THIS is a valuable history by Nawab Mu'tamad Khán, commonly known as Muhammad Sharíf, who states of himself in one portion of his work that he was appointed to the office of paymaster, received a mansab of 1000, and was presented with an elephant by the Emperor as an honorary gift.
The Ikbál-náma is divided into three volumes or parts. The first contains the history of the Khákán dynasty, and includes the reigns of Bábar and Humáyún; the second contains the reign of Akbar; the third that of Jahángír. The first two parts are not common, but the third is to be found everywhere.
The third volume gives the entire reign of Jahángír, and the first nineteen years may be considered an abridgment of the Memoirs, which, as has been seen in the article on the Memoirs, Mu'tamad Khán was directed to continue and complete. In the present work he tells us that Jahángír ordered him also to write the Ikbál-náma. As may be supposed, therefore, truth is often sacrificed to flattery. The work does not rank very high among the critics of the country, but there is no book more common than this third volume; and as the author held high offices during this reign, and took a part in many of its most important transactions, we cannot refuse to allow that the work is of considerable use.
It is most commonly known by the name of Jahángír-náma, and under this title is quoted by Dow as his authority for the transactions of this Emperor's reign. M. Anquetil also speaks of it as “Djehanguirnameh, ouvrage composé par Nabab Motamet Khan, Général de la Cavalerie de Djehanguir, et le compagnon de ses Voyages.”* Upon this passage Mr. Marsden observes, “M. Anquetil's expressions imply that the Memoirs of Jahángír were not, in fact, composed by that monarch himself.”* But M. Anquetil's expressions by no means imply this, and we are here presented with another instance of the confusion which prevails respecting the true Memoirs of Jahángír.
This volume has been translated into Úrdú prose by Mazhar 'Alí Khán Wilá. There is a copy in the Library of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.*
The work is in the form of annals, like the authentic memoirs, and the Ma-ásir-i Jahángírí. There are occasionally rubrics to the chief occurrences of each year, but so few as not to be worth transcribing. The volume begins with the accession, and closes with the death of the Emperor, the names of the royal family, the ministers, learned men, physicians, and poets of the reign.
The best copy known to me is in the possession of Mirzá 'Alí Akbar, tahsíldár of Damoh in the Ságar territory. It was transcribed in the year 1087 A.H. (1676 A.D.).
[The third volume has been published in the Bibliotheca Indica. The following Extracts comprise some few matters not given in the memoirs, and the whole of the continuation from the nineteenth year of the reign. With three short exceptions, which needed great amendment, the whole translation is the work of the Editor.]