He was called Safīdonī, and assumed the name of Nūrī as his nom-de-plume. Since he held the pargana of Safīdon in the sarkar of Sirhind* as a jāgīr for some years, he was spoken of as though he had been a native of that place. He was distinguished for his attainments in geometry, the exact sciences, and astrology, and was one of the intimate companions of the late emperor, obtaining the title of Tarkhān in the course of his confidential association with him. He was unequalled in liberality, generosity, munificence and conviviality, for which qualities he was prover­bial. ¹⁹⁸ He had poetic talent too, and composed a dīvān. One day on the polo-ground at Fatḥpūr he was injured by an elephant, and was in great pain. While in this condition he continued to repeat, “Be my witnesses, all of you, that in my present uneasiness I repent of some of my former acts and am resolved to amend my ways.” However much he was pressed on the subject he would not say what those particular acts were of which he repented. I said, “The first thing of which you will have repented will surely be the writing of poetry.” I do not know whether he was pleased with my suggestion, or annoyed, but the others who were present were much pleased. In the days of his authority he dug a canal from the Jamna, fifty kurūh in length, in the direction of Karnāl, and beyond that town. This was the cause of large additions to the cultivated area, and a great increase in the prosperity of the people. As it was dug in the name of the prince Sulān Salīm, it was called Shaikhūnai,* which word gives a chronogram for the date of its completion. Nai in Hindī means “a stream.” At length cruel fate brought utter ruin upon him so that he endured many hardships and privations. When His Majesty in A.H. 994 (A.D. 1586) departed for Āṭak he appointed Mullā Nūru-d-dīn to the trusteeship of the tomb of the late Emperor in the imperial city of Dihlī, and there the Mullā died. The following verses are excerpts from his poems:—

“Sad at heart am I sitting, far from those smiling lips,
Like the rose-bud am I sitting, with my head cast down to
my collar.”

“In his kindness and generosity
The most just King conferred on Tarkhān* the title Khān.
Of this Khān-ate he possesses the name alone.
From this name, however full of dignity, what does he gain?
Nay more, he makes this complaint of the tarkhān-ate also
Before the king's perfect wisdom, ¹⁹⁹
That besides the “khān” nothing but desert lands seems to
remain to him,
While with his tarkhān-ate moisture* seems to disappear
from them altogether.”

The Khān, when the Emperor was marching against Ḥakīm Mīrzā in A.H. 989 (A.D. 1581), remained behind and returned from the Panjāb to his own jāgīr, a line of conduct which excited sus­picion against him, so that after the Emperor's return from this expedition he was summoned to Fatḥpūr, there to be called to account for his monetary transactions and his writings, to be re­primanded, and deprived of his title. In this manner, he was persecuted for some years. Those who are qualified to dis­criminate attribute his ruin to the impropriety of which he was guilty in lampooning the officials in the imperial city of Dihlī, wherein he was actuated solely by the enmity which he bore to Tātār Khān.* The satire which he wrote he chose to attribute to Qāsim-i-Kāhī, publishing it as the work of that poet. The grounds upon which his satire was based will be best defined by quoting from the effusion.

“Mīyān Jamāl Khān* is the muftī of Dihlī,
But he never yet delivered one of his foolish judgments
gratis;*
He is the Governor of the city under Tātār Khān,
And has just such another little donkey's face as his master's.
Shaikh Ḥasan the little decree-writer with his poisoned pen
Spreads on all sides false news and slanderous whispers.
At the very time of prayer he performs, in a perfunctory
manner, his ceremonial ablutions
When the reader has already ascended the pulpit,
It is he, it is he, it is he that oppresses the city,
A vain babbler, with his harlots”*

The opening couplet of that effusion, which even to quote is scurrility, is as follows:

“Alas, for Dihlī and its holy shrines,
Alas, for the ruin of its palaces!”

This satire extends to nearly two hundred and fifty couplets. One of the learned men of that city, Shaikh Muḥammad Kambū*

by name, wrote an answer to the whole of it in the following two* couplets:—

“Nūrn-d-dīn is such a blockhead
That it must have been in folly that his father begat the fool. ²⁰⁰
The babbling dolt has been struck on the head with a mallet,
There is no (need to) answer his foolish chatter.”

Praise be to God! These verses are equal to* that world-famed fragment of the lord Maulavī Nūru-d dīn ‘Abdu-l-Raḥmān-i-Jāmī (may his tomb be hallowed!), the opening verses of which are given below:—

“Alas for the Love of God, and its ecstasy,
It has consumed my heart with its scorching heat!
Mine eye never glanced towards aught but God.
My lot is cast with God and with His revelations!”

The worthy Maulānā Nūru-d-dīn fancied himself a second Jāmī, both as a story-teller and as a stylist. But how can there be any comparison between the two?

“If in your actions you resemble not the virtuous, of what use
is it to resemble them in name?
“One who bore the title of Masīḥ restored sight to him who
was blind from his mother's womb, but another Masīḥ
had himself but one eye.”

It is to be hoped, however, that as he was not without natural goodness of disposition, he repented of his evil deeds, and that God in His gracious mercy allowed his tribulation and suffering in this world to be an expiation of his sins. May God forgive him When the Maulānā, after being put down from his high place, came to Agra, I was walking in the public market one day, and met him. One of my friends, the genial and witty Miyān Kamālu­d-dīn Ḥusain of Shīrāz,* who was one of the leading men in Āgra, said to him, “Well, my lord Nawwāb, you have written something regarding the officials in Dihlī, and now why should you not bestow the same favour on the officials in Agra, who expect it of you!” I said, “Evidently he has seen nothing in the leading men of Agra which renders them worthy of this honour.” Miyān Kamālu-u-dīn laughed and said, “This is a false charge which you have brought against us.”