When the world-adorning Deity wills the bestowal of greatness on an unique one and exalts him to the high office of sovereignty He, in the first place, gives him far-seeing reason to be ever his unvarnished counsellor. After that He bestows on him wide forbearance so that he may bear the brunt of so many of the world's disagreeables and that he may, by the help thereof, refrain from dropping the thread of deliberation when he beholds such evils. Then he gives him the priceless jewel of justice, so that he can place the familiar friend and the stranger in the same balance and can comprehend the affairs of creation's workshop (the world) without being weighted by personal considerations, and can establish a school of instruction within his holy soul. Many sages who have made no error in testing knowledge have yet at the time for action become timid owing to the want of a wide understanding and let go the reins of carefulness, and so have fallen off in the arena of examination. When knowledge and endurance are suitably developed the marks of justice are evolved, without anxiety or delay, from the just temperament. Thanks be to God! These glorious excellencies and splendid qualities. are innate and constitutional in His Majesty the Shāhinshāh and spring from the plenteous house of Divine wisdom, uncontaminated by outward teaching or the decoration of human instruction. But that knower of the Creator's secrets keeps himself, for his own designs and reasons, under the veil of concealment, and spends his life in the garb of obscurity. Nor is he content with ever so many veils, but is always fashioning others in order that acute observers cannot penetrate them. But the Divine decree is paramount, and when God wills that mankind should become acquainted with his intrinsic beauty, what avails the screen? Of necessity his face must be unveiled and his beauty adorn the world so that those who are afar off from fortune's neighbourhood may reach the palace of devotion and have the chief seats in the court of acknowledgment.* What happened in Agra, the capital, is an example of the majesty and extensiveness of the justice of His Majesty the Shāhinshāh.
The account of this affair is that Adham Khān, the younger son of the cupola of chastity Māham Anaga, had neither understanding nor good conditions. He was intoxicated by youth and prosperity and was continually envious of Shamsu-d-dīn Muḥammad the Ataga Khān. Mun'im Khān, the Khan-Khānān, also suffered much from this malady and used to throw out dark hints such as the generality could not comprehend and instigate Adham Khān to strife and intrigue. At length on the day of Isfandiyār 5 Khurdād, Divine month, corresponding to Saturday, 12 Ramzān, 969, 16th May, 1562, when the equability of Ardibihisht was still prevailing, an extraordinary occurrence, which was far from equability, took place. On a court-day (rūz-i-dīwān) Mun'im Khān, Ataga Khān, Shihābu-d-din Aḥmad Khān and other magnates were sitting in the royal hall and transacting public business, when Adham Khān suddenly entered in a riotous manner and attended by others more riotous than himself. The members of the assembly rose up to do him honour and the Ataga Khān rose half-up. Immediately upon entering Adham Khān put his hand to his dagger and went towards the Ataga Khān. Then he angrily signed to his servant Khūsham Uzbeg and the other desperadoes who had come with their loins girt up for strife saying: “Why do you stand still?” The wicked Khūsham drew his dagger and inflicted a dangerous wound on the breast of that chief-sitter on the pillow of auspiciousness. The Ataga Khān was thoroughly amazed and ran towards the door of the hall. Immediately thereon Khudā Bardī came and struck him twice with a sword. That great man was martyred in the court-yard* (ṣaḥn) of the hall of audience. A loud cry arose in the palace on account of this outrage, and general horror was exhibited in that glorious abode. That doomed one in spite of his past audacity presumptuously advanced towards the sacred harem—to which may there be no access for the wicked—with evil intentions. His Majesty the Shāhinshāh had gone to sleep in the auspicious palace, but his fortune was awake. That black-fated one went up, sword in hand from the hall to the terrace (ṣuffa) which went round the palace (qaṣr) on all four sides, and was of the height of a man and a half. He tried to go inside, but Ni'amat the eunuch, who was standing near the entrance (darbār), immediately shut the door and bolted it. And though the presumptuous one, who was hastening to his death, spoke roughly to Ni'amat and bade him open the door, the latter did not do so. Those standing by the threshold had not the grace to inflict the punishment of his deed on that presumptuous and furious one at the beginning of his doings when he assailed the Ataga Khān. And what shall I say of their dumbfoundedness and cowardice when after forming such vain thoughts he tried to enter behind the curtains of fortune! Why did they not shed his blood? Why did they not level him with ignominy's dust? If they had not courage for that, why did they not make a general rush and surround him? Even then, how can I suppose that among those present in the palace there was no one who was loyal? Apparently there was a design in the perfunctoriness of those people, viz., that the perfect courage and justice of His Majesty the Shāhinshāh might be impressed on the minds of great and small, of the wise and the foolish!
In short, His Majesty was awakened by the dreadful clamour and called for an explanation. As none of the women (pardagīān, lit: veiled ones) knew of the affair he put his head outside of the palace-wall and asked what was the matter. Rafīq* Ṣāḥib-i-cār mansab who was one of the old servants of the palace mentioned the facts. When His Majesty heard the horrible tale he was amazed and made further inquiries. Rafīq pointed to the blood-stained corpse and repeated his statement. When His Majesty the Shāhinshāh saw the body he became nobly indignant. From a Divine inspiration he did not come* out by the door where that demented wretch was standing and meditating evil, but by another way. As he was coming out, a servant of the seraglio put into his hands, without his asking for it, the special* scimetar. His Majesty took the scimetar and went on. When he had passed over one side of the terrace and had turned into another he saw that villain, and there issued from his holy lips the words “Son of a* fool why have you killed our Ataga? That presumptuous wretch hastened to seize His Majesty's hands and to say “Inquire and deign not deliberate! There has been (only) a little* inquiry” (talāsh). What reproach shall I make about the spectators of this convicted liar! No amount of reproach or contempt will fit their case!
At last His Majesty the Shāhinshāh withdrew his hands from his own sword and freed them from the grasp of that wicked one, and stretched out his arm to take Adham Khān's sword. Just then that outcast for all eternity withdrew his hand from His Majesty and turned it to his own sword. His Majesty withdrew his hand therefrom and struck him such a blow on the face with his fist that that wicked monster turned a summersault* and fell down insensible. Farhat* Khān and Sangrām Ḥūsnāk had the good fortune to be present. His Majesty angrily said to them, “Why do you stand gaping there? Bind this madman.” They two and a number of others obeyed the order and bound him. The righteous order was given that the fellow who had outstepped* his place should be flung headlong from the top of the terrace. Those shortsighted men out of consideration (for Adham), than which inconsideration would have been a thousand times better, did not throw him down properly, and he remained half-alive. The order was given to bring him up again, and this time they dragged him up by the hair and in accordance with orders flung him headlong so that his neck was broken, and his brains destroyed. In this way that blood-thirsty profligate underwent retribution for his actions. The fist of the Divine athlete of the world had made such a mark that those who did not know the facts thought that it was a mace-wound. Mun'im Khān Khān-Khānān and Shihābu-d-dīn Aḥmad Khān, who were there, fled from before His Majesty's wrath, and disappeared. When Yūsuf Muḥammad Khān, the eldest son of the Ataga Khān, heard of the fate of his honoured father, he armed himself and his clan and lay in wait for Adham Khān and Māham Anaga. He did not know that the spiritual and temporal Khedive had executed justice, and had not had regard to Māham Anaga's position, but had in the judgment-hall of sovereign wrath inflicted condign punishment on the murderer who was taken in the fact.