Page:Ranjit Singh (Griffin).djvu/128

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RANJÍT SINGH

breath he protested against the march of the Sikh army to the Sutlej; performing, though in vain, his last service to both the English and the Lahore States. Of all his family, many of whom I have known, his nephew Shamshuddin most resembled him. He is now dead, but for many years I enjoyed his intimate friendship, and I have never in India met a man of more refined manners, or a greater flow of eloquence of the florid Persian order. The younger brothers of Azizuddin, Imamuddin and Nuruddin, were both important members of the Mahárájá's Court, although their position was not so conspicuous as that of their elder brother. Nuruddin especially enjoyed a very general respect in the country, and, after the war of 1846, when Rájá Lál Singh was deposed for treason, Nuruddin was appointed one of the Council of Regency to carry on the administration until the majority of the infant Mahárájá Dhulíp Singh. The elder brother was ordinarily known at court by the title of the Fakír Sáhib; not that the style of Fakír which the family were proud enough to retain signified, as the word ordinarily implies, any vow of poverty, for the brothers were all wealthy. Nuruddin was known at court as the Khalifa Sáhib, and Imamuddin was, during the greater portion of Ranjít Singh's reign, and until the time of Mahárájá Sher Singh, governor of the important fortress of Govindgarh, which commanded the city of Amritsar.

Two prominent Muhammadans at court were the Nawáb Sarafráz Khán of Múltán and his younger