And during the first days of the month Rabi'ul-awwal, by the intervention of Rájá Bhagván Dás, father of Rájá Mán Singh, I prostrated myself in Audience-chamber at Fatḥpúr, and delivered the despatches of the Amírs, together with the elephant. The Emperor asked; ‘What is its name?’ I replied: ‘Rám-prasád.’* His Majesty replied: Since all this [success] has been brought about through the Pír,* its name henceforth shall be Pír-prasád.* Next His Majesty said: ‘They have written ever so many praises of you, tell me truly, in what army have you served, and what exploits have you performed?’ I replied: ‘In the presence of the Emperor, Your Majesty's humble servant speaks even the truth, with a hundred fears and tremblings, how can he speak that which is not the truth!’ And then I related to him succinctly what had happened. Again he asked: ‘Were you unarmed, or armed?’ I said: ‘I had armour both for man and horse.’ ‘Where did you get it from?’ he said. I replied: ‘From Sayyid 'Abd-ulláh Khán.’ The Emperor was exceedingly pleased, and putting forth his hand to a heap of Ashrafís* (which in those days, just like a heap in a treasury, used always to be laid before him) presented me with a sum of ninety six Ashrafís, and said: (P. 237) ‘Have you seen Shaikh 'Abd-un-Nabí [since your return]?’ I answered: ‘From the dust of the road I came to the Court, how could I have seen him?’ Then the Emperor gave me a pair of splendid Nakhúdí* shawls [and said]: ‘Take these and go and see the Shaikh, and say to him from us: ‘They are from our own private treasury, and we had them made on purpose for you, do you wear them.’ I took them, and carried the message to the Shaikh, who was very much pleased. Then he asked: At the moment of taking leave of you, I said, At the moment of joining battle remember to pray for me? I replied: I then recited the prayer ‘O God! pardon believers male and female, and keep those who keep the Religion of Muḥammad, and abandon those who abandon the Religion of Muḥammad (on him be blessing and peace!)’ He said: ‘That was sufficient, praise belongs to God!’
This Shaikh Abd-un-Nabí eventually went out of the world* by a mischance, such as which may none experience or hear! and may it serve as a warning to all!—
‘Whomsoever this world fosters,
At last it spills his blood.
What can be the condition of that child,
Whose own mother is its enemy!’In this year the Emperor sent Sayyid 'Abd-ulláh post haste to the Khán Jahán (who was encamped against Dáúd near K'halgáon,* and was awaiting the arrival of Muzaffar Khán,* and the army of Bihár and Ḥájí-púr) entrusted with a firmán expressing his anxiety for those Amírs, and promising the speedy arrival of His Majesty in person. And he despatched five lacs of rupees by a mounted messenger, as a subsidy to that army, and also ordered several vessels to start from Ágrah laden with corn for the troops. Then news arrived that Gujpatí,* a zamíndár of the neighbourhood of Ḥájí-púr and Patnah, who had been subjugated,* had rebelled, and gathering together a force, had attacked Farḥat Khán, and his son Mírak Radáí, who were in the station of Ára, and had brought them both to the grade of martyrdom, and now held all the roads. On this account on the twenty-fifth of Rabi'ul ákhir* of the aforesaid year the Emperor started towards the east of Hind, and came to a halt within five cosses of his goal (P. 238). At this halting-place Sayyid 'Abd-ulláh Khán sent the head of Dá'úd: and this verse, which Sayyid Mír Kai at the moment of returning from Patnah to Jounpúr had chosen as a charm of prophetic meaning, came true:—
“News of the victory suddenly came,
The head of Dá'úd came to the Court.”And the history of the battle is concisely as follows. When Sayyid 'Abd-ulláh Khán joined the army of the Khán Jahán in the neighbourhood of K'halgáon, he was very anxious to attack the enemy. So the next day (which was the fifteenth of Rabí'ul ákhir) the Khán Jahán issued orders to the Amírs of his own troops, and appointed to each the place he was to take. Then Muzaffar Khán reinforced him with 5,000 horse. And Dá'úd with the greatest presumption and pride, being supported by his paternal uncle Junaid Kararání and other leaders, drew out of the fortress, and leaving his hiding-
place offered battle. At the very first attack a cannon-ball struck the knee of Junaid and shattered it. When the armies closed with one another, defeat fell on the Afgháns. The horse of Dá'úd stuck fast in a swamp, and Ḥasan Bég surrounded him, and brought him to Khán Jahán. Dá'úd being overcome with thirst asked for water. They filled his slipper with water and brought it to him. But, when he refused to drink, Khán Jahán offered him his own private canteen, and allowed him to drink out of it. He did not wish to kill him, for he was a very handsome man; but finally the Amírs said that to spare his life would be to incur suspicions as to their own loyalty, so he ordered them to cut off his head. They took two chops at his neck without success, but at last they succeeded in killing him, and in severing his head from his body. Then they stuffed it with straw, and anointed it with perfumes, and gave it in charge to Sayyid 'Abd-ulláh Khán, and sent him with it to the Emperor. They took many elephants and much spoil. And on the twenty-third of Jamád'-as-sání* the Emperor went to Ajmír with the intention of returning thanks for the victory. And on the sixth of the month Rajab,* which is the anniversary of the decease of Ḥazrat (P. 139) Khwájah* (may God sanctify his glorious tomb!) the Emperor arrived at Ajmír. And Sulṭán Khwá-
jah, son of Khwájah Kháwand Maḥmúd* he appointed Mír Hájí,* and sent a sum of six lacs of rupees, in money and goods, to be distributed among the deserving people of Mecca and Madína, and for building a Khánah* in the sacred precincts. When the Emperor dismissed Sulṭán Khwájah on his road to the two Sacred Cities, he himself, with bare head and feet, and dressed in the Iḥrám, and in every respect clothed like a pilgrim, and having shorn his head a little, went a little distance in his train. At this a cry broke forth from the multitude,* and he showed himself moved by their devotion. And Qaṭb-ud-dín Muḥammad Khán and Qulíj Khán, and Áçaf Khán were appointed to escort Sulṭán Khwájah, with orders that they should part from the caravan at Kokandah, and should scour the country of the Ráná,* and following his track wherever they should hear news of him, should bring destruction on him. And contemporaneously with these events news arrived, that Sháh Tahmásp had passed from the world,* and that Sháh Isma'íl II had succeeded him. And they found this mnemosynon for the date:—
“It is the beginning of Reign and Victory, and Conquest.”*And the Emperor made a general order, that any one who wished might go on a pilgrimage, and that his expenses should be paid from the Treasury. And a great number of persons attained that felicity. But the revese is now the case, for he cannot now bear even the name of such a thing, and merely to ask leave to go on a pilgrimage is enough to make a man a malefactor worthy of death: “We alternate these days among men.”*
And at this time, when news arrived of the distressed state of the army at Kokandah, the Emperor sent for Mán Singh, Áçaf Khan and Qází Khán, to come alone from that place, and on account of certain faults which they had committed, he excluded Mán Singh and Áçaf Khán (who were associated in treachery)* for some time from the Court; while on the contrary Ghází Khán Badakhshí, and Mihtar Khán, and 'Alí Murád Uzbek, Khanjarí Turk, and one or two others, of whom I was of the number (P. 240) were distinguished from these men, and were honoured with presents and promotion in rank. But all the rest, though they fell from the position of confidence, were dismissed without punishment.
On the 19th of this month the Emperor marched towards the country of the Ráná, who was pillaging in the mountain district of Oudípúr, Jounpúr &c.
At this time Khwájah Sháh Mançúr, a Shírází clerk, who at the beginning of his career had been for some time clerk in the perfumery department, and had been obliged to flee on account of the hostility and power of Muzaffar Khán, came to Mun'im Khán at Jounpúr, and was received with the greatest respect, and appointed to be his díván. And after the death of Mun'im Khán he came to Court in accordance with an imperial firmán, and on account of his exceedingly fine business qualities and soundness of judgment, he became díván of the whole empire, and by degrees became associated in imperial affairs with the prosperous Rájah:* —