Nath, Pratyay (24 May 2019). "Narratives of Akbar's Sieges and the Construction of Mughal Universal Sovereignty". The World of the Siege (Narratives of Akbar's Sieges and the Construction of Mughal Universal Sovereignty). Brill. p.176-. doi:10.1163/9789004395695_008. ISBN978-90-04-39569-5. Mankot (1557) was the first siege of Akbar's career and was undertaken at a stage when he was still under the regency of Bairam Khan. Chased by Mughal troops, the Afghan chieftain Sikandar Sur had taken refuge in this fort in the Himalayan foothills near the Punjab Plains of North India. Sikandar was a member of the aristocracy of the Afghan sultanate that Mughal armies had defeated on the plains of Panipat the year before. This siege represented an important phase in the struggle of the emergent Mughal Empire against the increasingly-cornered Afghan aristocracy â one that would continue for decades to come. It was a keenly contested siege during which the garrison defended the fort valiantly with artillery and matchlocks. They sued for peace after almost six months, only after they were seriously threatened by rising desertions and a scarcity of food. Sikandar was pardoned by the young emperor and admitted into the Mughal officialdom.
