Person · Khan-Khanan Sipahsalar, 1628

Mahabat Khan Khan-Khanan (Zamana Beg)

Held the office of Khan-Khanan Sipahsalar under shah-jahan-i, per vol. II, p. 20.

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Governor of the Deccan

After his long service under Jahangir and the war between father and son that Mahabat Khan had tried to broker from both sides, Shah Jahan received him back into favour once on the throne. The register records the terms plainly: Shah Jahan "assured him of his protection, and after his accession gave him the title of Khan-Khanan Sipahsalar, and the rank of 7,000 with 7,000 horses. He also gave him a present of 4 lacs of rupees, and appointed him governor of Ajmer. In the same year Mahabat Khan was appointed governor of the Deccan" (vol. II, p. 20). The Deccan command, which he had held on and off since Jahangir's reign, became his last and largest charge.

Death at Burhanpur

The page records his final illness in detail: an old sore that had troubled him for years, worsened by a failed campaign against Parenda, and by then he told his household he expected not to survive it. He drew up an inventory of his property and sent it to the emperor rather than let it be confiscated after his death. "He rolled up the carpet of his life in 1044 A.H. (1634 A.D.). The chronograms of his death are: Zamana aram girift (Zamana is at rest) and Sipahsalar rafta (The Commander-in-Chief is gone)" (vol. II, p. 27). His Rajput retainers carried his body from Burhanpur to Delhi as he had asked, and Shah Jahan returned his property to his sons, keeping back only the elephants.

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