In this year on the dismissal of Ḥusain Khán the Emperor gave the parganna of Lak'hnou as jágír to Mahdí Qásim Khán, who had come back from a pilgrimage to Mekkah, and had come to the fortress of Rintambhor, and had an interview with him there. Ḥusain Khán was exceedingly indignant with Mahdí Qásim Khán on account of this, and reciting the verse “This separation between me and thee”,* began to look forward to the Day of the Resurrection.* And in spite of his being married to the daughter of Mahdí Qásim Khán, and in spite of her affection for him, he married a daughter of his own uncle Ghanazfar Beg. After a time he left her in help­lessness, and the daughter of Mahdí Qásim Beg at Khairábád with her brothers, and set off from Lak'hnou with the intention of carry­ing on a religious war, and of breaking the idols and destroying the idol-temples. He had heard that the bricks of these were of silver and gold, and conceiving a desire for this and all the other abundant and unguarded treasures, of which he had heard a lying report, he set out by way of Oudh to the Sawálik mountains. The moun­taineers, as is their custom, immediately abandoned their positions, after a slight resistance, and took refuge in the high and dangerous mountains. When Ḥusain Khán arrived at the place where Sulṭán Muḥammad, nephew of Pír Muḥammad Khán had been martyred, and which is a burial-place of martyrs, he read the F??tiḥah* for those pure spirits, and built a çuffah* over the dilapidated tombs of those martyrs. Then he ravaged the country as far as the district of Wajráíl, which is part of the territory of Rájah Ranká, a powerful zamíndár. Thence he marched two days' journey as far as Ajmír, which is his capital, and is a very mine of gold and silver, and silk and musk, and all the productions of the country of Tibet, when on a sudden, as has been frequently observed in those mountains, from the effect of the neighing of the horses, the beating of the drums and the shouts (P. 126) of the men the clouds collected and so much rain fell that neither corn nor fodder was to be procured, and famine stared the army in the face. Although Ḥusain Khán, with the most undaunted intrepidity encouraged his men, and excited their cupidity by representing the wealth of the city in gold, jewels and treasure, they were too much disheartened to support him, and so, whether he would or no, he was obliged to retreat. As soon as they began to retreat, the unbelievers seized the passes and showered down on them stones and arrows tipped with poisoned bones, so that most of the bravest and most experienced of his warriors drank the draught of martyrdom. And the rest, who had been wounded, five or six months later through the effect of that pernicious poison obtained their desired release from this dwelling of pleasure which leaves a bitter taste behind it. And the date of their death is given in a riddle, viz.:—“Tasteless bitterness”.*

Ḥusain Khán returned to Court and requested that Kánt and Golah in the skirts of the mountains might be conferred upon him as jágír, in lieu of the one he had held before. This he did with a view to taking vengeance on the mountaineers. His request was graciously acceded to. Several times he made incursions into the skirts of the hills, but he was never able to penetrate into the interior. Many fine fellows, who had escaped half-dead from his first expedition, in this expedition were poisoned by the bad water of the country and departed from the world without fighting. After some years Ḥusain Khán, contrary to the advice and remonstrance of his friends, made another attempt against the hill-country, and gave the chattels of existence to the wind, as will be narrated in its proper place, if God, He is exalted, will.

About this time the author, after taking leave of Ḥusain Khán,* went from Lak'hnou to Badáún, where I formed a suitable nuptial alliance for my brother, Shaikh Muḥammad, whom I loved from my very soul; nay I valued him more than my own life, for he had acquired many excellent qualities, and angelic dispositions had become his moral habit (P. 127). Three months hardly had elapsed before that mandate of good, which includes a hundred evils, by consecutive moves of the pieces, carried off both him and the pupil of my eye 'Abdu-l-Laṭíf, who was the earliest first-fruits of the garden of my life and existence,* from the bed to the grave, and changed me from a very prince of happiness to a monster in my own city: “Verily we belong to God, and verily we return to Him”:* —