And on the 17th of the sacred month of Muḥarram in the year 965, which coincides with the 3rd year from the Accession, the royal train adorned the city of Ágra. And in this year took place the appointment, removal, rise, and fall of Pír Muhammad Khán: and this is how it came about. Pír Muhammad Khán from being a Mullá had become an Amír, and had been advanced to such a degree, that he became closer and opener of every important affair of state, and finance, as vicegerent of the Khán Khánán. All the Pillars of the State used to go to his house, and but few obtained admittance. His opulence had reached to such a pitch that one day, in the course of going from Dihlí to Ágra, when the Khán Khánán went on an hunting expedition with Pír Muhammad Khán, the Khán Khánán asked his private purveyors: “Is there no provision in store, for we are hungry?” and Pír Muhammad Khán on the spur of the moment said: “If you will be pleased to alight, whatever may happen to be at hand shall be served.” So the Khán Khánán with his suit alighted under a tree, and 3000 drinking cups, and 700 porcelain dishes of various colours(?)* were brought out from the travelling-stores of Pír Muhammad Khán. Though the Khán Khánán was astonished, he let no sign of his astonishment escape him, but great jealousy found its way into his heart:—

“Perhaps in this place you may chance to fail to see,
How many envious foes, and jealous friends there be.”

(P. 27) When they arrived at Ágra, Pír Muhammad Khán was indisposed for some days, and the Khán Khánán came to visit him. One of the servants, who was in the habit of keeping off people, both great and small, came to stop him, and said: “Be pleased to wait until your request has been made known, when you have made application you may come in;” on this the astonishment of the Khán Khánán knew no bounds, and he said:—

“For a wilful fool there is no cure!”

When this came to the ears of Pír Muhammad Khán, ill as he was, he came running, and “after the destruction of Bozrah”* begged forgiveness, saying: “Forgive me, for my Porter did not know you.” The Khán Khánán answered: “Nor you either!” In spite of this, when the Khán Khánán came in, not one of Pír Mu­hammad's household was dismissed except Ṭáhir Muḥammad Sulṭán his chamberlain, who had obtained that position with great difficulty. Praise be to God! for if the fortunes of that man be such what shall I say of myself!—

“O go not to the Sulṭan's Court,
For there indeed thou 'lt profit naught.
Let the gruff Porter's stern rebuff
For wisdom's warning be enough.”*

And the Khán Khánán, after he had sat down for a moment, came out again, and Pír Muhammad was left to meditate upon the affair. After two or three days the Khán Khánán sent to Pír Muhammad Khán the following message, by the hand of Khwájah Amíná* (who afterwards became Khwájah Jahán), and of Mír 'Abd-ulláh Bakhshí, and a number of courtiers: “You will remember that you came to Qandahár in the position of an unfortunate student, and that when we found that you possessed ability and the quality of fidelity, and when also some worthy services had been performed by you, we raised you, a mere student and beggar, from the lowest step among the degraded, to the highest grade among the exalted in (P. 28) Sulṭánship and Khánship, and to the post of an Amír of Amírs; but, since the carrying of a high position is not in your capacity, nothing but a suspicion of rebelliousness and baseness remains in you. So we will take away from you for a time the insignia of your pride, that your base disposition and inflated brain may come to their senses. Now it is right that you should surrender the standard, and kettle-drum, and paraphernalia of pomp.” So Pír Muhammad Khán, in accordance with this command, surrendered on the spot to some of the Khán's people those accessories of con­ceit (which have carried a host of ignorant men off their balance, and do so still, and have driven, and still do drive them, from the path of manliness and generosity, and have made, and still make, them associates of the Ghúls of the desert), and become the same Mullá Pír Muhammad that he was before; nay he became poorer still:—

“Whatever the rolling heaven gives is but a loan,
In a mill the white is but contingent* to the stone.”

Soon after this they sent the Mullá to the fortress of Biyánah, and there he was confined. And from this place he wrote numberless pamphlets on the subject of proof by tamánu,* which is that made use of in the verse of the Qorán [XXI, 22]: “If there were in them gods beside God, verily both heaven and earth would come to ruin,” and is a well known method of argument among logicians: and others besides addressed to the Khán Khánán, and thus made endeavours at reconciliation, and liberating himself; but all was in vain:—

“The heart's a glass, if broken, how repair the ill!
It is no earthen cup to be cracked and patched at will.”

After some days they sent him from Biyánah by order of the Khán Khánán, on a pilgrimage to the sacred Mekka: and he was still in Gujrát, when the decline of the Khán Khánán's* power began. Then he returned, and came to pay his homage to the Emperor, and having obtained the name of Násir-ul-mulk, he was appointed to go in pursuit of the Khán Khánán, as shall be record­ed in its proper place* if God (He is exalted!) will. (P. 29) And the office of vicegerent of the Khán Khánán was transferred from Pír Muhammad Khán to Hájí Muḥammad Khán Sístání, who was also one of the Khán's followers. And the following line is appli­cable to this occurrence:—

“The dog sits down in the sausage-seller's place.”*

And Shaikh Gadá-í Kamboh, son of Jamál Kambo-í (a poet of Dihlí, who after the second defeat in India during the time of the exile at Gujrát had come to the Khán Khánán) through the in­fluence of the latter, they put over the heads of all the magnates of Hindústán and Khurásán, and appointed him to the high office of Çadr.* And the Khán Khánán, nay even the Emperor himself, was often present at his house at singing parties, where the most abject flattery rained down on all sides, and which became a regular hypocrisy-shop. And,—since, from the time of the establishment of Islám in Hindústán, God (praise to Him, and glorious is His Majesty!) has created the great Shaikhs of this country, just the opposite* in nature to the secular princes, viz., always peasant-natured, servile in disposition, and low-minded, and since their pomp and glory has never consisted in smiting with the sword, but in flattering others, in spiritual hypocrisy, and ignominy, and the garb of dignity and honour has ever been too strait for the stature of their ambition—the chief Imáms, at this exaltation of Shaikh Gadá-í, about the eminence* of whose family they had stories, went mourning from house to house, and so the Arabic Proverb “The death of the great has exalted me” became verified:—

“At my rival's insolence I'm mightily surprised,
O may that beggar Gadá-í* ne'er be highly prized.”

And he drew the pen of obliteration through the grants of land and pensions* of the old servants of the crown [Afgháns, Blochm.], and to every one who bore the disgrace of coming to his levees he gave a sayúrghál,* but not unless. But still, compared with this [niggard] age, in which demurs are made to the giving of a single acre of land (P. 30), or even less, as madad i ma'ásh, one might call Shaikh Gadá-í a very “world-giver.”* Then the princes and nobles of the kingdom, as many as came, flew into a rage at the advancement, honour, and unseasonable exaltation of Shaikh Gadá-í, and some of them consoled themselves with these words:—