On the night of the last of the blessed month of Ramazán* of this year, when Çadr Jahán asked the Emperor, what order should be given with respect to my dismissal? he replied: “He has business to do here, and every now and then I shall have some service for him to perform, produce me some one else.” But the omniscience of God (praise be to Him Most High!), and His will (glorious is His Majesty!) did not coincide with this intention, and I do not know what is best to do in this uncertainty and very gadfly's condition:—

“Thou takest me from thine own door to the door of the rival,
Then thou sayest, why dost thou go to the door of the rival?
I have wandered for years in search of thy good face,
Show thy face, and deliver me from this wandering.”

Contemporaneously with these events he one day said to Abu-l-Fazl in my presence; “Although the guardianship of Ajmír suits so and so very well, yet since, whenever I give him anything to trans­late, he always writes what is very pleasing to me, I do not wish that he should be separated from me.” The Shaikh and others con­firmed His Majesty's opinion of me. That very day an order was issued that I should translate and complete the remainder of those Hindú lies, part of which had been translated by the command of Sulṭán Zín-ul-'ábidín, king of Kashmír, and named the Baḥr-ul-asmár ,* while the greater part had been left untranslated. I was commanded to finish the last volume of that book, which was of the thickness of sixty juz', in the course of five months. At this time also one night he called me into his private bed-chamber to the foot of (P. 402) the bed, and till the morning asked for stories out of each chapter, and then said: “Since the first volume of the Baḥr-ul-asmár , which Sulṭán Zín-ul-'ábidín had translated, is in archaic Persian, and difficult to understand, do you translate it afresh into ordinary language, and take care of the rough copy of the book, which you have translated.” I performed the zamínbós, and heartily undertook the commission. I began to work, and after showing me a great deal of favour he presented me with 10,000 tankahs in small change, and a horse. If God (He is exalted!) will, I hope to have this book well finished in the course of the next two or three months, and that it will obtain me leave to go to my native country (which is the grave). But He is the right one to give permission, and He hath power over the wishes of his servant.

During this year reports came from Ḥakím 'Ain-ul-mulk, and Shahbáz Khán from the confines of Hindiah, that they had put to death Burhán-ul-mulk on account of his bad conduct, and had set up his son, who was twelve years old, as his heir.

The Emperor sent a farmán to the prince Sulṭán Murád, and another farmán to the Khán Khánán ordering them to set out with haste, and proceed to the subjugation of the Dakhin.

During the first part of the month of Zi-ḥajjah* of this year Sháh Beg Khán Kábulí went to Qandahár, and Mírzá Muzaffar Ḥusain, commandant of Qandahár, came to Court in company with Qará Beg Mír-shikár, and brought valuable jewels with other precious things as a present to the Emperor. The Emperor treated him with special favour and kindness.

Sháh Beg Khán fought a battle at Zamín Dáwar with a great army of the Uzbeks, and defeated them. He slew most of their leaders, and to those whom the sword spared, he gave dresses of honour and released them. Another body of them fled to a fortress, and were beseiged there. He bombarded the fortress and took it by storm. Then he continued his advance and took the Garmsír.

(P. 403). The Emperor conferred the province of Chítór on Mírzá Rustam, and took away the district of Samb'hal from Abu-l-Fazl and gave it as jágír to Mírzá Qandahárí.* And Multán, which had become completely desolated by the tyranny of Mírzá Rustam, he converted into Crown property.

At this time Sa'íd Khán Mughul came from Bangálah to Court, and brought an elephant and much money and precious products of that country from 'Isá Khán the Zamíndár as a present to the Emperor.

In this year Shaikh Ya'qúb Kashmírí, who had the takhulluç of Çarfí,* had obtained permission to leave the Court, and return to his native country, when he died: “Verily we belong to God, and verily unto Him do we return”:* —

“All our friends are gone, and have taken the road to the Ka'bah,
We with tipsy foot remain at the door of the wine-seller.
Not a word of the points we proposed has been solved,
We are left beggars, without this world or the next.”

On the night of the twenty-seventh of Zí-ḥajjah of this year Ḥakím 'Ain-ul-Mulk, who had gone on an embassy to Rájah 'Alí Khán, and had returned thence to Hindiah (which had been ap­pointed as his jágír), after an illness of five months departed to the other world. Extolled be the perfection of God! our acquaintances and friends one by one withdraw their heart from our companion­ship, and lightly hastened, and still do hasten, to their everlasting home, while we in this sadness and despair drag on an existence in folly and forgetfulness of our end:—

“O heart, since thou art aware that death follows existence,
To what end this desire for length of days?
Thou did'st make a pact with Fate,* not Fate with thee,
Why then this cry, that Fate is treacherous?”