On Thursday, the 8th Muḥarram, 1017* (24th April, 1608), Jalālu-d-dīn Mas‘ūd, who held the rank of 400 personal and was not wanting in bravery, and who in several battles had done great deeds, died at about the age of 50 or 60 years of diarrhœa. He was an opium-eater, and used to eat opium after breaking it in pieces, like cheese, and it is notorious that he frequently ate opium from the hand of his own mother. When his disease became violent and there was a prospect of his death, his mother from excessive love for him ate more opium than was right out of that which she used to give her son, and two or three hours after his death she also died. I have never heard of such affection on the part of a mother for her son. It is the custom among the Hindus that after the death of their husbands women burn themselves, whether from love, or to save the honour of their fathers, or from being ashamed before their sons-in-law, but nothing like this was ever manifested on the part of mothers, Musulman or Hindu. On the 15th of the same month I presented my best horse by way of favour to Rāja Mān Singh. Shāh ‘Abbās had sent this horse with some other horses and fitting gifts by Minūchihr, one of his confidential slaves, to the late king Akbar. From being presented with this horse the Raja was so delighted that if I had given him a kingdom I do not think he would have shown such joy. At the time they brought the horse it was three or four years old. It grew up in Hindustan. The whole of the servants of the Court, Moghul and Rajput together, represented that no horse like this had ever come from Iraq to Hindustan. When my revered father gave the province of Khandesh and the Subah of the Deccan to my brother Dāniyāl, and was returning to Agra, he by way of kindness told Dāniyāl to ask of him whatever he desired. Seizing the opportunity, he asked for this horse, and he accordingly gave it to him. On Tuesday, the 20th, a report came from Islām Khān with the news of the death of Jahāngīr Qulī Khān, the governor of the Subah of Bengal, who was my special slave. On account of his natural excellence and innate merit he had been enrolled in the list of the great Amirs. I was much grieved at his death. I bestowed the rule of Bengal and the tutorship to Prince Jahāndār on my farzand* Islām Khān, and in his place gave the government of the Subah of Behar to Afẓal Khān (son of Abū-l-faẓl). The son of Ḥakīm ‘Alī, whom I had sent on some duties to Burhanpur, came and brought with him some Karnatic jugglers who had no rivals or equals; for instance, one of them played with ten balls, each of which was equal to an orange and one to a citron, and one to a surkh,* in such a way that notwithstanding some were small and some large he never missed one, and did so many kinds of tricks that one's wits became bewildered. At the same time a dervish from Ceylon came and brought a strange animal called a deonak* (or devang). Its face was exactly like a large bat, and the whole shape was like that of a monkey, but it had no tail. Its movements were like those of the black tailless monkey which they call ban mānush (jungle man) in the Hindi language. Its body was like that of a young monkey two or three months old. It had been with the dervish for five years.* It appeared that the animal would never grow larger. Its food is milk and it also eats plantains. As the creature appeared very strange, I ordered the artists to take a likeness of it in various kinds of movement. It looked very ugly.
On the same day Mīrzā Farīdūn Barlās was promoted
to the rank of 1,500 personal and 1,300 horse. An
order was given that Pāyanda*
Khān Moghul, as he
had reached old age after exerting himself as a soldier,
should receive a jagir equal to 2,000 personal. Ilf
Khān was promoted to the rank of 700 personal and
500 horse. The rank of Islān Khān, my son (farzand),
the governor of the Subah of Bengal, was fixed at 4,000
personal and 3,000 horse. The guardianship of the fort
of Rohtas was bestowed on Kishwar Khān, son of
Qubu-d-dīn Khān Koka. Ihtimām Khān was raised
to the rank of 1,000 personal and 300 horse, and made
mīr baḥr (admiral) and was appointed to the charge
of the nawāra (fleet) of Bengal. On the 1st Ṣafar
Shamsu-d-dīn Khān, son of Khān A‘am, made an offering
of ten elephants, and, receiving the rank of 2,000 personal
and 1,500 horse, was selected for the title of Jahāngīr
Qulī Khān, and afar Khān received the rank of 2,000
personal and 1,000 horse. As I had demanded in marriage
the daughter of Jagat Singh, eldest son of Rāja Mān Singh,
I on the 16th sent 80,000 rupees for the sāchaq (a
marriage present) to the house of the aforesaid Raja in
order to dignify him. Muqarrab Khān sent from the
port of Cambay a European curtain (tapestry), the like
of which in beauty no other work of the Frank painters
had ever been seen. On the same day my aunt, Najību-n-