Talk:Battle of Rohtas (1779)

Unreliable source of Fayz Muhammad Katib Hazarah

Majority of the article is written based on Highly unreliable source by Fayz Muhammad Katib Hazarah, an Afghan court chronicle, who wrote the book written on the order of Emir (King/Emperor) of Afghanistan, Habibullah Khan, as project commissioned by Emir himself. "Afghan Court Chronicle", Faiz Mohammed Kateb Hazara, who was originally a copyist and was hired by Emir Habibullah Khan as a scribe and copyist. Reason behind commissioning the book was as Hasan Kakar has written that it was in part disgust at the “licentious life” of the amir that gave rise to a brief and abortive constitutional movement in Kabul. But Habibullah Khan was also a very canny politician and it was sound political instinct that led him to commission a history of the country, in part to create a story of the past that gave meaning to his father’s brutal attempts at forging a nation, and in part to validate his own tenuous position as absolute monarch. All we really know for certain about Habib Allah’s plan are his own words, as recorded by Fayz Muhammad, at the beginning of the Sirāj al-tawārīkh.

The Emir had full control over the finished product which he reviewed, edited, censored such systematically eliminated unpleasant truths. There is no form of historical methodology used in the book either. That is why, some of the incidents and even the numbers mentioned in the article are overly exaggerated and biased.

There are reliable sources on the same battle by academicians such as Hari Ram Gupta who is well known, an eminent Historian. So some portions of this article needs to be revamped based on the details provided by the academicians. MehmoodS (talk) 17:45, 8 February 2022 (UTC)

@MehmoodS I have added sources to your suggestion, and according to other historical accounts, there could have been up to 30,000 Sikhs present, hence why I wrote (possibly 30,000).

I also cleaned up the page a bit with more context, cleaned text, etc. If you wish to talk about any of the changes I made, go ahead, I would like to co-operate and discuss with you as much as possible to make sure the page is fine, and any other possible issues that may be on other pages. Noorullah21 (talk) 16:24, 14 February 2022 (UTC)

@Noorullah21 Hello Noorullah. Thank you for reaching out to me. Seems like you are ok with majority of the article as I kept it accurate based on reliable citations. As far as numbers are concerned, problem is that there is no exact number provided about the total number of Bhangi Misls at Rohtas battle. I was actually going to keep it unknown without presuming anything because to be honest, I don't think we should be presuming anything other than what citation already mentions. Also casuality wise, its pretty clear as Hari Ram Gupta, corrected the numbers. MehmoodS (talk) 16:45, 14 February 2022 (UTC)

Well, we can presume on what is recorded as in the battle it states around 2000 Sikhs escaped, with around 3,000 being killed, and 500 drowned while retreating. So we could possibly assume around 3,500 Sikhs died in battle, while there was possibly around 5,500 present. Noorullah21 (talk) 19:08, 14 February 2022 (UTC)

Sure, its fine. MehmoodS (talk) 21:39, 14 February 2022 (UTC)