afghanistanriver and formed their battle line on the isolated hill known as Pir Sabak,
where they were expected to bear the brunt of the Sikh assault. Muhammad
‘Azim Khan remained on the right bank, roughly in the area of Hakim
Abad, with his Durrani, Ghilzai and Kohistani levies and the ghulam
khana. This strategy appears to have been an attempt to protect his rear
from attack by the Sikh garrison at Khairabad, which had already defeated
an Afghan force at Jehangira. The decision to split his force, however, meant
the two divisions were cut off from each other by a wide, fast-flowing river.
When, during the course of the battle, ‘Azim Khan tried to send reinforce-
ments to aid the beleaguered Khyberis, the boats capsized and most of the
men were drowned or swept away.
Ranjit Singh took full advantage of this tactical error and sent the akalis
under the command of General Phula Singh to attack and contain the
ghazis, 46 while a smaller contingent under Colonel Jean-Baptiste Ventura,
a Jewish Italian mercenary who had served in Napoleon’s imperial army,
crossed the river to confront ‘Azim Khan. After a skirmish, Ventura began
to withdraw back across the river and Muhammad ‘Azim, thinking the
Sikhs were in retreat, ordered his cavalry to charge, only for them to be
greeted by a devastating barrage from the Sikh artillery on the left bank.
Muhammad ‘Azim’s force was ripped apart and he and his soldiers turned
and fled from the field of battle.
Meanwhile the lightly armed ghazis managed to beat back the akalis
and launched repeated suicidal assaults on the Sikh lines under heavy
artillery fire. After hours of fierce hand-to-hand combat, the Sikh infantry
began to waver, whereupon Ranjit Singh placed himself at the head of his
cavalry reserve and charged. The surviving ghazis turned and fled, only
to die under the lances and sabres of the pursuing Sikhs. As the sun set
some two hundred Yusufzais, all that remained of the 20,000 tribal levies,
gathered on the hill of Pir Sabak. Led by their pir, Muhammad Akbar, and
with a cry of Allah hu Akbar, God is Great, they charged the Sikh lines and
perished to the last man. The Sikhs followed up their victory by occupy-
ing Peshawar and plundering the countryside. Yar Muhammad Khan was
reinstated as governor, but a Sikh garrison occupied the arg.
The Battle of Nowshera is one of the great, forgotten battles of modern
Indian history, for it marked the end of Durrani sovereignty, though not
government, over the region between the Indus and the Khyber and
established the Sikhs as the most powerful military power in the region.
Ranjit Singh’s victory also had major repercussions as far as the future
northwest frontier of India and Afghanistan’s southeastern border, while
the deaths of thousands of Khattaks, Yusufzais and Afridis weakened