Many of the chiefs attached to the minister sent messengers to him, saying, that they had heard alarming reports, but they had each a thou­sand horse ready, and that if he chose to fly to Guzerat, they would attend him, and sacrifice their lives for him. He replied, he had for many years enjoyed an honourable station in his mas­ter's service, during which he had been guilty of no crime; that he relied with confidence on the justice of the King, who would certainly not punish a faithful servant on the bare accus­ations of his enemies; but if impelled by Pro­vidence to do so, it was befitting in him to sub­mit to the decree. He concluded by observing, that the measure they proposed, out of duty and friendship, would on his part be ingratitude and rebellion.

Having made up his mind to the worst, he went to court. Mahomed Shah sternly asked him, “When any one is disloyal to his sovereign, “and his crime be proved, what should be his “punishment?” The Khwaja undauntedly replied, “Let the abandoned wretch who practises treason “against his lord meet with no mercy.” The King then showed him the letter; upon seeing which, the minister, after repeating the verse of the Koran, “O God, verily this is a great forgery,” said, “The seal is mine, but not the letter, of which I “have no knowledge.” He concluded, by repeat­ing the following verse: “By that God whose “commands have been fulfilled by the just, even at “the expense of their blood, false as the story of “Yoosoof and the wolf * is that which my enemies “have forged against me.” The King being at the time intoxicated with wine, had resigned his reason to fury, and as the decline of the house of Bahmuny was also to be soon completed, he went into no fur­ther examination, but rising from his seat, ordered his Abyssinian slave Jowhur to put the minister to death on the spot. Khwaja Mahmood, address­ing the King, said, “The death of an old man “like me is, indeed, of little moment, but to “your Majesty it will be the loss of an empire, “and the ruin of your character.” The King, without attending to him, went abruptly into his haram. The slave then drawing his sabre ad­vanced towards the Khwaja, who, kneeling down facing the Kibla, * said, “There is no God but “God, and Mahomed is the prophet of God.” As the sabre descended he exclaimed, “Praise be to God,” and thus resigned his soul to the divine mercy. Asud Khan Geelany, an officer of high rank, and a friend of the Khwaja, happening to be present, was put to death by the slave also, without orders. Thus died Khwaja Mahmood Gawan, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. A little before his death he completed a poem in praise of his master, Mahomed Shah.

Suffur 5.
A. H. 886.
April 5.
A. D. 1481. His death happened on the 5th of Suffur, 886; and Moolla Abdool Kur-reem Sindy, the author of the Tareekh Mahmood Shahy, one of the servants of the Khwaja, composed the following verses on his martyrdom:—

“If you would know the date, when the innocent “martyr, truly worthy of veneration, whose bounty “made the world glad, suffered death, you will find “it recorded in

“The unjust Execution.’”†*

In another distich, the same author observes, “If you are asked the date of his death, say that

“‘the guiltless Mahmood Gawan suffered martyrdom.’”†*

There are in the Deccan many remains of the munificence of this great man, particularly a col­lege built by him at Ahmudabad Bidur two years before his death, containing also a mosque and a large square, which at the date of this history were as entire as if only just finished. * Khwaja Mahmood possessed much learning; he evinced great taste in his compositions, both in prose and verse, and in arithmetic and mathe­matics he had few equals. The Rozut-ool-Insha and some poems of his production are still extant in a few of the libraries in the Deccan. It was his practice to remit annually valuable presents to several learned men in Khorassan and Irak, and the princes of those parts bestowed honours upon him. Mowlana Jamy Abdool Rahman corre­sponded with him, and some of his letters are to be seen in his works. Among the Mowlana's poems is one written in praise of that minister. Moolla Abdool Kureem Sindy has written an excellent life of Khwaja Mahmood, part of which is here inserted.

Khwaja Mahmood's ancestors had for many generations in succession held the office of vi­zier to the princes of Geelan in Persia. One of these became ruler of Rushd, which territory, according to Hajy Mahomed Kandahary, con­tinued in the family till the time of Shah Tahmasp Sufvy. Khwaja Mahmood, himself of royal ex­traction, alarmed at the jealousy of Shah Tahmasp, persuaded his mother to quit his birth-place; and though invited to fill the high station of vizier by the princes of Irak and Khorassan, he refused that dan­gerous office, choosing rather to become a mer­chant. In this capacity he travelled through many countries, and made acquaintance with celebrated and learned men in each. In his forty-third year, with a view partly to traffic and partly in order to visit the learned men of the Deccan, he came by sea to the port of Dabul, and from thence travelled to Ahmudabad Bidur, intending to pro­ceed from that capital to Dehly. Alla-ood-Deen Shah the Second, appreciating his great quali­ties, prevailed on him to become enrolled among his nobility. In the reign of Hoomayoon Shah Zalim he received the title of Mullik-oot-Toojar, and rose to the first office in the state. Ma-homed Shah added to this several other titles, among which was that of Khwaja Jehan. During this reign he had two thousand Moguls in his own service, and the command of ten thousand horse from the King. The following reason is given for his being called Gawan: Being one day in the King's company sitting on a terrace of the palace, a cow happened to low underneath, when one of the assembly jocosely remarked, “The learned “minister will perhaps tell your Majesty what the “cow says.” On which Khwaja Mahmood ob­served, “She says I am one of her species, and “should not keep company with an ass.” When he received the title of Khwaja Jehan, he pro­phetically observed that he feared it was unlucky, as all who had held it came to an untimely end. He was by persuasion a rigid Soony. His loyalty to Mahomed Shah was sincere; and the fame of his liberality spread over Asia; there being scarce a town or city the learned men of which had not derived advantage from his bounty. His behaviour was affable to all, and his justice unimpeachable.

Mahomed Shah having heard frequent reports of the vast wealth of his minister, sent for the treasurer, Nizam-ood-Deen Hussun Geelany, and demanded where the money, jewels, and plate of the Khwaja were deposited. The treasurer, in ap­parent alarm, told the King that if he would spare his life he would discover all; on which, expecting to realise a great booty, the King took a solemn oath, promising if he concealed nothing to reward him handsomely. The treasurer then said, “O Sire, my “master had two treasuries, one of which he called “the King's, from which were issued the expenses “of his troops, stables, and household: in this there “are now ten thousand larees * and three thousand “hoons; the other he called the treasury of the “poor, and in this there is a sealed bag containing “three hundred larees.”† * The King said, “How “comes it that the Khwaja, whose revenues “equalled that of many kings, should only have “so small a sum?” The treasurer said, “When-“ever money came from his jageer, having taken “for the King's treasury the pay of his troops “and stables, he gave the remainder, in your “Majesty's name, to the poor, not reserving a “cowrie‡ * for his own use. A sum of forty “thousand larees§, * which he brought with him “from Persia to the Deccan, he employed in trade, “and preserving always that capital, he expended “two larees daily for his own kitchen and apparel “out of the profit, the remainder of which was “carried into the treasury for the poor, and “issued from thence in sums remitted to his “mother, his relatives, and worthy persons, with “whom he had made acquaintance in his travels, “and who would not come to Hindoostan.”

The enemies of the minister were confounded at this account; but enviously remarked, that the Khwaja was a prudent man, and suspecting his expenses might betray his riches, had left them secreted at the capital. To which the treasurer replied, that if one laree belonging to him should be found there, or any where, besides the sums he had mentioned, he would submit to the severest pu­nishment. The King then assembled all the late minister's servants, and first questioned the chief furash, * who said, that all the tents and carpets his master had were now in the camp, except some matting in the city on the floors of his mosque and college: he observed that the Khwaja always slept himself upon a bare mat. The overseer of the kitchen was then called, who declared, that all the utensils and vessels were with him; but that the victuals for his master's own eating were always prepared in earthen pots. The librarian lastly stood forth, and acknowledged that there were in the library three thousand volumes, but all designed for the students of the college. The King now be­came melancholy; and the treasurer took courage to say, “O King! may many thousands such as “Mahmood Gawan be a sacrifice for thy safety; “but why didst thou not regard the claims of that “minister, and ascertain who was the bearer of “the letter to the Ray of Orissa, that his treason “might appear manifest to us, and to all man-“kind.” Mahomed Shah, struck with the ob­servation, and awaking as if from a trance of stupe­faction, called to the accusers of the unfortunate minister to bring the bearer of the letter before him. None could be produced; and the real truth now flashed on the King's mind: he trembled with horror at the act that he had committed, and retired into his haram full of remorse and sorrow at his rash credulity, and for the unjust sentence passed against his faithful servant and friend. The body of the deceased was sent off in melancholy pomp from the camp to Ahmudabad Bidur for interment; three days after which ceremony, the Prince Mahmood Khan and many of the nobility were directed to visit the grave.