlah Sheer Mahomed Khan Populzai,
and the celebrated Peer Meer Waez. The account of this affair not
having been fully noticed in most of the works on Affghanistan, I
■will relate it at length.
In the latter part of the year 1807, Shah Shujah marched from Ka
bul, via Kandahar, with an army en route to Sindh and Mooltan, for the
purpose of arranging the affairs of those provinces, leaving Prince
VOL, X. o