In counsels on State affairs and government it often happens that I act according to my own judgment and prefer my own counsel to that of others. In the first instance I had elected to wait on my revered father from Allahabad in opposition to the advice of my faithful servants, and I obtained the blessing of serving him, and this was for my spiritual and temporal good. By the same course of conduct I had become king. The second instance was the pursuit of Khusrau, from which I was not held back by taking time to ascertain the (auspicious) hour, etc., and from which I took no rest until I captured him. It is a strange thing that after I had started I asked Ḥakīm ‘Alī, who is learned in mathematics, how the hour of my departure had been (i.e. whether propitious or not), and he replied that in order to obtain my object if I had wished to select an hour, there could not have been for years one selected better than that in which I mounted.
On Thursday, Muḥarram 3rd, 1015, in Mīrzā Kāmrān's garden, they brought Khusrau before me with his hands tied and chains on his legs from the left side* after the manner and custom of Chingīz Khān. They made Ḥusain Beg stand on his right hand and ‘Abdu-r-Raḥīm on his left. Khusrau stood weeping and trembling between them. Ḥusain Beg, with the idea that it might profit him, began to speak wildly. When his purport became apparent to me I did not allow him to continue talking, but handed over Khusrau in chains, and ordered these two villains to be put in the skins of an ox and an ass, and that they should be mounted on asses with their faces to the tail* and thus taken round the city. As the ox-hide dried more quickly than that of the ass, Ḥusain Beg remained alive for four watches and died from suffocation. ‘Abdu-r-Raḥīm, who was in the ass's skin and to whom they gave some refreshment from outside, remained alive.
From Monday, the last day of Zī-l-ḥijja, until the 9th of Muḥarram of the aforesaid year, I remained in Mīrzā Kāmrān's garden because the time was unpropitious.* I bestowed Bhairawal,* where the battle had taken place, on Shaikh Farīd, and rewarded him with the high title of Murtaẓā Khān. For the sake of good government I ordered posts to be set up on both sides of the road from the garden to the city, and ordered them to hang up and impale the seditious Aimāqs and others who had taken part in the rebellion. Thus each one of them received an extraordinary punishment. I gave headship to those landholders who had shown loyalty, and to every one of the Chaudharīs between the Jhelam and the Chenāb I gave lands for their support.
Of Ḥusain Beg's property there were obtained from the house of Mīr Muḥammad Bāqī nearly seven lakhs of rupees. This was exclusive of what he had made over to other places and of what he had with him. After this, whenever his name is mentioned, the words* gāwān u kharān (bullocks and asses) will be used. When he came to this Court in company with Mīrzā Shāhrukh he had one horse. By degrees his affairs flourished so that he became possessed of treasure both visible and buried, and projects of this kind entered his mind.
While Khusrau's affair was still in the will of God, as there was no actual governor between Afghanistan and Agra, which is a source of sedition and mischief, and, fearing that Khusrau's affair might be prolonged, I ordered my son Parwīz to leave some of the sardars to look after the Rānā and to come to Agra with Āṣaf Khān and a body of those nearly connected with him in the service. He was to consider the protection and management of that region his special charge. But by the blessed favour of Allah, Khusrau's affair was settled before Parwīz arrived in Agra; I accordingly ordered my aforesaid son to come and wait on me.
On Wednesday, Muḥarram 8th, I auspiciously entered
the fort of Lahore. A number of loyalists represented to
me that my return to Agra would be for the good of the
State at this time when much was going amiss in Gujarat,
in the Deccan, and in Bengal. This counsel did not meet
with my approval, for the reports of Shāh Beg Khān, the
governor of Qandahar, showed that the officers of the
Persian border were meditating an attack on that fortress.
They had been moved thereto by the machinations of the
residuum of the Mirzas of Qandahar's army, which was
always shaking the chain of contention. The Persian
officers had written letters to these malcontents, and there
was likelihood of a disturbance. It occurred to me that
the death of His Majesty Akbar and the unreasonable
outbreak of Khusrau might put an edge on their design,
and that they might attack Qandahar. What had occurred
to my mind became a realized fact. The governor of
Farāh, the Malik of Sīstan, and the jagirdars of that
neighbourhood, with the assistance of Ḥusain Khān, the
governor of Herat, invaded Qandahar. Praise is due to
the manliness and courage of Shāh Beg Khān, who planted
his foot firmly like a man, and strengthened the fort, and
seated himself on the top of the third (?) citadel of the
aforesaid fort in such a manner that outsiders could see his
entertainments. During the siege he girded not his loins,
but with bare head and feet arranged parties of pleasure;
yet no day passed that he did not send a force from the
fort to meet the foe and did not make manly efforts. This
went on as long as he was in the fort. The Qizilbāsh
army had invested on three sides. When news of this
reached Lahore it was clearly advisable to remain in that
neighbourhood. A large force was immediately appointed
under the leadership of Mīrzā Ghāzī, who was accompanied
by a number of men of rank and servants of the Court,
such as Qarā Beg and Tukhta Beg, who had been promoted
with the titles of Qarā Khān and Sardār Khān. I appointed
Mīrzā Ghāzī to a mansab of 5,000 personal, and horsemen,
and bestowed drums on him. Mīrzā Ghāzī was the son of
Mīrzā Jānī Tarkhān, king of Thathah (Sind), and by the
efforts of ‘Abdu-r-Raḥīm Khānkhānān that country had
been conquered in the reign of the late king. The country
of Thathah was included in his jagir, and he held the rank
with personality and horsemen of 5,000. After his death
his son Mīrzā Ghāzī was raised to his rank and service.
Their ancestors were among the amirs of Sulān Ḥusain
Mirza Bāy-qarā, the ruler of Khurasan, and they were
originally descended from the amirs of Tīmūr (Ṣāḥib-