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Machine transcription
xiii
Mughal forces. When all hope of success was lost, Khan Jahan, in accordance with his national custom, preferred death to an ignominious escape. He made a last stand with a handful of followers. In the midst of the struggle that ensued, Madhu Singh pierced him with a spear, and before Muzaffar Khan could come to his help, the brave soldier, with his surviving son, Aziz, was cut to pieces.
Even when the religious zeal of the Roshnanians wore out with years, the free spirit of the Afghans was not crushed. They rejected all overtures of peace or reconciliation both from the Mughals of India or the Saffavids of Persia. It was only in the cities and towns of Afghanistan that the foreigners could maintain their own by dint of superior organisation and better equipment.
When Aurangzeb came to power (1658), he too could not cope successfully with the Afghan question and thought it advisable to subsidize the tribes to guarantee the safety of roads that passed through their territories. The annual subsidies during his reign amounted to 600,000 rupees.
Roughly two thirds of characters agree with a modern printed edition of the same text. Much of the disagreement is editorial, not misreading. Treat the transcription as a finding aid and read the page image before quoting. How this was measured.