He was for some time Ṣadr* under the emperor Humāyūn and his brother, Mīr ‘Abdullāh the jurist, was one of Humāyūn's intimate and specially honoured confidants. Both brothers were endued with piety, sanctity, and regularity of life.*
Mīr ‘Abdul Ḥayy was expert in writing the Bābarī hand, which was invented by the emperor Bābar, who sent to the honoured city of Makkah a copy of the Qur'ān written in that hand, of which no trace now remains.* In the memoir of Mir ‘Alā-ud-daulah* it is mentioned that Mīr ‘Abdul Ḥayy devoted some attention to the study of accomplishments and that nobody had learnt to write in the difficult Bābarī style more quickly or better than he, but Mīrzā ‘Azīz Kūka wrote in the margin of the memoir that Mīr ‘Abdul Ḥayy had no knowledge of any branch of learning, and that his one accomplishment was some knowledge of the Bābarī script, with which he was very imperfectly acquainted, that he was wonderfully simple and would, apropos of nothing and without consideration, relate in social gatherings strange tales which no child would believe. As Mīr ‘Abdul Ḥayy was better known to Mīrzā ‘Azīz Kūka than to Mir ‘Alā-ud-daulah, it is beyond doubt that what the Mīrzā wrote is nearer to the truth than that which is written in the memoir, for Mīr ‘Alā-ud-daulah, has recorded much incongruous nonsense* in the memoir.
Mīr ‘Abdul Ḥayy has some aptitude for poetry, and wrote an answer to that fantastical quatrain which was written in the form of a square by one of the accomplished men about the court in honour of Muḥammad Hindāl Mīrzā, and is so well known that it is the first thing that children are set to learn. The quatrain is as follows:—
“O thou, before whose court a hundred Rustams* have cast 274
down their crowns,Whose praises are sung by all those who have attained
perfection;
India has been conquered merely by thy footstep within her
bounds,
Thy title is, MUḤAMMAD HINDĀL!”
Mīr ‘Abdul Ḥayy, who also had a childish nature, wrote, in reply, the following quatrain:—
“O thou, at whose door a thousand monarchs like Cæsar hold
their crowns,
Whose praises exercise their tongues evening and morning!
May all the confines of the world, O Lord,
Be under the sway of the king of the world, MUḤAMMAD
AKBAR!”