nadir shah and the afghans, 1732–47Almost at once, rumours began to spread that Timur Shah had been
poisoned by one of his wives. Law and order quickly broke down with
rival factions fighting each other both inside and outside of the Bala
Hisar. Shah Zaman’s main rival was his half-brother ‘Abbas Mirza, who
was supported by a number of senior officials and some members of
the royal household. From the enclosed quarters of the zanana, Shah
Zaman’s mother distributed vast sums of money to secure support for
her son and succeeded in winning over Payinda Khan, the fourth son
of Hajji Jamal Khan Barakzai. Payinda Khan, in turn, bought the loyalty
of the Qizilbash and the ghulam khana, at the same time lulling Shah
Zaman’s rivals into a sense of false security by pretending to act as an
honest broker between the rival factions. Once he had gained their con -
fidence, Payinda Khan summoned a meeting of the rival claimants, but
once they were all assembled the Qizilbash sealed the exits to the q a l ‘a
and the assembly was told no one would be permitted to leave until they
swore the oath of loyalty to Shah Zaman. After five days without food
and water, the princes and nobles capitulated, pledged their allegiance to
Shah Zaman and were allowed to leave. ‘Abbas Mirza and several of Shah
Zaman’s other half-brothers, however, were detained and incarcerated in
the palace of the Upper Bala Hisar, which Timur Shah had turned into
a state prison for members of his own clan. 14
The octagonal tomb of Timur Shah. It was never completed and by the mid-1990s
it was badly neglected and its vault was the haunt of heroin addicts. After 2002 the
mausoleum was restored along with part of the Mughal garden in which the tomb
was originally located.