VIESKENAWITCH, a Russian adventurer, who, after several years of brigandage, escaped to Persia and took up service under Shah Abbas Mirza. He had attained the rank of colonel when he resigned and travelling through Central Asia, reached Peshawar in January 1829. Here he was employed by Pir Muhammad Khan Barakzai to train his artillery. In March 1830, he came to Lahore and entered Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s service as a battalion commander, under Gulab Singh, then serving in Hazara and Kashmir. In April 1835, he resigned and proceeded to Gwalior.
References :
1. Grey, C., and Garrett, H.L.O., European Adventurers of Northern India. Lahore, 1929
After all, ITTL, the army of Peshawar, under the command of ʿAbd al-Rasul Khan (son of Sardar Rahimdad Khan, and husband to Sardar Dost Muhammad Khan’s sister) and trained by the Russian adventurer Vieskenawitch (who’d previously been employed by Shah Abbas Mirza)- which Sultan Muhammad Khan had sent out to do battle with Barelvi’s Muhammadiyan Order IOTL, only for them to be routed after ʿAbd al-Rasul was killed in the resulting battle, with Sultan Muhammad Khan subsequently fleeing the city with his retinue, being granted sanctuary by the Sikhs (though he continued to govern the southern portion of the province of Peshawar, from the city of Kohat instead), whilst Barelvi and the Muhammadiyans’ forces subsequently marched into and conquered the city of Peshawar largely unopposed in early 1830, filling the power vacuum left behind after Sultan Muhammad Khan’s flight to establish their short-lived ‘Islamic Caliphate of the Peshawar’- is still very much intact, leaving Sultan Muhammad Khan’s grasp on power as the ruler of Peshawar no less tenuous than those of the Nawab of Bahawalpur, or the fellow Barakzai rulers of Jalalabad and Kandahar.
