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. Niāmī'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.
<Arabic script> “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.