During Akbar's reign : “Mirak Bahadur Jalair accompanied
Hussain Quli Beg in the hunt against Mirza Sharaf ad-Din at
Ajmer. After Sharaf heard of the Mughal plot, he stationed his comrade Tarkhan Diwana and fled to
Jalore. The Mughals managed to capture Ajmer in two to three days and made Diwana surrender. They then proceeded to Jalore.”
During Islam Khan's governorship Jalair was appointed by the Subahdar of Bengal,
Islam Khan I, to join the army led by Shaykh Ghiyathuddin Inayat Khan against
Khwaja Usman as well as various other
Baro-Bhuiyans and rebellious chieftain
zamindars of Bengal. Jalair lived in the
Chandrapratap Pargana. This large pargana was captured by rebels namely Mirza Mumin, Dariya Khan, Madhava Ray and Binud Ray (who pledged allegiance to
Musa Khan, the leader of the
Baro-Bhuiyans) after defeating Dilir Bahadur, the Mughal officer stationed there and aided by Ihtimam Khan's officers. The rebels believed that they could effortlessly also defeat Jalair to secure Chandrapratap to
Musa Khan's domain once more. They readied a large naval fleet in addition to their land-force, infantry and cavalry in the early morning and attacked the Mughal fort of Chandrapratap. Jalair defended the fort but the rebels had surrounded them and were very close to making the fort fall. News of this reached Tuqmaq Khan who was at
Shahzadapur. Tuqmaq, leaving a force to defend Shahzadapur, rushed to Bahadur's rescue with another force. The rebels had reached the gate of the Chandrapratap fort and were persecuting its inmates. Jalair's slave Suhayl led a group of people out of the fort. Outnumbered, they were heavily wounded. The fort was said to not have fallen due to Dariya Khan's
near-sightedness. With the arrival of Tuqmaq and his forces, sounded by a trumpet, the rebels hopelessly fled.
Islam Khan I later ordered Jalair to go to the Mohana of the Kutharuiya (modern-day Kirtinasha, tributary of the
Padma) bringing twenty war-boats with him. When Islam Khan reached Kutharuiya in the last
pahar of the night, he took the twenty boats with him through the
Isamati aiming to capture Jatrapur, to which he successfully did. Following this, Khan immediately ordered Jalair, as well as Shir Khan Tarin and Bayazid Khan Pani, to also cross the Isamati and secure the Mohana of Dakchara. Jalair and his associates were also successful in defeating the rebels at Dakchara that had put many obstacles at an attempt to stop the Mughals. The next expedition which Jalair took part in was to Kalakopa.
Islam Khan I appointed him,
Mubariz Khan and Tuqmaq Khan to be posted in the rear with ninety war-boats. Jalair was noted for his maturity when intervening in two quarrels emerged in both of these expeditions; the first being between Mirza Nathan and Iftikhar Khan over who is to be credited for the Dakchara victory in which Jalair brought about peace and the second being between Hakim Qudsi and Mirza Nathan on the behalf of Ihtimam Khan in which Jalair protected Qudsi from being "cut to pieces". Jalair later took part in the expedition against
Bayazid of Sylhet led by Shaykh Kamal. Jalair and Mubariz had already returned to their thana at
Bundasil by this time, without hearing the reply from the Court. During this expedition, they came across a tribe which lived in between the lands of the
Khasis and the
Kacharis, who referred to themselves as
Mughals. The Mughal books claim that this tribe was indeed a descendant of the
Turco-Mongol Timurids. They have said that during the reign of
Timur in the late 12th century, the emperor had reached this extreme point and left a group of Mongols to protect the land before returning to his capital in
Baghdad. Members of this tribe were white-skinned, spoke a
Sino-Tibetan language, ate all sorts of animals and vegetables, and wore large turbans and big brass earrings (
tunkal). They managed to defeat this tribe with a lot of difficulty, and annexed some of their land to the Mughal Empire. Some tribal members were sent alive to Qasim Khan. Mubariz returned to
Sylhet thana and appointed Jalair to govern this new tribal area and to keep a lookout for trouble. Qasim Khan then sent these tribal people to the Emperor, who was pleased with the hard work of Jalair and his comrades and raised their ranks and wages. After the death of Mubariz, Qasim Khan intended to appoint Jalair as the next Sardar of Sylhet. However, after learning that Jalair had fled from his appointed tribal territory which had recently been conquered with a lot of difficulty, Qasim was unimpressed at what he viewed as "cowardice". Qasim changed his mind and sent Officer Abdul Nabi to
Yarasindur, where
Mukarram Khan was staying with his brothers. Mukarram was brought to
Jahangirnagar and Qasim Khan visited him in his own home to give him the honour of having
sardarship over the entire
Sylhet Sarkar as well as giving Mukarram's brothers lesser roles in Sylhet. Qasim Khan removed
Mukarram Khan from his post as the Sardar of Sylhet out of dissatisfaction in 1617. Mukarram was replaced with Jalair, as
Sylhet's chief sardar and
Sulayman Banarsi to govern
Uhar and
Taraf. On 30 March 1620, Jalair was promoted as
mansabdar of 1,000 soldiers and 200 horses. ==See also==