A history of the Sikhs, from the origin of the nation to the battles of the Sutlej.

188

HISTORY OF THE SIKHS

CHAP. VII

1827-9. marched to Kandahar, but his projects were mistrusted or
Rouses the misunderstood; he received no encouragement from the
Usufzais to Barakzai brothers in possession, and he proceeded northward
a religious through the Ghilzai country, and in the beginning of 1827
he crossed the Kabul river to Panjtar in the Usufzai hills,
between Peshawar and the Indus.'
Saiyid Ah- The Panjtar family is of some consequence among the
mad Shah warlike Usufzais, and as the tribe had become apprehensive
fails
against of the designs of Yar Muhammad Khan, whose dependence
at ASrai on Ranjit Singh secured him from danger on the side of
1827. Kabul, the Saiyid and his' Ghazis ' were hailed as deliverers,
and the authority or supremacy of Ahmad was generally
admitted. He led his ill-equipped host to attack a detachment of Sikhs, which had been moved forward to Akora,
a few miles above Attock, under the command of Buidh
Singh Sindhanwala, of the same family as the Maharaja.
The Sikh commander entrenched his position, and repulsed
the tumultuous assault of the mountaineers with considerable loss, but as he could not follow up his success, the
fame and the strength of the Saiyid continued to increase,
and Yar Muhammad deemed it prudent to enter into an
agreement obliging him to respect the territories of the
Usufzais. The curbed governor of Peshawar is accused of
a base. attempt to remove Ahmad by poison, and, in the
year 1829, the fact or the report was made use of by the
Saiyid as a reason for appealing to arms. Yar Muhammad
1 Cf. Murray, Ranjzt Singh, pp. 145, 146. About Saiyid Ahmad,
the author has learnt much from the ' Ghazi's' brother-in-law, and
from a respectable Mauli, who likewise followed his fortunes, and
both of whom are now in honourable employ in the chiefship of Tonk.
He has likewise learnt many particulars from Munshi Shahamat All,
and especially from Pir Ibrahim Khan, a straightforward and intelligent Pathan of Kasur, in the British service, who thinks Ahmad
right, notwithstanding the holy neighbourhood of Pakpattan,
Multan, and Utch! Indeed, most educated Muhammadans admit
the reasonableness of his doctrines, and the able Regent-Begum of
Bhopal is not indisposed to emulate the strictness of the Chief of
Tonk, as an abhorrer of vain ceremonies. Among humbler people
the Saiyid likewise obtained many admirers, and it is said that his
exhortations generally were so efficacious, that even the tailors of
Delhi were moved to scrupulously return remnants of cloth to their
employers!