On the eighth of the month Muḥarram* of the year one thousand and two (1002) Mirzá Rustam bin Sulṭán Ḥusain Mirzá bin Bahrám Mirzá bin Isma'íl Çafawí, who himself held the government of Zamín­dáwar and its environs, and his elder brother Mirzá Muzaffar Ḥusain held the government of Qandahár and the Garmsír,* being angry with his brother, came to Court with his children, wife, family and brother-german. The Emperor sent Ḥakím 'Ain-ul-mulk and others to meet him, and take to him a private pavillion, and an audience tent, carpets and other paraphernalia of the farrásh khánah,* and a belt and jewelled dagger. And at four cosses from Láhór he ordered the Khán Khánán, and Zain Khán Kókah, and the other great Amírs to go and meet him. After he had done homage the Emperor made him a present of the sum of a kror of tankahs in small change,* and enrolled him among the Amírs of five thousand, and appointed Multán as his jágír. (P. 389).

At this time coming four months after the king of poets Shaikh Faizí,* the other ambassadors arrived from the rulers of the Dak'hin having succeeded in their negotiations; and paid their respects. And since Burhám-ul-mulk* had not sent any acceptable present on the twenty-first of Muḥarram the Emperor appointed the Prince Dányál to this service, as wakíl to the Khán Khánán, and Ráí Sing (whom I should rather call Sag),* and other Amírs with 70,000 specially as­signed troops.

The Emperor married the Prince Dányál to the daughter of the Khán Khánán, and gave a great feast, and received such a quantity of presents of gold, and all sorts of precious things, that he was able to equip the army therefrom. And having given the ensigns of Royalty and insignia of pomp and dignity to the Prince, he sent him off. He himself immediately afterwards went out to the chase, when he had reached the banks of the river of Sulṭánpúr, which is twenty-five cosses from Láhór, he changed his mind and ordered the Prince to return. In order to take counsel with the Khán Khánán, who had got as far as Sarhind, he sent for him. He made him turn back to go and meet the leaders of the army with orders to abandon the enterprise, and again dismissed him, and himself returned to Láhór.

On Friday the seventeenth of Jamáda 's-sání* of this year Miyán Shaikh 'Abd'-ulláh the lawful heir of his reverence Miyán Shaikh Dáúd (God sanctify his spirit!) passed to the eternal world, and The Pure Spirit of Shaikh Dáúd* gives the date “God knows what is best, and to Him do we eventually return.”

Let not the intelligent reader be ignorant of the fact that as to that which has been written up to this point the source of the greater part of it is the Ṭabaqát-i Akbarí Sháhí, the date of which I, this erring author, (P. 390) after much thought found to be Nizámí.* Having persuaded the said author to allow me, I wrote a part of the book myself, and so from this point onwards the events of the two following years will be chronicled in a compendious style.

On Monday the twenty-eighth of Jamáda 's-sání* of the year one thousand and two (1002) the sun passed out from the extremity of the sign of Pisces into the commencement of the sign of Aries. And this was the beginning of the thirty-ninth year from the Accession. These eighteen days were spent, as were those of the years preceding, in feasting and jollity of all sorts. New decrees were promulgated. Of this number are the following:

The chief police officer was to take cognizance of the streets and houses of the city one by one, and to require of the heads and chief persons of every street a bond that he would perform the following duties. To keep a close watch on every one who came in or out, of whatever degree he might be, whether merchant, soldier or otherwise. Not to allow troublesome, and disorderly fellows, or thieves to take up their abode in the city. That if he saw any one whose expendi­ture was greater than his receipts, he should follow the matter up, and represent to the Emperor through the chief police officer, that all this extravagance of his is probably paid for with money, irregularly acquired. That he would inform the Chief of Police of all rejoic-ings and feasts, and mourning, and lamentation which might take place, especially marriages, births, feasts* and such like. That he should have continually in his employ in every street, and lane, and bazar, and at every ford of the river a person, whom he could trust, to keep him informed of everything that went on, whether good or bad. And that he would so manage the roads, that no one who had lost his way, or who was a fugitive should be able to get out of reach, and that no merchant should be able without an order to take away a horse, nor to bring in a pack from Hindústán.

The price of gold, silver, and precious stuffs was to remain fixed, and they were to be bought at the imperial tariff. A fixed profit was to accrue to the imperial treasury.

An inspector and registrar of the effects of those who died or dis­appeared was to be appointed. So that if any one who died had an heir (P. 391), after it had been proved that he did not owe anything to the imperial exchequer, and was not krorí (tax-gatherer), or a banker receiving deposits, the heir might take possession of it; otherwise it passed into the imperial treasury; and until they got a receipt from the treasurer, they were not to bury the deceased.

In order to show respect to the Sun the Emperor ordered, that [the coffins] should be placed in the grave-yard on the eastern side of the city. If any of the disciples called Darsaniyyah* died, whether male or female they were to hang some uncooked grain and a burnt brick round the neck of the corpse, and to throw it into the river. Then they were to take out the corpse and burn it in a place where no water was; or else after the manner of the inhabitants of Cathay* to bind it to a tree. This order is based on a fundamental rule, which His Majesty had defined, but which I have not room to mention here.

No son or daughter of the common people was to be married until they had gone to the office of the Chief of Police, and been seen by his agents, and the correct age of both parties had been investigated. In this way a host of profits and perquisites surpassing all computa­tion, guess, or imagination, found their way into the pockets of those in office, especially certain police officers, and effete Khán-lings,* and other vile oppressors.

Another rule was this: If a woman was older than her husband by twelve years, he should not lie with her. And if a young woman were found running about the lanes and bazars of the town, and while so doing either did not veil herself, or allowed herself to be­come unveiled, or if a woman was worthless and deceitful and quar­relled with her husband, she was to go to the quarter of the prosti­tutes, and take up the profession.

Another rule was this: A father or a mother might, if forced by hunger and extreme misery, sell their child, and afterwards when they had the means to pay, might buy it back again from servitude.

If a Hindú, when a child or otherwise, had been made a Musalmán against his will, he was to be allowed, if he pleased, to go back to the religion of his fathers.

No man should be interfered with on account of his religion, and any one was to be allowed to go over to any religion he pleased.

If a Hindú woman fell in love with a Musalmán (P. 392) and entered the Muslim religion, she should be taken by force from her husband, and restored to her family.

If any of the infidels chose to build a church, or synagogue, or idol-temple, or fire-temple, no one was to hinder him.

All these laws, of which I have given a short account, refer to matters of religion, and it is not in the power of the compiler of these pages to include them all. But the laws of government and finance and households, and the mint, and the army, and the agricul­turists, and the merchants, and the custom-house, and the chronicle-writing, and the krorís, and the dágh-u-maḥall, and the fights* between elephants, and deer and cheetas, and tigers, and birds, and goats and dogs, and boars, and of observing established rules on the part of the dependents of a householder, and of the disposition of one's time in matter of eating and drinking and sleeping and wak­ing, and other actions and functions, how can they possibly be de­scribed! for the intellect is incapable of attaining to it, and to recount them all, would take a life-time of more than the human span:—