Death
On the eve of 20 November 1551, Hindal and Humayun had set camp in the province of Nangarhar, Afghanistan, the brothers learned that Kamran Mirza was intending to attack the imperial camp that night with a body of Khalil and Pashtun soldiers. Despite various security measures, about the end of the first watch of the night, an attack was made accordingly. The Emperor was on the rising ground; Hindal in the camp below. The onset of the attack was furious and continued hot for some time, each offer defending his own portions of work, some part of which, however, the enemy succeeded in scaling, and entered the enclosure. Some men of note were slain; all was confusion and uncertainty, friend and foes being mixed together and covered by the darkness of the night, but soon the imperialists recovered their superiority.
The assailants took to flight, but Hindal had fallen in the fray. "When the affair was over" says Jouher, "and his Majesty (Humayun) inquired for his brother Hindal, no one had the courage to tell him." Humayun then called out aloud from the height; but, although surrounded by three hundred persons, none answered. The Emperor ordered Abdal Wahab to go and bring news of the prince. Wahab went in search of the prince, but was shot by one of the imperial army's own match-lock men, who mistook him for an Afghan. Mir Abdal Hai was next sent, and brought back the melancholy intelligence, which he communicated by two verses of a poet. The Emperor instantly retreated to his pavilion, where he was overwhelmed with grief, till his Amirs came and consoled him, saying that his brother was blessed, in having thus fallen a martyr in the service of the Emperor.
It appears that Hindal, on hearing the news of the intended night-attack, had carefully visited all his trenches, after which he retired to his tent for some rest, when he was roused by the uproar and alarm occasioned by the onset of the Pashtuns. They had attacked the works on every side on foot, and a body had succeeded in getting over the prince's trenches in the dark night. Hindal started up, and hastened to meet and repel the assailants, having only his bow and arrow in hand. His men had hurried away in confusion, to protect their horses from being plundered, therefore none of Hindal's immediate servants were with him. He soon met a Pashtun face to face, and so near that it was necessary to get close with him. By main strength he had gained the upper hand, when his enemy's brother, Tirenda, a Mehmend Pashtun, came to his assistance, and slew the prince without knowing him.
When the battle was over, the Pashtuns brought Hindal's ornamented quiver and arrows, unknowing to him it belonged, and presented them to his brother, Kamran, as the spoils of a man of rank. Kamran no sooner saw the quiver, than he recognized it as his brother's, and dashed his turban on the ground in an agony of grief. Hindal's body was left for some time unnoticed, where it fell. After the first confusion, when the troops began to collect, and were returning to assail the Pashtuns, Khwaja Ibrahim, one of Hindal's servants when passing the prince's tent, saw, in the darkness of the night, a man in black armour lying on the ground. He did not stop at first, but pushed on towards the Pashtuns, till he recollected that Hindal had that evening put on a black cuirass. Turning back, he examined the body, and found that it was the prince's. His right hand had been cut off, and some fingers on his left, apparently in his attempt to defend his head; and a cross blow, that had fallen on his mouth, had nearly separated the head from the one ear to the other.
With great presence of mind, Ibrahim carried the body to the prince's pavilion, where he laid it down and covered it with a cloak, ordering the porters to admit no one as the prince was fatigued with his exertions, and had received a trifling wound; and desired that no noise or bustle should be allowed, that could disturb him. When the enemy was finally repulsed, Ibrahim, mounted a rising ground, and in the prince's name returned thanks to the troops for their exertions which had secured the victory of the Mughals. His conduct was warmly applauded by the Emperor. Hindal's death bears testimony to the young prince's courage and pluck.
Hindal's remains were conveyed first to Jui-Shahi and after a time, to the Gardens of Babur in Kabul, where they were interred at the feet of his father, Emperor Babur. He was thirty-two years of age at the time of his death. Following the period of mourning, Humayun transferred Hindal's followers, estates, military command, and the province of Ghazni, one of his jagirs, to the nine-year-old Prince Akbar, appointing him as its viceroy. Around the same time, out of affection for the memory of his brother, Humayun arranged the betrothal of Hindal's daughter, Ruqaiya Sultan Begum, to Akbar. Contemporary and later sources clarify that the transfer of Hindal's followers, estates, military command, and Ghazni formed part of Akbar's elevation within the Mughal imperial system, rather than a marital inheritance arising from his betrothal to Ruqaiya.
