BIBLIOTHECA INDICA:
A
Collection of Oriental Works
PUBLISHED BY THE
ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL
New Series, No. 910
THE AKBARNAMA
OF
ABU-L-FAZL
TRANSLATED FROM THE PERSIAN
BY
H. BEVERIDGE, I.C.S., Retired
CALCUTTA
PRINTED AT THE BAPTIST MISSION PRESS,
AND PUBLISHED BY THE
ASIATIC SOCIETY, 57, PARK STREET.
1897.
1. P. 3, n. 3. Aḥmad ‘Alī Khān, keeper of the Rāmpūr Library
Rohilkand, showed me a passage in a commentary on Anwarī's
Odes, which offered an explanation of the phrase, 18,000 worlds. It
said that alf had the meaning of perfect, or complete, because one
thousand was the highest number used in abjad, or alphabetical
numeration, and that therefore 18,000 meant only 18. This latter
number was arrived at by adding together the four worlds, viz., the
‘Aālam jabarūt, ‘Aālam malakūt, ‘arsh, and kursī, the seven heavens,
the four elements, and the three mawālid, ◌
2. P. 5, last line. The best translation of the epithet istīsqā bakhsh seems to be “answerer of the prayer for rain.” “See Lane 1355b. The reference is to Akbar's alleged miracle of causing rain to fall, and also to his satisfying the thirst of all who wander about, panting after the truth. Blochmann 164.
3. Do., n. 4. See Āīn text I, 158 where the lover (‘Aāshaq) and the loved (Māshūq) are described as one.
4. P. 6, n. 2. See Tennyson's paraphrase in his “Akbar's Dream.”
5. P. 7, n. 2. Several of the lines occur in Faizī's Marka-i-adwār, B.M. MS., Add. 7795 p. 25, Canto on Speech.
6. Verse, Delete capital in Thy. Niẓāmī's lines are addressed to an earthly prince, and A.F. employs them in the same sense.
7. P. 11, n. 3. I.O. MS. 4 has zā.
8. P. 12, l. 6. Perhaps the following is a better translation: “Rather the aim of praise is to place this vain, self-adorning, self-auctioning, carnal soul on the threshold of submission and the pedestal of supplication and humility, and to cast it out of sight so that inward happiness may be graced by outward surrender, and the inner and outer natures may be decked with lowliness and be fitted to the modesty of the bosom of purpose and become the praise of the life-giving creator.”
9. P. 12, n. 4. See Faiẓī's Nal Daman, last Canto, p. 138 of Newal Kishore's ed., 1893.
◌“I drew (or erected) this dome on vision's arch.
To be the glory of the swift-rolling eye.
See also for use of the phrases khudārāī and khueshtan-gazīnī, A.F.'s description of the initiation of a novice in the “Divine Faith,” Āīn, text I, 160 and Blochmann 166.
10. P. 16, l. 7. These two epithets occur in the beginning of the ‘Iyār dānish.
11. P. 16, n. 1. Maulvī Abdul Ḥuq Abīd informs me that the meaning here is that Akbar provided food for his people. The phrase “servants of God” means here mankind, or at least all Muḥammadans.
12. L. 13. Perhaps the translation, children of Noah, and n. 2
are wrong, for the word in the text is ◌
13. P. 20, l. 9. Maulvi A. H. A. informs me that I have missed the point here. The meaning of khūrda-angez is “to find fault with,” and the translation should be “his equity finds defect in the evenness of Farwardīn, his courtesy derides the breeze of Ardibihisht,” i.e., his equability surpasses that of Farwardīn, and his sweetness smiles superior to the zephyrs of Ardibihisht. See for similar hyperboles the description of Spring in Vol. II, p. 81.
14. P. 21. Notes 3 and 4. R.A.S., MSS., 116 and 117 have taḥrīr and perhaps this is a preferable reading to tajabbar. The reference may be to the cancelling of bonds by tearing the top of the document, or to the shrouds with which malefactors provided themselves when suing for mercy.
15. P. 23, four lines from foot. The word in text is harfsarā fluent, but this does not make good sense. I should be inclined to prefer ḥarfsard, which is apparently the reading of R.A.S. MSS., Nos. 117 and 119. See Bahār-i ‘Ajam-ed, Newal Kishwar 1894 s.v. ḥarfsard. Ḥarfsarā however like the word sakhn-sarā used later on by A.F., may mean a word-twitterer, i.e., one who indulges in empty verbiage. Maulvi A. H. A. thinks that ḥarfsarā is right.
16. P. 24, l. 14. Aẕ rāh-i-mijāz mīdān-īd, etc. Read, “this follower of the truth knows from observation of the outer world.”
Do. last line. The words “what strength has Saha,” etc., ending with the word atom, form a quatrain, and should have been printed as such. The literal translation of the last clause is “less than an atom.”
17. P. 25, n. 3. Possibly A.F. was thinking of the Anwar Suhailī. That contains 5 or 6,000 verses and A.F.'s chief mode of abridging it in the ‘Iyār dānish is to omit them.
18. P. 26, last line and n. 2. The most correct translation of b‘azz-i-murād seems to be “with respect to desires.” A.F. intimates that he is not ambitious. See also p. 374 of this translation, note 1.
19. P. 27, n. 2. The expression about wearing the cap on the crown of the heart may remind us of the passage in the Anabasis II. 5, where Tissaphernes says to Clearchus that the help of the Greeks will enable him to wear his diadem lightly on his heart. See Grote, 4th ed., VII, 240.
20. P. 29, n. 4, l. 6. For 227 read 247.
21. P. 32, n. 2. Read Shahristān.
22. P. 33, n. 3. For Fardōs read Firdūs. It may be noted here that Gītī in Gītīsitānī is pronounced Getī in India, and is so spelt by Blochmann.
23. P. 35, l. 4. Perhaps tamīz here means, to cleanse.
24. P. 35, l. 5. Tan-i-Wāhid is perhaps explained by A.N., II, 43, where we have the word akhshījīān, i.e., possessed by the four elements. It is applied here to ordinary mortals in whom the constituents are not fused together and unified, but are at war with one another.
25. P. 42, second para. According to the Tabaqātī Akbarī, end of account of the 23rd year, the dream occurred on the night of the birth. Lucknow ed. 339. ‘Aārif Qandahārī says it occurred on 4 Rabī'-al-awwal 947.
26. P. 45, last line and n. 5. Perhaps ḥarf-i-namūdār darmyān būd merely means that the subject of the namūdār was under discussion. Cf. text 162, l. 5, where ḥarf-i-rukhṣat darmiyān award means he introduced the subject of leave.
27. P. 53, m. l. 6. For 43c read 43a. In the same note for pistadin read pistachio, and spot for South, do for Hajrī read Ḥijrā and add, Ḥijrī was the takhallaṣ of a poet. See Budāūnī III, 386 and Tabaqāt Akbarī, Lucknow ed. 401. He was long in the service of M. Hindāl and was descended from Aḥmad Jām, and so would be a relative of Ḥamīda. His dīvān is in the A.S.B. library, Cat. p. 117, and also in the I.O. library, Ethé No. 1441 of p. 793. It contains odes in praise of Akbar and a chronogram for Humāyūn's death, but I could not find any interesting historical allusion in the poems, or any reference to Ḥamīda.
28. P. 53, n. I think it clear that A.F. means that K. Mu‘azzam was only the half-brother of Ḥamīda. At p. 55 he uses the word a‘yānī to denote a full-brother.
29. P. 54, n. 2, last sentence. For Procyon read Sirius, and delete the last four words. The epithet applied to Procyon is ghamīza, the obscure (?)
30. P. 55. According to local tradition, Akbar was born in the fields about a mile outside of the fort. See a paper by N. V. Mandlik read 8th March, 1855, and published in his writings and speeches, Bombay, 1896, p. 199, and also the Calcutta Review for January 1900. Possibly the old fort stood where the Akbar memorial now stands, for V. N. Mandlik says that the old fort was destroyed and a new one built by Nur Muḥammad Kulhara in 1746.
31. P. 58, second line. Though ṭāūs means a peacock it also means a handsome man or woman and the root is ṭūs, beautiful. A.F. applies the term to Rūpmatī II, 137. It seems to have been a title in use among the Afghans. See the story of Kāmrān's reception by Selim Shāh in Budaūnī (Ranking), and see also Bābar's Memoirs where Ṭāūs Khān is given as the name of an Afghan chief.
32. P. 58, verse third, last line. The correct translation appears to be: “Easily carried away the hearts of lovers of the difficult,” meaning, I presume, the critical and not easily pleased.
33. P. 62 near foot. For “rouse” read “roused.”
34. P. 66, n. Yes; Allāh has properly three ls, so that 66 is right.
35. P. 66, n. 1. For 3436 read 343b.
36. P. 66, n. 2. For Jafar Ṣadiq read J‘āāfar Ṣādiq.
37. P. 69, n. 2. For Taṣhīlāt read Tasahīlāt. It means, simplifications, or easy lessons.
38. P. 73, n. 1, col. 2, line 11th. For 711 read “7 lines.”
39. P. 77, n. 2. Alcochoden is evidently the same word as Kadkhudā with the article prefixed.
40. P. 82, n. My remark about the Canon Masudicus is, I believe, erroneous. From Rehatsek's description it would seem that there is no astrology in the work. The copy in the Mulla Fīrūz library is in good condition, and very legible. There is also a copy in the Nawab of Rāmpūr's library.
41. P. 83, n. In last para. delete the repetition of the words “et ex hoc adorogen,” and substitute “dorongen.” In last sentence of same paragraph read “A difficulty arises.”
42. P. 91. For Carden read Cardan.
43. P. 92, l. 1. It seems probable that 22 was regarded as a mystic number from its being that of the letters of the Hebrew, Syriac, and, presumably, of the ancient Arabic, alphabets.
44. End of last para. Substitute the translation “Alas! I have
no brother to rise high in my service,” delete note 4 and substitute
“◌
45. P. 96, n. 1. Delete comma after Shīraz. In this note I have mixed up two distinct princes. The Buyide ‘Azad-ad-daula ruled in Bagdad. Alp Arslān whom Col. Jarrett calls ‘Azad-ad-daula belongs to the 12th century. Fatḥulla whom Budāūnī calls Shāh Fatḥulla came to Akbar's court in 990 A.H. See Budāūnī, Lowe, 326. There is a long account of him, taken chiefly from Budāūnī, on the Darbār Akbarī of Azād.
46. P. 111, n. 3. Humāyūn's death and Akbar's accession occurred when the sun was in Gemini. Can hashtam-chaharam mean the 32nd degree? B.M. M.P. Add. 27, 247 has hashtam dar chaharam, i.e., 8 by 4. In the Bādshāhnāma Bib. Ind. I, 66, Akbar is said to have been born when the sun was in Scorpio. I think now that the proper translation is “As the 8th and 4th Houses are Gemini with respect to the degrees.”
47. P. 112, l. 18. Delete comma after Mars, and insert one after Jupiter.
P. 117, second para. For “copied in sketch” read “exactly copied.”
P. 117, n. 3. The word occurs again in A.N. II, p. 11, l. 16.
P. 123. The account of Humāyūn's dancing seems to be taken from the Tārīkh Alfī, though there the circumstance is said to have only occurred once. The passage occurs in the description of the events of 949 A.H. and at page 572a of B.M. MS. Or. 465 and is as follows:—
◌
* ◌
48. P. 130, five lines from foot. Dāya Bhāwal means the nurse Bhāwal, and the word dāya is used immediately before with reference to Jījī. Dāya Bhāwal is evidently the same person as Bhāwal Anaga who is mentioned soon afterwards, and A.F.'s meaning is that though there is a statement that Bhāwal was the first nurse, the ascertained fact is (taḥaqīq ānast) that Akbar was first of all suckled by his mother, then by Fakhr-i-nisā, then by Bhāwal. Bhāwal or Behāwal is probably a form of the Persian word bahāwar precious and which is sometimes spelt bahālū. Presumably A.F. by speaking of her as a special servant, khidmatgār-i-khāṣ of Humāyūn, means that she was one of his concubines, and of course she must have been a mother. Possibly she was Māham Anaga. Māham, as I have stated elsewhere, means “my Moon” and is a common appellation of women. The author of the Darbārī Akbarī, p. 749, makes the curious statement that Bhāwal Anaga was the daughter of one Jogā Barhār,via ">and that she was introduced into the harem of Humāyūn by his father Bābār. There her attractive face and manners captivated Humāyūn, but her star paled before the sun of Miriam-Makīnī's presence, and the king made her over to Jalāl Koka (?). Still she remained in the harem, and became one of Akbar's nurses. No authority is given for these statements, and I do not know where the author found them. It looks as if he meant to identify her with Māham Anaga, and to represent the latter as a Hindu. This view might coincide with Budāūnī's remark that Akbar was from his earliest years associated with low Hindus. I cannot find the tribe or caste Barhār either in Crooke, or Sherring, though there are some names nearly approaching to it, and I was told in Upper India that there was such a caste. A.F. mentions (A.N. II, 210, top line), the caste Parihār in describing Gondwāna. He also mentions there one Jogī Dās a younger brother of Sangrām Sā. The Parihārs were Rajputs and were rulers of Bandelkhand before the Candels, Sleeman's Rambles ed. 1893, I, 175 note. It is possible that the Jalāl Koka of the Darbārī Akbar may be another name for Nadīm Koka, and that the facts stated there may be a solution of the mystery of Adham Khān's parentage. There certainly is, as Elliot remarks, a mystery about the paternity of Adham Khān and it may be that though his mother was married to Nadīm Koka, Humāyūn was his father.
49. P. 132, last line. Maulvī Abdul Haq Abīd informs me that the meaning of the words sākinān-i-majāma-i-uns is “the dwellers of the gathering places of Divine love, or, the members of the congregations of Divine love,” i.e., the angels.
50. P. 134. In an article in the R.A.S.J., for January 1889, p. 99, I endeavoured to show that Māham Anaga was the wife of Nadīm Kokaltāsh. The mention of his name at p. 135 as one of those left at ‘Umarkot in charge of Miriam-Makānī perhaps supports this view. It appears from a note by Garcin de Tassy at p. 11 of his abridged translation of Syed Aḥmad's book on the Delhi monuments, Paris, 1861, that the author of Colonel Hama's MS., noticed in the article above referred to, was probably Mīrzī Hidayat Ullah for it is stated by Garcin de Tassy that Hidayat Ullah was a grandson of Mīrzā Koka and wrote a Tārīkh or chronicle in 1070 A.H. or 1659. See also p. 129. Hidayat Ullah's chronicle is not in the B.M. or I.O., and I have been unable to find out where it is, for Garcin de Tassy does not tell us and there is no reference to the MS. in Syed Aḥmad's book. Hidayat Ullah's name occurs in Beale's Oriental Biographies. See below p. 475, n. 3. To the remark about Adham Khān's age at end of note in p. 134 it may be added that A.F. describes Adham as taking a prominent part in the beginning of the seige of Mānkot. He could hardly have done this if he had been no older than Akbar who was then only fourteen.
51. P. 139, last lines. The late Mr. Rodgers states, R.A.S.J., for 1898, p. 729, that this chronogram is by Faiẓī, but this seems to be a mistake. A.F. does not ascribe it to his brother, and the latter was not born till some years after Akbar's birth.
52. P. 154, n. 3. Probably this is the correct translation. A.F. means apparently that previous works, though voluminous, have not treated the subject in a satisfactory manner.
53. P. 166, n. 8. For Īfan read Ifīn.
54. P. 180, last sentence. The expression dar parda ārāī receives elucidation from its recurrence in text I, 347, top line. This, I think, disposes of the suggestion inserted by Dr. Bloch in a note at the end of this fasciculus. See also II, 42 of text, l. 10 and do. 43, l. 10. By the expression, remaining behind the veil, A.F. not only means the period before Akbar's birth, but also the time before he revealed himself to the world. Cf. Blochmann, p. 124, n. 1 and p. 13, line 12.
55. P. 182, verse. These lines occur in Sharafu-d-din's preface to the Ẓafarnāma, i.e., in his Tārīkh Jahāngīr.
56. P. 201, n. 2. There is a mistake in this note. The Prolegomena says ten, but only gives five names.
57. P. 204, l. 10. Read Shāhnishānī.
58. P. 217, n. 2. Gauhar Shād's death is described in the Maṭla' Sa‘ādain, and the date given is 9 Ramẓān. Sām Mīrzā in his anthology R.M. MS. Add. 7670, p. 46b, says Qatalu-d-dīn Muhammad Duānī was the author of the chronogram. He gives the quatrain.
59. P. 218, l. 14. For “gave” read “give.”
60. P. 222, l. 6. For “then” read “these.”
61. Do. Shahrbānū's name is also omitted in Shīrāzī's text, and in the Alwar MS. only four daughters are mentioned. Shahrbānū apparently means the Moon-lady. For “Bābar's,” p. 222, n. 1, read “‘Umar Shaikh's.”
62. P. 223, beginning of chapter, and n. 2. For “king of the four quarters and of the seven heavens” read king of the throne of the seven worlds.” The word cahār is often used, as Quatremère has shown in his notes to the Maṭla' Saādain without really meaning four. Cahār bālish really only means the pillows of the divān, or the divān itself. By the haft manẓar is meant here probably the seven climes, or the seven heavens, or the seven planets. It is however worthy of notice that the Quṭb of Delhi was known as the Mināaa-i-haft manẓar, i.e., the minaret of seven stories. See Garçin de Tassy's translation of Syed ‘Aḥmad's work on Delhi, Paris 1861, p. 86. As Delhi was Bābar's capital, it is possible that here A.F. is alluding to the Quṭb.
63. P. 223, n. 4. For Jānī read Jāmī.
64. P. 228, two lines from foot. Text and MSS. have Bektūb. Erskine, 170, has Bektob.
65. P. 232, n. last sentence, read Khālazāīd. It means “full aunt.” Bābar in the account of his father's children speaks of one daughter as being hamshīrazāīd, i.e., full sister, of Nāṣir.
66. P. 233, line 18. Before 917 read “in the month of Rajab.”
67. P. 234, top line and n. 1. Usually called Najm Ṯānī from his having succeeded Najm Zargar Gilānī. His real name was Yār Aḥmad Ispahānī. The Haft Iqlim I.O. copy 329b says he was put to death by Ubaid Ullah on 3 Ramẓān 918. These occurrences are detailed in the T. Alfī B.M. MS., Or. 465, 514b and also in the Ḥabību-s-siyar, and in the lives of Ismāīl and Ṭahmāsp by Khwāndamīr's son Maḥmūd, as well as in the anonymous author of the life of Ism‘aīl, B.M. MSS., Or. 2939 and 3248. A.F. is correct in saying that Bābar had at first won the victory; Ubaid Ullah lay in ambush and turned the victory into a defeat. The victories which Bābar previously gained occurred near Ḥiṣār and were won against Shaibānī's sons Ḥamza and Mahdī Sulṭāns. See Shaibāuī' letter B.M. MS., Or. 3482 68b where a list of his children is given.
68. Do., n. 1. In the anonymous life of Ism‘aīl, p. 215a, it is stated that one ward of Karshi was exclusively occupied by Caghatais, and that they begged for Bābar's protection. He interceded for them with Najm Ṯānī, but it was in vain. On the day of the battle Najm Ṯānī put Bābar in the reserve. When Bābar saw that the battle was lost he fled to Ḥiṣār.
69. P. 238, n. 5, for “taken” read “taker.” The derivation here given seems correct, and is supported by Gulbadan Begam's Memoirs, p. 8c, where Qāsim Beg is described as writing to Bābar that a new prince had been born, and suggesting that his name should be made a prognostic of the conquest of India, ba shagūn fatḥ-i-Hind u takht alimash. The last word is Turkī and means “taking.” In consequence of this letter Bābar called his son Hindāl.
70. P. 241, top line. Read Biban.
71. Do., n. 3. A.F. is evidently copying Shaikh Zain here. He has B.M. MS., Or. 1999, 51b, “ba zinjīr u khām-i-gāo.”
72. P. 243, n. l. See Shaikh Zain 88a. The page is misplaced in MS. and should come after 57b.
73. Do., l. 14. For tūlghāma read tūlaqma.
74. P. 244, n. 5. Possibly Bābar does not name Taimur because he was not a bādshāh, but only an Amīr. But most likely it is because Taimur did not acquire the sovereignty of Hindustan. He merely plundered the country and returned. A.F. reckons Taimur, for at p. 245 he calls Bābar the fourth conqueror.
75. P. 244. The comparison with Taimur's forces is taken from Shaikh Zain, B.M. MS., pp. 53b and 55a. Zain has naukar-turk Turkish servants instead of naukar-i-naukar. He also gives 18,000 as the number of horses who can occupy a farsang though he reckons Taimur's total force at 72,000.
76. P. 246, note 278. More probably the reference is to the battle of Pānīpat with Hemū though Akbar had little personal share in the victory. Instead of “many rebellious chiefs” read “so many refractory chiefs.”
77. P. 247, n. 4. Zain l.c., pp. 63c and b says Alaūddīn brought a
diamond to India. Mūtamed Khān says in the Iqbālnāma that Alau-d-din
got diamond from Vikramādītya. In this he is merely copying A.F.
My opinion now is that it is not certain that Bābar means that his
son got the diamond from Vikramādītya's heirs. His language is
vague and perhaps all he means is that the diamond was one of the
things that Humāyūn got when he was investing the fort. At any rate
Bābar's account is not that of an eyewitness. Zain makes Humāyūn
the spokesman to his father. He says the diamond was reckoned
worth 2 1/2 days of the world's income. The word in Add. 27, 247 is
◌
78. P. 248, beginning of para. Zain has Tuesday the 29th.
79. P. 249, n. In Persian quotation read in second line
◌
80. P. 257, last para. and n. 4. Shaikh Zain, p. 98b, says that
Ibrahim's mother was sent to Kābul and the Tārīkh Maḥmadi B.M. Or.
1824, p. 57a says that on the road the lady flung herself into the
Indus and drowned herself. The author gives as his authority for this
statement the Iqbālnāma of Mūtamed Khān, and I have verified the
reference. It also appears from the Iqbālnāma that the lady's name
was Bava ◌
81. P. 264, verse. For cap read veil.
82. 266, n. 5. It appears from Bābar's Memoirs, Erskine 274, that Khān Mirzā was alive on 4th September, 1519, or Ramaẓān 925, for the Jān Nāsir there mentioned as coming from his government seems a clerical error for Khān Mīrzān; O, p. 272, we see that Kipak had been sent to him, and presumably this was to summon him to his presence.
83. P. 272, n. 2. Insert comma after him, and delete comma after Ḥaidar.
84. P. 273, n. 1. Probably Alwar is correct. The child probably was born at Alwar which was his brother Hindāl's appanage afterwards, and received his name from the place.
85. P. 277, near foot. Read “He bade adieu to this faithless world on 6 Jamāda-ul-awwal 937 in a garden (cārbāghe) in Agra, on the banks of the Jamna, which that springtide of fortune had made verdant.”
Add. note 2a. The local tradition is that Bābar was temporarily buried in the Rāmbāgh (originally perhapsxia Ārāmbāgh) on the left or east side of the river, about two miles above the railway bridge. Mr. Keene says in his guide to Agra, p. 1, that according to the Akbarnāma Bābar was buried in the Cārbāgh some miles lower down the river and nearly opposite the Tāj. But the Akbarnāma says nothing about where the body was buried, and A.F.'s words are that the death occurred in a Cārbāgh. Any laid out garden is called a Cārbāgh, meaning perhaps that it is rectangular, or divided into squares by paths. Bābar's body remained in the garden for several years, and perhaps would never have been removed if Humāyūn had not been driven out of India. Bābar tells us that the east bank of the Jamna was called Kābul by the Indians in allusion to its gardens. Perhaps this gave rise to the story that Bābar desired to be buried in Kābul, or it may be that his son satisfied his conscience by thinking that his father's body was doposited in a place known as Kābul. At all events it seems to have lain there till after the battle of Kanauj and the consequent flight from India when Bābar's widow Bīka Begam performed the pious duty of removing it to Kābul. See the story in Jauhar (Persian text) and in Erskine's History II, 325 n. It is clear from Jahāngīr's reference to Bīka Begam in the Tuzuk, p. 51, lith. ed. that she was Bābar's widow and that consequently it was not Bābar's daughter M‘asūma, or Humāyūn's wife Ḥājī Begam who removed the bones.
There does not appear to be now any trace of the grave in the
Rām Bāgh, as the Cārbāgh is now called. The garden seems also to
have been known as the Gul-afshān. There is a long account of the
making of the Cārbāgh in Bābar, Erskine 341, and also in Shaikh
Zāin's Tārīkh Bābārī B.M., Or. 1999, p. 83b. It was on the east side
of the Jamna, and opposite the fort. S. Zāin calls it Cārbāgh-i-hasht
bihisht, a name which also occurs in Bābar. S. Zāin gives a poem
about the garden, ending in the chronogram ◌
86. Nizāmu-d-dīn calls Mahdī Khwāja “dāmād,” but “dāmād” means husband of the king's sister and husband in general as well as son-in-law. Gulbadan Begam, who is a better authority on the point, calls Mahdī Khwāja īzna, i.e., brother-in-law (it may also mean son-in-law) of Bābar. In the Ḥabīb-as-siyar B.M., MS. Add. 16,679, p. 370a, line 16, it is stated that Mahdī Khwāja was the husband of Bābar's elder sister Khānzāda Begam. The entry refers to the year 922. In the Bombay lithograph and in B.M. Add. 17,925 the name Khānzāda is not given but it is stated that Mahdī Khwāja was married to two sisters of Bābar, that he was the son of Mūsa and grandson of Mīr Murtaẓa, and that on the mother's side he was descended from Abul Khair Khān (Shaibānī's grandfather). In the Majālis Nafais of ‘Ali Sher, a Khwāja Mūsā is described as a rich man who bought verses from poor poets and passed them off as his own. Apparently Ibrāhīm Qanūnī a famous musician who is also mentioned in the Majālis as well as in Sām M. Taḥfat B.M. MS. 7671, p. 64b was a son of Khwāja Mūsā.
87. P. 278, Cf. A.N. III, 580. The 34th year corresponds to 997-998 A.H. or 1588-89. The Memoirs were partially translated before this, first by Shaikh Zāin, and second by Payanda Ḥasan Ghaznavī and Muḥammad Qulī Moghal in 994 et seq., i.e., 1585. It also seems to me from a MS. in the Alwar Palace-library that the so-called ‘Abdurraḥīm's translation existed in Humāyūn's time. See Asiatic Quarterly Review for July and October 1900.
87a. Do., n. 2. For Tempel read Teufel.
88. P. 279, Verse. This quatrain is given in a Persian MS. of the Shaw collection in the Indian Institute, Oxford, No. 309 and called the Jām‘a-al-muqāmāt, “collection of assemblies.” The circumstances under which Bābar came to compose it are also given there. We are told that he won the victory over Rānā Sanga owing to the mysterious aid of Maulāna Khwājaga Aḥmad, otherwise known as Maqdūm ‘Aāzim. So he sent Darvesh Muḥammad Sārbān to him at Dahbād near Samarkand with presents and this verse. The saint is said in return to have written part of the Risāla-Bābarī. (Bābar's Memoirs?)
89. P. 280. Mr. Blochmann has given a translation of this passage at p. 220 of the Proceedings A.S.B. for 1874. There are several mistakes in my rendering. For the account of Shāikh Zain this should be substituted. “Shāikh Zain Ṣadr, great-grandson of (ba do wāsṭa, two removes) Shāikh Zainu-d-dīn Khwāfī. He had acquired a knowledge of science, was of quick parts and was skilled in poetry and the art of letter-writing. He was distinguished by his long association with His Majesty, and became an Amīr in the time of His Majesty Jahānbānī Jinnat-Āshiyānī.” See at p. 219 l.c., the inscription on S. Zain's mosque at Kachparwa.
90. Do., line 12. For “paternal” read “maternal.”
91. Do., Fārighī. For an account of him and specimens of his poetry see Budāūnī, Ranking 616. Budāūnī says that he and his nephew died in the same year (940 A.H.)
92. P. 281. Mr. Blochmann has “surkh widāī kuhnah, a little-known poet.” The word which I have rendered “inartificial” is be-ta‘yīn, and should be rendered “obscure.” He is mentioned in ‘Alī Sher's Majālis, p. 41a, of Persian translation.
93. Do., l. 6. Insert indefinite article before masnavī.
94. P. 285, n. 2. Māham most probably means “My moon.” It was apparently a common appellation for women. Cf. Māham Anaga, and the name of Taimur's wife. See Schuyler's Turkistan II. 97, ed. 1876, where we are told that a beautiful lady who was executed at Bokhāra was commonly known as “My moon of Kenin ghaz.” Cf. the proper names Nuram, and Shāikham, i.e., My light and my Shāikh. If Maham be regarded as a Turkī word it should from the law of the sequence of vowels be spelt Māhim as in P. de Courteille.
94a. The fullest accounts of this worthless character, M. Zamān, Mīrzā are to be found in B.M. MSS., Or. 2939 and 3248. He was married to Bābar's daughter in Kabul in 921 or 922, and a few months afterwards his father-in-law sent him back to Balkh as governor. He was not a success there, and could not resist the Uzbegs. In 934 Bābar summoned him to India and settled a large estate upon. He ended his days by being drowned at Causa.
95. Do. According to the Mirāt Sikandarī four letters passed between Humāyūn and Bahādūr; verse I, p. 293, belongs to Humāyūn's first letter, and verse II to the second, viz., that which was written on receipt of Bāhādūr's first reply. The M. Sikandarī Bombay lithograph 237 gives Humāyūn's second letter, and at 235 Bahādūr's reply. The latter is very insolent in tone and it is no wonder that it offended Humāyūn. It blames him for his treatment of M. Zamān and taunts him with boasting of the deeds of his seventh ancestor (Taimur) while having nothing of his own to show. It winds up with a verse to this effect. The translation in Bayley's Gujrat, p. 374, is very erroneous. A translation of the M. Sikandarī has lately been published at Bombay by Faẓl Ullah. The correspondence will also be found in B.M.'s MS., Or. 3482, pp. 104-106. I do not think Bayāzīd was M. Zamān's custodian. More probably he was his fellow-prisoner.
96. P. 295, Verse. See also T. Alfi, p. 115, of B.M., Or. 465. The second couplet is from Ḥāfiẓ, Brockhans, p. 141, Ode 220.
97. P. 296, 2nd line. The figure 1 is misplaced. It refers to “weak head” on top line.
98. P. 297, n. 4. In a letter to Erskine, Mountstūart Elphinstone, see his life by Colebrooke, comments on what appears to be Bābar's suppression of facts about the Prince of Hind, whose name he seems to have used. I presume Elphinstone refers to Alāūddīn whom Bābar used as a tool.
99. P. 298, n. second col. For 960 read 96 n.
100. P. 302, n. 1. There were at least three Rūmī Khāns, viz., 1ts. The man whom the Portuguese called Khwāja Sofar, who built the fort of Surat, and whose head was carried off by a cannon ball at the second siege of Diu in June 1546. 2nd. His son whom the Tārīkh Muḥammadi calls Khwāja Maham, who was killed in the same siege, just at its close in November 1546. See Tevius, p. 441. 3rd. Rūmī Khān, Bahādur's artillery-officer who deserted to Humāyūn and was poisoned after the taking of Cunār. Some information regarding Rūmī Khān the artillerist and Khwāja Safar will be found in the Barq-al-Yamān of Quṭbu-d-dīn of which De Saçy has given an abstract in N. et E. IV. It appears from it that Rūmī Khān the artillerist's real name was Mastafa Beg and that he was the son of Bairam and nephew of Sulaimān. He came to India in the Turkish fleet commanded by his uncle in 936. Khwāja Safar came at the same time and both were well received by Bahādūr, Mastafa getting the title of Rūmī Khān and the governorship of Diu, and Safar being made governor of Surat. The story of Rūmī Khān's being poisoned is confirmed by Quṭbu-d-dīn. Erskine, Hist. II, 82 n., says that the first Rūmī Khān is buried at Surat, and Tevius, p. 385, of his commentaries, seems to say that his obsequies were celebrated at Diu. ‘Aārif Qandahārī gives the verses in which the chronogram of the building of Surat fort occur, see Blochmann 354, and says they were written by Aḥmad Shīrāzī known as Raẓaī. The name of the builder of the fort is given in the verses as Khān ‘Aāẓim Khān Khudawand Khān.
101. P. 306, n. 2. Dele dīn.
102. P. 307, three lines from foot. Read “Aghazwār,” (like Aghaz or Oghuz'). He was Governor of Herat and also Atāliq.
103. P. 309, three lines from foot. Read “Gawars.”
104. P. 314, 11 lines from foot. For “wrong” read “strong.”
105. Do., n. 1. The page reference is wrong.
106. Do., n. 2. For Monday read Tuesday.
107. P. 316, n. 3. After Narīād insert “and Aḥmadābad.”
108. P. 317, second line and n. 1. We are told in the M. Sikandarī that Humāyūn called him a “black slave” Ghulām-i-sīah. ‘Imād-ul-Mulk is stated, Bayley's Gujrat p. 400, to have been the son of Tawakkal chief of the royal Khāsah Khailān. He was put to death at Surat by Khudawand Khān Rūmī in 1545, l.c, 435 and 436.
109. Do., second last para. For Nansārī read Nausārī.
110. P. 321, n. 1. Ferishta calls it Ghāt Karcī and an article by Mohan Lāl Vishnu Lal Pandia in J.A.S.B. for 1897, p. 167, states that Ghāt Karcī is the name of a town close to the town of Bānswāra.
111. P. 323, 13th line for “reporting” read “repenting.”
112. P. 323, n. 3. Sofar or Sofarus of the Portuguese, probably the epithet refers to Rūmī Khān's complexion as the word means the pale or yellow. Sofar however is a proper name and may have been Rūmī Khān's real name or it may have been given to him on account of his Greek origin, for the Greeks are called the sons of Aṣfar (the superlative of safar. Lane 1699b). According to Damian a Goes, who calls him Khwāja Coffarus, he was born of a Turkish mother and a Christian father in the island of Chios. See Damian's Diensis Oppugnatio, Cologne 1602, published by Birckmann, p. 279.
113. P. 329, n. 2. This genealogy is also given in A.N. II, 64. I am inclined to think that Nūru-d-dīn first married Gul-barg, a daughter of Bābar not named by Gulbadan, and had by her Selīma, and that then in Humāyūn's reign, and probably after the death of her first husband Ishān Taimur, he married Gulrang. It is Pashā, not Pāshā Begum. Nūru-d-dīn belonged to the Naqshbandi order.
114. P. 331, second para. Cf. Jarrett II, 122, where it is said that the Bengalis make boats so high that when attached to the shore they overtop the walls of a fort. Rūmī Khān then seems to have adopted a Bengali stratagem.
115. P. 338, n. 2. Beale, O.B.D., p. 265, of ed. 1894, says that Shaikh Phūl or Bahlūl's tomb is on a hill near the fort of Bīāna. Maḥommed Bakhshī is said to have buried him there. The brothers were descended from Farīdu-d-dīn-‘Aṭṭār, and their father's name was Qiyāmu-d-dīn, and he is buried at Ghāzīpūr.
116. P. 341, n. 2, l. 3. For “East” read “West.” Narhan is probably correct for Bayāzīd, 148b, speaks of Narhan as a ferry near Tājpūr where Khwajah Zechariah and others had a Jāgīr. There is a pargana Tájpūr mentioned in the Āīn Jarrett II. 130 as in Sarkār Tāndha. Of course this is not the Darbhanga Tājpūr.
117. P. 344, 5 lines from foot. Dele the word “learned” within brackets.
118. Do. n. 2. For Shihna read Shahna.
118a. Do. n. 4. For Roebach read Roebuck.
119. P. 352, seven lines from foot. For ābrūyān read beābruyārn.
120. P. 357, n. l. A Sārang Khān is mentioned in Taimu's. Institutes, Davy and White, as a brother of Matu Khān and as ruling in the country of Multan.
121. P. 360. There is an obscurity about Ḥamīda Bānu's parentage. In B.M. M.S. Add. 7688, which is a collection of letters, there are three addressed by Nawāb Bilqīs Makānī Miriam Beg to her mother and sister. They also appear in the similar collection, Or. 3842, 147b. Apparently the writer is Ḥamīda Banū, for they belong to her time, viz., the reign of Ṭahmāsp, and they are such as she might write in a foreign country. They also immediately follow the correspondence of her husband, Humāyūn. Bilqīs Makānī is a name given to Ḥamīda in the T. Sindh, and Miriam Beg may be Miriam Makānī. In the first letter the writer calls her mother Sulṭānam and begs her good offices for one Ṣafī Khān, whom she describes as being the son of her lala or guardian. The second is to her sister, Zainab Begam, and is to the same effect. The third is to her mother and consists of inquiries after her health. It is forwarded by one Khwāja Riẓwān who had come to explain his offences. The compiler of the book describes these letters as addressed to the writer's own mother and sister, and if so, we learn that her mother was called Sulṭānam and her sister Zainab. But possibly they are addressed to ladies of Ṭahmāsp's family whom she may have adopted as her mother and sister. Ṣafī Khān is described in the letters as a Saiyid of noble family, and he may be the Amír Ṣafī mentioned in Sām Mīrzā's Taḥfat Sāmī B.M. MS. P. 45, as belonging to a noble family of Saiyids and as coming from Nīshāpur. He was a caligraphist. The three letters are written in high-flown Persian. It is, however, possible that the writer was the niece of Ṭahmāsp and daughter of M‘asūm Beg whom Humāyūn is said to have married in Persia. Jauhar 75.
122. P. 360, n. 2. He is also probably the Bāba Dost Bakhshī whom Bayāzīd in his list p. 74c. calls Bābā Dost Cūlī (because he accompanied Humāyūn across the desert) and who, he says, acted as Humāyūn's Bakhshī on the way to Persia. Bayāzīd mentions Bābā Dost Bakhshī and his son, Dost Muhammad, several times in his account of the siege of Kabul by M. Sulaimān. He praises the valour of the son and describes, 85b., how Bāba Dost Bakhshī had the command of a battery during the siege and how he laid a trap for M. Ibrahim. At p. 926 Bāyāzīd tells how when Mun‘im Khān decided that he would not go to India on account of Bairām Khān's being all powerful, he bade Bāyāzīd go back to Kābul. Bazzāid said he could not go back alone, and when Mun‘īm insisted on his return he begged and obtained that Bāba Dost Bakhshī should be sent back with him. This seems to show that Bāba Dōst was a persona grata with the Begams.
123. P. 362, n. 1. The source of the Maaṯir's information (and consequently of Mr. Blochmann's) is the Tabaqāt Akbari Lucknow ed. 339. The presentation of the record is placed there in the end of the 23rd year. ‘Mīr Ali Akbar was afterwards disgraced and imprisoned.
124. P. 364, n. 2. Read Ḥijrī. His poetry is not religious. There were two poets of this name, and the divāns of both of them are in the I.O.
125. P. 369, n. 1. The passage is explained in T. Alfī p. 570a of B. M. MS. Or. 465, where it is stated that ‘Abdu-l-Ghafūr said what he should not have said about the distressed condition of Humāyūn's army. “Sakna cand ke namībāyīst guft az pareshānī lashkarīān Ḥaẓrat guft.”
126. Do. n. 2. The story is also told in the T. Alfī 570a. The unfortunate men took refuge with Humāyūn. Yādgār Nāsir said he wanted to settle revenue accounts with them and induced Humāyūn to send them to him. Humāyūn sent them with a guard, but Yādgār Nāsir got rid of the guard and then sent the zamindars to Shāh Ḥusain. Possibly the story is another version of that told by Ṭāhir Nasyānī. See his Tārīkh of which there is a copy in the Rampore Library, and also Elliot I, 253.
127. P. 372, n. 2. The Mirāt-i-‘Aālam B. M. MS., p. 261, says expressly that the diamond was the one obtained by the victory over Ibrāhīm. It also says, later on, that this was the diamond given by Humāyūn to Ṭahmāsp.
128. P. 376, n. For “author's” read “author.”
129. P. 378, n. 3. Another division is noted by Mut‘amid Khān in the preface to his Iqbālnāma. According to it the first volume is an account of Akbar's ancestors, as in Bib. Ind. ed. The second comprised the occurrences of 47 years, and was divided into two parts, viz., the first thirty years, making a qarn, and the second part extending from the 31st to the 47th year and unfinished. See the translation of passage in preface to Gladwin's translation of the Āīn.
130. P. 382, n. 4. I am now inclined to think that Hardwār
must be wrong, though it is difficult to say what the right word is.
Possibly it is merely a copyist's blunder, Hardwār ◌
131. P. 385. With reference to this story see the quotation from the Dabīstān in Blochmann 163 n. The informant referred to therein is ‘Azīz Koka's own mother Jījī, and not Ḥamīda.
132. P. 402, n. 5. Apparently there is no pun, A. F. merely means that Nāzuk was only a king in name.
133. P. 404, n. 8. Read “nearly the meaning of the word religion.”
134. P. 405 l. 6. For “chastity” read “charity” and for ‘king of king’ read ‘king of kings.’
135. P. 413, n. 2 top line. For “merely” read “surely.”
136. The letter is also given in the collection B.M. MS. Or. 3482, p. 104. The letter is in very humble terms. Tahmāsp's quotation from Ḥāfiz about the humā was happy, for humā is part of Humāyūn's name and in his letter Humāyūn had compared himself to a bird or moth flying towards the sun.
These collections also contain a long and interesting letter from Humāyūn written after the defect of Balkh and detailing Kāmrān's misconduct, etc. There is also a very long letter from Ṭahmasp to Sulaimān, the Sultan of Turkey (which, however, was never sent), in which he holds up Humāyūn as an instance of pride going before a fall, and tells a story of a dream that Humāyūn had while in India.
137. P. 416, n. 4. It has been suggested to me that Shahristan is a mistake for Shahr-i-sīstan, the city or capital of Sīstān. But it appears from Yāqūt, Meynard 253 and 301, that the old capital of Sijistān was called Rām Shahristan, and was three farsakhs from Zaranj.
138. P. 417, end of first para. For “‘amwān” read ‘anwān.
139. P. 427, l. 8. The Mirāt al ‘Aālam has Sābir Daqāqq, i.e., a fuller.
140. Do. n. 1. For “three” read “two.”
141. P. 443, last line read “For the world's law is sometimes this, sometimes that.” Amīr Shāhī's ode will be found at p. 18a of B. M. MS. Add. 7788, and at 37b of Add. 23,612. The lines which follow the last distich quoted by A. F. are not very intelligible. Amīr Shāhi was originally of Sabzawār. There is a full account of him in Daulāt Shāh's work, Browne's ed.
142. Do. n. 5. Read p. 198 for p. 19. The word cārgāh is cārkāh in Ilminsky. Add. 27,247 of B. M. has Sābir Qulī for Sābir Qāq. and dar muqām sairgāh, i.e., theatre or place of recreation for sihgāh. Qāq seems to be right, for the ‘Aālam Ārāī has the jingle Ḥāfiẓ Sābir Qāq ke nādira wy a fāq. Add. 27, 247, seems to be the only MS. which has sairgēh, but it also occurs in the Afzal-at-Tawārīkh p. 122a of B. M. MS. Or. 4678, and in the Aalam Ārai Rein, Cat., supplement 7654, p. 173a. See also the dar muqām panjgāh of Budāunī I, 481, where Dr. Ranking's translation, p. 622, seems to be wrong.
143. P. 434, n. 3. Read Yate for Yates.
144. P. 438, four lines from foot. Though Barda' or Barza' be the name of a place in Azarbaijān, yet the word here probably means “packsaddle.”
145. P. 442, n. 5, l. 3. For “to” read “of.”
146. P. 444, n. Olearius' account of Tabrīz may also be consulted.
147. P. 445, n. 8. Probably one of the two daughters who died in the second year of Akbar's reign during Miriam Makānī's journey from Kabul to India.
148. P. 446, n. 3. See also Ethe's Cat. I. O. MSS., p. 1210, No. 2219.
149. Do. See Badāūnī, Ranking, 619, for another correction by Humāyūn.
150. P. 447, third line from foot. For “forwardness” read “audacity.”
151. P. 451, line 4 and n. Dele. figure 1.
151a. P. 459. For Babū Dōst read Bābā Dost.
152. P. 465, l. 22. Insert the word “over.”
153. P. 470, l. 14. Last word. Dele the word “as.”
154. P. 475, n. 2. For “as” read “is.”
155. P. 477, n. 1. For “in” read “near” Bābā Ḥasan Abdāl. Possibly the place is the Qibcāq pass of Jarrett II, 400.
156. P. 481. The editors of text point out in a note that both these chronograms are wrong, one yielding 954, and the other 955 and they observe that 952 as the true date.
157. P. 491. n. For Istālāf read “Istālif.”
158. Do. n. 1. For “is” read “in.”
158a. 489. note, last line. For I. 46 read II. 46.
159. P. 494. Line 4, and note. The Mūīn who was Qāzī of Lahore is probably the officer mentioned at Vol. II, p. 163, as appointed to Malwa, and seems to have been different from Sharafu-al-din's father.
160. P. 497 n. For “Leydon” read “Leyden.” Deerstalking is described by Bellew, Journal of Mission to Afghanistan, p. 327, as a favourite amusement of the Afghans.
161. P. 500 line 19. For “this Mīrzā” read “the Mīrzā.”
162. P. 502, line 18. For “Zāmān” read “Zamīn.”
162a. P. 504, n. For “Shaīrbānī” read “Shaibānī.”
163. P. 505, n. Apparently Junaid was also called Amīr Qutlaq Qadam. See Mahmūd's life Of Ṭahmasp. B. M. MS. Or. 2939, 129b, and T. Alfī 536a. line 7.
164. P. 508, l. 5. aqābain if it is the dual.
165. P. 521, n. 2. For Hiibak read Heibak.
166. P. 530, text and note 1. cf. Bayley's Gujrat 446 Suṭṭān Maḥmūd had commanded his officers to give up the house of anyone guilty of either of those offences to halan, i.e., to plunder. See also Bombay lithograph of Mirāt Sikandarī p. 302. The reference to Bayāzīd is p. 35b. of his memoirs.
167. P. 2. 537, n. 2. For “on” read “in”.
168. P. 539, n. Erskine's opinion is confirmed by Humāyūn's letter to Ṭahmāsp B.M. MS. Add. 7688 p. 105b.
169. P. 545, n. 3. There is a good deal about Bairam Oghlān in Mahmūd's lives of Ismāīl and Ṭahmāsp. He was an Uzbeg and governor of Balkh under Kisten Qara. The Aḥsan Tawārikh 101b. speaks of Bairam's attacking Herat. He had been ruler of Gurjistan and was eventually killed in battle. See l. c. pp. 129b and 133a.
170. Do. n. 7. In Humāyūn's letter to Ṭahmāsp giving an account of the expedition to Balkh he is called Khwāja Bāqī.
171. P. 557. I have not found this story about Ism‘aīl's handkerchief in the anonymous life of that prince, but there is a sensational account of his crossing with his troops the rivers Kūr and Aras (Araxes), viâe p. 55a. But the story is told at length by D‘Herbelot with only this difference that it was a slipper which Ism‘aīl threw into a trench.
172. P. 576, n. 1. For ◌
1. P. 59, n. 3. For Ilahad Faiẓ read Ilāhdād Faiẓī, and for No. 1890 read B.M. MS., Or., 1890.
2. P. 117, n. 2. Bajins probably means here “accurately, in facsimile.”
3. P. 119, n. 3. For Cholgīl read Cholgii.
4. P. 160, n. 4. For Farāj read Faraj.
5. P. 163, l. 8. For “Domes of Haramān” read “ancient domes.”
6. P. 192, l. 14. “The Jāmūqa tribe” should apparently be “Jāmūqa's tribe,” see p. 193.
7. P. 200, 7 ll. from foot. For Īsū Mangū read Īsū Mangā.
8. P. 203, last sentence. There is a variant which makes it the Amīr who honoured the saint.
9. P. 218, l. 3. For Abū Bakr read Abā Bakr.
10. Do., l. 6. For Bābī read Bābāī.
11. P. 225, last line. For “or” read “and.”
12. P. 227, l. 3. Put comma after “killed.”
13. P. 229, l. 10. See Sām Mīrzā's Taḥafat, B.M. MS. Add. 7670, p. 44, for an account of the origin of the name Khwāb-bīn.
14. P. 233, n. 1. For Maḥmūd Ḥasan read Muḥammad Ḥusain
15. P. 234, l. 9. Insert figure 5 after Jām.
16. Do., l. 13. “The country of Hindustan.” Akwardly expressed, for Bābar was not then seeing Hindustan. But the akwardness is in the original and is apparently due to the fact that Bābar wrote his Memoirs after conquering India. The word both in the Turkī and the Porsian is Nawāhī, and this is rendered by P. des Courteille “les abords.”
17. Do., n. 4. For Barīk-al read Bārik-ab.
18. P. 236, five lines from foot. For “his six brothers” read “six of his brothers.”
19. P. 237, n. 4. The remark near the end of this note is wrong, for the Muḥammadan Ararat is not what Europeans call Ararat, but is a mountain called Jūdī Dāgh belonging to a range south of Lake Van and east of Jazīra-b. Omar. It lies a long way S. S. W. of what is now known as Mount Ararat.
20. P. 239, l. 4 from foot. Akwardly expressed, for of course Humāyūn arrived before Lahore was taken. There should be a full stop after “taken,” the word “and” should be deleted, and “on” made On.
21. Do., n. 4. The Bāgh Wafā was at Adīnapur (Jalālābād), the Bāgh Ṣafā was higher up the river near Cār Bāgh, and there was another Bāgh Ṣafā in the Salt-Range.
22. P. 242, top line. For gabions substitute tūrās. They were not gabions, but light wattles (?) which the soldiers carried as they marched. See Bābar 86, and P. de. Courteille 151.
23. P. 248, l. 15. The words “according to their rank” are misplaced. They should come after “presents.”
24. P. 253, 4 lines from foot. Perhaps Qāẓī Zīā is the Zīau-d-dīn Nūr Beg of Khwandamīr's Humāyūn-nāma, and who, he says, got the title of Amīr-i-Zakāt.
25. P. 254, l. 3. Insert H.M. before Jahānbānī.
26. P. 256, l. 20. Jājamū'. This town is in Unao, Oude.
26a. P. 260, n. 1. Cancel note. Beg Mīrak was not Niẓāmu-d-dīn's grandfather.
27. P. 262, l. 3. For Urdū Shān read Urdu Shāh.
28. P. 265, l. 18. For Kram read Karim.
29. P. 267, l. 11. Insert comma after Qāsīm.
30. P. 277, Verse. The whole verse is given by Khwandamīr in his Humāyūn nāma. See translation by Sadu Sukh Lāl, p. 45, of B.M. MS. Add. 30,774.
31. P 281, last sentence. Perhaps this Kīcak or Kūcak was the brother whom Khwāja Kilān left in Qandahār, when he deserted his post, and who surrendered to Ṭahmāsp. The Afẓal Tārīkh B.M. MS. Or. 4678, p. 96a says he was a brother of Khwāja Kilān. The Aḥsān T.B.M. MS. Or. 4134 calls him, p. 107, Kachī Khān and Maḥmūd Or. 2939, p. 1831 calls him Kechak khān.
32. P. 285, Verse. For the first two lines substitute
The year of his auspicious (humāyūnash) birth is “May Almighty God increase thy stature.”
The second line is a chronogram. In n. 4, for qadran read qadrā and for Zādakallāhu read Zādak Allah. Perhaps Sāmānī only means that he was a native of Sāmāna (in India).
33. P. 293, l. 4. Read Kanār for Kānār.
34. P. 294, n. 1. Abū Turab's account shows that Bahādur was present at the battle of Pānīpat, though he did not take part in it.
35. P. 295, Verse II. This comes from Ḥāfiẓ Ode 220. Brockhaus 141.
36. P. 296, l. 9. Abū Turāb says in history of Gujrāt, p. 13a, that the twenty krors of old coinage were equal to 30 krors, 50 lakhs murādi. Murādī is explained in dictionaries as meaning small money.
37. P. 302, n. 1. Abū Turāb, p. 79, also gives the title of Khudāwand Khān to Khwāja Ṣafar.
38. P. , last line. Khwāndamīr gives his full name, p. 72 or 47, as Maulānā Muhīu-d-dīn Muḥammad Farghārī.
39. P. 315, n. 1. For Kaifu read Kaif. But I doubt if Humāyūn suspected any play on the word. The real explanation of Humāyūn's anger seems to be that the chapter of the Elephant is a denunciatory and terrifying one, and used in compositions which convey threats. Perhaps Humāyūn remembered that it was so used by Shāhrukh, the son of Taimur, in a threatening letter which he addressed in 833 or 835 A. H. to Barsbāī, the Sulṭān of Egypt. See the story in the extract from Makrīzī given in De Sacy's Chrestomathie Arabe II. 84. Instead of the letter beginning with Bismillah, it began with the Sura of the Elephant, and quoted the whole of it. The rest of the letter was filled with menaces. Barsabāī replied in similar style.
40. P. 316, n. 4. Apparently the ‘Alam Lūdī here mentioned is ‘Alāū-d-dīn, the uncle of Ibrāhīm Sulṭān.
41. P. 317, n. 1. Yes, Khudāwand Khān was a very old man. Abū Turāb says, 28b, that he was Akhūnd of Sulṭān Moẓaffar and had been Vizier and Vakīl of four Sulṭāns, Ferishta says he was the father of Cingīz Khān, not the son, and Abū Turāb makes the same statement.
42. P. 320, l. 7. Asāwal is spelt Ashāwal in Sir Theodore Hope's book on Aḥmadābād, and is the spot where the original chieftain was defeated by Qāsim.
43. P. 324, l. 10. Abū Turāb tells this story, but he does not give his informant's name. He only says that he was an Akhūnd and had been Bahādur's teacher and that in this way he had become acquainted with him. Nor does he say anything about his informant's taking an oath. Qu? is the Quṭbu-d-dīn of A.F's story Abū Turāb's uncle?
44. P. 325, n. 2. I have seen somewhere that there was a mosque in Aḥmadābād called Masjid Ṣafā, but that it was not built till 994 A.H.
45. P. 336, l. 19. For Bābā Khān read Bābā Beg.
46. P. 341. I now incline to think that Narhan is correct. It is a well-known ford and is mentioned in the 2nd volume. But though A.F. has written Narhan, it does not seem likely that Humāyūn went so far east.
47. P. 359, l. 17. For ‘Abdu-l-Mākrī read Abdāl Mākrī.
48. P. 368, n. 1. Shāh Ḥusain had a son by Gulbarak B. who died young.
49. P. 396, n. 1. For J. V. read I. O.
50. P. 407, n. 2. See Burnes' Cabool, 1842, p. 115. He says the correct name is Dingote, and that it is 6 m. above Kālā Bāgh.
51. P. 408, l. 10. After Khāwand, for Muḥammad read Maḥmūd.
52. P. 416, n. 4. The following note by George P. Tate, Esq., of the Indian Survey, has been kindly furnished to me by Mr. Irvine:—
“Qila'-i-Uk. Ūk is the ancient name of a small district to the north of the Hamūn-i-Helmand, and therefore of Seistān, the chief towns of which are Lāsh and Juwain. The names of these towns are existing at the present day, but the name of the district has apparently fallen into desuetude, as it does not seem to be generally known. Qila'-i-Ūk would therefore merely mean the principal fort, or capital of the district, the name of which, if it had one, was not generally known. A similar case can be found not far off from that locality. In the Ẓafarnāmah the author writes of the capital of Seistān as Shahr-i-Seistān, and does not mention it by name. This practice still holds good. The word “Shahr” is used, as we use the word “town,” with reference to London. Rarely, or never, is the “Shahr” or capital, spoken of by its name of Nasratābād. This is the modern capital. The site of the ancient capital of Seistān is at a short distance to the N.-E. of the modern capital. Ūk, judging from its propinquity to Seistān, probably was subject to the (Kāiānī) Maliks of Seistān, from whose country it was divided by the Helmand, if the Helmand at that time did not find a more southerly outlet for its waters, which seems to me to have possibly been the case.
“Humāyūn, if he passed through Ūk on his way to Persia, took a route which at the present day lies within the Afghan border, and the reason of his adopting this route would probably have been the ovil reputation for lawlessness earned by the inhabitants of the Kohistān, that is, the country around Neh and Birjand, through which the trade route (now in use) between Seistān and Mashhad passes. This would probably have been the shortest route to Mashhad, had it been safe to use it.”
53. P. 434, n. 3. For Gazargāh read Gāzargāh.
54. P. 439, last line. For Zailāq read Yailāq. Yailāq means summer-quarters, and the translation should apparently be “first stage of the summer-quarters”
55. P. 436, n. 7. For Qadār read Qīdār. See Genesis xxv. 13.
56. P. 440, n. 1. For Bayāzīd 176, read Bayāzīd 17b.
57. P. 442, n. 2. This identification is wrong.
58. P. 443, n. 2. For Ṣāfī read Ṣafī.
59. Do., n. 3. For Saddī read Sadd.
60. P. 445, l. 6. For Paik Muḥammad read Beg Muḥammad.
61. P. 448, last para. It would seem from Gulbadan Begam's Memoirs that either he or his relative Kecak or Kucak wrote an account of Humāyūn's adventures in Sind. Kicak is said to have been a brother of Khwāja Kilān, so that Khwāja Ghāzī was related to him also. Note 5 is not altogether correct. Khwāja Ghāzī and Rustam Koka fell into disgrace in Persia for stealing Humāyūn's jewels, but he got over that and was made accountant when Humāyūn returned to Afghanistan. But there he was dismissed for defalcations, see p. 544. In the passage of the Āīn referred to by me as Blochmann VII, A.F. is represented as saying that the office of Mashrif was higher than that of diwān, but surely there must be some mistake, for at p. VI., last line, Blochmann translates Mashrif as clerk, and at p. 544 we are told that Afẓal was promoted from being Mashrif to being diwān. Perhaps the word at p. VII is not Mashrif, but Masharrif-i-diwān, i.e., the exalter of the diwān or the Diwān par excellence.
61. P. 448, l. 4. Brother (barādar) seems a mistake here for brother's son (barādarzāda), see p. 542, last para., where Kokī is described as the paternal uncle of Ḥājī Muḥammad.
62. P. 448, l. 13. The description here evidently refers to Maḥram and not to Ḥasan.
63. P. 548, near foot. For Bābā Sihrindī read Bābāī Sihrindī.
64. P. 460, near middle. For Muḥammad M. read Muḥammadī M.
65. P. 466, l. 20. For Kot Laka read Kohlakā, and translate “hill-country.” Lakā means country.
66. Do. 7 lines from foot. For “strive” read “strove.”
67. P. 475, n. 3. Nadīm Koka is called Nadīm Beg by Khwandamīr in his Humāyūn-nāma, p. 149b, and is described as a Turk and as in high favour with Humāyūn, and the recipient of a khilat. He calls him janāb amārat sh‘aār farkhanda iṭwār Nadīm Beg muhrdār (sealer).
68. P. 482, n. 2. For “come back to Humāyūn” read “gone back to Kāmrān.”
69. P. 520, l. 7. Insert marginal number 271, and p. 521, l. 5, from foot insert 272.
70. P. 522, n. 2. A.F. calls him Buyatāt at pp. 543 and 565.
71. P. 526, n. 3. For Gulbān read Gulbār.
72. P. 529, l. 10. The word “jamjhama is used again in text II. 117, and clearly means there a morass or collection of water.
73. P. 530, l. 11. For Bābī read Bāba, and in next line insert “army” after victorious.
74. P. 534, l. 6. For Bārgbegī read Bārbegī.
75. P. 540, n. 1. For tamaatogh read tumāntogh.
76. P. 541. For marginal number 248 read 284.
77. P. 543, last para. This is an interesting paragraph and requires elucidation. It appears from the Āīn, Blochmann VI, that the words Vizier and Diwan are synonymous. The meaning, then, seems to be that Khwāja Qāsim Buyatāt had been made the Vizier or head of the department, and that then Mīrzā Beg had been appointed in his room. He was a poet and apparently inefficient and consequently Khwāja Ghāzī exercised unlimited power. That he was a dishonest man is proved by Gulbadan Begam's Memoirs, where we learn that he stole Humāyūn's jewels. Apparently the investigation was undertaken at the suggestion of Mīr Barka, who belonged to Sabzawār, and is called in the Āīn Sayyid Barka. Ḥusain Qulī was made muḥassil of the affair, i.e., apparently reporter of the findings of the committee. The word mutaghallib is given in Steingass as meaning victorious or powerful, but here it seems to be used in the sense of embezzling, and it is so understood by the Lucknow editor, who says the Khwājas were found guilty of taghallab, i.e., embezzlement. I think we should render the passage here “the fraudulent clerks.”
78. P. 543, l. 4 from foot. For Khawānd read Khāwand.
79. P. 544, n. 1. This note is wrong. The Ḥasan Qulī meant is probably the sealbearer often mentioned by Bayāzīd. See p. 440, n. 1.
80. P. 544, l. 9. For “condemned” read “defaulting.”
81. Do., l. 11. Insert Jahānbānī after “His Majesty.”
82. P. 551, l. 6. Dele stop after Muḥammad.
83. P. 68, l. 16. Insert on margin 303.
84a n. 2. Dele last sentence. The word in the Memoirs is Bakhshi.
84. P. 599, l. 17. Dele word “as.” This last sentence, about Jogī Khān, has no connection with the account of the Gakkars, and should have been put into a separate paragraph and prefaced by the words “In fine.”
85. P. 600, l. 9. Possibly the clause within brackets refers to Kāmrān and not to Salīm Khān. Substitute at l. 11, “assistance for his own ruin” for “auxiliaries for his disloyalty.
86. P. 608, n. 3. For “Newcomb” read Newcome.
86a. P. 612. According to the Darbār Akbarī, p. 312, it was ‘Abdullah Sulṭānpurī who sent the boots and also a whip.
87. P. 614. For Salīm Shāh read Salīm Khān. A.F. is always careful not to style Sher or his son Salīm, Shāh.
88. P. 623. The list is A.F.'s not Bayāzīd's and should not have appeared as a note.
89. P. 665. Ferishta says that he, after search, found Humāyūn's divān, and he gives extracts from it.
J. H. B.
M. T. B.
L. S. B.
When the Asiatic Society of Bengal did me the honour of inviting me to translate the Akbarnāma, I replied that I doubted my ability to make a complete translation, and suggested that I might edit the manuscript version by Lieutenant Chalmers. My suggestion was accepted, and I accordingly obtained from the Royal Asiatic Society the loan of the Chalmers' manuscript and permission to print it. I soon found, however, that the translation was too abridged to be made the basis of my work, and that it was necessary to execute a new version. Chalmers' manuscript was of great service to Elphinstone and Count Noer, and it has also been of much use to myself, but there are many gaps in it, and Abul Faẓl's language has throughout been greatly compressed. One gap near the beginning extends to over ninety pages of the printed text, and has the effect of omitting the account of Akbar's birth, with the prognostics and horoscopes appertaining thereto, as well as the notices of his ancestors from Adam down to his grandfather (Bābar). The reader may judge of the extent to which abbreviation has been carried, when I state that the Chalmers MS. consists of two thinnish volumes of foolscap, and that the Bibliotheca Indica edition of the Persian text occupies three large quartoes which aggregate 1,600 pages.
The task of translation has occupied me several years, and the work has not been very congenial, for Abūl Faẓl is not an author for whom one can feel much sympathy or admiration. He was a great flatterer and unhesitatingly suppressed or distorted facts. His style, too, seems—at least to Western eyes—to be quite detestable, being full of circumlocutions, and both turgid and obscure. He is often prolix, and often unduly concise and darkly allusive. His one merit—and it is one which he specially claims for himself—is his laboriousness. He was an unwearied worker, and when we blame him and lament his deficiencies we shall do well to consider what a blank our knowledge of Akbar's reign would have been, had not Abūl Faẓl exerted himself during years of strenuous effort to chronicle events and institutions. His work also has the imperishable merit of being a record by a contemporary, and by one who had access to information at first hand.
I regret that the work of translation has not devolved upon a better Persian scholar than I am. I have endeavoured to do my best, and I have sought assistance in many quarters. I now desire to express my gratitude to my friends, Maulvi Abdul Haq Abid, the late Mr. J. Beames, Mr. A. G. Ellis of the British Museum, Mr. Irvine and Mr. Whinfield, and to the translation of the Āīn-i-Akbarī, by Professor Blochmann and Colonel Jarrett, and the works of Major Price. I am also indebted for much literary assistance to my elder brother, Mr. David Beveridge. There are, I am sure, many mistakes in my translation and notes, but there would have been many more but for the assistance of my friends. I regret that I have been obliged to make two long lists of Errata and Addenda. In part this has been due to the translations being made in England and printed in India, and in part to increase of knowledge. The translation of the second volume, which carries on the history of Akbar's reign to the middle of the seventeenth year, has been completed by me, and I am about to begin the translation of the third and last volume. The translation has been made from the Bibliotheca Indica edition of the text, but I have consulted many MSS. in the British Museum, the India Office, and the Royal Asiatic Society's Library, &c. The Bibliotheca Indica edition is by no means so good as it might have been, for the learned native editors02a were destitute of geographical or historical knowledge. Hence they have often made mistakes in the names of persons and places. They have also no explanatory notes. In their preface they are severe upon the Lucknow edition. No doubt that edition has many faults, but it was the first in the field, and it is on the whole a creditable monument of the enterprise of the publisher, Munshi Newal Kishor, and of the liberality of the Maharajah of Patiala. The editor, Maulvī Ṣādiq 'Alī, also deserves honourable mention. He has added numerous notes, and though many of these are trivial, yet there are also many which are really enlightening.
Since completing the translation, I have seen a remarkable MS. of the first volume of the Akbarnāma in the possession of Saiyid 'Alī Bilgrāmī. This is evidently a rough draft and contains severa things which do not occur in the MSS. of the finished work. Among them are one or two letters of Humāyūn. I have given an account of this MS. in R.A.S.J. for January 1903, p. 115.
| 4th September, 1902. | H. BEVERIDGE. |
Almighty God!1a What a profound thought and glorious idea it is that the subtle apprehenders of truth, whose bright minds are like the breath of morning, and who are keen-sighted students of the schedules2a of Creation and drawers2b of diagrams on the tablet of wisdom and perception, have not, with the exception of Speech which is but a vagrant breeze and fluctuating gale, found in the combinations2c of the elements or in material2d forms, anything so sublime, or a jewel so rare that it come not within the mould of price, that Reason's balance cannot weigh it, that Language's measure cannot contain it, and that it be beyond the scale of Thought;—and yet, how should it be otherwise? Without help of Speech, the inner world's capital could not be built, nor this evil outer world's civilization be conceived.
VERSE.3aWhat a Word3b was that whose utterance
Unveiled the eighteen thousand!3c
No feast equals it in intoxicating power;
No rival comes nigh it in supremacy.
It is the initiator in the workshop;
It sits enthroned in the palace.
Whatever reaches the heart of the wise,
The heart utters to the tongue and the tongue rehearses to the ear.
Its path is from the adit to the exit of hearts;
Expression and audition are its arena.
In reason's observatory3d the tongue and the ear
Are the rising3e and setting of speech's moon.
We cannot reach its sublime foundation by the ladder3f of the skies nor can the swift foot of reason plant a step in its nature's mysterious wilderness. Its disposition4a is fiery, its constitution aerial, its nature earthy but resembling water.4b Its fount is the fire-temple of the heart; its culmination, the blissful abode of the atmosphere; it is as water in the flow of its traffic; earth's surface is its place of repose.
Judges of precedence in the ranks of glory, have in consonance with their knowledge and insight, recognized Speech as Commander-in-Chief4c of Truth's army,—nay, as the true son and heir of the mind. They have felt it to be the Archimage4d of knowledge, the fire-temple of the heart,—nay, to be the mind's first birth.4e Especially preëminent is that Speech5a which is the ornamented argument of the splendid volume; adorned preface of the sublime code, that is, is the praise of the Lord of heaven and earth; panegyric of the Distributor of life and Creator of the body; which is at once a stage of exaltation for the beginning and a heart-entrancing ornament for the close; at once caravan-conductor5b of the eloquent and prince of eloquence; chamber-lamp of the sitters in darkness; solitude-adorning companion of the recluse; pain-increaser of the lovers of the path of God-seeking; ulcer-plaster of the wounded dwellers in the recess of impatience; cordial for the drinkers of sorrow's bitter tears; embalmer5c of the broken-hearted denizens of the hermitage of silence; marshaller of the brave in the contests of divine love; banquet-lamp of the beloved5d ones in the palace of peace; thirst-increaser5e of thirsty-lipped inquirers; hunger-increaser of hungry-hearted ones in the wilderness of search. Hence it is that wakeful-hearted sages,—with all their tumult of love and restless longing,—have stayed the hand of contemplation at the hem of the divine canopy6a and with thirsty lips, and blistered feet, and the gulping down of thousands of agitations and cries, have set the seal of silence on their lips and—wisely wrapping the foot of respect in the skirt of humility,—have not attempted what has not been vouchsafed to them from the almonry of destiny.
VERSE.Letters6b and dots are the desert sand in Thy perfect path.
In the universe of Thy wisdom, the city of speech is but some market-booths.6c
The warders of jealousy6d at Thy door, smite the understanding,
With blows of astonishment in front, and strokes of ignorance6e from behind.
In other words, praise of the incomparable Deity lies outside the field of possibility, and the panegyric of the unequalled God is beyond the field of existence.7a
VERSE.Wherever discourse7b deals with the knowledge of God,
Our thoughts' praise becomes dispraise.
Behold rashness, how it boils over with daring!
Can a drop embrace the ocean?
Think not that it is even a single letter of the Book,7c For the Letter is muslin8a and the Book moonlight.
How long wilt thou be an embroiderer8b of speech?
Stay thy foot here, with the acknowledgment8c of humility.
So long as there is no link between terrestrials and celestials, and the path of speech between the earthly and the heavenly is closed, what intercourse can there be between the limited and the unlimited, so that an atom of the dust can have any lot in the pure, world-warming Sun? What goal in the boundless plains of necessity and eternity is possible for a prisoner in the subterraneous vault of accident and modernity; and what strength can he have to traverse them? What portion can a bewildered, headless and footless mote8d have in the beams of the world-lighting Sun? It can only be tossed about in the wind. What is a dewdrop to the swelling ocean or to the cloud surcharged with rain? 'Tis but the vaunt of a parched lip. Pity it were that a mote should discourse about the Illuminator of the assemblage of existences and, though it know him not, and cannot address him, yet should speak of him and search for him!
What connection is there between the dark defile and the courts of light; between non-entity and absolute being? The creature may never attain such knowledge of the Creator, as to be able to draw even a few breaths in the rare atmosphere of the praise of His mysteries (maknūnāt) or to plant some steps in the field of the comprehension of the wonders8e of His store-houses (makhzūnāt). How then can he be fit to enter the courts of the Creator's praise? For him who has no right of approach, to speak of the Sultan's privy chamber, is only to be exposed to ridicule and to make himself a public laughingstock.
VERSE.9aThough the foot of Speech be long of stride,
Thy curtain-stone9b hath shattered it.
Though Speech be fat and lusty,
It is lean9c when it reaches Thy table.
O Thou! Higher than our imaginary9d heavens and more exalted than the plane of the elements and than the stars, inasmuch as Thou hast not bestowed on us knowledge of Thy essence and attributes, it is manifest that Thou regardest not thanksgiving as within our powers, and seeing that Thou hast conferred on us mercies which are infinite, it follows that Thou hast not laid upon us the obligation of adequate gratitude!
When I saw that the door of utterance was closed, I perceived that of action open and said to myself in ecstacy;—
“If thou hast not the power of utterance and canst not chaunt panegyrics, be not cast down, for it is the smooth-tongued and empty-handed who, by a fraudulent barter, traffic words at the rate of realities. The praise which is laid upon mankind9e as a duty, by the commands of the Understanding,—that world-obeyed sovereign,—is that they make the night-illuminating jewel of reason,—one of the bountiful Divine Ruler's greatest gifts,—into a bright lamp, and employ it for sweeping and cleansing the courts of their outer and inner man. Should the taskmasters10a of fate's workshop have attired a son of Adam in the garb of want and solitude, let him first of all gird up his loins for self-culture and afterward let him endeavour the improvement of others. Should they have brought him into a crowd of associations and contacts— as may be inevitable in the arrangements of this evil world,—let him, if a ruler, prefer the betterment of others to his own; for the duty of the shepherd is watching the flock, and the design of sovereignty is universal guardianship. If he be a subject, let him, first of all, show alacrity in obeying the orders of his legitimate ruler,10b and then let him cleanse the secret chambers of his heart from the dust of heavy-pacing sensuality and nimble-footed wrath, so that, by his life and conversation, he be a teacher and a testimony of the incomparable Giver and Cherisher of his outer and inner man.”
When the communing with my heart had proceeded thus far, a resting-stage showed itself afar off to my bewildered mind, and my thoughts were pleasant for a while. My astonied heart was, it is true, saddened by the length and difficulty of the journey, but was cheered by the sound of the machinery of movement,10c and by the good tidings of eventual arrival. Suddenly the thoughtful foot of my boding spirit came upon a stone; for the praise of God does not consist in comprehending His perfect attributes and assigning10d them to His Essence; nor is it the reckoning up of His benefits which are without beginning or end, and by dint11a of these wares of new-fangled11b praise, thrusting oneself forward; nor11c should we regard praise as beyond human comprehension and so, stop short of the porch of thanksgiving; nor should we style self-culture12a the recital of the Divine praise, and growing weary-hearted12b at the darkness of the road and the distance of the goal, regard such self-deception as a gain, and with abandonment of thanksgiving, set about whatever the cheatery of the hour represent as our true aim.
Rather the note of Praise is to lay this praise-loving, self-adorning, self-auctioning spirit12c on the threshold of service, at the base of supplication and humiliation and to cast it down from the arch12d of self-consciousness and self-regard, so that its inward poverty may be adorned by outward submissiveness, and its inner and outer nature be decked with humility and lowliness till fitness13a grace the bosom of purpose and be turned into praise of the Omnipotent Creator.
Now as such wares13b of thanksgiving are abundant in the booths of men and are especially plentiful in my own stall, why do I withhold myself from Divine praise and why do I delay to laud the Eternal One? Under any circumstances, it is better for me to escape from this deceiving misery of self-pleasing and to address myself to the heights of lofty thanksgiving.
I was a long time in perplexity, having neither ability to speak nor power to remain silent, when suddenly a door of light was opened by the intellect, that glory of life, and my confused heart found the neck of hope fitted with the noose of resolution. This message came to the ear of guidance, “Artist in Truth's picture gallery! dost thou not compose a book whose frontispiece thou mayest adorn with praise? Thou art inditing the history of the Lord of time and the terrene (zamīn ū zamān) and Crown-jewel of monarchs, and praise to God will come into the writing, and thanksgiving to the Almighty be part of the picture! praise of praise is not right; the works of the Artificer are the perfect praise of the pure God and acknowledge13c him with a tongueless tongue.”
“They (the works of creation) by conferring this knowledge, grant to the soul-awakened and inwardly-cultured, possession of Light absolute and bring them into the vast shadow of praise which together with its delights, is the highest dignity (manṣab) of celestial existences.”13d
“Now14a it is manifest that no nobler impress or sublimer jewel is to be seen in the material world,14b than the exalted presence of powerful princes who by their holy energy, regulate the outer world and knit it together. And assuredly, to make over a world to one man and to consign to him the momentous affairs of a universe is to incorporate in him the world of reality, or rather to make him its soul. Especially if he be a world-adorner seized with the desire of inhaling the fragrant breezes of Truth's spring-time and is seated on the lofty throne of felicity. Still more if he be the Lord of an Age who in addition to these two14c endowments, has a heart and mind fed from a hidden fountain. Above all, if he be that altar of the pious who by the Divine aid, has risen above these degrees and has become colourist of the House of Truth, banquet-illuminator of the Hall of Realities, confidant of the Presence Chamber, intimate of the pure palace of unity, and is by auspicious fate seated on the throne of fortune. Sway over the outer and inner world and unravelment of knots, both spiritual and temporal, are conspicuous in him. Therefore is he the adorner of the imperial throne; the uplifter of the banner of God's shadow in our happy age; aggregation of the artists of thought and wisdom, or rather master-piece of the eternal artificers. With such vast stores of true praise in thy keeping, why remainest thou distraught in search?”
On hearing this soul-refreshing message, the morning breeze of felicity arose; the stock of eternal bliss was collected; the eye of hope grew bright; the outer world became current coin; the inner world exulted; the skirt of success fell into my hand; the wished-for countenance came in sight.
Good God! What a strange mystery it is that in historical writings, praise of the pure Giver is introduced as an adornment to the book, whereas here, the book is adorned in order to the praise of the Creator. In the pages of secularists, praise comes in as ancillary to the design of the book, but in this glorious history, the design is subservient to the praise. According to the old method, God's praise was effected by utterance; in this new rendezvous on Reason's highway, action is praise. My predecessors relied on speech for God's praise; in this exordium of rare writing, recourse is had to the perfect man15a who is a God-worshipping king, viz., that Lord of the World who, by virtue of his God-seeking and God-apprehending, has removed the veil from between the external and the internal and has established love between the sections of the recluse and the layman15b and has lifted up the curtain from in front15c of the apparent and the real.
Heedlessness which used to travel on the opposite road to discretion, has retraced his steps and become one of wisdom's servants. Formalism15d which had left the regions of inquiry and was stirring up tumults, has now thrown inquiry's scarf on his shoulder and become a minister at the shrine. Blind self-worship which had abandoned the worship of God and adopted the worship of the creature, has now got eyes to see with and has come, ashamed and downcast, to the temple of divine worship.
Blear-eyed envy which had megrim15e in the head and madness in the brain, and used to strive against the Allwise Lawgiver, has now got wisdom for his guide, and, having become enrolled as one of the pardoned of the shrine of grace,15f has been ranked among the helpers of the kingdom. Painful longing—the health, indeed, of Eternity—from being cripple has become a courier, and appears both as the runner and the winning-post. And why should this not be when we have, in this enlightened age, the chamber-lamp of the universe, the glory of Adam's race, the unveiler of hidden secrets, the revealer of faultless forms? Or how should these things appear strange in the eyes of the far-seeing and wise, when he is (at once) composer (nāẓim) of the institutes of sovereignty, distributor16a of the riches of the servants of God, hairsplitting discerner of microscopic subtleties, the great lapidary and assaymaster?
So long as the spiritual supremacy over the recluse which is called Holiness and the sway over laymen which is called Sovereignty, were distinct, there was strife and confusion among the children of Noah16b (mankind). Now that in virtue of his exaltation, foresight, comprehensive wisdom, universal benevolence, pervading discernment and perfect knowledge of God, these two great offices (manṣab) which are the guiding thread of the spiritual and temporal worlds, have been conferred on the opener of the hoards of wisdom and claviger of Divine treasuries, a small portion at least,—if his holy nature grant the necessary faculty,—may be brought from the ambush of concealment to the asylum of publicity. Knowest thou at all who is this world-girdling luminary and radiant spirit? Or whose august advent has bestowed this grace? 'Tis he who by virtue of his enlightenment and truth, is the world-protecting16c sovereign of our age, to wit, that Lord (Shāhanshāh) of the hosts of sciences,—theatre of God's power,—station of infinite bounties,— unique of the eternal temple,—confidant17a of the daïs of unity,—jewel of the imperial mine,—bezel of God's signet-ring,—glory of the Gūrgān17b family,—lamp of the tribe of Timur,17c —lord of incomparable mystery,—heir of Humāyūn's throne,—origin17d of the canons of world-government,—author of universal conquest,—shining forehead of the morning of guidance,—focus17e of the sun of holiness,— sublime17f concentration of humanity,—heir-apparent of the sun,— anthology of the books of fate and destiny,—protagonist of triumphant armies,—quintessence of the commingling of nights and days,—cream of the progeny of the elements17g and the heavenly bodios,—world's eye (sun) of benevolence and bounty,—cheek-mole of sovereignty and fortune,—back-bone18a of the frame of the Khilāfat,18b —bosom-joy of justice and mercy,—brightener (farūzanda) of the jewel of fortune and felicity,—exalter (farāzanda) of the throne and crown,—connoisseur of the gem of the wise,—appreciator of the pearl of lofty genius,—opening18c the knots of those trammeled in business,—balm of ulcerated hearts,—clear-thoughted stoic,18d —world-adorning life-giver,—a pictured soul and incarnate reason,—world of life and life of world,—enlightened truth-seër—lover of the way,— truth-chooser,—of discreet gait and constant intelligence,—wakeful occupant of the throne of morning,—sole tenant of light's adytum,— illuminating the Presence Chamber,—knowing the boundaries of the paths,—achiever of universal18e peace,—site of wondrous gifts,— grandmaster of the grades of sanctity,—initiated in the mysteries of light18f and darkness,—theatre of Divine and secular truths,— perceiver of the links between the visible18g and invisible worlds,— knowing secrets, spiritual and temporal,—fountain for those athirst for the sweet waters of communion,—goal of the strayed from the path of perfection,—theatre of refined subtleties and exalted sciences,— resting place of infused knowledge and inspired mysteries,—adorning the travelling litter18h while in his native land,—light of retirement in society,—apprehending quickly,—retaining long,—giving much, getting little,—pilot of the ship19a of the universe,—ark19b of the boundless ocean,—keen-sighted guardian of degrees of honour,— subtle distributor of dignities,—of fortunate genius and auspicious glance,—of happy horoscope and exalted star,—bearer of heavy burdens,—brilliant master of lofty understanding,—ornament of wisdom,—cherisher of the wise,—world-adorning conqueror,—supporting friends,—scattering foes,—binding enemies,—opening countries, —exalter19c of the thrones of majesty and awe,—uplifter of the cushions of pomp and prosperity,—warder of faith and state,— protector of throne and signet,—beautifier of the seven climes,— adorner of throne and diadem,—rank-breaking royal cavalier,19d — tiger-throwing falcon,—champion of the battle-field of the Holy War,19e —combatant stalking over the seven worlds,—bulwark builder of sovereignty and dominion,—base of the columns of instruction and discipline,—holding fast the strong handle of perfect reason,— riveter of the massy chain of universal justice,—all eye20a in the banquet-hall,—all heart in the battle-field,—in the joyous festival a refreshing cloud,20b —in the triumphant battle, a blood-drinking sea,— in the fields of bravery, an unsheathed sword,—in the tournament, a polished lance,—a billowy ocean in the world of giving,—a lightning-darting cloud20c in battle,—his breath, a swaying censer at the soul's feast,—his pleasantness, the waving fan of opening morn,— his justice, equable as Farwardīn20d and of minute discernment,—his temper is like the zephyr of Ardibihisht20e and runs over with smiles,20f —his nature is experienced and disciplined in the solution of problems,—his flawless intellect is a trusty counsellor in the explication of difficulties,—externally his splendour is that of Jamshīd,20g and his glory that of Farīdūn,20h —internally he is Socrates in wisdom, Plato in perception,—he is trained inwardly and outwardly,—his eye and heart are sources of liberality,—he has harmonized tongue and heart, and has made unity20i partner with plurality,—his vigilance watches over appetite,—his genius treads lust under foot,—his fair-dealing has overturned the petty stalls of fraud and deception,—the touchstone21a of his wisdom has separated the gold-encrusted lump21b from the solid gold.
He rends the garment of contumacy21c which wraps the faces of debts,21d but draws the mantle of forgiveness over the heads of transgressions; the splendour of power streams from the brow of his benevolence; the lightning of benignity draws lambent21e lights from the fires of his wrath. His fury melts adamantine boldness; his dread turns to water the courage of the iron-souled; the shrinking of the age is the impress of the wrinkling of his brows; its expansion the reflex of his nature's blossoming.
Prayers for his permanence have stationed themselves on the tongue of small and great; love and belief in him repose in the hearts of young and old; the loftiness of his fame has lowered the glory of local magnates; the majesty of his dominion has put away the rulers of the quarters of the world; the echo of his fortune has opened the ears of the princes of the horizons; the ensign22a of his glory has lifted up the eyes of provincial kings;22b his mighty fame has mingled with the spheres; the sound of his glory has passed from shore to shore; the proclamation of his bounty has transgressed the boundaries of the world;22c his glorious court has become the native land of the elect of the seven climes; his daily increasing dominion has become the masterpiece of epochs and cycles; his glorious ascension, the auspicious frontispiece of stars and planets.
VERSE.That King of Kings, prop of the sky!
The umbrella of his fortune is the sky's shadow;
Adorning the garden-plot of wisdom and knowledge;
Exalting the throne and the diadem;—
The seat of his power is rich in liberality;
His fortune's shape has an open brow;
His presence is the truth-seekers' cynosure;
His pity a fountain-head for the thirsty;
By a single thought,22d he has placed under footThe royal divan and the dervish's carpet,
The nine heavens revolve for his purpose;
The seven stars23a travel for his work;
By wisdom, he is the age's provider;
By vigilance, the world's watchman;
His love and his hate, in the banquet and the battle,
Are brimming cups of wine and blood;
The khāqān23b fears his wrath;
Cæsar23c is disturbed at his frown;
Heaven in glory, Earth in stability;23d
Lord of universal reason,23e Jalālu-d-dīn.23f
Essence of sunlight and shadow of God,
Pearl of crown and throne is Akbar Shāh.
May this old world be renewed by him!
May his star be the sun's rays!
This empty-handed one, who, from lack of the capital of praise, had neither room to sit nor a leg to stand upon, became, through the above excellent idea and firm resolve, a treasury full of the Creator's praise; a marvellous treasury,—for its store increased by expenditure and diminished by hoarding. By force of sincerity, I became an alchemist, and enriched my poverty-stricken soul. I put forth the arm of fortune aud opened the door of the treasury. I was fortunate, I became rich. I was fluent, I became eulogistic. I crossed the threshold of allegory and opened the door of truth. I was simple, I became acute. The door of success which was shut in front of me, was divinely opened. My dejection became exaltation; my inaction, flowing activity; my speechlessness, effective speech. I was taken from the public entrance to the royal apartments; a fluent tongue was granted to me, the tongueless one, and the right of speech was conceded to me.
I wished that before entering on my subject,—as it has been the usage of former writers of all nations to embellish the preambles24a of their books (after praises of God) with general or special salutations to those great saints and masters of the divine mysteries who, after lighting up the lamp of guidance and effusion in the world's dark chamber, have gone down to the grave;—I too, might so adorn this collection of Divine praise and gratify my heart by saluting that Company which from its eminence and knowledge of God, occupies the intellectual fore-court of this humble individual. But inasmuch as this one who has left the path of semblance and followed after truth, is aware that if a distracted one should, on finding his way into the royal court, utter encomia on the field-marshals or wish by his intervention, to make the favour of the Lord of the Age fall upon the Prime Minister,24b he would but prove his own folly and madness.
What strength has Sahā24c to praise the shining Moon to the glorious Sun? It is sufficient honour and glory to describe itself in that Presence as an insignificant atom. In that Presence where the favoured magnates of the Court to whom the power of recommending a tiny ant has not been vouchsafed, have not received permission to express their wishes, how can it be proper for one who, like myself, is remaining on the threshold and is without right of access, to solicit grace and favour for the chosen courtiers and to ask pardon and paradise25a for them. If he should, from inconsideration, lengthen the tongue of boldness, by what name would he be called in the justice-hall of discernment, and what reproach would he not receive from the Inquisitor of Justice? I therefore gave up that idea and made myself ready, so that, if my abilities permitted and the Divine aid were vouchsafed to me, I might reduce to writing the auspicious description of the King of manifestation and reality,— the leader of religion and realm (dīn ū dunyā),—and might bring together his beautiful25b and awful attributes and the praises of his majesty and perfection; to wit,—the marvellous festivals, wondrous wars, exalted devotions, and pleasant ways of this chosen one of God, without the disagreeable admixtures of poetical25c prose writers. So that I might acquit myself of my duties of (1) worship, (2) loyalty, (3) gratitude, and might also establish a claim to the regard of new-comers to the world and of future travellers by life's caravans.
Though each one of those four points25d was a powerful motive for entering upon this great task, yet, as my aim was lofty and ability small, success was not attained nor my desire achieved until this light shone on the antechamber of my truth-reflecting heart; to wit—“In this noble enterprise, at the same time that you discharge your duty to the creature, you are also fulfilling your obligations to the Creator. While you are paying your devoirs of respect and gratitude, you are in reality, steadfastly engaged in praising God, the Creator of the world.” Day by day, my purpose was growing confirmed and the materials of success were being collected, until at length, out of general good-will to the partakers of his felicity and from special favour to me, his charmed one,26a a ray of intimation from the court of liberality reached this—as regards his sincerity,—forerunner on the highway of loyalty, but—as regards attainment26b of desires,—hindermost (member) of the caravans of felicity; and to Abu-l-faẓl, son of Mubārak, upon the crown27a of whose heart is the quadripartite cap27b of discipleship and whose seven times embroidered sleeve27c of devotion is celebrated throughout the eighteen thousand creations, this sublime mandate was given. “Write with the pen of sincerity the account of the glorious events and of our dominion-increasing victories.” What shall I say was the effect of this order for describing the occurrences?28a Did it grant permission to undertake the task by bestowing on me the necessary genius? or did it, by a grant of felicity to my heart, appoint me the recorder of glorious events? or did it bestow eloquence on one rude29a of speech? Nay! nay! it gave wings to my words and feet to my pen. It was an invisible angel, conveying from the upper world, life-giving news of joy. It was the Archangel29b Gabriel bringing down a revelation from the antechamber of Omnipotence.
Assuredly, I spent29c much labour and research in collecting the records and narratives of his Majesty's actions and I was a long time interrogating the servants of the State and the old members of the illustrious family.29d I examined both prudent, truth-speaking old men and active-minded, right-actioned young ones and reduced their statements to writing. The royal commands were issued to the provinces, that those who from old service remembered, with certainty or with adminicle of doubt, the events of the past, should copy out their notes and memoranda and transmit them to Court. Inasmuch as this auspicious invitation was not fully responded to nor my wish fully accomplished, a second command shone forth from the holy Presence-chamber; to wit—that the materials which had been collected, should be faired out and recited in the royal hearing, and that whatever might have to be written down afterwards, should be introduced into the noble volume as a supplement, and that such details as on account of the minuteness of the inquiries and the minutiae of affairs, could not then be brought to an end,30a should be inserted afterwards at my leisure. Being relieved by this royal order,—the interpreter of the Divine ordinance,—from the secret anxiety of my heart, I proceeded to reduce into writing the rough draughts which were void of the graces of arrangement and style. I obtained the chronicle of events beginning at the nineteenth year of the Divine Era, when the Record Office31a was established by the enlightened intellect of his Majesty, and from its rich pages I gathered the accounts of many events. Great pains too, were taken to procure originals or copies of most of the orders31b which had been issued to the provinces from the Accession up to the present day which is the dawn of Fortune's morning.31c Their sacred contents yielded much material for the sublime volume. I also took much trouble to incorporate many of the reports which ministers and high officials had submitted, about the affairs of the empire and the events of foreign countries.31d And my labour-loving soul was satiated by the apparatus of inquiry and research. I also exerted myself energetically to collect the rough notes and memoranda of sagacious and well-informed men. By these means, I constructed a reservoir for irrigating and moistening the rose garden32a of fortune. But inasmuch as, notwithstanding all this apparatus and these rich treasures of information, the House of History32b was become decayed from lapse of time, and there were contradictions and imperfections in the accounts and no sufficient means of clearing up difficulties,— I begged the correction of what I had heard from his Majesty who, by virtue of his perfect memory, recollects every occurrence in gross and in detail, from the time he was one year old—when the material32c reason came into action—till the present day when he is, by his wisdom, the cynosure of penetrating truth-seekers. By repeated interviews I arrived at correctness and erased doubts and difficulties with the knife of investigation and ascertainment. When peace had possessed my soul, I made honesty and lavish labour, conductors of the lofty undertaking. I trust that I shall, by help of sincerity, accomplish my task, and that, having gathered such of the wondrous new fruit of the garden of creations, and catalogue of the Creator's masterpieces as my understanding can grasp, I may display them so that a lamp of vision may be set up at the head of Wisdom's Way for the darkened of heart, and that the store of the enlightened may be augmented. Laus Deo! What a blessed thing it is that I am paying my devotions to God behind the curtain of service to my sovereign, and that while setting forth the code of regulations of the outer and inner world and the duties of sovereignty and servitude for all mankind from the king to the beggar, I am acquiring a stock of eternal merit for myself.
As I consider it would be disrespectful to mention on every occasion in this book—which is a record of Divine praise—the sublime name of this King of the Horizons, I use the phrase Ḥazrat Shāhanshāhī, his Majesty, King of kings, and for the deceased32d sovereign, his Majesty's illustrious father, I avoid prolixity, by using the phrase, Jahānbānī32e Jannat-āshiyānī. I indicate the venerable mother of the holy one by the title Miryam-makānī,33a a majestic epithet which passed into the enlightened mind of his Majesty, the king of kings. I style the revered grandfather of the Lord of the World, Ḥazrat Gītī-sitānī-i-Fardōs-makānī33b and thereby abridge his designations.
R. A. S. No. 117 has a curious addition to the account of the mandate (ante 27) which A. F. received to write the history of Akbar's achievements. After afshānda, it has “Dar bīst-ū-dūyam Isfandārmaẕ māh, sana sī-ū-siyūm-i-Ilāhī ḥukm shud,” etc. “On 22nd Isfandārmaẕ, 33rd of the Divine Era, an order was given.” Lower down where it is stated that a second commandment was issued (ante page 29) the same MS. has “Dar rūz isnād Ardibihisht sana sī-ū-cahārum ki siyum Rajab nuh-ṣad-ū-nuwad-ū-haft ḥukm mujadd shud.” “On 26th Ardibihisht of the 34th year, or 3rd Rajab 997, a second order was issued.” I have not found these clauses in any other MS., but they are hardly likely to have been interpolated by the copyist and the first date appears to agree with A. F.'s other statements, for in the Āīn (Jarrett III. 416) he says that he was seven years employed on the history which with the year or so occupied in the collection of materials might bring the completion of the work to the 41st or 42nd of Akbar.
WHICH TOOK PLACE BEFORE HIS MAJESTY'S AUSPICIOUS BIRTH.
It is not hidden from the mirror-hearts of the quick-sighted and far-seeing—who know the mysteries of truth, and who show forth the secrets behind the divine veils, and are curtain-openers of elemental (i.e., terrestrial and celestial) mysteries—that the profound wisdom and secret power of the Creator ordain that it is by the weddings of heavenly34b sires with earthly mothers, and after various cycles of lunar34c aspects, and of applications,34d of syzygies and oppositions of the sun and moon, of conjunctions of the superior34e and inferior planets, risings and settings, appearances and disappearances of stars, lunar and solar eclipses, qualities of exaltations and falls,34f influences of zeniths and nadirs,34g and the like, (which are architects in the workshop of production and change, and artists in the picture-gallery of invention and contrivance) that the unique one comes forth from the secret inner chambers into the palace of manifestation, and that Unity emerges from the veiled ones of the cabinet of non-existence and displays its glory in the sublime assembly of Being, to be the cause of the arrangement of the Universe and the means of discriminating between justice and oppression throughout the world. How can arrangement result from simple35a matter? How will it make progress when the constitution of every individual is founded on a collection of opposite tendencies,35b when there is colossal egotism in every brain, when justice is unattainable, love non-existent, appetite rampant, and concupiscence daily on the increase?
The wise and far-sighted man is aware that in every period it is indispensable that there be a ruler who shall be strengthened by God's help and made fortunate by eternal blessings. And the philosopher perceives that such a power must be spiritual as well as possessed of strength of arm. The man of experience knows that many years must elapse before a ruby36a develop in the embryonic sac of the mine and arrive at maturity, so as to be fit for a royal diadem. How many revolutions of epochs then, and how many cycles, are required before such a priceless pearl and unique jewel,36b lacking in naught, can obtain his special preparation, so that by ascending steps, he arrive at the fulness of perfection? Acute and experienced observers perceive that the length of the period is dependent on the number of the subjects,36c for the greater their number, the greater are the opposition and incommensurability. The greatness of the Lord of an Age is more conspicuous when he takes the burden of the whole world and of mankind on the head (farq) of genius, and guards the flocks (firq) of the universe from strife, and arranges and completes, by virtue of his wisdom, the work of the world and of mankind. But whenever, in the plenitude of His desires, the Divine Workman wills, that the arrangement of things spiritual and temporal and the culture of the inner and outer worlds be placed in the hands of one individual of the human race, how can the period of preparation of such a lofty comprehension and sublime intellect be calculated by the human understanding, and how can finite cycles contain it? Inasmuch as the enlightened and wise of our time find these two supreme gifts36d in the writing on the luminous forehead of the Lord36e of the World (Akbar), they quite justly admit their inability to expound his orbit.36f To them, this very fact is bliss, that by the Divine aid, they have come to know him. For the comprehension of the stages of development of such a Lord is not within the compass of human calculation. They know that in venerating this Great One, they are doing reverence to the Divine power and are worshipping the very Godhead. They spend all their energies in acquiring his grace, as that necessarily includes the compassing of the grace of the incomparable God. What bliss can be greater than this? Or what fortune can be more exquisite than this boon? And the enlightened and far-seeing man whose visual ray has been strengthened by the antimony of rectitude, knows from the analogy37a of an auspicious star, it was after thousands of years had been spent, womb after womb, in the cradle of preparation, that the broidery of existence was bestowed on her Majesty Ālanqūā,37b so that she might become37c worthy of that world-illuminating Light, which is the interpretation of that anthropomorphic Sun37d which stands at the entrance-gate of ancient tradition and constitutes the basal inscription39a of true histories. And he perceives that the same Light which took shape, without human instrumentality or a father's loins, in the pure womb of her Majesty Ālanqūā, after having, in order to arrive at perfection, occupied during several ages the bodily wrappings of other holy witnesses, is manifesting itself at the present day, in the pure entity of this unique God-knower and God-worshipper (Akbar).
VERSE.How many ages have passed away!
How many planetary conjunctions occurred,
That this happy star might come forth from heaven!
It is an ancient custom and established institute that the messengers of the eternal city and the heralds of the opening of the gates39b of munificence, before the appearance of an elect one,—such that one only comes into existence after thousands of years,—rejoice the privileged and wakeful-hearted by the glad tidings of his approach. For every event is stationed40a behind the veil of a time and the precise40b moment (of its appearance) is concealed and hidden. Yet before it become a certainty, they open a wicket40c in the invisible world in face of the senses, and the window-fronts hold a lattice40d of indications.
Sometimes the manifestations occur in the visible world, and sometimes their lustre is exhibited in dreamland,—which is an image of the world of mortals,—so that the recipients may have hope while on the highway of desire, and may await the wished-for light and may be observing the ascension of the auspicious star, for expectation enhances joy, and joy is the ornament of felicity. And whatever takes form after longing and striving, and obtains its fulfilment after watching and waiting, has a charm about it which is not met with otherwise.
An instance of this is the circumstance that his Majesty Jahānbānī Jannat-āshiyānī (Humāyūn) after receiving an intimation of the advent of the glorious one (ān ḥaẓrat) was ever keeping the dust-stained head of supplication on the earth of humility; and placing the apex of beseechment on the threshold of the Ka‘ba of requests, and turning the face of hope towards the altar of entreaty, used to pray with invocations and longing, for that living blessing, which in truth, is an auspicious ascension40e and an increase of life.
VERSE.O Lord, by the lamplight of Thy Essence,
By the ocean pearls of Thy Attributes,
By those holy Ones (prophets and saints) who come forth like pure roses,
Whose souls are washed by the fountains of the sun,
Grant a jewel to my fortune's crown;
Grant a star to my exaltation's heaven;
Grant a moonlight to my chamber,41a
Which may disperse the darknesses of the Universe;
Irradiate my existence by a sun,
That41b the nine heavens may come within my adoration.
Give perpetuity to my afflicted soul,
So41c that, if death come by a hundred ways, I may not die.
Of a truth, a son who will be one's successor and take one's place on the glorious throne, is something which is a compensation for life,—for which there is no compensation,—and is a substitute for bye-gone years. He is the fruit of life's garden and a celestial lantern, fed from the oil of the Divine bounty. He kindles the family lamp of the whole line of ancestors and fixes it firmly on the throne of fortune. He lengthens and broadens the shades of justice and glory over the heads of mortals. Especially, if he be such a rare and exquisite product and so consummately dutiful that, if he be called Primus41d of the Poles of Saints, it is but proper, and if he be termed the knot in the grand chain of sovereignty,41e Father of Fathers,41f and Great Ancestor, it is but just and in accordance with the real facts. It is exceptionally suitable that a king who in succession to a line of ancestors is placed on a throne of rule and sway, and is world-dominating and world-adorning, should have an illustrious successor and such an one is of all men, the most eager in this quest.
At length, on 4th Rabī‘u-l-awwal, 947, of the lunar (Ḥijra) era (Friday, 10 July, 1540) his Majesty Jahānbānī Jannat-āshiyānī had, after paying his devotions to the Author of bounty, laid for a time his head on the pillow of repose and his limbs on the couch of tranquility, when, suddenly, under the auspicious veil of sleep,—hence called the cabinet of secrets—he became aware that God, (Glory be to Him) was bestowing on him an illustrious successor whose greatness shone from his forelock, and the lightning of whose splendour was flashing from his temples. From the light of his guidance, the dark regions of thoughts and opinions were illuminated, and the glory of his justice was lighting up the fields of night and day. It is in accordance with the communication which was made by the messengers of the invisible world regarding his Majesty (Akbar) that the glorious name of that divine masterpiece exalts at the present day, pulpits and proclamations. The superscriptions42a of the gold and silver coins also tell of it.
When his Majesty awoke, he first returned thanks to God for the majestic message and splendid grace and then told the circumstance to the intimates of his harem and the servants of his threshold.42b
VERSE.A43a sleep which tore the veil from before the eyes of the soul,
Cannot be called sleep; it was the heart's waking.
Sharīf Khān related that when his brother Shamsu-d-dīn Mu. Khān Atga43b was in Ghaznī, in the 22nd year of his age, he dreamt he saw the moon come into his arms.43c He related the fact to his venerable father Mīr Yār Mu. Ghaznavī who was a spiritually-minded householder,43d and the latter rejoiced at the happy appearance of the auspicious circumstance and interpreted it to mean that God would, one day, bestow a great privilege upon him which would be the means of exalting their family. And so it turned out, for by the blessings of that full Moon of glory of the heaven (Akbar) the family was raised from the nadir of the dust to the zenith of heaven.
Another circumstance was communicated by religious, right-thinking persons, viz. that when her Highness Miryam Makānī—may the shadows of her glory be eternal—was pregnant with the holy elements of his Majesty, a strange light was perceptible from her bright brows. Often her divine countenance had to observers, the appearance of mirrors such as are fastened by tirewomen43e near the temples of secluded chaste ones.
And the star of fortune sang this strain with the tongue of ecstacy.
VERSE.I placed the clouded brow on the path43f of fortune,
I hung a thousand mirrors on the forehead.
One day, near the time44a of the auspicious birth, her Highness Miryam Makānī was riding44b on a camel. On the way, her eye fell on a mango-garden. As at such a time, there is an inclination for sub-acid drinks and for sour-sweet fruits, she bade her half-brother,44c Khwāja Mu‘aẓẓam fetch some mangoes. The Khwāja brought some, and was giving them into her blessed hand when he saw a light upon her glorious brows like that from a mirror. He said, “Have you put a mirror on your forehead?” She replied, “I have not attached any mirror. What are you referring to?” Then the Khwāja looked narrowly and saw that her Highness' shining forehead was lighted by the light of God. He marvelled at the light eternal and mentioned the circumstance to several of the confidential courtiers. His statement was to the effect, that the glory of the divine light so streamed from the shining brows that he had not strength to gaze steadily at it.
The venerable mother of Khān A‘ẓam Mīrzā ‘Azīz Kokaltāsh, who was his Majesty's nurse,44d related the following anecdote. “One morning, before I had the good fortune to hold this supreme office, a great light approached me and entered my bosom. I felt as if the world-warming Sun had fallen into my breast. A strange condition supervened and a great astonishment laid hold of me so that all the parts and particles of my body were moved and shaken, as by excess of joy and ecstacy. And the exquisiteness of that delight still suffuses me (lit. still possesses every hair of me). And from the time of that white dawn of the morning of majesty and beauty and rose-blooming of fortune and glory, I was on the watch, thinking, ‘O God! what will be the result of this sublime feeling?’ At length, I was exalted to this lofty service which is the treasure of realm and religion (dīn ū dunyā) and of trust.”
“God be praised! What a blessing it was that came to my bosom and what a fortune was received within my breast. Though externally, I was strongly made for the service of that sublimely-born pearl, yet in reality, it was Fortune who inclined her face45b towards me and supported me and my family. Whenever I took his Majesty on my shoulder, auspiciousness raised me from the dust. Accordingly, by the blessing of this service which was destined for me, a great grace and a lucky star were conferred on me. And I and my family became famous throughout the seven climes.”
Another story was told by Maulānā45c Nūru-d-dīn Tarkhān and some others who were in attendance on the Court, viz., that near the emergence of the sun of fortune (Akbar), his Highness Jahānbānī was recreating himself in a room45d which had latticed windows, and the formula of the rectification45e of the glorious birth was before him. Suddenly rays of divine light shone from the lattices, so that all who were privileged to be present, both small and great, perceived them. Those who were entitled to speak, asked his Highness Jahānbānī the meaning of the phenomenon, and he replied, “A rose of the rose-garden of the Khilāfat will just now come into bloom, and a child of light will emerge from the hidden chamber of magnificence and glory, and from the gorgeous sarāī of Honour and Fortune and plant his foot in the circle of existence. The refulgence46a of his greatness will melt the hearts of the enemies of the State in the crucible of destruction, and confer new splendour and glory on our race and family. Nay, rather, the night-chamber of the universe will acquire grandeur and beauty from his world-lighting rays.”
Mīr ‘Abdu-l-ḥai Ṣadr,46b one of the purely-born, related as follows:—“One morning, his Highness Jahānbānī Jannat-āshiyānī was bowed down in reverie, and seemed much distraught.46c After a time, he raised his head and exclaimed, “Praise be to God the Gracious, the lamp of our royal family has been relit.” On my asking the meaning of his giving thanks, his Highness replied, “While I was in a state of wakeful47a sleep, a brilliant star emerged from a certain quarter (here his Highness pointed to the region where the glorious parturient was) and rose higher and higher every moment. And as it ascended, its size and brilliance increased, until its light had embraced the greater portion of the world. I asked a holy man what the luminous body was, and he replied that it was the light incarnate of my successor, and that whatever part of the earth had been shone upon by this world-illuminating ray, would come under his dominion, and be civilized by the light of his justice.” Two days after this visiou, the news came of the ascension of the auspicious star above the horizon of hope, and when the period of the spiritual manifestation and holy vision was compared,47b it appeared that the auspicious birth and the delivery of the miraculous message had occurred at one and the same time.” When such an illustrious progeny is the lot of an eminent man,47c why should such a communication not be vouchsafed? And when such a boon followed, why should there not have been such a reverie, and such an interpretation? Such things may appear extraordinary to superficial observers and to materialists, but the pure-minded and far-seeing conjectured before the event, and knew with certainty afterwards that this was the shining of the world-lighting star and that the message betokened the darkness-destroying sun. And to those who have had the bliss of being long in the service of this Lord of the World and of understanding his glorious qualities, the appearance of such portents is no stumbling-block.
Nor is it hidden from the acute and scrutinising that though Maulānā Sharafu-d-dīn ‘Alī-i-Yazdī has in the Ẓafarnāma47d taken a superficial view of things and stayed Qācūlī Bahādur's47e true vision and Tūmana Khan's interpretation at His Majesty the Lord of Conjunction (Timur) and has explained the eighth shining star that issued from Qācūlī Bahādur's breast48a and lighted up the world, of the appearance of his Majesty the Lord of Conjunction who is the seventh48b ancestor of his Majesty (Akbar), yet it is clear to the minds of those far-sighted light-dwellers who understand hermeneutics and the secrets of the dream-world that to explain seven stars as seven persons whose heads were not exalted by the diadems48c of rule, nor were seen on the dominion-adorning Divan of excellence, is remote from the principles of interpretation and the significance of dreams. Rather those seven stars are seven world-adorning potentates, and the world-irradiating light is the holy personality of his Majesty the King of Kings who hath by the light of his Being illumined the terrene and terrestrials. It is the auspicious Akbar48d who was the resplendent light which arose from the breast of that Jupiter of good fortune (Qācūlī Bahādur). Although the latter be, numerically his Majesty's fifteenth48e ancestor, yet among those there are seven stars of the zodiacal Sign of greatness and having the light of this world-illuminating King of Kings emblazoned on the foreheads of their biographies. These seven out of the fifteen48f have been distinguished for greatness and world-adornment, and the eighth of the noble band is his Majesty the King of Kings. The light of their rectitude has made the horizons brilliant, and in the noble series of the fifteen48g great ones, there has been given the glorious vesture of spiritual and temporal sovereignty to this perfect witness of Divine Power, and he has been made light-bestower of the inner and outer worlds. This explanation is not hidden from the subtle investigators of real significations. On this account a synopsis of the perfections of this series will be found in this noble volume, and then the prudent and alert of mind will get proof of these words. Whoever at the present day shall peruse with the eyes of discernment and knowledge, the account of these illustrious magnates and understand the office of the Caliph49a of the Age, and become acquainted with the stages of the degrees of greatness of the Lord of the World, will applaud the exposition. Away, Away! I am no word-seller,49b seeking for approving glances from men. What more choice blessing can there be than this, that my truth-electing heart has been made a fount of true impressions,49c
and that my scrutinising reason has become an alighting-stage49d for these divine subtleties? With these night-gleaming jewels49e I frame glorious earrings as abiding ornaments for the understanding ears of the fortunate lovers of wisdom.
DIFFUSION OF THE GREATER FORTUNE (JUPITER) FROM THE SKY OF
AUSPICIOUSNESS—THE NATIVITY, TO WIT, OF HIS MAJESTY,
THE KING OF KINGS AND SHADOW OF GOD.
The apparition of the result of hopes from the embryonic sac of desire, and emergence of the light of fortune from the auspicious ascension-point,—the most holy nativity,50a to wit,—of his Majesty from the sublime veil and consecrated curtain of her Highness, cupola of chastity,—screen of modesty,—saint of seclusion,—scion of austerity,—holy one of the age,—dawn50b of epochs,—mistress of the world,—perfect teacher,50c —paragon of purity,—pattern of limpidity,—chosen one of pure disposition,—abounding in trustworthy fidelity,—pure-principled princess,—queen of celestial graces,—elect lady of time and the terrene,—world's bliss,—wave of eternal ocean, —mother50d -o'-pearl of the ocean of bounty,—lamp of the holy family, —glory of the house of guidance,—lantern of the wall50e of worship,— bridal chamber of the auspicious harem,—forefront of obedience to God,—eye of eternal empire,—pillar of the celestial throne,—pedestal of the sublime seat,—lady of the exalted marriage-daïs,—princess of fortune's alcove,—chosen curtain of honour's litter,—exalter of chastity's coiffure,—glorious gift of heaven,—treasure of Divine mercy,— prime dainty of the Divine table,—supreme boon of heavenly gifts,— revolving-point of bounties and graces,—glorious pearl of dominion and prestige,—spring-flower of justice,—tablet of the gergeous picture-gallery,—splendour of sanctity and love,—fire-flame of majesty and exaltation,—cream of abilities and accomplishments,—choice one51a of the secrets51b of hand and heart,—central node of wisdom and wakefulness,—linking the divine and the human,—goodly tree of peace and purity,—generous fruit of liberality and election,—truth-showing mirror,—countenance of certainty,—staircase of majesty,— ladder of realm and religion,—tap-root of the umbrageous trunk of happiness,—noble palm of the garden of excellence,—veiled matron of meekness and modesty,—screened and curtained one of honour and greatness,—glorious medium between hidden and revealed light,— opener of the morning of fortune and favour,—enveloped in celestial veils,—her Majesty Miryam Makānī, chaste one of church and state, Ḥamīda Bānū Bēgam —(may her glorious shadow be perpetuated!)— pure scion of that pattern of eminent saints,51c —pole of the poles of greatness,—wanderer in the wilderness of humanity,—swimmer in the ocean of divinity,—lamp of spiritual secrets,—key of the treasures of conquests,—rose-gatherer51d of the gardens of revelation,— garland-twiner of the fragrant herbs of truth,—abbot (imām) of the monastery of asceticism,—cup-bearer of the tavern of abundance,— ocean-hearted one of the baiting-place of privation,—ocean-drinker of the tavern of unity,—immersed in the seas of holy conflicts,— consumed by the lightnings of contemplation,—torch-bearer of the chamber of the Path,—caravan-conductor on truth's highway,— supreme theatre of the epiphanies of the divine essence,—illumination-spot52a of the rays of the Attributes,—cambist52b of the secrets of the masters of revelation and manifestation,—assayer of the hearts of the lords of divine transports,—observant traveller over hearts and spirits,—scrutinizer of the interiors of moulds and forms,—disperser52c of the clouds of darkness,—procuring the blotting-out of the writings52d of transgressions,—knowing the links between the seen and the unseen,—revealer of the splendours of the secrets of manifestation and concealment—
VERSE.Pole52e which salutes the two poles of heaven,
Bridling by discipline the tigers of lust,
Stalking as a lion in the forest of the heart,
Ocean-drinker of love, the premier elephant, Aḥmad-i-jām,52f
Holy be his tomb, (i.e., R. I. P.)
… occurred54a when the altitude of Procyon54b was 38° and when 8hs. 20m. had passed from the beginning of the night of 8th Ābān54c 464, Jalālī era, corresponding to 19th Isfandārmiẕ 911, of the old era,54d and to night of Sunday (shab-i-yak-shamba) 5th Rajab, lunar era,54e and to 6th Kārtik54f 1599, Hindū era, and to 16th Tishrīnu55a -l-awwal 1854, Greek era;—4hs. 22m.55b of the said night (that of Saturday, or rather Sunday)55c were remaining. The place was the auspicious city and fortunate fort, Amarkōṭ,55d which belongs to the second climate and lies in latitude 25 N. and longitude 105 E. of the Fortunate Isles. At that time, the imperial army had marched to subdue the country of Tatta (Scinde) and the litter of fortune had been directed to halt in the pleasant country and fortunate fortress, on account of the time's drawing nigh for the appearance of the light of the world.
Among the strange circumstances which occurred near the time of the appearance of the light of fortune, there was this,—that before the auspicious moment above-mentioned, the mother felt a pressing urgency to bring forth the child. Maulānā Cānd, the astrologer, who by the king's order, had been stationed by the chaste threshold in order that he might cast the horoscope, was perturbed, as the moment was inauspicious. “In a short time,56a a glorious moment will arrive, such as does not happen once in a thousand years. What an advantage if the birth could be delayed.” Those who were present made light of it and said, “What is the good of your agitation? Such things are not under control.”
At this very instant the impulse to bring forth passed off and the astrologer's mind was set at rest somewhat by the transit of the unlucky moment. The ostensible cause of this supreme blessing was that a country midwife had been just brought in to perform her office, and as her appearance was repulsive, the holy soul of Miryam Makānī felt disgusted and her even temper was rebuffed and so the urgency for parturition left her. But when the chosen time came, the Maulānā became disturbed, lest it should accidentally pass by. The confidants of the harem said to him, “Her Majesty,57a has after much suffering, got an interval of relief and is now slumbering. It would not be right to waken her. Whatever Almighty God, in His good pleasure, has determined, must happen.” Just as they were speaking, the pains of travail came upon her Majesty, Miryam Makānī, and awoke her and in that auspicious moment, the unique pearl of the viceregency of God (Khilāfat) came forth in his glory.
They spread the carpet of joy under the canopy of chastity and curtain of honour, and made ready a feast of joy and exultation. The veiled ones of the pavilion, and the chaste inmates of the royal harem anointed the eye of hope with the collyrium of rejoicing and coloured the eyebrows of desire with the indigo57b of merriness. They decked the ear of good tidings with the earring of success, painted the face of longing with the vermilion of pleasure, encircled the fore-arm of wish with the bracelet of purpose, and donning the anklet of splendour on the dancing foot, stepped into the theatre of delight and joy and raised the strain of praise and gratulation. Fan-wavers sprinkled otto of roses, and winnowed the air with sandal-scented arms. Dark-haired maidens freshened the floor by rubbing it with perfumes. Rose-cheeked damsels gave a new lustre to joy by sprinkling rose-water. Red-garmented, sweetly-smiling nymphs enveloped the silver-bosomed ones in gold, by scattering saffron. Rose-scented, jasmine-cheeked ones soothed the rapid dancers with camphorated57c sandal-wood. Gold in thuribles on the borders of the carpet, gave off fumes of incense.57d They uncoyered the stoves which were filled with lign-aloes and ambergris. Musicians created enchanting ecstacy, and melodious minstrels breathed forth magic strains.
VERSE.And soft-voiced Indian maids,
Glorious58a as Indian peafowl,
And light-fingered Chinese musicians
Produced intoxication with wineless cups;
And dulcimer-players from Khurāsān
Brought ease to laden breasts,
And singers from the land of ‘Irāq,58b
Everlasting capturers58c of joy.
In truth there was an assemblage like the communion of saints and recluses in the exquisiteness of its repose, and a carousal like a feast of spiritual beings in the absence of wine and cup. Celestial spectators took part in the rejoicings without the aid of bodily organs of vision, and sightseers from the upper world poured forth this strain with tongueless tongues:
VERSE.What is this intoxication58d without wine or bowl?
The wine which is drunk from cups is illicit here.
Trays of variously coloured fruits were spread, and tables laid out with different dainties. Robes of honour of divers colours were bestowed, and khil‘at58e upon khil‘at was presented. What shall I say of the hilarity and rejoicing, for there is no need of explanation or description? Were it possible to give any idea of the completion of the designs of the celestials, I might tell how, after long questing and searching, they clothed, with the glorious robe of existence, the Arranger of the world of reality and the Disposer of the outer world, and how they brought him from the hidden cradle of wondrous works and from the holy inner chambers, to the wondrous bridal-chamber of manifestation and splendid nuptial bed. But the description of heavenly exultation and of the joys of pure spirits is beyond the range of speech.
As soon as the light of glory deigned to emerge from the orient of fortune, they despatched swift couriers59a and hard-riding horsemen to convey the life-increasing news and the heart-expanding tidings to the tents of fortune and encampment of glory. This had been sixteen59b miles off, but on the morrow of the night which had been pregnant with the day of auspiciousness, the army marched at dawn from that station, and encamped about midday at a spot59c which was very charming and salubrious, with clear water and delightful trees. There his Majesty Jahānbānī Jannat Āshiyānī had halted and a number of courtiers were assembled and in attendance.
VERSE.Verdant trees with heaven-brushing tops,60a
Casting shade o'er the head shadowed by the bird of paradise.60b
The melodious singing of the birds of the meadow
Poured joyous notes over the banquet.
Suddenly a blackness was caused by the hoofs of galloping horses. Mehtar Sumbul,60c an old slave (ghulām), of his Majesty Jahānbānī and who was, subsequently raised by the kindnesses of his Majesty, the King of Kings, to the title of Ṣafdar Khān (rank-breaking chief), having perceived that blackness, in which the white sheen of two worlds was enveloped, reported the matter to his Majesty who said, “Should these horsemen bring tidings of the birth of the light of the eyes of sovereignty, we will make you ruler over a thousand.”
VERSE.Kings of the earth might well give the seven climes as a reward for such good news.
On that side too, the swift horsemen gave rein to their horses and galloped forward, and the riders61a of the steeds61b of auspiciousness, having come near, uttered with loud voices the glad news to the sovereign of the world and to mortals, and proclaimed that the light of glory had risen from the horizon of hope, that the dawn of morning of desire had appeared in consonance with wishes, and that the cypress62a of the spring of fortune had raised her head on the stratum of hope. At the same instant his Majesty bowed his head in adoration and rubbed his forehead in the dust.
VERSE.The crown of exaltation over the heavens,
The face of submission on the ground,
The foot of dominion on the Dīwān,
The head of praise in prostration.
After due rendering of thanks, he proceeded to the camp and entered the spacious hall62b of audience. A feast was given to the world and the rites of prosperity were revived. The drums of joy and rejoicing raised a sound like the exultation of Kaiqubād. The pavilion was arranged after the manner of Humāyūn62c —more delightful than the feast of Gayōmarṯ62d and the banquet of Farēdūn.62e
VERSE.O eye! come and behold incomparable glory,
Observe this banquet-hall from without and within.
If you would appreciate the splendour of two worlds,
Look upon the array of Humāyūn's feast.
The old world put on anew the leaves and glory of youth, and rouse up the sad universe, grown forgetful of joy.
VERSE.The62f cupbearers seized the goblet of pure wine,
They made Elijah athirst for the fiery fount;—What was this wine that the cupbearer poured into the cup?
That the Messiah and Elijah grew envious and contended for it.
Melodious musicians and enchanting vocalists played on divers instruments and produced a variety of notes. Harpers smote63a the strings of purpose,—lutanists buffetted the world's sorrows,—dulcimer-players bound the chords with the ringlet of success,—strong-breathed flautists drew out harmonious strains,—mandolin63b -players suspended hearts on the curl of desire,—tambourinists63c held up the mirror of fortune before their faces,—rare jesters made the tongue eloquent with ingenious conceits,—the jokes of merry buffoons caused the assemblage to break into peals of laughter. World-subduing generals and brigade-adorning captains saluted, with platoons of benedictions,—and crowds of great and small, of sages and servants, paid their respects.63d
Philosophers worthy of Alexander's approval, and astrolabe-knowing observers who were always seated in the council of mysteries and were confidants of the secrets of the heavens, made the horoscope of the auspicious birth a mirror for their enlightened intellects, and reported that the aspects of the planets and their complete or partial applications64a prognosticated length of life and the high ascension of the Native on the steps of sovereignty and the degrees of the khilāfat, as witness the scheme64b which has been taken from their tables and exhibited on a page of abridgment.
Likewise his Majesty Jahānbānī Jannat-āshiyānī who held high rank in mathematical sciences and had a heaven-embracing mind, and whose acute intellect was the heart-expanding mirror64c of Alexander and the world-displaying cup of Jamshīd, made by his own lofty understanding, wondrous deductions and calculations from the indications of the horoscope of the divine masterpiece. He compared them with the results obtained by the other sages from the marks on the plains of the heavens, and the significations of the terrestrial and celestial bodies. He found that they all agreed and corroborated one another.
When the sublime festivities were over, he (Humāyūn) named that holy pearl—in accordance with the secret message and divine intimation already described,—by his lofty title and majestic appellation and caused it to be inscribed in the lists of auspiciousness and records of fortune. Thus the interpretation of the veracious vision was fulfilled after an interval of two years64d and four months!
God be praised! Hail! celestial name and sublime talisman which came down from highest heaven and the realms of light and glory, whose splendour and whose rays have taken possession of the Orient and the Occident.
Among the excellencies of the name—which is full of wonders —there is one which my honoured elder brother, an encyclopaedia of inward and outward perfections, the poet-laureate,65a Abū-l-faiẓ Faiẓī has brought out in various admirable writings, namely, that by the mysterious connections of letters which are lofty vocables65b and which,—whether separately65c or in combination,—display their influences, it appears that the indicatory letters (baiyināt-i-ḥurūf)65d of the word aftāb (Sun) make the number 223 and thus correspond to the numerical value of the letters of the word Akbar.
VERSE.66aThat very light which is yielded by the world-adorning Sun,
Is produced from the brows of the sublime Shāhanshāh,
That Akbar is allied to Āftāb (the Sun),
Is proved by the evidence (baiyināt) of the names.
Another of the delightful things about this glorious name is that those who are acquainted with the secrets of cabalistic66b lore and who know the influences and combinations of letters, who are cognisant of the hidden stations of the divine essence66c and of revelations,66d and are aware of the illumination67a and obscuration of alphabetical letters, according as they are with or without diacritical points, have assigned seven out of the twenty-eight letters of abjad67b to each element. Now the equably-proportioned letters of this august name are a collection of the four-fold degrees (i.e., the four elements), and tell of the collection of the four stages of Beauty, Majesty, Bounty and Perfection. Thus alif is Fire, kāf Water, bā Air and rā Earth. Whenever a name, by reason of the equality of its composition, is so made up of letters that no element is wanting in it and no element is redundant, that name is perfectly equipoised between its limits. This equipoise results in the name-bearer's being possessed of excellent qualities, bodily health, length of life, exaltation of sovereignty and lasting joy.
Another point in this matter becomes conspicuous in the window of intelligence, viz., that although this Greater Fortune (Sa‘d-i-akbar,—meaning Jupiter, and here taken for Akbar) may have enemies on various sides, yet they will be scattered and annihilated. For in the composition and arrangement of the letters of the name, there are two medial letters—viz., kāf and bā (k and b); kāf is watery67c and carries away the supernal68a enemies, who are fire, and bā which is aerial, scatters the nether enemies, who are earthly. It is right that those who know the subtleties of secrets, should become cognisant of the mysterious minutiae of the import of the wondrous Name, and partake of the bounty of its auspiciousness and beneficence.
It is stated in the Persian preface that nine MSS. and the Lucknow lithograph were used in the preparation of the edition. None of the MSS. was of an early date.
↩Qu. Parihār?
↩Rām may however be the original form. Rām is an abbreviation of Ārām and here has nothing to do with Rām the Indian hero. See Hyde, p. 263 and Steingass s.v. rām.
↩ Allāh Akbar (Arabic,—Allāhu
Akbar) God is very Great. This expression
is called the takbīr—the
magnifying—and is often used at
the commencement of undertakings.
A.F. places it at the beginning of the
Akbarnāma and also of the Āīn.
Blochmann says, (166n.) “The words
Allāhu Akbar are ambiguous; they
may mean, ‘God is Great,’ or ‘Akbar
is God.’ There is no doubt that
Akbar liked the phrase for its ambiguity;
for it was used on coins, the
imperial seals and the heading of
books, farmāns, etc.” He then translates
from Badāonī, (II, 210) as follows;
“It was during these days
(A.H. 983=1575-6) that His Majesty
once asked how people would like
it, if he ordered the words Allāhu
Akbar to be cut on the imperial seal
and the dies of his coins. Most
said, people would like it very
much. But Ḥājī Ibrāhīm objected
and said, the phrase had an ambiguous
meaning and the Emperor
might substitute the Koran verse
Lazikru Allāhi akbaru—To think of
God is the greatest thing—because
it involved no ambiguity. But His
Majesty got displeased and said, it
was surely sufficient that no man
who felt his weakness would claim
divinity; he merely looked to the
sound of the words and he had
never thought that a thing could
be carried to such an extreme.”
Mr. Lowe (230) has copied this translation
but it seems to me that Mr.
Blochmann meant to write “self-evident,”
and not “sufficient,” for
the Persian is ◌
The conversation is, on the whole, creditable both to Akbar and Ḥājī Ibrāhīm. Akbar, I think, admitted that he chose the phrase on account of its consonance with his name but denied that he had any intention of claiming to be God. Probably Ḥājī Ibrāhīm's well-meant suggestion would not have mended matters, for people would still have remarked on the double significance of the words. See further on this point, Badāonī II. 268 (Lowe, 277). In Faiẓī's Diwān, there is a long poem in praise of Akbar, every couplet of which ends with the words, Allāh Akbar.
↩ ◌
◌
◌
◌
These lines are Faiẓī's and in his Markazi-adwār (Centre of Circles) in the canto in praise of Speech. (B. M. Add. No. 7795, 25b. Rieu's Cat. II. 671). The MS. has bar arbābi-hosh in the last line in place of bar raṣadgāhi-hosh.
↩ Meaning the word of two letters
kāf and nūn, i.e., k and n, ◌
It is a Muhammadan idea that the number of created species was 18,000. See Badāonī II. 320 (Lowe, 330). Also Akbarnāma 9, l. 11. Meninski s.v. ‘alam, quoting from the Turkish says, “Deus octodecim millia mundorum creavit.” I cannot find any explanation of the choice of the number 18,000. Perhaps it was adopted as being a multiple of the mysterious number 9, and 9,000 was doubled to allow for male and female creations.
The Majma‘u-t-tawārīkh (quoted by Anquetil du Perron, Zendavesta, II 352n.), says the first man was called Gilshāh—earth-lord—and that he had a son and daughter named Mesci and Mescianēh, and that after 50 years, they had 18 children. At least this is another instance of the use of the number 18 and perhaps a partial explanation of the “18,000.”
↩Raṣadgāh. Observatories are described in the Āīn (II, 265) as wonderful buildings with upper and lower windows and placed on elevated spots where mists cannot reach them. See also l. c. 266 where the word raṣad is explained.
↩Lit. are its east and west.
↩Alluding, apparently, to the notion that there are nine heavens one above another.
↩The reference is to the four elements. MS. No. 564 says that speech is compared to fire, on account of its vehemence; to air, because it is breath; to earth, because its place of utterance is the tongue which belongs to the visible world; and to water, because of its smoothness and mobility.
↩ ◌
Sipah-sālār, lit: Soldier-Chief; but the description in the Āīn of the duties and qualifications of the Sipah-sālār shows that he was rather a Vizier or Prime Minister. Indeed A. F. begins by calling him the Vicegerent of his Majesty. (Jarrett II, 37).
↩Mūbid mūbidāni-dānish.
↩ ◌
The passage from “Judges” to “birth” is a military metaphor, for ṣufūf (ranks) means lines of soldiers and anjuman may mean an army. The phrase which I have rendered “true son and heir” is khalaf-aṣ-ṣidq or khalaf ṣidq and means a successor or perhaps “Vicar worthy of his proto-type.” The tashdīd and article of Text seem unnecessary, Lane 795c.
Chalmers translates, “Those who can appreciate the highest grandeur, have by means of their sense and penetration understood this exalted foundation of the Council Room of Reason to be even the son (the MS. has sun—clearly a clerical error) of the sincerity of the heart and the kindred of wisdom have supposed it to be the furnace of the soul or rather the Palladium of the affections of the mind.”
↩It is difficult to regard all these expressions as referring to speech only and Chalmers has, apparently, considered them as descriptive of the Almighty, for after the words “Creator of the body” (See infra) he translates, “He bestows the basis of exaltation to the commencement of eternity.” But I think the reference is really to speech and that A. F. is thinking of the logos. I learn from the translation of the Gulshani-rāz of my friend Mr. Whinfield, that Sufis rendered the Neo-Platonic logos by the phrase 'aql-i-kull, universal reason. A. F.'s language may be compared with Niẓāmī's address to Speech (sukhan) at the beginning of the Makhzanu-l-asrār. The author of the Ma'āṯir-l-umara (II. 622) says that A. F. has been called a Niẓāmī in prose.
↩The force of this antithesis or parallelism is not very clear, but apparently some such distinction as that between the Church militant and the Church triumphant is intended. While the eloquent are travelling, i.e., marching on as praisers of God—and have not yet attained their goal, speech is their leader and when they have arrived at their resting place, i.e., at perfection—speech becomes their sovereign. Chalmers translates. “He leads the Caravan of the Eloquent and He is the Prince of Oratory.”
↩Properly, pissasphalt, or, as Chalmers has it, embalming drug. The word in the text is momiāī from which comes our word mummy. We might therefore translate, mummifier.
↩Ma‘shūq mizājān, perhaps filled with love or excessively loving.
↩Istisqābakhsh lit. giver of dropsy. Thirst is often an accompaniment of dropsy. Sa‘dī (Gulistān II. Story 33), speaks of a dropsical person as not being satisfied even by the Euphrates, and there is a similar reference in the Būstān (III, l. 26) to the condition of a dropsical person, on the banks of the Nile. The Romans had a similar notion. See Ovid's Fasti (I. l. 215) and Horace's Crescit indulgens sibi dirus hydrops, Nec sitim pellit,
A. F.'s meaning is that some knowledge of the Divine praise makes one thirst for more. Cf. A. F.'s Inshā' where Sharafu-d-dīn of Manīr is called a thirst-implanter. Istisqā also means praying for rain, and thus the epithet may mean that God puts a prayer for rain in the mouths of the thirsty, or that he grants their prayer for rain. The epithet following—jū‘-afzā—may mean appetite-increaser.
↩Ḥaudaj (howdah) which also means a camel-litter. It is probably used in this sense in the Akbarnāma, I. 14, l. 12 from foot.
↩Lit. points and letters. By the dots are meant the diacritical points. The lines are Faiẓī's. See Āīn I. 236, and Blochmann, 550. Mr. Blochmann renders the lines, thus;—
“Science is like blinding desert-sand on the road to Thy perfection; the town of literature is a mere hamlet, compared with the world of Thy knowledge. Thy jealousy, the guard of Thy door, stuns human thought by a blow in the face and gives human ignorance a slap on the nape of the neck.”
Chalmers has,—“The Viceroy of dismay spurns our fancy from Thy door;—With the blow of stupor upon its front and the thrust of ignorance from behind.”
↩ ◌
Or perhaps, the watchmen of Thy jealousy. A. F. speaks (42, l. 10) of the Divine jealousy's preserving from public knowledge the true character of Akbar's horoscope.
↩The meaning seems to be that the human understanding is encountered by amazement (Cf. Gray's “amazement in his van.”) when it attempts to fathom the Divine mysteries and is also buffetted by its own ignorance.
↩ ◌
◌
Chalmers thus translates the lines:—
↩“When our traditions could trace the knowledge of God, Our most grateful thoughts become ingratitude. Behold our arrogance in the ebullition of our daring When a drop would clasp the ocean in its embrace, Think not any volume contains a letter of it; For a letter is but as flax and it is the shining Moon. How long wilt thou arrange the harness of thy speech, Place thy step here with the offering of helplessness.
This difficult couplet receives illustration from the beginning of a letter to Shāh ‘Abbās of Persia in the first book of the Inshā.’ There it is said that, if all the dots of our intelligences and all the schedules of our thoughts were combined with the armies of knowledge and troops of sciences, their total would not represent one letter of the Book of Praise, or be one ray of the Sun. And then we are told, in evident allusion to Sa'dī's famous couplet about the leaves of the trees, that the works of creation praise God with a tongueless tongue. It is clear then that the word book (kitāb) is used in the above verse, in a mystical sense for the mysterious Record of the Divine Praise.
↩ ◌
◌
◌
The mote is supposed to be in love with the sun. Blochmann 597 n. and 606 n.
↩ ◌
Both couplets are from the Makhzanu‘l-asrār of Niẓāmī. See Bland's ed. 3, l.42 and 21. l.380. Niẓāmī was a favourite author with Akbar. Blochmann, 104.
↩Qu. a stone placed upon the edge of a curtain to prevent its blowing aside. Perhaps simply stone of the threshold.
↩That is, from the length of the journey.
↩Kursī-‘aqūl ū awhām. The kursī or throne is the crystalline or eighth heaven and below the ‘arsh which is the empyrean—the ninth heaven or the heaven-of heavens. The kursī is supposed to be God's judgment seat and the author's meaning seems to be that God is higher than any such imaginary throne. Lane (s. v. kursī) quotes an authority as saying that the kursī is the place of the feet, and s. v. ‘arsh, quotes a saying of Muhammad that the seven heavens and earths, by the side of the kursī, are naught but as a ring thrown down in a desert land; and such is the kursī with respect to the ‘arsh (the empyrean.)
↩ ◌
Mantaẓimān, lit. arrangers or managers.
↩ ◌
◌
Lit. connect them with His court.
↩Lit. alongside or abreast of.
↩ ◌
I read ◌
1. Attempting to comprehend the inscrutable.
2. Much speaking about His bounties, hoping thereby to win God's favour and to have glory of men.
Nor again was it right to abandon the study of Theology as beyond our powers, and devote our energies to the improvement of our own miserable selves, even if such endeavour were after moral as well as material advancement. No! true Theology or Divine worship consisted in renouncing the attempt either to fathom the Divine mysteries or to recount His benefits and to take refuge in acknowledgment of our baseness and impotence. The author's view, in short, is that expressed in the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, of which perhaps, he may have heard from his friend Aquaviva. These reflections led him to see that he must strive after worshipping God, though in a different fashion from that of the theologians, and eventually he found rest in the discovery that the highest form of Doxology was to record the achievements,—spiritual and temporal—of that Divine master-piece, the Emperor Akbar. Unfortunately we may say of Abū-l-faẓl what has been predicated of the poet Young—that he never gets hold of a thought that he does not tear it to pieces.
As the passage is difficult, I give Chalmers' translation below:—
“For the meaning of the giving praise to the Almighty is neither that we should inquire into the qualities of His perfection and then apply them to His Majesty—nor that we should reckon up the endless bounties of Eternity and then offer up in return for them, the fabricated wares of our own commendations; nor should we suppose them too excellent for human ken and thus despair of reaching the portico of gratitude; nor should we denominate the adornment of ourselves, the recital of God's praises; nor become sorrowful of heart from the dimness of the path and the delicacy of the undertaking, and seizing the opportunity of empty excuses, refrain from shewing forth His praises by commencing with the evasion which may appear most plausible for the purpose. But rather the true intent of God's praise is this;— that our grateful soul should place self-conceit and self-boasting on the threshold of obedience at the footstool of submission and devotion, and thus expel them from the palace of self-interest; so that our real helplessness may be decked with the semblance of piety and our inward and outward man may be adorned with humility and poverty which will thus suit the seemliness of the breast of our purpose and tend towards the praise of the bounteous Creator of the Universe.” Chalmers' MS. I. 7.)
↩Khweshtan-arāī-i-khudrā. I think this means self-improvement, rather than self-glorification. It refers, as No. 564 remarks, to the endeavours after a better life mentioned above. It may, however, mean self-advancement, i.e., striving to “get on” without thinking of anything higher.
↩Afgār-khāṭir, lit. cripple-hearted, thus keeping up the metaphor of an exhausted wayfarer.
↩ ◌
◌
I omit the iẓāfat after shaistagī. If this be retained, the translation will be “until” (or “and”) “it be fitted to the fitness of the bosom of its purpose.”
↩ ◌
Cf. Addison's hymn.
↩ ◌
The line of thought seems to be, that the works|of the Creator are His highest panegyric and that the greatest of these works on earth is a king, consequently the description of a great king is the highest form of Divine praise. Evidently A. F. would not have agreed with Pope as to what was the noblest work of God.
↩ ◌
“Meaning love of truth and good fortune; the latter being considered a virtue of no mean order in the East.” (Chalmers MS. n.)
↩Lit. lords of abstraction (or nakedness) and masters of connexion.
↩Chalmers has, “from between the fleshly and the spiritual” and this may be the meaning, but the expression is “in front of both.”
↩ ◌
◌
◌
◌
The meaning is not that Akbar was the almoner of God's servants, in which respect he was indeed, according to Badāonī, very deficient, but that he revealed spiritual mysteries as well as made rules for temporal administration. The word, qāsim, lit. divider, reminds us of St. Paul's phrase “rightly dividing the word of truth.” In this group of four epithets, the first and the third relate apparently, to temporal matters and the second and fourth, to spiritual.
↩Noah is called by Muhammadans, the second Adam.
↩A. F.'s panegyrio on Akbar is an extraordinary production, according to our western ideas. Probably, however, it was thought very fine by his countrymen. The original is full of paronomasia and parallellisms and these, as also the alliterations and cadenced clauses, make the Persian sound much better than the translation. The composition must have cost the author immense labour, though apparently, the task was not entirely his own, for in Faiẓī's preface to his Diwān we find the epithets here bestowed on Akbar, from muqarrab down to ‘ālamjān ū jān ‘ālam, i.e., for about eight lines of the text, and nearly in the same order.
In the Fundgrüben des Orients (II. 271), may be found an interesting experiment, made by Joseph von Hammer, at preserving the oriental cadences in a German translation of the Turkish Humāyūn-nāma.
↩ ◌
Gūrgān is said to mean son-in-law or near relation in Mongolian; (Blochmann 460n.) it was a title taken by Tīmūr to indicate his connection with the house of Cingīz Khān. (Sédillot, “Materiaux,” 261, and Hyde's preface to Ulugh Beg's Tables, IV.)
↩Ṣāḥib-i-qirān, lord of conjunction;—a name given to Tīmūr, apparently because the planets (? Jupiter and Venus) were in conjunction at his birth, but Hyde says it merely means dominus potentiae. The three successive epithets are used in order to indicate that Akbar was, first, the glory of the house of Cingīz Khān; second, the lamp of the house of Timur; third, the heir of Humāyūn; and they lead up to a description of what he was in himself.
↩ The Bib. Ind. ed. omits this
phrase, but it occurs in Lucknow ed.
and in No. 564 and is evidently
genuine, for otherwise a paronomasia
or cadence would be lost. The Persian
is ◌
Lit. eye-pupil.
↩Perhaps, harmonious blend of humanity. Maulvi A. Haq Abīd tells me it may also mean “exalting the offspring of Adam” or “elevating human nature.” The original is garāmī sāz-i-guhar-i-adam.
↩The elements are called the earthly mothers, and the planets, the heavenly fathers.
↩Lit. strength of the back. It is opposed to the next epithet which refers to the ṣadr, breast or bosom.
↩i.e., the being God's vicegerent.
↩i.e., solving their difficulties. A. F. applies this phrase to Faiẓī. (Akbarnāma III. 673), saying that those who were entangled in intricacies of business, were broken-hearted at Faiẓī's death because there was no longer anyone to explain their difficulties.
↩Ṣāḥib-dil, which is often used to mean a Sufi: lit. master of one's heart or passions.
↩Ṣulḥ-i-kull. The state of being at peace with every one, which A. F. regarded as the perfection of virtue. Cf. Hebrews XII. 14. “Follow after peace with all men.”
↩The Lucknow editor renders this “day and night;” Chalmers has, “acquainted with the mysteries of good and evil.” A similar phrase, viz., nuktadān-i-ramōz safīdī ū sīyāhī —occurs in the Inshā'. (Part I, beginning of letter to Ḥakīm Hamām.)
↩ ◌
The Bib. Ind. and Lucknow eds. have maḥfal ārāī, ornament of the assemblage, but No. 564 has maḥmil, camel-litter, and so had Chalmers' MS. This epithet and the next are repeated in the Āīn (III. 249) and are translated by Jarrett (III. 406) “who prepares the litters of travel while yet abiding in his native land,—a lamp for those who gather in privacy.” In a note to the first epithet, Colonel Jarrett adds; “that is, preparing for the world to come while yet in this, or facilitating the salvation of others.”
A. F. is never tired of insisting on the dualism of Akbar's nature, and his meaning here seems to be that Akbar had all the graces of a pilgrim while yet in his native land, and that he had the virtues of a hermit while still mingling with society. There can be no doubt that maḥmil is the right reading, for maḥfal can have nothing to do with travel. I find too, that it is maḥmil in the B. M. MSS. Or. Nos. 5610 and 6544.
↩The Persian word is safīna in both cases, but I take the second use of the epithet to refer to Noah's ark. However, safīna can also mean a memorandum book and this may be its sense in the first clause. In that case dīdahbān would signify inspector and the phrase be rendered “Inspector of the book of the universe.”
↩The Persian word is safīna in both cases, but I take the second use of the epithet to refer to Noah's ark. However, safīna can also mean a memorandum book and this may be its sense in the first clause. In that case dīdahbān would signify inspector and the phrase be rendered “Inspector of the book of the universe.”
↩ ◌
In Āīn No. 47 (Book 1. Blochmann, 131) Akbar is called the “royal rider (shāhsawār) of the plain of auspiciousness.” See also A. F.'s explanation of the word shāhsawār in his preface to the Āīn. (Blochmann ii.)
↩ ◌
Lit. in the face of the banqueting room, all eye (or glance); in the heart of the battle-field, all liver (pluck.) Dar rū-i-bazamgāh tamām naẓr, dar dil-ī-razmgāh tamām jigar.
↩Lit. ocean-raining.
↩Naisān, a Syrian month, corresponding to April, and being the 7th month of the Syro-Macedonian Calendar, i.e., Greek Era of A. F. It is the Nisān or Abib of the Jews and the first month of their sacred year, being that of the Passover. There is a saying that when the rain of the month of Naisān drops into shells, it produces pearls, and when it falls into the mouths of serpents, it produces poison. See Whinfield's Gulshan-i-rāz (57).
↩The first month of the Persian year, corresponding to March-April. It begins with the vernal equinox and hence, perhaps, the allusion to its equability.
↩The second month of the Persian year, corresponding to April-May.
↩Alluding to the sheet-lightnings of spring.
↩An early Persian king, celebrated for his cup or mirror (jām) which showed the world.
↩Another early Persian king, son or grandson of Jamshīd and said to have been the first tamer of elephants.
↩i.e., has reconciled solitude and society. See opening of the Gulshan-i-rāz, l.27. Cf. also the Wisdom of Solomon, VII, 22, “Alone in kind, manifold.”
↩‘Ayār-dānish, test of wisdom. This is the title of A. F.'s translation of the Kalīlah Damnah or rather of his revision of the Anwāri Suhailī. (Blochmann, 106 and S. de Saçy, “Notices et Extraits,” X. 197). There is here probably an allusion to Āīn No. 5 (Blochmann, Book I. 18), where we are told that Akbar had invented modes of purifying gold.
↩Qalb-i-zar andūd az zar-i-goharāmūd. The text has an ū after the second zar which would be better away and which does not occur in No. 564.
↩ ◌
◌
Lit. tongues of light. The two clauses are opposed; in spite of his benevolence, he is terrible; in spite of his wrath, he is lovely. Orientals regard lightning as an object of beauty rather than of terror.
↩ ◌
Mulūk-i-ṭawāīf, tribal kings. It might be rendered kings of the Gentiles and was the name given to the satraps, established by Alexander and Tīmūr. (Albīrūnī's “Chronicle of Ancient Nations.” Sachau, 116 and 401. Mas‘ūdī, II. 132, Meynard et P. de Courteille). Cf. Isaiah, XIV., 9.
↩ ◌
Or it may be, “He has placed under the foot of unanimity.” The meaning is that he has united sovereignty and sanctity.
↩i.e., the five planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn,— and the Sun and Moon. There is a similar passage in the Āīn (III. 249, l.12).
↩Great Khān, the name given to the ruler of Chinese Tartary or of China.
↩The two titles stand for the rulers of the East and West. Turkish kings, e.g. Bāyazīd Ilderim, were styled Qaisar-i-rūm even before the capture of Constantinople. The lines are perhaps Faiẓī's. Cf. his Nal Daman. Bombay, 1831, p. 30. The literal rendering of the lines is “The khāqān dreads the heat of his sweat; Cæsar is disturbed at the fold of his brow.”
↩A. F. did not know of the Copernican theory.
↩‘Aql-i-kull, the phrase used by Sufis to express the Logos or first emanation from God.
↩One of Akbar's names, “the glory of faith.”
↩ ◌
◌
Sahā or Suhā is an obscure
star in the Great Bear and used as a
test of eyesight. It is also called
◌
The Germans call Sahā, the Reuter, Cavalier, because, I suppose, he seems to ride on the second horse of the team of Charles' Wain. See Hyde's Syntagma I. 15 and Ideler's Untersuchungen, Berlin, 1809, 292 and 422.
↩ ◌
Ṣifāt-i-jamāl ū jalāl, in Sufistic language, the beautiful and the awful attributes.
↩A. F. says, that on the fifth revision of his work, he inserted some couplets because good writers regard the admixture of verse as the salt (lit. salt-cellar) of prose. (Jarrett III. 415). He may also have been influenced by Akbar's remark that whoever introduced the verses of another into his writings or recited them aptly, displayed both his own merit and that of the author. (Jarrett III. 386). Perhaps the above passage was written before the thought occurred to him, and was retained because it meant that he would not interlard his prose with poetry in the manner of some previous writers of history, e.g., ‘Abdu-l-lāh (Waṣṣāf) who is even more rhetorical than A. F. There may also be a reference to the author of the Ẓafarnāma who has many bad verses.
↩Chalmers, the Lucknow ed. and No. 564 substantially unite in saying that the four things or points are: 1. Akbar's beautiful and awful attributes; 2. praise of his majesty and perfection; 3. his feasts and his wars; 4. his holiness and pleasant ways. But this seems wrong and to be partially occasioned by an erroneous reading. The text and one or two MSS. have tā ḥaqq-i-‘abūdīyat ū irādat-i-walī ni‘mat guẕārda bāsham. But nearly all the MSS. have irādat ū ni‘mat, missing out the walī and this appears the true reading. We thus have three duties or points, viz., worship, loyalty and gratitude which with the duty to posterity, make up the four points. The text, however, may be correct and the points be made up by regarding the “newcomers” and posterity as two distinct classes. The word ḥaqqī in the phrase ū ham ḥaqqī bar nūrasān, probably has two meanings, viz., duty towards posterity and the establishment of a claim by the author to the gratitude of posterity. The phrase ḥaqqī ṯābit gardānīda is evidently used in antithesis to the ḥaqq guẕārda. Chalmers renders the passage “establish rectitude in the tender saplings of mortality and in the travellers of the caravans of existence.” All these, however, were only duties towards or rights of the creature and so not sufficient to excite our author till he saw that in performing them, he would also be doing his duty to his Creator.
↩Īn naẓarkarda-i-khud, lit. this one upon whom his glance had fallen, i.e., his gazed one, protêgé or client. See Āīn I. 24, for use of naẓarkarda, A. F. (Akbarnāma III. 114) describes how the glamour of Akbar's glance fell upon him in the mosque at Fatḥpūr Sikrī. Cf. Old English “overlooked.”
↩ Perhaps, the grandeur of his aspirations
, ◌
“Tārak, properly the crown of the head.” Blochmann 549n. It is used here for the sake of the assonance with tark.
↩ ◌
Writing of Maulavīs, Kaempfer in his valuable work on Persian customs, “Amœnitates Exoticæ” says, (p. 113), “In vestitu nil peregrini habent, nisi mitram quatuor conspicuam plicis, ex fastigio ad oram decurrentibus.”
↩ ◌
Āstīn-i-haft-ṭarāz-i-‘aqīdat bar hazhda hazār ‘ālam afshānda, lit., whose seven-broidered sleeve of devotion has been shed over the 18,000 species. Seven is a mystic number and there may here be a reference to the seven valleys of the Manṭiqu-ṭ-ṭā'ir of Farīdu-d-dīn ‘Attār. The seven broideries may mean embroidery in seven different colours and be typical of the seven Paths, etc. See Brown l. c. 93. Āstīn afshāndan means to applaud by clapping the hands, to dance, and to scatter gifts. It also has the contrary meaning of abandoning or refusing. See Vullers and the Burhān-i-qātī‘ s. v. A. F. seems here to play upon these meanings, but his primary intention probably was to signify that he was renowned throughout the world for his devotion. Chalmers perhaps read anishānda or nishānda and translates “who was renowned among the 18,000 creatures for the seven times embroidered sleeve of trustiness.” Perhaps we might translate, “whose seven embroidered sleeve of loyalty has showered gifts over the 18,000 species,” or, without the iẓāfat—“Whose seven-broidered sleeve has showered loyalty over the 18,000 species.”
It would seem that the language
was originally Faiẓī's, for we find it in
the preface to his translation of the
Līlāvatī (B. M. MSS. Or. No. 5649, p.
4). It is also in the printed edition of
his translation. (Calcutta 1828, p. 2).
In the MS. the phrase runs thus;—
◌
Banda-i-kamtarīn-i-dargāh-i-sa‘ādat ū ẕara khāk-nishīn-i-āstān-i-irādat Faiẓī ki kulāh-i-cahār-tarkī-i-ikhlāṣ-i-cahār-gōsha bar sar-i-dil mānda ū āstīn-i-haft-ṭarāz-i-‘aqīdat bar hazhda hazār ‘ālam afshānda.
It should be remembered that Faiẓī projected writing an Akbarnāma on the model of the Baḥrīsikandarnāma of Niẓāmī and that he, apparently, had begun its composition (Inshā III). It is probable that some of A. F.'s most flowery passages are borrowed from his brother's incomplete poem.
Possibly the expression about the 18,000 species, has reference to A. F.'s oft repeated assertions that he had arrived at the state of ṣulḥ-i-kull, perfect peace with all men. It may be noted that the sleeve mentioned is the wide sleeve of the Oriental which may be opened out and folded over the face. The expression sleeve of devotion has nothing in common with Shakespeare's “ravelled sleave of care,” where sleave means an entangled skein.
The simplest rendering of the whole passage is something like this;—“Mubārak's son, Abu-l-faẓl, in whose heart dwell the four Renunciations, and the praise of whose sevenfold devotion has gone out to the ends of the earth.”
↩I think this must be the meaning, though the phrase might mean “What shall I say? Was this a command for me to compose the memoirs?” as Chalmers has translated it. The objection to this rendering is that we have just been told he had received a clear order.
↩ ◌
◌
See for another account of the inception of the task and of his labours, the conclusion of the Āīn (Jarrett, 400-417).
↩Princess Gulbadan, the sister of Hindāl, aunt of Akbar, and widow of Khiẓr Khwāja, wrote her Memoirs in accordance with Akbar's request and apparently as material for the Akbarnāma (Rieu's Catalogue I. 227a. and MS. Or. No. 166). Her little book, called apparently the Humāyūnnāma, gives interesting details about Humāyūn's marriage with Akbar's mother and deserves publication and translation. She mentions that she was eight years old when her father Bābar died.
In the India Office, there is a MS. (No. 216) called the Tārīkh-i-humāyūn which was composed by Akbar's orders for the use of A. F. It was dictated by Bāyazīd, who had been Mīr Sāmān, steward or superintendent of the kitchen, under Humāyūn to a clerk of Abu-l-faẓl at Lahor. An examination of the book does not show that the author called it the Tārīkh-i-humāyūn, and such a title would be inadequate. Apparently the only name given to it by the author is that of Mukhtaṣar (Abridgment). It is in fact a book of Memoirs and comes down to the date of writing, viz., 999 (1590). It begins in 949 (1542), with Humāyūn's flight to Persia, and is a personal narrative of events from that date. Many events in Akbar's reign are described, e.g., the murder of Shamsu-d-dīn by Adham Khān (105 a and b) and Khwāja Muaẓẓim's murder of his wife. (105b and 106a). A valuable feature of the book is its lists of officers, especially the long one of those who accompanied Humāyūn to India. The author was Bakāwal Begī (Superintendent of the Kitchen) in Akbar's time, and his full name appears to be Bāyazīd Sulṭān (158b last line). He was attached to Mun‘im Khān and has many details about Kābul and the war in Bengal. Nine copies of the work were made, viz., two (including one that got mislaid) for the King's Private Library, three for the Royal Princes, one for the library of Gulbadan whom the author calls the mother of the king's servants, and two for Abu-l-faẓl's library. The ninth was probably the original, and remained with the author.
Bāyazīd, known as Bāyazīd Bāyat, is quoted by Raverty (Notes on Afghānistān) and the B. M. has a MS. (Add. No. 26, 610) which contains an apparently complete trs. of Bāyazīd's Memoirs by Erskine. (Rieu's Cat. II. Pref. XX). Both text and trs. merit publication.
↩Apparently farū guẕāshtan here means to complete or bring to an end and not, to neglect or pass over. See Vullers s. v. guzāshtan, 954b and the quotation there given from the Burhān-i-qāṭi‘. With regard to this account of the collection of materials, it should be remembered that the Āīn with all its wealth of tables and other statistics is part of the Akbarnāma and that the author was probably referring to his difficulties in getting full topographical details. What he seems here to mean is that he was disturbed in his mind at not getting full answers to his inquiries for local information and that Akbar relieved him by telling him to set to work on the material he had, and to leave other details to be inserted afterwards. We have (Āīn II. 14, Jarrett III. 23) the skeleton of an elaborate astronomical table which appears to be blank in all the MSS. Colonel Jarrett supposes that the entries were left to be made at a later time and that the matter was afterwards forgotten or the required information never obtained.
↩ ◌
Two dastūr-ul-‘amal (Circulars) to the local authorities are preserved in the first volume of Inshā and much of them (with modifications and additions) is to be found in the Āīn (Jarrett II. 37, 66, etc.).
↩We might here have expected A. F. to use this language with reference to the Accession and not to delay the “dawn of fortune's morning” till 40 years of the reign had passed away. But clearly he refers it to the time of his writing. There is a similar passage in Akbar's letter to ‘Abdu-l-lāh Khān of Tūrān. (Akbarnāma III. 707, l. 8) where the phrase is used with reference to the 41st year and apparently to the completion of the conquest of the Deccan and the establishment of universal peace.
↩This passage might be compendiously rendered Home and Foreign Affairs. The phrase used for foreign countries is Aknāf-i-wilāyat, borders of foreign countries. Blochmann says (Prosody of the Persians, VI.) that wilāyat, in Indian prose writers and poets, means Kābul and Persia, and it is possible that Persia is intended here. But I should think Tūrān and Europe were also referred to. A. F. would not be likely to speak of Kābul as wilāyat because he regarded it as part of the empire and has described it among the ṣūbas.
↩Meaning the Akbarnāma.
↩Khāna-i-naql. Cf. Āīn III. 193. “Whereas the City of History (Shahristān-i-naql) is in ruins.”
↩‘Aql-i-haiyūlānī.
↩ ◌
Guardian of the world—whose nest is in Paradise. A. F. sometimes uses one and sometimes both epithets when referring to Humāyūn.
↩Miryam is Miriam or Mary and the epithet has been variously rendered— she who dwells with Mary,— is of the household of Mary,—and who is of equal rank with Mary—viz., the Virgin Mary. (The Virgin is one of Muḥammad's four perfect women). Akbar did not invent the epithet, for it was borne by his great-grandmother, the mother of Bābar. (See Khafī Khān I. 35). Jahāngīr's wife, Jodh Bāi, was called Miryam-i-zamānī, the Mary of the Age. I think the word Makānī, in Ḥamīda Bānū's title must be translated, rank or station, and not household, for it was given to her in her life-time. It almost looks as though Akbar liked the title because it agreed with his resemblance to the Messiah. It was said that the two resembled one another in speaking in the cradle. See account of miracle wrought by the infant Akbar to comfort Jījī Anaga (Akbarnāma I. 187 and Dabistān III. 50, trs.). With reference to this incident A. F. calls Akbar Masīḥāwār, Messiah-like.
↩Conqueror of the world, abidin in Paradise.
↩Chalmers breaks off here, and does not resume his translation till page 102 of the text.
↩The author here displays his learning by giving a string of astronomical and astrological terms. The planets and other heavenly bodies are the sires, and the four elements are the earthly mothers, though the latter may also be “elect ladies,” such as Alang-goa (Alanqūā) and Maryam-makānī.
↩ ◌
◌
The superior planets are Saturn, Jupiter and Mars,—as being above or beyond the orbit of the Sun,—and the inferior are Venus, Mercury and the Moon.
↩A planet falls when it is in the house and degree opposite to those of its exaltation, i.e., is six heavens, 180°, from them. Thus the Sun's exaltation is 19° Aries and his fall 19° Libra. The Sun is a planet, according to the Ptolemaic system.
↩ ◌
◌
I am, however, by no means sure of
the meaning and possibly the phrase
may, as has been suggested to me,
be an exclamation of surprise at
Akbar's greatness, “What an apparatus
of arrangement from one
man!” This rendering of tan-i-wāḥid
receives support from the similar
use of tan in page 4 (line 4 from
foot); but then I do not see its connection
with what follows. Possibly
the correct reading would be to omit
the iẓāfat after tan and to translate
wāḥid as the Unique One. “What
Cosmos can come out of flesh?
How can the Unique One issue from
it, seeing that every man is made up
of contradictions?” See the corresponding
passage in the Āīn (I. 290
l.12, Jarrett II. 51) and also in
the beginning of the first letter to
‘Abdu-l-lāh Khān of Tūrān, in the
Inshā. Here we have the expression
qahr-i-waḥdat which Jarrett
translates autocracy. Finally I may
point out that there is an Arabic
word ◌
If it be objected that wāḥid, as an adjective, cannot mean the “Unique One,” we might read waḥdat, unity; or, with still less violence, take the letter w to be ū, the conjunction and translate ū aḥad, “and the Unique One.”
↩Alluding to the four warring and contradictory elements.
↩Alluding to the notion that the ruby is slowly developed from stone by the action of the Sun. Cf. Milton (Paradise Lost III. 608-12).
↩“With one virtuous touch The Arch-chimic Sun, so far from us remote, Produces with Terrestrial Humor mixt, Here in the dark, so many precious things Of colour glorious and effect so rare.”
As the perfect prince.
↩ ◌
Viz., the control of the worlds, etc.
↩ ◌
◌
Lit. by the guidance of an auspicious star but, I think, the verse quoted immediately afterwards, shows the meaning to be, that the length of time after which an auspicious star appears, proves how long a period is required for the development of a Light such as that of Akbar.
↩Her proper name appears to be Alang-goa. See Ssanang-Ssetzen's “History of the Eastern Mongols,” (trs. J. J. Schmidt, St. Petersburg, 1829, 59). Goa or Go means white or shining and is a title given to noble ladies (l. c. 373). Ssanang-Ssetzen was a descendant of Cingīz Khān and completed his book in 1662 (l. c. 299). He describes Alang-goa as the daughter of Baraghodschin-goa, wife of Choritai-mergen. She became the wife of Dobo-mergen and bore him two sons. Then her husband died, and during her widowhood, she was visited by the Sun and became by him, the mother of three sons. She is the mythical ancestress of the Mongolian race by her supernaturally-born son, Budantsar Mong Khān. A. F. gives an account of her (Akbarnāma, 64). Both he and Ssanang-Ssetzen intimate that she was miraculously born as well as a miraculous mother, and the latter gives the name of her mother only.
↩The word is gardīd, became, but I think the past tense is used here for the future as is sometimes done in Persian. The elements of humanity traversed armies of martyrs,—thereby becoming purified,— and were eventually developed into Alanqūā.
↩ ◌
“Super tabernaculum unde ab omnibus conspici posset, imago solis crystallo inclusa fulgebat.”
Perhaps, however, this rather refers to the akāsdiya. (Blochmann 50).
The following extract from Kaempfer's Amoenitates Exoticae, (Fasiculus V. 199), gives a nobler idea of the Shamsa than Mr. Blochmann's description. Kaempfer is describing the Gynaeceum Regium or Female Apartments of the Palace at Ispahan.
“Ambulacri superatâ longitudine (quam habet 150 passuum) portam contingimus primariam, extus, Janitoribus Sopi, intus, albis munitam spadonibus. Haec tota caeruleo imbuta, iconem exhibit Mithrae, i.e., Solis (detorta vox est ab obsoleto Mehiin quod Solem notat) praegrandem, auream et sparso in orbem jubare radiantem. Sanctitatem loci, non alii ornamenti species, mystici gentis judicio, gravius exprimebat quam Mithra, sive Sol, qui coelo decus, universitati lux et vitae focus praepositus est. Solem igitur pro summo Numine (verius pro larvâ Numinis) antiquitus colebat, ejusque simulacrum adoptabat absolutae potentiae suae insigne, quod et domi statuebat togatae Majestati praesidium, et in Campo signis praeferebat militaribus ita animas accensurum objectu rei, quae uno quasi complexa Divini Numinis imaginem, et Majestatis Regiae praesentiam innueret.”
But I think A. F. chiefly means to refer to the solar being who came into Alang-goa's tent and that he wishes to indicate as the true explanation of the mysterious figure which, according to the old tradition, came in as an image of the Sun and disappeared as a wolf,—that Alang-goa was made pregnant by the Divine Light, in the same way as the Virgin Mary. (Akbarnāma 64, ff.). It is believed by some writers that the story of Alang-goa is an imitation of the accounts of the incarnations of the Buddha and of Jesus Christ.
↩ ◌
◌
◌
Lit. “the knot (◌
Darīca, a window or wicket.
↩ ◌
◌
◌
This line is Faiẓī's. See Akbarnāma III, 683, 1.5.
↩This line is adapted from one of Faiẓī's. Akbarnāma III. 683, 1.4.
↩Lit. synopsis or title-page of the Poles of the saints.
↩The word salṭanat does not occur in the text (Bib. Ind. ed.) but is in No. 564 and is probably genuine. It occurs after silsila and before a‘ẓima. The word also occurs in B. M. No. 1709.
↩Abu-l-ābā ū jadd-i-a‘lā. Jadd sometimes means maternal grandfather or ancestor and perhaps nas this force here.
↩Lit. the faces of the dirhams and dīnārs. The dirham was a silver coin and the dīnār a gold one. They were in use before Akbar's time. See Āīn Nos. 10 and 11 (Book I. Blochmann). Akbar gave new names to the coins.
↩This dream occurred about a year before Humāyūn's marriage with Akbar's mother. That marriage took place, according to Gulbadan, on Monday, (Dōshamba) 9th Jumāda-l-awwal 948. Gulbadan says the dream occurred at Lahor, and she gives a more poetical account of it. She says Aḥmad-i-jām himself appeared in a dream, as an old man dressed in green and with a staff in his hand, to Humāyūn when the latter was in great distress on account of the conflicts with Shēr Khān, and bade him not lose heart, for he would have a wonderful son whom he was to call Jalālu-d-dīn Muḥammad Akbar. Bībī Konor (qu. Gūnawar) was then pregnant and it was thought that she would have a son, but she bore a daughter, Bakhshī Bānū.
↩These lines are Faiẓī's and occur in his Dīwān. B. M. MS. Add. No. 7794, 191b.
↩ Blochmann 321. He was Akbar's
foster-father and became a wākil,
minister. He was assassinated by
Adham Khān. The word atga is
Turkish and properly ◌
Lit. armpit.
↩Kadkhudā-i-darvīsh-manish. This phrase is copied in the Ma'āṯiru-l-umarā (II. 531), and is, apparently, that which Mr. Blochmann has rendered “a simple farmer.” The context here shows its real meaning.
↩Jaffar, Herklots says nothing of mirrors being attached to the forehead, but states that they are placed on the thumb.
↩ ◌
The birth was on 15th October O.S., i.e., 25th October N.S. There could hardly have been mangoes on the trees near that time, nor is it likely that there were any mango trees near Amarkōṭ.
↩Haudaj (howdah), but here used, I think, to mean camel-litter.
↩ ◌
Niẓāmu-d-dīn (Ṭabaqāt, Luck. ed. 263) speaks of the Khwāja as Akbar's maternal uncle and as the son of ‘Alī Akbar, a descendant of the saint Aḥmad-i-jām. The Khwāja was a man of violent temper, if not wholly insane. He killed his wife and was imprisoned by Akbar in Gwalior. (Badāonī, Lowe, 71 and Noer's Akbar, A. S. Beveridge, 1. 104).
↩Atagagī. Apparently this ought to be anagaji, if it comes from anaga a nurse. (Blochmann 323n.)
↩This line is in the Anwār-i-Suhailī (Cap. 14, Story 2). The literal rendering is “Fortune is what comes into the bosom without the heart's blood” (being shed), and the nurse uses the line to indicate that she had not to undergo the pain and danger of parturition.
↩There is an antithesis between her strong back, pusht-i-qawī and Fortune's face.
↩See Blochmann 524 and 541, also long account in Badāonī (III. 197-200) and the Ma'āṯir (I. 478). He died as custodian of Humāyūn's tomb in 994 (1586).
↩ ◌
◌
Kaukaba means a star and is also the name of one of the royal ensigns, viz., a polished steel ball suspended to a pole. (Blochmann, Plate IX).
↩Badāonī has an account of him (III. 273). He calls him Mashhadī, i.e., from the town of Mashhad (Meshed) in Eastern Persia. He was a skilled penman and his brother, Mīr ‘Abdu-l-lāh was a performer on the qānūn (dulcimer). He is, apparently, the caligraphist mentioned in the Āīn (Blochmann, 101 and 103), but though Mr. Blochmann identifies him with Mīr ‘Abdu-l-ḥai Mīr ‘Adl, this seems doubtful. (Blochmann, 468, 471 and 480). The man who told the story of Humāyūn's dream was that monarch's Ṣadr,—Lord High Almoner. This office was higher than the Mīr ‘Adl's (Blochmann 268) and it is not likely that a man whom Badāonī praises for sanctity would take part in a drinking bout. (Blochmann 468). However, this is not impossible, for Badāonī tells us (Lowe, 319) that the New Year festivities were too much for the sobriety of the Qāẓīs and Muftīs (Judges) and even of pious men.
↩Lit. it appeared as if his blessed eyes had become red (or inflamed).
↩Meaning that his body was asleep but his soul awake.
↩With that of the birth.
↩Buzurg. This word often means a saint or holy person and may have that sense here.
↩Bib. Ind. I. 11 and 12, but the full account of the dream is given in the Muqaddama or Preface to the Ẓafarnāma which has not been published in the Bib. Ind. edition. It is to be regretted that this Preface which Sharafu-d-dīn refers to at page 11, has not been printed. See Rieu's Catalogue I. 174, Add. 6538.
↩See later on, in the detailed account of Akbar's ancestors.
↩The word in the text is jīb or jaib. Later on (p. 68) the word used is garībān.
↩The text has eighth, but according to our idiom at least, the word should be seventh. Nor is A. F. consistent, for at p. 81 he calls Timur's son the sixth ancestor of Akbar.
↩The author means that none of Qācūlī's immediate descendants was a king. The first monarch of his race was Timur, and the seven stars are interpreted by A. F. to mean Timur and the six descendants who intervene between him and Akbar.
↩Sa‘d-i-Akbar. The auspicious conjunction, i.e., the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus, but here used with a play upon the Emperor's name. See the heading of next chapter and the horoscope Chapters passim.
↩It is sixteenth in the Text.
↩It is eighteen in the Text, but this, I think, must be a mistake for sixteen or rather for fifteen.
↩It is eighteen in the Text, but this, I think, must be a mistake for sixteen or rather for fifteen.
↩I am not sure if this expression applies to Akbar or to his predecessors. A. F. seems to regard Akbar as something higher than the Caliph or Vicar-General of the Age. He is the Khudēv-i-jahān, i.e., the Lord or Khedive of the World.
↩The reproach of A. F. against Firdausī. Jarrett III. 401.
↩ ◌
◌
Alluding to the phosphorescence of diamonds, etc.
↩The sentence of which the word “nativity” is the subject, is continued after a series of epithets, by the verb “occurred,” on page 54.
↩ ◌
Āmōzgār also means pupil, but here probably teacher. It is used in the latter sense in the Āīn, I. 202, l.2.
↩ ◌
◌
◌
◌
The author here leaves Miryam Makānī and proceeds to eulogize he?? remote ancestor, Aḥmad-i-jām.
↩Gulcīn; also a gardener.
↩ ◌
◌
◌
Cf. Isaiah xliv. 22; and Colossians ii. 14.
↩ ◌
Jām is a town in Khurāsān (N.-E.
Persia) and near Herāt. (“Jāmvery
near Herāt,” says the Dabistān
II. 334). For an account of Aḥmad-i-jām,
see Rieu's Catalogue I. 551b,
and the Nafaḥātu-l-uns. He is a
very famous saint of the 11th and
12th centuries. His full name is
Abū Naṣr Aḥmad ibn Abu-l-ḥasan.
He bore the titles Zhanda-pīl, Raging,
or perhaps Mighty, Elephant,
and Shaikhu-l-islām. He is called
Nāmaqī from his having been born
in or at least, from his family's
having sprung from the village of
Nāmaq in the district of Jām. He
was born 441 H. (1049), and died in
536 H. (1141). (Dr. Rieu states that
according to the Jawāhiru-l-asrār
(fol. 148) the date of his death is
fixed by the chronogram ◌
| A= 1 | J= 3 | q=100 | r=200 | |
| ḥ= 8 | ā= 1 | d= 4 | h= 5 | |
| m=40 | m=40 | s= 60 | ||
| d= 4 | ī=10 | s= 60 | 536 | Total. |
There is an account of the saint in Dārā Shikāh's Ṣafīnatu-l-auliyā and there the writer—the eldest son of Shāh Jahān—refers to his great-great-grandmother, Ḥamīda Bānū's descent from Aḥmad-i-jām. But the fullest account of Aḥmad is in Jāmī's Nafaḥātu-l-uns, Jāmī being a townsman of the saint. The life will be found in Lees' ed. of the Nafaḥāt. (Cal. 1859, 405-417) Aḥmad-i-jām is said to have converted 300,000 persons, and to have had 42 children, of whom 17 survived him. His Dīwān is in the B. M., and he wrote other works. There is an explanation of the term Zhanda-pīl by M. Pictet, in the Journal Asiatique for 1843, (Series IV., Vol. II., 141). He derives it from the Sanscrit caṇḍa. According to Fraser (Journey into Khorasan, Lond. 1825, App. B., 39), it means Elephant-reviver or animator, and was given to the saint because he, at the cost of his own life, restored to life the Governor's elephant. Fraser describes his tomb as a rough slab of marble, situated in a grove of pistadin trees, at Turbat-i-jām, half way between Mashhad and Herāt. According to A. F. Aḥmad-i-jām was the ancestor of Humāyūn's mother as well as of his wife (Ḥamīda Bānū). Humāyūn visited the South in 1544 and put up an inscription which still exists. (J. R. A. S. Jan. 1897).
Apparently the father of Ḥamīda Bānū was named ‘Alī Akbar, for Niẓāmu-d-dīnsays, Khwāja|Mu‘aẓẓam (whom he calls Akbar's maternal uncle) was the son of ‘Alī Akbar. According to A. F. the Khwāja was only uterine or half-brother of Ḥamīda Bānū, but it seems probable that ‘Alī Akbar was also her father, for Niẓāmu-d-dīn goes on to say that ‘Alī Akbar was descended from Ḥaẓrat Shaikhu-l-islām, Zhanda-pīl Aḥmad-i-jām. Gulbadan calls Ḥamīda Bānū, the daughter of Mīr Bābā Dōst. Apparently Mīr Bābā is the Maulānā Bābā Dōst Ṣadr mentioned (Akbarnāma I. 315) as a servant for whom Hindāl had a special regard. Perhaps Mīr Bāba Dōst is not his full name — though it occurs in the Akbarnāma — and he may also have been named ‘Alī Akbar. Gulbadan says that Mīr Abu-l-Baqā took part in the marriage and that two lakhs of rupees were paid (or promised) as dower by Humāyūn. Abu-l-Baqā is referred to in the Akbarnāma (I. 172). In the same volume, (I. 174, l.15) mention is made of Khwāja Hajrī Jāmī (qu. the Superintendent of Aḥmad Jāmī's cell?) as having been forward in promoting the marriage. Gulbadan's account of the marriage negotiations is minute and interesting.
↩See Note 1, page 50.
↩ ◌
Ābān is the eighth month in the Persian year. The Jalālī era is also called the Malīkī because established by Sulṭān Jalālu-d-dīn Mālik Shāh Seljūkī. ‘Umar Khayyām was one of the astronomers employed in settling this calendar. (Jarrett III. 29.) The era began on 5th Sha‘bān, 468 (15th March, 1076,) according to one account and according to another, on 10th Ramaẓān 471 (15th March, 1079). Ulugh Beg says. “This is a difference of 1097 days, the cause of of which is unknown to us, but as the second is that generally adopted, we shall follow it.” (Sédillot, Prolegomena, 27). The cause of the difference is explained by Sédillot at page 235. The initial date, 15th March, 1079, is that adopted by Gibbon and appears to be that followed by A. F. for 1079+468=1543 or nearly October 1542.
↩This is the era of Yazdajird, so-called because it dates from the first year of his reign, viz., A.D. 632. The era, however, began long before his time, and according to A. F. dates from the accession of Jamshīd. It began afresh with the accession of each king, and it has received the name of the Yazdajird era because he was the last king of Persia, he being great-grandson of the famous Nōshīrwān, and being vanquished by the Muḥammadans. (Jarrett III. 28.) A. F. makes the difference between the two eras 447 years. The Yazdajird era began on 16th June, 632 A.D. Isfandārmiẕ is the 12th month in the Persian year.
↩A. F. here calls the Hijra era Halālī, lunar, but in the Āīn, he calls it Hijra. The date corresponds to Sunday, 15th October, 1542 O.S. and 25th October N.S. Gulbadan gives the date as 4th Rajab, but this must be a mistake, for 4th Rajab, 949 was a Saturday, and the birth took place on a Sunday. Sédillot (Prolegomena 240) says that 5th Rajab is the day of Muḥammad's conception, but Ulugh Beg makes it 15th Rajab and calls it the feast of victory. It is possible that Akbar got his name of Muḥammad from his having been born on this festival.
↩This era is the Samvat or Vikrāmaditya era. It began B.C. 57 so that its 1599=1542 A.D. The Bibl. Ind. ed. has 1519, but this is clearly wrong and for nūzdahum—we should read nuwad ū nuhum—as in the Lucknow ed. and No. 564 and all the other copies which I have consulted. According to Cowasji Patell's tables the Samvat year 1599 began on 10th October. The year began apparently with 1st Kārtik so that 6th Kārtik= 15th October.
↩Tishrīn, the Tishrī of the Jewish Calendar, was the first month of the Syrian year. It corresponds to our October. The era is that of the Seleucidæ and is also called Syro-Macedonian. It began 1st October B.C. 312, so that 16th Tishrīnu-l-awwal= 16th October, 1542. It appears from Cowasji Patell's Chronology (162) that the Syro-Macedonian year of 1854 began on 2nd October so that 16th Teshrīnu-l-awwal corresponds exactly with 15th October. A. F. calls the era Rūmī (Greek). In the Āīn (I. 279) he calls it the era of Alexander of Greece, but at p. 274 l.c. he calls it Rūmī. He says it took its origin from the death of Alexander II. Bicornutus, but that it did not come into effect till 12 years after his death. Ulugh Beg treats it as a Christian era and gives, under it, the dates of the Christian festivals. (See Sédillot, Text 54 and Trans. 62). Mas‘ūdī, writing in the 10th century, does the same thing. (See French trans. III. 405)). Al-bīrūnī (Chronology of Ancient Nations, 282) also gives the Christian festivals and says that the Melkites, Nestorians and Jacobites observed them. In Golius' notes to Al-farghānī (19) it is stated that the Jacobites and Nestorians use this era, but that the Malekites begin their year in January.
↩A. F. gives two statements of the number of hours—one taken from the beginning of the night and the other from its end. Probably he used two records. The sum of the two sets of figures, 8hs. 20m. and 4hs. 22m. is 12hs. 42m. which agrees with what apparently, would be the length of the night at Amarkōṭ on 25th October, 1542 (25th is the true date allowing for the difference between Old and New Styles). According to a communication with which I have been favoured by the Meteorological Department, Calcutta — sunset on 25th October in lat. 25 N. is at 5.23 and sunrise, on that day at 6.5. I presume there would be little difference between sunset on the 25th, and sunset on the 24th. The length of the night, then, on 24th October, would be from 5.23 P.M. to 6.5 A.M. or 13hs.-8m.=12hs. 42m. exactly! On 15th October, sunset occurred at 5.59 P.M. and sunrise at 5.32 A.M. The 8th Ābān of the Persian era apparently corresponds to 26th October. It will be remembered that this era anticipated the corrections of the Gregorian Calendar. Apparently there is some mistake about the years 464 H. and 911 H. for when reduced to Christian years, they give 1543 and not 1542.
↩Properly Saturday, the birth occurring early on Sunday morning. Muḥammadans count their day or nycthemeron from sunset.
↩ Amarkōṭ is a town in Scinde
lat. 25° 21' N. and long. 69° 46' E.
(Greenwich). Gulbadan spells it
Amarkōṭ and in the Imperial Gazetteer
of India, it appears as Umarkot.
The u is short. Its latitude and
longitude are also given in the Āīn.
(Jarrett IV. 59 and text II. 32). The
latitude there given is 24° and longitude
100°. In Gladwin's trans. the
longitude is omitted, and the latitude
given as 20° 40'. The statement in
the Akbarnāma is more to be relied
upon, as giving A. F.'s figures correctly,
because the degrees are expressed
in words. The Fortunate
Isles are called by Ulugh Beg and
A. F. the Eternal Isles, ◌
The text has ba‘d az cand sā‘at. after some moments. The Luck, ed. and No. 564 have ba‘d az zamānī, after some time. This is a considered reading in No. 564 for some other word has been erased and zamānī substituted. Probably zamānī is right for the next word to it is sā‘at and it is not likely that the author would put two sā‘at(s) in juxtaposition.
↩Ḥaẓrat-i-mahd-i-‘ulyā lit. her Highness of the sublime couch (or cradle).
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See the recipe for the powder called argaja. Blochmann 74.
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Probably the meaning is not that peacocks are melodious, but that the Indian maids were in beauty like peacocks and had the additional charm of being soft-voiced. The Muḥammadans have a tradition that the peacock was deprived of his voice as a punishment for having conducted Eve to where the forbidden fruit (i.e., wheat) was. See Ṭabarī's Chronicle, Zotenberg I, 82. When the peacock was expelled from paradise, he fell upon India.
↩‘Irāq is a Persian province. A mode of music takes its name from it. Gulistān II. Story 19.
↩Or it may be, “Song-makers for the banquet of everlasting life,” or, “Capturers of joy for the rest of life.”
↩I suppose the reference is to the intoxicating power of music. See Blochmann 612, where A. F. speaks of the wine of harmony causing intoxication.
↩A khil‘at is more than a robe, for it consists of at least three articles, viz., the turban, the robe and the girdle.
↩Though A. F. speaks both of couriers and horsemen, I do not suppose he means that there were both foot and horse messengers.
↩ “Four farsakh.” ◌
Jauhar, according to Stewart's trans. (44) says that after leaving Amarkōṭ, Humāyūn marched 24 miles the first day to the banks of a large pond, and that the next day while the king was encamped there, a messenger arrived with the news. But according to A. F. Humāyūn did not arrive at the pond in one day. His camp was 16 miles off from Amarkōṭ and on the morning of the birth, he marched again at dawn and arrived at the halting place where the water was, at about midday. Apparently he did not get the news till the third day, for we are told that he heard of it two days after his vision which was simultaneous with the birth. Jauhar cannot be relied on. He began his Memoirs 45 years after Akbar's birth (995-1587) and he incorrectly states that the birth was on 14th Sha‘bān. In Ilhāhad Faiẓ Sirhindī's rescension (No. 1890), this is altered to 14th Rajab. The late Kabī Rāj Çyāmal Dās wrote a paper in the Asiatic Society's Journal (J. A. S. B. LV., Part 1. 1886, 80) to show that the date given by Jauhar was the correct one. I do not agree with his conclusions, but his paper is—like all the Kabī's productions—carefully written and interesting. He translates Jauhar from MSS. and his rendering is closer than Stewart's. He mentions that there is a stone two miles N.-W. of Amarkōṭ which professes to mark the spot of Akbar's birth, but the date on| it (963) is that of the accession.
Stewart's trans. makes Jauhar's account more discrepant from A. F.'s than it really is, and Erskine has not fully amended Stewart here. On referring to the original, I find that Jauhar says nothing about “the first day” or the “next day.” What he says is, that they marched thirty miles (12 kōs) and then encamped on the bank of a pond (ḥauẓ). No doubt, this place could be identified, It must lie between Amarkōṭ and Jūn, S. W. of the former (W. S. W. is perhaps more correct). The B. M. MS. is worm-eaten at the important place, but the words seem to be dū shab, two nights. It is not likely that Humāyūn would march 30 miles in one day and it is probable enough that he made his marches by night. Jauhar says that the news was brought by a qāșid at early morning, viz., at prayer-time. He gives Saturday, 14th Sha‘bān as the birthday and says that Badru-d-dīn and Jalālu-d-dīn have the same meaning. But this is hardly correct and 14th Sha‘bān 949, appears to have been a Thursday. Gulbadan says the birth took place three days after Humāyūn left Amarkōṭ and adds that the moon was in Leo and that the birth occurred under a fixed sign.
↩Lit. rubbing their umbrellas against the sky.
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Sumbul means hyacinth. The name looks like that of an eunuch. Sumbul is mentioned in the Akbarnāma (I. 224) under the title of Mīr Ātish (Master of Ordnance) and also (263) as commanding a party of musketeers. Mīr Ātish means Artillery Officer or Head of the Ordinance Department, like the Corps of Fire-workers of the H.E.I.C.'s army, but it may also mean, head of the musketeers or marksman. (The Ātish Sarkār or Fiery Department was one of the divisions of offices made by Humāyūn, in accordance with the number of the elements.) Mchtar Sumbul was perhaps called Ṣafdar Khān because of the destructive effects of his muskets. (See also l. c. 266). He is mentioned by Bāyazīd (I.O.MS. No. 216, p. 186) as Sumbul Mīr Ḥaẓār and as Ṣafdar Khān Mchtar Ātish. This was in Humāyūn's reign, which might be taken to indicate, contrary to the text, that he got the title from Humāyūn.
In his first volume, A. F. does not give him the title of Ṣafdar Khān but calls him Khān and Mīr Ātish. He was one of those who accompanied Humāyūn to Persia. He is mentioned, as Ṣafdar Khān, in the 3th year of Akbar and as taking part in the siege of Rantanbhūr (Akbarnāma II. 330). We are told (l. c. III. 772) of a Ṣafdar Khān's being promoted to the command of 1,000 in the 45th year. He is also mentioned l. c. 184. Blochmann (532) notices a Ṣafdar Khān Khāṣa Khail as entered in the Ṭabaqāt list, but as Commander of 2,000. He does not appear in the Āīn list.
The title Mehtar is of common occurrence in Persian histories. In modern Persian, it is used to mean a groom, but in India it is the designation of a sweeper. In Meynard's Turkish Dict. it is explained as “Officier remplissant les functions de chambellan ou huissier; le Grand Vizier avait dans sa suite quarante mehtar faisant fonction de Suisses de son palais.” D'Herbélot (s. v. Sanbal) says, “Ce mot est aussi un nom d'homme, et se donne plus ordinairement aux esclaves noirs, par ironie, comme ceux de Jasmin et de Cafur qui signifient le jasmin and le camphre dont la blancheur est parfaite.”
↩Gulbadan says, as also does Niẓāmu-d-dīn, that the news was brought by Tardī Beg and that Humāyūn rewarded him by forgiving his past offences. See Jauhar for an account of his overbearing manners. He was afterwards put to death by Bairām Khān.
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Horace speaks of the invisae cupressi, but they are favourite trees with Orientals.
↩Perhaps all that is meant is that he entered the camp enclosure.
↩There is a play on the double meaning of this word which signifies also august or sacred.
↩These two and also Kaiqubād were early Persian kings. Gayōmarṯ is supposed to have been the first man who exercised regal powers.
↩These two and also Kaiqubād were early Persian kings. Gayōmarṯ is supposed to have been the first man who exercised regal powers.
↩These couplets are Faiẓī's (Āīn I. 239 and Blochmann 555 and 556). Khiẓr is the name given by Muḥammadans to Elijah or Elias.
↩The Elliot MS. 4a. (Bodleian) has: Cangiyān dast dar sīna-i-maqṣūd dar-zadand—i.e., harpers smote on the breast of purpose.
↩Ghicak, also called kamānca, a little bow, perhaps a guitar. It was evidently a small instrument, for we are told (Blochmann, 71) that the shell of the cocoa-nut was used for making ghicaks. Jarrett (III. 255 n. 2) says the ghicak is a kind of lute.
↩Dā'ira-dastān. The compound is not in the dictionaries, but apparently it means, tambourine-players. Cymbal-players would be the more appropriate, for the metallic cymbal might be compared to a metal mirror. A cymbal, however, is generally termed sanj. The Walker MS. (Bodleian) appears to read dā'ira-sāzān, which may also mean tambourine-players. The regular word for a tambourine-player appears to be dā'iracī.
↩It is unfortunate that our author did not for once leave grandiloquence and describe to us in simple language, the hardships and privations amid which his hero was born. Rien n'est beau que le vrai is a sentence which, as Gibbon says, should be nailed on the desk of every rhetorician. A. F.'s turgid descriptions of the magnificence of the natal celebrations at Amarkōṭ and the camp are as unpoetical as they are false, and the one touch of nature which he gives is the horror of the young mother at the hideous features of the village midwife. A. F.'s acquaintance with the Gospels and his manifest desire to liken Akbar to the Messiah, might have taught him that the solemnity of the birth-hour would have been deepened by surrounding it with images of distress and poverty. Jauhar, the illiterate old body-servant of Humāyūn, tells us that when the news of the birth was brought to the camp, there was no money to give away in presents, and Humāyūn sent for a pod of musk and broke it amongst his followers, saying it was all he had to bestow, and uttering the prayer that the child's renown might one day so fill the world as the perfume of the musk was pervading the tent. This story is worth all A. F.'s fustian.
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Referring to Maulānā Cānd's horoscope, exhibited below.
↩Blochmann (553n). Alexander's mirror is a fable arising out of the Pharos at Alexandria.
↩From 4th Rabī‘u-l-awwal, 947 to 5th Rajab, 949.
↩Faiẓī, the elder brother of A. F. was Maliku-sh-shu‘arā or Poet Laureate; lit. Prince of Poets. Blochmann 491 and 548, and Akbarnāma III. 535.
↩Kalimāt-i-‘ālīyāt. A cabalistic expression. See Dic. of T. T. 320, l.8.
↩Dar ‘ālam-i-tajarrud ū tarakkub, lit. world of solitude and combination. I think it means separate letters and letters in combination, and not the spiritual and temporal worlds.
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| l = 30 + f = 80 | = | 110 |
| a | = | 1 |
| a | = | 1 |
| l = 30 + f = 80 | = | 110 |
| a | = | 1 |
| Total | 223 |
The Editor of the Luck. Akbarnāma says there are nine letters in āftāb, i.e., alif, fē, tē, bē = 9. He cuts off the t as being over 100 in value (its numerical value is 400) and the remaining eight give 223; viz., alif = 111; fē = 90; ē = 10; and bē = 12; total 223. Thus he arrives at the same result, by a different road. Blochmann (237, Book II. Āīn No. 3) gives apparently another illustration of this process.
The word Jalālah is, I think made to yield 66 by cutting off the first letter of Ja and then counting the others; viz., a = 1; l = 30; a = 1; l = 30; and h = 5. I do not see how the word Allāh could make 66 by abjad for a double letter, i.e., one with tashdīd, is, according to rule, counted as one only. Perhaps, however, Allāh is regarded as containing three lāms.
The Lucknow editor says also that the words āftāb and nūl, i.e., Nawal (Kishor), (his printer and publisher) harmonize if similarly treated; both yielding 612! See his note p. 19 folio ed. and pp. 9 and 10 (preface) ed. 1284 H. (1868 A.D.)
↩This quatrain occurs on p. 3436 of Faiẓī's Dīwān (B.M.MS. Add., No. 7794) and is preceded by the following note by Faiẓī.
“Among the strange mysteries which have been revealed to me, who have placed on the head of my heart the four-gored cap of fourfold sincerity, there is this that the baiyināt-i-asmā-i-ḥurūf (evidentiary letters) of the sun (āftāb) agree in number with the numerical value of the word Akbar, which is 223.”…
Probably Faiẓī plays on the double meaning of the word asmā which stands both for ‘names’ and ‘attributes.’ He has many other quatrains on the same subject.
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◌
◌
◌
Abjad, the employment of the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet as numerals.
↩The letters of the alphabet are divided into four classes, corresponding to the four elements and k (kāf) belongs to the class representing water. See Dic. of T. T. 128. The Lucknow editor points out that kāf has also the meaning of cleaving.
↩The “supernal enemies” are apparently, the jinns or demons who, according to Muḥammadan cosmogony, were made out of fire. They are represented by a (alif) which is a fiery letter. R (ra) is an earthy letter according to some classifications (Dic. of T. T., watery) and so, represents earthly enemies. In the I.O.MS. No. 3330, (which is a copy of Akbarnāma, Vol. I., given by Colonel Kirkpatrick), the explanation of the numerical value of the letters of āftāb, which I have already given, is stated in a marginal note. The annotator also arranges the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet in four classes, as follows:—
| Fiery:—a, ẕ (ẕāl), sh, ṭ, f, m, h | 7 |
| Aerial:—b, t, s, ẓ, n, w, y | 7 |
| Earthy:—ḥ, kh, r, d, ‘ain, ghain, l | 7 |
| Watery:—ṯ, j, z, ṣ, ẓ, q, k | 7 |
| Total | 28 |
The Dic. of T. T. gives a somewhat different classification.
↩