He is entitled A‘am Khān, and is well known for his good ²⁸¹ breeding, and for his varied accomplishments and gifts, and there is no other amīr who is regarded as his equal in depth of under­standing or in capacity. As he used formerly, now and again, but rarely, to make trial of his ability in the composition of verse, the following few verses of his are quoted, in order that these memoirs may not be destitute of all mention of him.

“Since honour and reputation prevented me from obtaining
the desire of my heart,
I will henceforward shatter my reputation with a stone.”

He also wrote an illuminated copy of an ode composed by himself, the opening couplet of which was this:—

“O thou, whose curled lock is the fetter of my heart,
The love of whom is mingled with all the elements of my
body!”

The following couplets are also by him:—

“The affairs of the world have no stability,
It is better that my heart should be withdrawn from the
affairs of the world.”

“My heart is sick with the pain and grief of loneliness,
O physician of the sick heart, what dost thou prescribe?”

“My grief-worn heart has become dust in the road of fidelity;
See, my faithless love, the way of those who humble them-
selves to the dust.”*

He laid out a splendid garden in Agra, and in it built a garden-house adorned with paintings, and composed this quatrain for an inscription on the building:—

“O Lord, by the purity of heart of men of discernment,
Which is dearer to Thee than all other things,
Since this house has, by Thy grace, been completed,
Of thy favour send me honoured guests!”

There are in the world many records of his doings, one of which relates the story of his high-spirited departure on pilgrim- ²⁸² age to Makkah, and of his return in a different frame of mind, —one of the inevitable consequences of these evil days.*