1757. Before the close of 1771, Sháh Alam re-entered Delhi under a strong escort of Sindhia's horsemen, and let himself be installed on the throne of Akbar by the men whose fathers had so rudely shaken the empire of Aurangzeb.
For seven or eight years past the famous old city on the Jumna, with the surrounding districts, had been ably governed in the Emperor's name, first by the Rohillá chief, Najíb-ud-daulá, and after his death in 1770 by his son, Zábita Khán. They belonged to that race of Pathán mountaineers which has given the name of Rohilkhand to the old Hindu province of Kather, stretching from the Upper Ganges north-east to the Himálayas. By the middle of the eighteenth century, the rich well-watered plains of Rohilkhand were parcelled out among a group of kindred chieftains, who turned their arms against each other when they were not engaged in fighting the Maráthás or the Nawáb-Wazír of Oudh. In times of special danger they rallied round their Háfiz or Protector, Ráhmat Khán, the oldest and trustiest member of the clan.
One of these crises happened in 1772, when the Maráthás once more ravaged Rohilkhand. The Rohillá chiefs turned for help to Shujá-ud-daulá, the son of their old foe, Safdar Jang. The crafty Wazír of Oudh agreed to help them in driving out the Maráthás, if Ráhmat Khán would give him a bond for forty lakhs of rupees. The bond was given in accordance with a treaty signed in July, 1772, by both parties in the presence of Sir Robert Barker. In May
