It is a requisite of the high office of sovereignty that justice be administered to the oppressed without distinguishing between friend and foe, relative and stranger, and that it place retribution for tyranny in the collar of the tyrant, so that those connected with the sovereign, and those attached to the court may not make their rela­tionship a means of oppression, and that if, which God forbid, any such event should occur out of infatuation, right-acting men may be under no apprehension in reporting the oppression, but may boldly bring it forward. God be praised that this lofty characteristic is so marked in the disposition of the Shāhinshāh that the human intellect is at a loss how to describe it! This world-ministering quality is so unaffectedly existent in the sacred nature of H.M., that all classes rely upon it and pass their days in peace and tranquillity.

In the beginning of this Divine year and middle of 971,—which was the preamble of the distribution of justice—Khwājah M'uaam, who was the half-brother of the noble lady H.M. Miriam-Makānī; as he had no flavour of real relationship so did he make his outward relationship an intoxicating drug and show himself on various occa­sions as an example of immoderation. In the auspicious time of H.M. Jahānbānī Jinnat Āshiyānī, as it was a season for gentleness, H.M. had consideration for the noble lady and used to pass by his offences. For instance, in the year of the expedition to Badakhshān, he attacked H.M.'s diwān Khwāja* Rashīdī and with the sword of immoderation shed the blood of that worthy man. He absconded after committing this horrid crime and came to Kabul. Thereafter he was allowed again, by the intercession of near intimates of H.M., to come to Court, and renewed his misbehaviour. At last H.M. expelled him, and he went off to the Ḥijāz. He committed wicked­ness upon wickedness and came back to India. There he displayed the old bad qualities. One day, when the ministers and officers were assembled in the Shahinshāh's palace, he made an unprovoked attack on Mīrzā* 'Abdullah Moghal who was ranked among the great Amīrs. On account of some story he ran at him and kicked him and struck him with his fists. On another occasion he behaved rudely to Bairām Khān and put his hand to his dagger. He was again expelled. He now went to Gujrat and there spent his days in doing harm to him­self and to others. On account of his bad conduct and bad circum­stances he could not remain there. He turned his face towards the world-protecting court. When Agra became the seat of the Caliphate he was exalted by the bliss of service and was distinguished every­where by kindnesses and consideration. But inasmuch as his nature was compact of immoderation he revealed his character by hundreds of presumptuous acts and by his disregard of his past. Bairām Khān was arranging to make him over to Walī Beg in order that he might be conveyed by way of Bakar to Gujrat, when Bairām himself became excluded, and the Khwāja, on account of his connexion with the holy family, was treated with high favours. But he was caught by the hand of his own wickedness and continued to commit hundreds of unruly actions. At last Bībī* Fāima, who had been H.M. Jahan­bānī Jinnat Āshiyānī's Urdū-begī, and now held a high position in H.M. the Shāhinshāh's harem, and whose daughter Zahra Āghā was in the Khwāja's household, and was, owing to his barbarity and wickedness continually in grief and in the prison of affliction, came one day with a thousand agitations and implored help as the Khwāja was about to go to his pargana and was going to take her daughter with him. On account of his wickedness, and of the evil imagina­tions which were part of his nature he meditated the death of this chaste and innocent lady. She said over and over again that from apprehensions of the Shāhinshāh's justice he could not effect his pur­pose in the capital. Now that he was taking her to his jāgīr, what would happen? H.M. had compassion on the distress of this old servant and soothed her troubled mind. He was going a-hunting, he said, and for her sake he would cross* (the river) by the Khwāja's house. When the Khwāja came out to pay his respects he would give him good advice and forbid him to take her daughter with him. Shortly afterwards H.M. left the citadel and crossed the river by boat. He then went off to the Khwāja's house with a few special attendants —not more than twenty. Among them were Dastam Khān, āhir Muḥammad Khān Mīr Farāghat, Qatlaq Khān, Maqbil Khān, Shimāl Khān, Peshrū Khān, and Ḥakīm-ul-mulk. As the unaccommodating temper of the Khwāja was known, the Mīr Farāghat and Peshrū Khān were sent ahead in order that they might apprise him of the sublime advent and bring him to the highway of rectitude. And Dastam Khān and Maqbil Khān were sent after these two in order that if the Khwāja should, according to his usual custom, behave in an insane manner, they might assist āhir Muḥammad Khān. When the ungovernable madman heard from āhir Muḥammad Khān and Peshrū Khān that H M. had crossed the river at this place and had sent them, he became violent and said, “I shall not come into H.M's presence.” Then he went, full of wrath, to the female apart­ments, and drawing his dagger killed Zahra Āghā who had just come from the bath and was robing herself in the dressing-room. In this way he provided for himself a supply of eternal destruction. Then he put his head out of the window and flung the blood-stained dagger to where Dastam Khān was standing and cried out with a loud voice, “I have shed her blood, go and tell.” Dastam Khān took up the bloody dagger and brought it to H.M. When H.M. the Shāhinshāh heard of this outrage he boiled over with indignation and entered the house of the villain. The madman buckled on his sword and came into the presence with his hand on the hilt. H.M. angrily asked him, “What kind of conduct is this? Your hand is on your sword; attempt to draw it and I shall strike such a blow on your head that your soul will depart.” When the madman beheld the majesty of the Shāhinshāh, his hands and feet gave way and he sank down. Those present arrested him. One of the Gujrātīs was standing behind the Khwājah with a sword and was meditating treason. H.M. perceived his intention and bade Qat­laq Qadam Khān strike him. That ready-witted one understood at once and struck him such a blow that his head rolled off and lay beside his feet. For a moment the trunk remained standing and the black blood spouted from the arteries of the neck. H.M. then asked the Khwājah for what fault had he shed the unfortunate woman's blood. The monster opened his mouth and uttered delirious ravings till at length they silenced him by blows and kicks. Dragging him by the hair and kicking him they brought him to the river. The tide of wrath foamed up in the ocean of justice, and in accordance with orders, the servants, who were always the boon-companions (hamkāsa) of his violence and frenzy, were bound neck and hand and immersed in the whirlpool of retribution. Though they dipped the wicked wretch in the river he showed tenacity of life and did not cease his ravings. He knew that to blaspheme saints was painful to the king, and so he indulged in this. Though everyone was con­vinced that in this whirlpool of wrath he would be killed by the buffeting of the waves, yet from tenacity of life and hardness of heart he remained alive. He was made over to Maqbil Khān who sent him to Gwāliār where he was imprisoned. Melancholia took posses­sion of him there, and he died of a disordered brain. There is a ridge in the precincts of the fort, and there he was buried; but after­wards his body was brought to Delhi. God be praised! Hail to the Fortune which consumes sedition and the justice which wipes out violence. As H.M.'s sole object is to show forth the lights of justice and to erase the traces of oppression, his dominion increases daily, and also his prosperity.

One of the dominion-increasing occurrences of this auspicious year was the victory of 'Alī Qulī Khān Zamān over Fatḥ Khān of Patna. The account of this is as follows. Fatḥ Khān, Ḥasan Khān his brother, Mallū Khān and a large number descended from fort Rohtās and took possession of Bihār and various estates belonging to the Khān Zamān. They chose the son of Salīm Khān, who had the name of Āwāz Khān, for the throne, and uplifted the head of sedi­tion. The Khān Zamān and other officers of that country, such as Bahādur Khān, Majnūn Khān, and Ibrāhīm Khān proceeded to extin­guish these flames of disaffection. As the Afghans were in full force, the Khān Zamān did not think a battle advisable and made himself secure in a fort on the bank of the Son (called) Andhīārī-bari*(?), At this time Maulānā 'Alāu-d-dīn Lārī, Mullā 'Abdullah Sulānpūrī, Shihābu-d-dīn Khān and Wazīr Khān came from the court. This was because H.M. the Shāhinshāh had resolved that the Khān Zamān should be established in the path of fidelity by good counsels, and by royal favours. Ample favour, too, was shown to Sulaimān Kararāni, the governor (Ḥākim) of Bengal, who had made himself one of the court officers and associated himself with the Khān Zamān, and who recited the Khuba in the Shāhinshāh's name. If it seemed advisable and opportune, he (Sulaimān) was to be brought to kiss the threshold—the elixir of spiritual and temporal excellence. Those envoys came inside the fort and gave the Khān Zamān the good news of the royal favour. They strengthened him physically and morally, and at such a time of discomposure conjoined him with victory. One day they were seated in front of the Khān Zamān when the black-hearted Afghans came towards the fort with an equipped army and a number of war-elephants. The Khān Zamān was collect­ing his forces when they came, and as soon as they arrived they repulsed his men and threw them into confusion. His whole army fled, and the Afghans set themselves to plunder their quarters. Just when those presumptuous ones (the Afghans) had made things diffi­cult, the daily-increasing fortune of the Shāhinshāh looked to the outward connection of the Khān Zamān with the sublime palace and manifested itself in a wondrous way.