Lot 105
Shahamat Ali
The Sikhs and Afghans
Auction: India in Ink: The Library of Dr Raj Krishna | 01 October 2026 from 10am | Lots 79 to 208
Description
in Connexion with India and Persia, immediately before and after the Death of Ranjeet Singh: from the Journal of an Expedition to Kabul, through the Panjab and the Khaibar Pass. London: John Murray, 1847. First edition, 8vo signed in 8s and 12s, xii 550 pp., original vertical-ribbed green cloth stamped in blind, spine lettered in gilt, half-title, 12 pp. publisher's catalogue dated January 1846 to rear, bookplate to front pastedown, spine toned and with a few tiny nicks to head and foot, small area of wear to head of front joint, front cover slightly marked, tide-mark to foot of rear free endpaper and pastedown
Provenance
INDIA IN INK: THE LIBRARY OF DR RAJ KRISHNA
Footnote
Shahamat Ali, who had been one the first students at what became the Delhi English College (where one of his classmates was Mohan Lal), was in 1832 selected by Claude Wade, political agent at Ludhiana, to serve as a munshi on his embassy to Ranjit Singh. Ali arrived at Pind Dadan Khan in the Punjab to find Wade already encamped with the Sikh ruler. In 1837-8 he was sent on another mission to Lahore, and following the commencement of the First Anglo-Afghan War accompanied Wade on his diversionary march on Kabul via the Khyber Pass.