engagements from both the vendors and distillers of intoxicating drinks to give up their profession and take to some other occupation. Similar orders were issued throughout his territory.
In 1786 he issued a remarkable proclamation, calling upon all true believers to 'extract the cotton of negligence from the ears of their understanding,' and, quitting the territories of apostates[1] and unbelievers, to take refuge in his dominions, where, by the Divine blessing, they would be better provided for than before, and their lives, honour, and property remain under the protection of God. He was resolved that the worthless and stiff-necked infidels, who had turned aside their heads from obedience to the true faith, and openly raised the standard of unbelief, should be chastised by the hands of the faithful, and made either to acknowledge the true religion or to pay tribute. As, owing to the imbecility of the princes of Hind, that insolent race (presumably the English) had conceived the futile opinion that true believers had become weak, mean, and contemptible, and had overrun and laid waste the territories of Musalmáns, extending the hand of violence and injustice on the property and honour of the faithful, he had resolved to prosecute a holy war against them. This virulent tirade, although its dissemina-
- ↑ He professed to regard the Nizám as an apostate, because he had at various times sided with the English and the Maráthás, and did not hesitate to apply abusive epithets to him, such as 'barber' and 'son of a worthless mother.'
