In this fortunate year, which was the ornamental border of beauty and the beginning of the removal of the screen over this aggregate of the works of the embroiderers for eternity, the garden of Reason came into flower, and the bud of contrivance opened. For the expectant world this year was the beginning of the attainment of desires. This day gave the revolving sky the good news of the results of its motion and enabled it to obtain repose. It was the commencement of the locating of their aspirations in the bosom of the celestials. For terrestrials the flower of success came forth from the lap of hope and took root. Among these things was the circumstance that Bairām Khān, who regarded himself as the unique of the age in regard to courage, administrative abilities, devotion and sincerity, and who in consequence of a crowd of flatterers had got the belief that the affairs of India could not be managed without him, took, from the bad advice of shortsighted associates, the path of destruction, and did shameful deeds, such as should not have come from him.
It is an old rule that when the wonder-working Creator for reasons known to Him, or for considerations which may be partially followed by a sage, casts anyone into enduring affliction, He begins by making him the source of certain acts which do not bear the cachet of well-pleasingness to God. Accordingly, a man who in this material world makes himself illustrious does not regard Prudence, which is the greatest of Divine gifts, as of no account, but recognises in the following of it the means of pleasing God. And the first thing which it behoves men immersed in business to look to, is that they give little access to flatterers. It is difficult on account of the constitution of the world to be clear of them altogether; it is indispensable that they after using circumspection and insight select one or two servants and intimates who may in privacy tell them the truth, which may be very bitter, and is indigestible by most dispositions. For the numbers of flatterers are unlimited, and busy men have not the time to distinguish truth from falsehood and right from wrong. The wine of success robs the senses, and out of a hundred thousand successful men perhaps there may be one who from largeness of capacity preserves his mental stability. For instance, this great gift and perpetual table is the fortune of the Divinely nourished Khedive of our age, so that in proportion as his success and world-conquest increase, the degree of his perspicacity becomes greater, and his progress steadier. And though flatterers in this sublime court attain their desires, yet the wise prince holds firmly the thread of discrimination and prudently gives them the go-bye, so that neither is the veil of the reputation of these men rent nor has the flatterer any influence. Do you not know that in former times flatterers have, owing to the insouciance of rulers, ruined houses and families, and what other evils they have done? Doubtless it is in accordance with eternal decrees that there should be flatterers in the workshop of governments, but so also is it that there should be foreseeing wisdom. And this consists in not letting them interfere with root-questions, and not letting go altogether the Reason which unravels difficulties and is the Sulān of the material world.
There's both road and well, an eye to see, and the sun,
So that man may look in front of his feet,
He has so many lights and yet goes the wrong road!
Let him fall and see his own punishment
Enemies do not work to one another the ill
That folly and passion do to oneself.
Of the improper acts which were done by Bāirām Khān in consequence of bad company there was the putting to death of the Shāhinshāh's own elephant-driver. The succinct account of this warning-giving occurrence is as follows: The royal elephant became mast and beyond the control of the driver and attacked one of Bairām Khān's elephants. It struck the other elephant so severely that the entrails came out. Bairām Khān was so enraged that he put the driver to death. By such an act as this, which was beyond all bounds, and transgressed both loyalty and respect, he made himself an object of disgust to men of experience. More strange still was what happened when one day one of the Shāhinshāh's private elephants got mast and rushed into the Jamna. Bairām Khān was taking the air in a boat, and the elephant, which had got out of hand, proceeded towards his boat. The Khān Khānān was much alarmed; but at last the driver contrived to master the elephant, and Bairām Khān was saved from the animal's attack. When this affair was reported to H.M. the Shāhinshāh he, in order to soothe Bairām Khān, had the driver bound and sent to him, though he was innocent. The Khān, the time of whose fall was near at hand, put him to death and paid no heed to the fact that this driver belonged to the altar of his loyalty and allegiance, and that H.M. had out of politeness sent him bound to him. Apart from this he did not consider that nothing could be done with intoxication, especially when it was a brute that was intoxicated, and that too an enormous beast which was specially apt to become mast. H.M. the Shāhinshāh, who was a mine of gentleness and wisdom, passed over such improper actions as this, of which only a few out of many have been described, and abode under the veil of indifference. All his genius was turned to this consideration, that those men might take the reins of justice into their hands, even if they could not advance some steps on the road of loyalty, and might become travellers on the way of practical wisdom. This faction became intoxicated by power, and being unhelped by sound ideas, it daily became worse. But so long as the wickedness of those oppressors did not exceed all bounds, H.M's sacred soul was not affected by the mean nature of his allowances, for the kingdom of the Lord of the Age was withheld from him and distributed among his (Bairam Khān's) flatterers, and as H.M. Jahānbānī Jinnat, Āshiyānī had given Baīrām Khān the name of Atālīq, and as H.M. (Akbar) often called him Khān Bābā, as it is the custom of young monarchs to call old men Bābā (father), he magnanimously observed the meaning of the phrase and overlooked his improper acts. He was eager about travelling and hunting, and kept the head of surrender on the ground of well-pleasing (to God), and worshipped the incomparable Deity, until, at last, things came beyond bounds, on account of ill-fated, maladaroit flatterers such as Walī Beg Ẕū-al-qadr* and Shāikh Gadāī Kambū. He (Bairām) took ruinous ideas into his head, and his crude thoughts ripened. When the enlightened mind of H.M. the Shāhinshāh was aware of the frauds of this ungrateful crew, he, before they disclosed their evil intentions, laid his closely-hidden secret before the sincere, and united, such as Māham Anaga, who was a marvel for sense, resource and loyalty, Adham Khān, M. Sharafu-d-dīn Ḥusain, and a number of other courtiers, and intimated that he would throw off some of the veils of his world-adorning beauty and would assume sovereignty, and would inflict suitable punishment on Bairām Khān and his assemblage of flatterers, so that they should awake from their sleep of neglect and long mourn over their misconduct. Good God! How could such thoughts enter a human head in the face of the supremacy of Bairām Khān, the largeness of his army and the tyranny of the lords of opposition? But as the world-adorning Deity was desirous that this chosen one should throw off one or two of the hundreds and thousands of the veils of his beauty, and should put another veil over his world-illuminating countenance, and that he should take his seat on the throne of command, it was inevitable that at such a time thoughts and inspirations such as these should find their way into his truth-worshipping mind. On one occasion these considerations were adduced at Bīāna, whither he had gone for hunting, and the servants of fortune's threshold, partly on account of vexation at the life they led, for these servants of the king were on account of the tyranny of the Bairām Khān confederacy in indigent circumstances just as the king of the Age was, and partly from the glory of a little loyalty, and at this time of the typhoon and simūm of disloyalty, a little loyalty made a great show, engaged in proper schemes. Māham Anaga communicated this close secret to Shihābu-d-dīn Aḥmad Khān, who was governor of Delhi, and a favourite on account of his judgment, loyalty and truthfulness. On 8 Farwardīn, Divine month, corresponding to Monday 20th Jumāda-al-akhirī 967 (19th March, 1560) he left Agra with an intention which involved in it the administration of the world, and was a cause of peace and tranquillity. Ostensibly he went to hunt at Kūl (Alighar) and its vicinity, and so crossed the Jumna. As he had no residence he spent that night in the house of Ḥakīm Zanbīl*. As Bairām Khān always showed adherence and attention to Abul-Qāsim the son of M. Kāmrān, and as the evil thoughts of the faction always put him forward, he, in accordance with the dictates of reason, sent for him from that side of the Jumna and took him with him on this hunting-party in which the game of his design fell into his hands, so that he might not be the staff of the inwardly blind ones of the stage of enmity and rebellion, or a voucher for the wayfarers in the desert of sedition. Certainly the idea was a good one, and it was carried out in accordance with H.M's inspiration. Next morning he arrived, under the guidance of fortune, at the town of Jalesar,* and from there he went to Sikandra.* Muḥammed Bāqī Baqlānī father-in-law of Adham Khān was there. Māham Anaga had sent for him and confided the secret to him. That low-minded, inauspicious one sought exclusion from the bliss of meeting (Akbar), and not being content with this he sent news of the scheme to Bairām Khān; but as the time of the expiry of Bairām Khān's sway was near at hand, and the rulers of the Shāhinshāh's fortune had planned this divine contrivance, Bairām Khān regarded the report as old, idle tales and paid no heed to it. The sublime standards proceeded from there, hunting as they went, towards Kūl, and as His Highness Miriām Mahānī was in Delhi and was in somewhat weak health, he made this his motive and went there. He came to the town of Khurjah* and alighted at the Serai of Bahankīl (?). At this stage Shihābu-d-dīn Aḥmad Khān and his brothers and other relatives met him and had the bliss of welcoming him.