The brief account of the fortune-encompassing condition of His Majesty the Shāhinshāh from the time of his being dispatched to the Panjāb till his glorious accession is that when the standards of for­tune were turned towards the Panjāb the Atka Khān and other servants came from Ḥiṣār Fīrūza and met him on the way, in accordance with an intimation to that effect, and had the honour of paying their respects. When fortune's equipage arrived at Sihrind all the king's* servants who had been appointed as auxiliaries to Shāh Abū-l-M‘aālī, such as Muḥammad Qulī Khān Barlās, Muṣāhib Beg, Khwāja Jalālu-d-dīn Maḥmud, Farḥat Khān, āhir Muḥammad, son of Mīr Khurd, and Mihtar Taimūr Sharbataī, came away with­out leave (from Abū-l-M‘aālī) on hearing of the advance of His Majesty the Shāhinshāh, and hastened to obtain the bliss of service, for they had been troubled by the evil fellowship of that ill-regulated young man. They were favourably received. Sikandar, who had come out of the hills, withdrew to them again before the victorious army had encamped. The infatuated Mīr who had marched out to put him down hastened back to Lahore. When it became certain that the province had been given to His Majesty the Shāhinshāh, and that he was proceeding thither, Abu-l-M‘aālī felt constrained to come with a body of troops to the bank of the Sulānpūr river (the Bīās) and to do homage. His Majesty out of kindness, and in order to ratify the favour that had been shown by His Majesty Jahān­bānī himself indicated to Abū-l-M‘aālī that he should take a seat in the high assemblage, and encompassed him with favours. But inasmuch as the easily intoxicated Mīr had been made drunk by one gulp of the world's wine he, after obtaining leave and returning to his quarters sent a message that “my position* with His Majesty Jahānbānī is universally known; and especially your Highness may recollect that at the qamargha (ring-hunt) in Jūī* Shāhī I ate with His Majesty Jahānbānī in the same place and off the same plate; you were present, and had your portion (alūsh) sent to you. Tak­ing then my position into consideration, why, when I came to your habitation, was a separate rug put down for me, and why was there a separate tablecloth? “His Majesty a mine of sense and urbasity, smiled at his ignorance, and said to Ḥājī Muḥammad Sīstānī who had brought the message “Tell him the regulations of State and the laws of love are distinct, you have not with me the position that you had with His Majesty Jahānbānī. 'Tis strange that you have not discriminated between these two positions, and have complained.” The Mīr was greatly abashed.

His Majesty went on towards the hills in order to extirpate Sikandar who was stated to be in Mānkot and its neighbourhood.

When the army of fortune encamped near Harīāna a swift courier arrived and apprized Bairām Khān of His Majesty Jahānbānī's fall. Bairām Khān did not think it expedient to advance further, and moved the army to Kalānūr in order that they might halt for some days in that pleasant place. Near Kalānūr Nar Shaikh Cūlī arrived and produced the sublime mandate* (firmān). Just about this time the tidings of the inevitable events reached the royal hearing, and His Majesty displayed the weeping and lamentation which befitted the condition of affection and love. The distress and internal affliction which were experienced by that lofty-souled one exceeded human conception. Bairām Khān, Atka Khān and Māham Anaga essayed to comfort him, but as his sorrow sprang from excessive love what they regarded as topics of consolation only augmented his grief. This chosen one of God expends such sorrow of heart and consideration for individual men! How grieved and afflicted he is at the death of any one who has a savour of sincerity, devotion, and ability! It was fitting that such a disposition should show itself in his holy person­ality under circumstances which were in old times motives for rejoic­ing among the unthinking so that men of the world who regard only what they perceive by their senses may acknowledge the true grandeur of this great one, and that such acknowledgment may be a means of guiding all mankind, and that the guidance may result in general enlightenment and charity. If it were not for this reason, how could the wide domain of the knowledge, piety and devotion of this nursling of the light of glory permit that such censure of the decrees of Providence should contract the law of submission? At length by the assistance of far-reaching reason he conveyed himself to the asylum of patience and employed hismself in alms-giving and in other good works which may benefit those who have travelled to the abiding world. Poets and sages composed elegies and chronograms. Among them was Khwāja Ḥusain of Merv who made a tarkībband in an elegy, about that cupola of pardon, some lines of which are as follows:—

Verse.*

O heart, thou too must hear the sound of death.
Death's morning must blow on thy life's ascension,
As the order for tasting death is for all men.
Be sure that the sherbet of death must be drunk.
This name of life which they imposed upon you.
Is a name that must be carried on to the side of death.

Be not proud of this rose and garden of life.
Autumn's breeze must blow on this rose and garden.
Thou hast heard with thine own ears that such an one remaineth not
Others's ears must receive tidings of thee likewise.

Mīr ‘Abdu-l-Ḥai found this chronogram:—

Verse.

Alas, Alas! My king fell from the roof. (963).

Maulānā Mas‘aūd of Ḥiṣar composed this:—

Verse.

Hūmāyūn Pādshāh was united to God. (963).

But this was by writing the sacred name (Hūmāyūn) without alif. Maulānā Qāsīm Kāhī made this chronogram:—

Verse.

Hūmāyūn Pādshāh fell from the roof. (962).

This chronogram is one year short. A difference of one or two years may be allowed in the case (of the dates) of buildings, but not in obituary chronograms.* A number discovered this chrono­gram:—

*

Verse.

Let Jalālu-d-dīn be the kingdom's heir. (963).

The spiritual and physical perfections and the notes of reason and knowledge in this unique one of the world were greater than can be recorded. He was thoroughly versant in various sciences, rational and traditional (‘aqlī u naqlī). Especially was he distinguished in the mathematical sciences. He always consorted with philosophers. Illustrious mathematicians obtained bliss at the foot of his throne. He desired to establish observatories and had collected the equipments thereof. He had fixed upon several sites for observatories. He also regarded with favour poetry and poets. And as he had a metrical turn he spent the intervals of time, between spiritual and temporal obligations, in composing poetry. The divan of his poems is in the grand library. The following quatrains are taken from that frontispiece of marvels:—

Quatrain.

Oh! heart, fret not in presence of the rival,
Tell not thy heart's condition to any physician.
What has happened to thee from that tyrant
Is a woeful tale, and a very strange event.

Another.

Oh! heart, rejoice in the presence of the friend,
In his service faithfully consume thyself.
Each night sit rejoicing in the thought of the friend,
Each day make a New Year by meeting him.

Another.

Oh thou, whose tyranny is a world's flag,
The day when I see not oppression from thee is oppressive.
The sorrow that comes from the tyrannous sphere,
What sorrow is it to me when there is the sorrow of love for thee?

God be praised! the exposition of this noble catena which, like the catena of the skies, is upheld by God and hath a holy refuge, and of which one extremity is bound to Adam Ṣafī, the morning of Creation, while the other is linked with the ascension of the sun of the Shāhinshāh's personality, has been set forth with concision and brevity and in a fresh style other than that coming from the tainted pen of the deckers (basmacīān) of epistolary models. By drawing up this grand catalogue and glorious preamble, Abū-l-faẓl—that airy particle—has obtained benediction, and many mysteries and points of wisdom have found insertion as ancillaries. Were these truths, and mysteries separated from the main chronicle, they would form a choice book brimful of the marrow of wisdom.

Verse.

I made a cup of wine out of my blood.
Not a jar of vinegar that blisters the breast.
There are many truths in each dot of it,
Who does not perpend them, comprehends them not.

Though in so far as regards ordinary readers what I have recounted up till now of the events of the ancestors may seem super­fluous and a flux of words, yet the great society of truth-knowers is well aware that into this book of Divine praise—may no evil eye approach it!—I have not introduced, from the beginning to the end, a single superfluous letter. An account has been given of divers screens—veils of the sacred Shāhinshāh-beauty,—and behind each screen there is the bridal face of genius. Away, away! Where is the screen, and where is the secluded bride? One beauty there is which assumes several manifestations, and within these is one genius which is full of radiance and which informs* the world-illuminating Beauty.

Verse.

He who knows speech knows
What kind of speech this is.

How can I, whose heart is pawned in one place, turn towards the two worlds? What profit is there in the writing of histories? Two swords will not lie in one scabbard, or two purposes in one heart. Do not take into consideration the distracted souls of the inconstant, for where is the heart of those heartless, earthly-natured ones that can be subjected to consideration? But for the sage inquirer into causes the truth is illustrated by the ascent of His Majesty the Shāhinshāh, and so the afflicted world of secondary causes has been brought into the noose of design. And by profound contempla­tion and good fortune, the stewards of fate, who, owing to the happy auspices of this individual, have brought the chapters of felicity to a conclusion, have revealed the world-adorning beauty of the Shāhin­shāh in the exponents of this sublime catena, so that the genuine love for that unique one of the divine temple has given zeal for the writing of this lengthy chronicle. The convention of discourse has been made animated, and the rose garden of ornaments been watered. Neither has there been any flagging in the single-heartedness of this desert-traverser. The progressive beauties of the true beloved have been set forth, and the degrees of love's sciences have received their full ascension.

Now what the vulgar and the superficial have regarded as a digression has been concluded and the time has come for what both sections (of readers) regard as the true object. I hope I may obtain my wish in the noble enterprise.

Verse.

My pen whose point is a mysterious tongue,
Is the treasure-opener of a secret mine,
From him who regards it with gravity
I ask justice, not acclamation.

Verse.

May this work be worthy applause!
May God grant that so it may be.