The Seven Cities of Delhi
name saw invaders devastate his dominions. The empire now gradually became dismembered. The Governor of the Deccan, Nizam-ul-Mulk,
although calling himself a subject, was practically independent at Hyderabad; while the Governor of Oudh set up what was really a separate kingdom at Lucknow. In the second year of his reign, 1720, Mahomed Shah set out to suppress the Nizam-ul-Mulk, accompanied by
Hasan Khan, one of the two Sayyads; the latter was assassinated near Agra, and Mahomed Shah, seizing the chance, returned towards Delhi,
in order to dispose of the other brother. Abdulla Khan marched against him, but was defeated and taken prisoner near Shergarh, about twenty miles north of Muttra. He was taken to Delhi,and died there of his wounds. Mahomed Shah was much pressed to revenge on him the murder of his cousin Farukhsiyar, but magnanimously refused to do so, as one brother had already expiated the crime.
In 1737 Mahomed Shah summoned the Nizam-ul-Mulk to Delhi, nominally to assist him in straightening out the tangled condition of the affairs of the empire, really to disgrace him. The nizam, however, was much too astute, and came with a bodyguard of twenty thousand men, so that Mahomed quailed at carrying out his project.232
