The Emperor of the time, the Khalíf of the age, Jalál-ud-dín Muḥammad Akbar Pádsháh (may he ever be firmly seated* on the throne of the Khalifate and the seat of clemency!) with the approval of Bairám Khán, the Khán Khánán, began to honour and adorn the throne of the Sultanate, under an auspicious star, on Friday the 2nd of the month Rabi'ul-avval, in the year nine hundred and sixty-three (963) in the garden of Kalánor* —which, to this day, they have not yet finished laying out. Then he sent messages of conciliation and courtesy to the Amírs of the frontier, so that the Khutbah* was read also at Dihlí. And they composed this hemistich, as giving the date: ‘More noble than all princes he.’*

They composed also the following distich:—

‘Jalál-ud-dín Muḥammad Akbar, that prince of the age,
At the date of [the death of] father said: Prince of the age am I.’*

And another [mnemosynon] they found [for the date]:

‘The desire of fortune.’* Then the world began to blossom like a rose-garden, and pitiless Fate, binding up those wounds, said:—

“When Death removes a crown by force,
At once another head is crowned;*
When one old age completes its course,
A younger rises from the ground.”*

(P. 9.) Before the decree for the accession went forth, Bairám Khán had by all the arts of finesse enjoined on Pír Muḥammad Khán Shirwání,* (who with an army had gone in pursuit of Sikandar in the Mountains of Sawálik, as far as the confines of the district of Dahmírí) not to allow the news of the death of the late Emperor* to be spread abroad.

Now Sháh Abu-l-Ma'álí, who was of noble Sayyid extraction, and of the country of Káshghar, in the symmetry of his limbs and the excellence of his valour was distinguished above all his compeers. To him the deceased Emperor had shown a special favour and a boundless condescension, so that he had honoured him by calling him his son. This man was a dullard. And in this place be it known concerning him that Bairám Khán had written an acros­tic in twenty-four verses, of which the rhyme was 'azím and qadím, and the rhyming letter mím, in such a way, that the initial letter of the first hemistiches composed the words “Ḥazrat Muḥammad Humá-yún Pádsháh Ghází” [“My Lord Muḥammad Humáyun Pádsháh Ghází”]; and the initial letters of the second hemistiches “Sháhzá-dah [prince] Jalál-ud-dín Muḥammad Akbar”; and the final letters of the first hemistiches the words “Mírzá Sháh Abu-l-Ma'álí,” together with some epithet or other which I have forgotten; and the sum of the twenty-four míms which closed the verses gave [24 × 40 =] 960 the date of the composition of the acrostic. I have heard from trusty friends, that the last time the late Emperor honoured Qandahár with his presence, Sháh Abu-l-Ma'álí one evening, having drunk too much wine, slew in his bigotry a zealous Shí'ah. When the heirs of the murdered man came to demand justice, and the Emperor sent for Sháh Abu-l-Ma'áli, he put on the dead* man's robe of black velvet lined with (P. 10) red and blue, and putting the hanger,* burnished bright, the very same with which he had despatched him, under his skirt, swaggered drunken into the royal assembly, and denied the deed. Bairám Khán on the occasion quoted these lines:—

“His disshevelled locks of hair	To night-debauch confess;
Lo! a blazing proof is there,	The lamp beneath his dress.”

The emperor was exceedingly delighted;* but the blood of that innocent one was hidden in the dust, and his murder was never proved. In short, when the royal Amírs summoned Abu-l-Ma'álí to the assembly on the occasion of the Accession, he returned answer, that he had an excuse and could not come; the second time they sent the message, that the Council was sitting and waited his presence, again he made excuse and sent some message of empty compliments, which Bairám Khán, thinking it the best course to pursue, accepted. But, when he came afterwards, Bairám Khán gave the order to Tulak Khán Qurchí, a man of great bodily power, who at that moment appeared on the scene like a spider's web [ready to catch a fly]; and, in accordance with a preconcerted plan, went unseen behind Abu-l-Ma'álí and took him prisoner, and asked to be allowed to blot out his name from the tablet of existence. But the merciful Emperor disapproved of this design, and said that it would be a pity to shed the blood of a [possibly] innocent man on the very day of his Accession. So he sent him to Láhór. He escaped from that prison, and went to Kamál Khán the G'hakkar. Now at that time the government of that country was in the possession of Ádam G'hakkar, uncle of Kamál Khán. The latter treated Abu-l-Ma'álí with honour, and the two set off with an army with full preparations for the conquest of Kashmír. When he arrived at the frontier of Kashmír, at Rájorí a number of outlaws gathered round him. And, in the year 965, a party of the Chakks (which is a well-known tribe, and the dominant one in Kashmír) took him with them, with the intention of conquering Kashmír, and there he had a severe con­flict with Ghází Khán, the prince of the Chakks, and was defeated. After this Kamál Khán made an excuse for separating from him, so Abu-l-Ma'álí disguised himself, and going to the district of Díbálpúr, took refuge with a servant of Bahádur Khán who at that time held the government there. The man's name was Tulak, and he had at one time been himself a servant of Sháh [Abu-l-Ma'álí]. So Tulak concealed him. But it so happened that this Tulak had one night a quarrel with his wife, who being vexed with him, went in the morning to Bahádur Khán and told him that Tulak was concealing Abu-l-Ma'álí in his house, and that they were plotting together against himself. Bahádur Khán, mounting his horse, had Sháh Abu-l-Ma'álí seized and sent him to Bairám-Khán, and Tulak he ordered to be punished. Bairám Khán entrusted Sháh to Walí Beg the Turkomán, and sent him off towards Bakkar [i. e., Mecca]. Walí Beg annoyed him very much by the way, and sent him towards Gujrát, that from thence he might go to Mekka. There he com­mitted a murder, and fled and joined himself to 'Alí Qulí Khán.* When Bairám Khán received information of this, he sent an order to 'Alí Qulí Khán that he should send him to Ágra. At the time that, in accordance with this order, he arrived at Ágra the power of Bairám Khán was already on the decline; Bairám Khán, then, with a view to dispelling the suspicions of the Emperor sent him for a time to the fortress of Biyána. And, when he professed a resolution of making a pilgrimage to Mekka, he again took him as the compa­nion of his journey. But after a few days Abu-l-Ma'álí separated from him also, and went to offer his adhesion to the Emperor. But, when of his extreme arrogance, he rode proudly up to him, this affair became the cause of his being imprisoned a second time, until he was sent to Mekka, as will be mentioned in its place.* It happen­ed that, when, at the very time of the Accession, he fled (P. 12) from Láhór, Pahlawán Gul Guz his keeper committed suicide through fear of the Emperor's anger.

After the settlement of the decree for the Accession the imperial armies were levied against Sikandar [who was] in the mountain district. Sikandar kept up the war for three whole months, but was at last defeated. At this time Rája Rámchand* came from Nagarkot to pay his respects to Akbar, and had an interview with him. And the imperial standards on account of the rainy season, when they had arrived at Jálandhar, remained there five months.

Contemporaneously with the decease of the late king, and the Accession of the Emperor, Tardí Beg Khán commandant of Dihlí had sent Mírzá Abu-l-Qásim, the son of Kámrán Mírza,* with a number of royal Kháns, and some picked elephants, in company with Khwája Sultán 'Alí Wazír Khán, and Mír Munshí Ashraf Khán, to pay their homage to the Emperor. In the same year Mírzá Sulaimán* came with Ibráhím Mírzá* with the intention of conquering Kábul, and Mun'im Khán,* being beseiged, sent particulars to the court. Then the Em­peror appointed Muḥammad Qulí Khán Barlás, and Atka Khán,* and Khizr Khán Hazárah* with a company of men to bring the Queen Dowager and the other wives [of Humáyun] who were in Kábul.* Now before the arrival of this troop [at Kábul Mírzá Sulaimán] had sent Qází Nizám of Badakhshán (who was one of his most honoured Ulamá and who afterwards was known simply by the title of Qází Khán,) on an embassy to Mun'im Khán to make pro­posals of peace, only on the condition that they should at once insert his name also in the Khutbah. Mun'im Khán accepted the condi­tions, as being the best remedy for the general distress, and Mírzá Sulaimán, being satisfied with this concession, returned to Badakh-shán.