Yar Ali Beg, the superintendent of news (sawanih), submitted to the Emperor, “Buzurg Ummed Khan has insulted Abdur Rahim, the news-writer of the province of Bihar, in open audience, and with disgrace turned him out. If no punishment is inflicted [for this], other writers will abstain from writing the truth about occurrences, and become [ mere ] servants of the provincial governors. If your Majesty, too, acts according to [the proverb] ‘Bad humour always attacks the weakest limb,’ then your slaves are helpless in obeying [your] orders.” The Emperor wrote, “This helpless person [i.e., Aurangzib] is himself weak, and he considers all men, high and low alike, to be weak. ‘The strong’ is an attribute that belongs only to the pure nature of God. But low persons should never be domineering to high ones. I punish the news-writer with loss of his rank and dismissal, and the provincial governor with a decrease of 500 in his rank (mansab) and [a corresponding] change in his jagir.”
Text.—Ir. MS. 8b, MS. N. 36b—37b.
Notes.—Buzurg Ummed Khan, a son of Shaista Khan and the conqueror of Chittagong, was subahdar of Bihar from 1683 (?) to July, 1692, and again at the time of his death, 12th Feb. 1695. (Life in Masir-ul-umara, i. 453). Another instance of his haughtiness is given in Masir-ul-umara, i. 454.