I went to the land of regret like a tulip with a scar* on my heart,
At the resurrection I'll rise from the clay with a scarred heart!

A wonderful thing was that before this march M. Ibrāhīm was always troubled about a dream which he had had, and was divided between fear and hope. M. Ibrāhīm used to describe the dream as follows: “One night I came to wait upon H.M. Jahānbānī Jinnat Āshiyānī. I was gazing on his beautiful countenance, and was in a reverie, being much in contemplation of the Divine halo. From time to time a longing to have his features took possession of my heart. One night I saw myself in a dream, possessed of his features, and was rejoicing thereat, but when I put my hand on my beard and eyebrows, I found that they were all rotten and came to pieces, so that in a short space of time I had no beard, or eyebrows or eye-lashes. I awoke grieving at this, and the sorrow for it will not leave me. It appears that some harm will come to me.”

When M. Sulaimān had crossed the ravines (jarhā) he went towards Badākhshān by way of Wakhsh* and the desert of Maḥmūd With a few men he came amongst the people of the Hazārajāt and had to fight. He gave proof of courage and went on attacking, whatever loss he incurred (kushta kushta). Two and thirty times they blocked his progress. He personally fought and gained deliverance. When he reached Badakhshān, he got the news of the Mīrzā's mishap. The gates of sorrow were opened on his days. Especially did Ḥaran Begam, the daughter of Sulṭān Wāis Qibcāq and mother of the Mīrzā fall into prolonged sorrow. She put on blue clothes and wore them as long as she lived. One of the eloquent recited this quatrain—

Ah, ruby of Badakhshān, thou has gone from Badakhshān,
Thou wentest shining from the protection of the sun;
Thou wert in the world like Sulaimān's ring,
Alas, thou hast gone from Sulaimān's hand.

Assuredly whoever fails to recognise the power of the lord of the age, and becomes intoxicated with the heady wine of the world, will see such days. This is the first stage that has been reached. Give ear to me, for among the occurrences I shall describe the down­fall of M. Sulaimān,* so that the wise may take warning. The brief statement now is, that on the day when Mun'im Khān, the Khān-Khānān gave his feast the ambassadors were introduced. And when the protestations, the laments and the apologies for crimes of the Mīrzā had been made known, the heart of the Shāhinshāh, which is an ocean of kindness, accepted the excuses, and after making kind inquiries he expressed compassion for the Mīrzā. He used lofty utterances, and the whole of that joyful day was spent in mental and physical pleasures.

During this auspicious year a large number of aspirants left their homes and came to prostrate themselves at the threshold of fortune, being attracted by the reports of the justice and liberality of the Khe­dive of the age. They succeeded in their objects and made the eulogium of H.M. the Shāhinshāh the amulet of their faith and fortune. Among them came the blessed feet of that bowl of knowledge and deposit of truths—Khwāja Abdu-shahīd, the son of Khwāja 'Abdulla, who is known as Khwājagan-Khwāja, who again was the son of Khwāja Nāṣiru-d-dīn Ubāidullah, who is known as Khwāja Aḥrār*. Khwāja Abdu-shahīd had external accomplishments and also internal gifts. He obtained the exultation of joining the sublime assembly, which is an auspicious elixir of things temporal and spiritual, and H.M. the Shāhinshāh who was inwardly a student in the Divine school, came forward with reverence and did him honour. That reservoir of instruction, Maulāna S'aīd* Turkistānī, who was at the head of the learned men of Transoxiana, and who had spent a lifetime in the society of Maulānā Aḥmad Junaid* also made the acquintance of H.M. the Shāhinshāh. The Maulānā also was imbued with inward knowledge. Though he had not plunged so far into the niceties of Divine wisdom, or into physics and mathematics, yet he had attained a high rank in those sciences which are current in Trans­oxiana, and had not made his knowledge a cause of trouble and dis­turbance. At this auspicious time, when the management of political and financial affairs and the expansion and contraction of the affairs of the Sultanate were illuminated by the radiancy of H.M. Shāhinshāh's supervision, various ranks of men and skilful persons of every country came and were successful spiritually and temporally By the felicity of the attention of God's shadow the transactions of the Sultanate took an upward course. The market of administra­tions became brisk. A lofty foundation was given to faith. The world's springtime became more adorned. The masters of religion received support. Slanderers lost their trade. Worshippers of the creature received eyes to see with. The morning of auspiciousness breathed for the worshippers of God. The real world became revealed. The outer world acquired splendour.

Among the events of this time was the marriage of M. Sharafu-d-dīn Ḥusain. The auspicious-minded Shāhinshāh, who from out­ward signs knows secrets constantly distinguishes by royal favours and raised to lofty rank a number of persons who come before him, and are noted for good services and loyalty, and in whom high lineage adds to their intrinsic merits. By causing them to revolve continually in his presence he observes and studies their character. For the well-founded idea of the Shāhinshāh is, “Perchance a knave has put on the garments of the honest and has come into the lists of the elect, and there may occur a fault and a fissure in the pillars of the sovereignty through his wickedness.” It was on the same principle that the sages of old, when they would strip the veil of secrecy from hearts, poured reason-robbing wine into their mouths and made them intoxicated, so that their weak heads gave out from drunkenness whatever secret there was in their minds.

Men try man by the test of wine.

And when the intention is right, to give wine of this kind as approved by the dicta of the wise. To overthrow such knavish intelligence and to test it is befitting to world-adorning religion. In the same manner the principle of this world-adorning Shāhinshāh is that when he desire to know the calibre of anyone's talents and disposition he primes him with the man-overthrowing wine of the world (i.e., prosperity) and makes him mad with the world's inebriety, and then reads with the eyes of insight the nature of his character. Short-sighted men, whose eyes do not fall on the object, and are whirled round in the trough of error shoot out the tongue of reproach saying, “Why was such confidence reposed without inquiry?” While they who know the degrees of perfection recog­nise in this practice the use of the mirror of characters and eulo­gise such testing. An instance of this testing is M. Sharafu-d-dīn Ḥusain, who was of very exalted lineage, and whom H.M. looked upon with the eye of promoting, and to whom he gave lofty rank in order that he might be a prop of the Sultanate. As the high con­nections and the reputation of the Mīrzā were visible to all the world, some of the imperial servants, who only looked to external rank, judged him to be sound inwardly as well as externally, and gave him in marriage the cupola of chastity, the holy fruit of the Sultanate, Bakhshī* Bānū Begam, who was H.M. the Shāhinshāh's pure sister. By this alliance the position of the Mīrza was enor­mously exalted. Soon afterwards he obtained leave to go to Sarkār Nāgor which was his fief.

One of the occurrences of this year was the sending M. Qarā Bahādūr Khān, the brother* of M. Ḥaidar Gūrgān, to conquer Kash­mīr. As it is a proper part of the rules of the administration of justice and of world-sway that whenever a ruler engages in his own pleasures, and spends his time in gratifying his lusts, and does not attend to the cherishing of his subjects and to symphathising with the oppressed, and to overthrowing the oppressors, the Lord of the Age, to whom Almighty God has given power and made him the governor of the terrene and terrestrials, should for the sake of thanksgiving to God, strive to uproot that tyrant, and to make over the inhabitants of his country to the prudent and just-minded, and should consider that as the preamble of elect devotion; so, acting upon this principle, an order was issued this year that a force be put under the command of M. Qarā Bahādūr, a relative of M. Ḥaidar, and one who was acquainted with the country, and that he be sent to conquer Kashmīr, inasmuch as the disturbances by intriguing Kashmīris, and the injustice of Ghāzī Khān, the ruler of Kashmīr, had been brought to the royal ears. A large body of men were nominated to assist Qarā Bahādūr. At this time Ghāzī Khān, the son of Kācī Cak, was the ruler of Kash­mīr, for the government thereof had come to him after his father. But the truth is that he was the son of Ḥusain Cak the brother of Kācī Cak. When the measure of Ḥusain Cak's days was filled, Kācī Cak, either swayed by lust, or influenced by political considerations, took to himself his pregnant wife. Two or three months after the marriage Ghāzī Khān was born.*