“To friends it is a blessed date,
But unto foes unfortunate:”—

fighting and slaughter began between the Amírs of the vanguard and the hosts of Hémun. The Emperor and the Khán Khánán on that day were drawn up in three divisions, and kept sending help to one another until news of the victory were received. And Hémun, whose army was all dispirited, and who set all his hopes on the elephants, surrounded by his chiefs charged the imperial hosts, and threw both right and left wings into great confusion. Then, at last, through the efforts of the archers and the scimitar-strokes of some avenging veterans that breach was healed, and the wavering fortunes of the day were retrieved. Then Hémun, bringing up all his moun­tain-like elephants to bear upon one point, charged the centre where the Khán Zamán was stationed. But the soldiers of Islám received him with a shower of arrows, and Hémun in those circumstances, with his head bare, like one bitten by a mad dog, kept shouting his battle cry “give and take,” and (P. 16) also repeating a charm which he had learnt. Suddenly the arrow of death, which no shield can ward off, struck his squinting eye so that his brain passed clean out from the cup of his head, and he became unconscious. The troops near him, who still held out, when they saw this take place, fled. The army of the people of Islám pursued, and a general carnage ensued: and Shádí Khán Muswání, who was in the van of the army, was slain. Sháh Qúlí Khán Maḥrum* happened to meet with Hémun's elephant, and the elephant-driver said to him, “Do not kill me! Hémun is riding upon my elephant.” So they brought him as he was to the camp. And Shaikh Gadá-í Kambóh and the others, said to the Emperor, “Since this is your Majesty's first war against the infidels, you should flesh your sword in this un­believer, for such an act would have great reward.” But the Emperor replied, “Why should I strike him now that he is already as good as dead? If sensation and activity were left in him, I would do so.” Then the Khán Khánán was the first to strike his sword into him, as an act of religious warfare, and following his example, Gadá-í Shaikh, and the others, deliberately made an end of him. Thus was fulfilled the saying, “What is the good of killing one who is going to be burnt?”* And they found this mnemosynon for the date:—

“If through treachery, deceit, and fraud great Dehli fell,
By Fate's decree, into the hand of Hindu Hémun;
Muḥammad Akbar, that Sháh whose glory reached the sky,
By help of God captured that black-faced Hindu Hémun.
Creation's scribe on lasting tablet with pen of power
Wrote concerning that day: He seized Hindu Hémun.*

Nearly 1500 elephants, and treasure and stores, to such an amount that even fancy is powerless to imagine it, were taken as spoil. And Pír Muḥammad Khán, and Ḥusain Khán, (P. 17) a relation of Mahdí Qásim Khán, and many others, in consort with Sa'íd Khán the Moghúl, pursued the fugitives from Dihlí, and passing from Alwar they came up to the wife of Hémun, who had with her elephants laden with gold. She herself gained the mountain and jungle ground in the district of Kuwa (?) and Bajwára,* but left the gold behind, the greater part of which the rustics* of the country of Bajwára seized; still the part which fell into the hands of the army of the Faithful was so great that they gave it away by shieldfuls, and “nizár-i-zarhá” “scattering of gold pieces” was found to give the date (964). And on the road, which the Queen took, there had fallen such quantities of coins and ingots of gold, that for many a year travellers and passers-by used to find them. In this manner the treasures, which Shér Sháh and Aslím Sháh, and 'Adalí had amassed through a course of years, were dissipated:—

“O mortal! eat, dress, scatter, give,
For life must needs end in the grave:
When one in other spheres doth live,
It recks not all that this world gave!
O lay not up the hoarded gold,
For many with excessive toil
Have hoarded up, with greed untold,
Wealth, which another seized as spoil.”

When, the second day after the victory, the Emperor came to Pánípat, he had a mináret built of the heads* of the slain. From Pánípat, His Majesty came without delay to Dihlí, and caused the Khutbah to be proclaimed once more from the pulpit; there he stayed one month, and illustrious Amírs were appointed as governors of Ágra, Sambhal, and other towns. Then news came to Dihlí, that on the confines of Chamyárí, a place within 20 cosses of Láhor, Khizar Khán* had been defeated before Sikandar, and had arrived at Láhor. His Highness had scarcely departed for Jálandhar, when Sikandar had once more betaken himself to the mountains of Sawálik. (P. 18) Then the royal army going in pursuit penetrated as far as Disuha (?) and Dahmírí.*

Be it understood, that with reference to the occurrence of events I desire from this point to omit trifling occurrences, and to occupy myself solely with events of general importance, in fact, mounted on a single horse to give the reins to the steed of my pen upon this open race-course, and to finish succinctly the history of these 40 years, from the accession of Akbar;* but success* depends upon God!

In this year Sikandar shut himself up in the fortress of Mánkút, and the great Amírs day by day kept attacking him and pressing him sore. And especially Muḥammad Ḥusayn Khán, a relation of Mahdí Qásim Khán, was so persevering in those attacks that if Rastam* had been alive, he would certainly have acknowledged his merits. Moreover his brother Ḥasan Beg was killed:—

“Upon the top of thy mountain Ḥasan was slain,
Greater than of Karbalá* of thee is the bane.”

And this perseverance, which was observed on the one side by the Emperor, and on the other by Sikandar, was the reason of the high estimation in which Ḥusayn Khán was held, and raised him day by day to a higher rank, so that valuable lands* were made over to him in fief, till at last he came into the government of Láhor, and in many places defeated the rebels. When eventually the siege turned out of long duration, and corn became dear among the garrison, and the Amírs of Sikandar one by one deserted him, and came to the imperial court, as for instance Sayyid Maḥmúd Bárha, and others, he brought forward proposals of peace, and sent his son 'Abd ur-Raḥmán, together with Gházi Khán Súr, with a present of elephants to visit the Emperor, through the intervention of Atka Khán and Pír Muḥammad Khán, on the 27th of Ramzán* in the year 964, and surrendered the fort. Then Akbar issued his firmán that Jounpúr should be given temporarily* to Sikandar in fief, and that as soon as the Khán Zamán* should deliver the country before him [i. e. Bengal] out of the hands of the Afgháns, he should (P. 19) take his place. So Sikandar skirting the mountains came to Jounpúr. And when the Khán Zamán received possession of Jounpúr, Sikandar on the authority of a firmán asked for the district of Gour* that he might bring it under his command. There all sorts of accidents befel him, and after some time through the game of Fortune such a position of the pieces* came about that he even attached himself again to his old friends, and fickle Fate folded for him the carpet of gladness:*

“Fate's chequered board is not ever kind,
Nor can seed of joy be always sown,
These possessions must be all resigned,
Except mere dregs of joys which once were known.”

It may here be mentioned that during the siege Muḥammad* Qúlí Khán Barlás, and Atka Khán, and the other Amírs brought the Balqís* of her day, the Queen Dowager* and other ladies veiled with the veil of chastity, from Kábul to the camp. And on the 2nd of Shavvál* in the year nine hundred and sixty-four (964) the imperial army moved towards Láhor. And during this march* ill-feeling arose on the part of the Khán Khánán against Atka Khán on account of one of the Emperor's elephants having run into the Khán Khánán's tent; but Atka Khán came to Láhor, and bringing all his sons with him to the Khán Khánán's tent, took an oath on the Glorious Word* [that the affair was a mere accident], so all suspicion was removed. In this year, through the intervention of Mullá 'Abdul-láh Sultánpurí,* Sultán Ádam G'hakkar hastened to the Court to give in his adherence. And between the Khán Khánán and him a bond of brotherly love was formed, and in the presence of the Emperor himself a quarrel which had existed between Kámal Khán and his brother's son* ended in a settlement. The Sultán Ádam returned to his usual place of abode loaded with honours and presents. (P. 20) After the passing away of the rainy season the imperial royal army marched towards Dihlí. And while camping at Jálandhar the nuptial bond was tied between the Khán Khánán and Her Highness Salímah Sultán Bégam, daughter of Mírzá Núr-ud-dín Muḥammad, and sister's daughter to the deceased Emperor, when a great feast was prepared, and gifts and largesses were distributed.

And on the 25th of the month Jamádá II* in the year 965 the royal cavalcade alighted at Dihlí.

And in those days the Khán Khánán used to come two days a week to the court of judicature, and in conjunction with the nobles, used to settle the important affairs of the kingdom. Now, among the incidents which happened at that time, was the story of the affection of the Khán Zamán for Sháhim Bég. In brief it is as follows: In attendance on the late Emperor were two men of good looks, good disposition, and approved manners, belonging to the corps of the Qúrchís,* the one Khúshḥál Bég, and the other Sháhim Bég son of the Sárbánbáshí* of Sháh Ṭahmásp [of Persia]. Both of them were preeminent for beauty of disposition and appearance, the beau ideal of the age, and paragons in the practice of valour. Now the Khán Zamán, before his appointment to proceed towards Sambhal,* cast secretly a glance at Sháhim Bég, and his extempore poem on the subject is as follows:—