CHAPTER II.
MARCH OF THE SACRED ARMY OF THE SHĀHINSHAH FROM AḤMĀDABĀD
TO THE PORT OF CAMBAY, AND HIS BEHOLDING THE SEA.

When the delightful country of Gujrat had become the abode of peace and tranquillity by the advent of the Shāhinshāh, he made over the government of Aḥmadābād and this side of the river Mahindri (i.e., the Mahī) to the Khān A'aam M. 'Azīz Koka. The other side, 9 viz., Baroda, Cāmpānīr, Surat, and the districts which had been usurped by the Mīrzās were entrusted to the Gujrat officers who had bound on the straps of fealty and had been included among the imperial servants. 'Itimād Khān Gujrati was placed at the head of them, and these officers, new and old, engaged to administer the territories, and to extirpate the Mīrzās. Thereafter H.M. deter­mined that after he had visited the sea, he would return to the capital (i.e., Aḥmadābād). Accordingly on the day of Asman 27 Āẕar Divine month or Monday 2 Shābān, 2 December 1572, he marched to the port of Cambay which is thirty kos from Aḥmadābād. The Gujrat officers took leave for some days in order to make their arrrangements and stayed in the city. He left Ḥakīm 'Aīn-al-mulk, who had rela­tionships with them, in order that he might civilise these savages of the desert.

On the march he heard that Ikhtiyār-al-mulk had in his wicked­ness absconded, and that 'Itimād Khān and the other Gujrat officers were on the point of falling into evil ways. Accordingly Shahbāz Khān received orders to go there quickly and come with those traitors and prevent them from turning into the desert of error.

On 1* Dai Divine month H.M. encamped at the port of Cambay so that pleasant spot became the meeting-place of the spiritual and material oceans. The merchants of Rūm,* Syria, Persia and Turan regarded the advent of the Shāhinshāh as a great boon and paid their respects. H.M. embarked on a ship with a select party, and made an excursion on the sea. The hearts of the sincere received a fresh instruction. On the day of Shahrīyūr 4 Dai, Divine month, Shāhbāz Khān brought 'Itimād Khān and some other of the Gujrātī officers to Court. As these wicked and deceitful men had broken their engagements of loyalty, H.M. again turned his attention to the affairs of the country and made over each one of them to a faithful servant. The short account of those evil-conditioned men is that timidity, deceit, and falsehood have been mixed up with a little honesty, simplicity and humility (farotanī, perhaps meanness) and made into a paste (m'ajūn) to which the name of Gujrāti has been given. Among these 'Itimād Khān was the leading specimen. When the reverberation of the fortune of the sublime army rose high in Gujrat, the officers thereof lost hold of the thread of counsel. At last they contrived a scheme and did homage, but all their thought was by this deception to keep up the old state of things. As H.M. is an ocean of benevolence he winked at their inner wicked­ness and encompassed them with favours. Although farsighted counsellors who had to some extent understood the dispositions of those evil-minded ones, and had by hints and also by clear language suggested their arrest, their proposals were not accepted. On the contrary the position of those men (the Gujrātīs) was made yet con­fidential. At the time when H.M. went off to witness the spectacle of the ocean, it was evident from their taking leave and remaining behind that this wicked crew had evil designs. What campaign had they made that it was imperative that they should at this time take leave? But the world's lord, from his reverence and gracious­ness, 10 took the view that they were honest, and when those wretches saw the glorious justice and the daily increasing fortune of the king, they perceived that now that so wide as a territory had been made brilliant by his equity, it was impossible for them to remain in it according to the old, old way, and that it would be better for them to retire and raise the head of turbulence. On the night* of the second day after H.M.'s departure, Ikhtiyār-al-mulk took the oppor­tunity to desert, and 'Itimād Khān and all those who were in league with him were on the point of going off when Abū Turāb and Ḥakīm Ain-al-mulk arrived. The conspirators sought to ruin them by tricks and pretences and sought to detain them and to use up the time by discussions and stratagems. It nearly came to their being imprisoned and carried off and to their being put to death and to the evil schemes being carried out. Just then Shāhbāz Khān arrived, and their evil intentions did not become acts. Shāhbaz Khān con­sidered with himself that if he hastened to arrest Ikhtiyār-al-mulk, this crew would escape. Without raising the veil from over the acts of those disloyal ones, he went off to the threshold of fortune. As H.M. the Shāhinshāh is a touchstone for all classes, the false coin of these men was soon revealed, and they met with their punish­ment. The right-thinking and magnanimity of the world's lord were revealed to mankind and the links of sway maintained. The good fortune of the farsighted was conspicuous and also there was a demonstration to the general public of the conduct of the faction. The good name of the Shāhinshāh was written on the pages of the hearts of high and low. If H.M., in accordance with his own secret perception or with the requests of the clear-sighted ones of the court had before this put those evil-doers into confinement, how would the real state of the case have been made manifest to the general public, with whom—the blind and superficial—rulers have principally to do?

When the Shāhinshāh's mind was free from the affairs of these wicked and two-faced men, he addressed himself to the extirpation of the seditious Mīrzās. For from the time when that crew had, after failing in Malwa, come to this country, Baroda had come into the hands of Ibrāhīm Ḥusain M., Surat into those of Muḥammad 11 Ḥusain M. and Cāmpānīr into the hands of Shāh M. H.M. made over the charge of the port of Cambay to Ḥasan Khān Khāzāncī and on the day of Amardād 7 Dai Divine month, proceeded towards Baroda. From near Baroda he sent Shahbāz Khān, Qāsim Khān, Bāz Bahādur Khān and a body of active men towards Cāmpānīr in order to free that fort from the rebels. Khān Aāam M. Koka was sent off to the government of Ahmadābād. He instilled into the mind of that auspicious one many principles of government such as the love of justice, continual watchfulness, the having regard to the ranks of mankind, the preservation of their honour, the observing of peace with all, etc., and bade him confirm him (Akbar) in his good opinion of himself. He (Akbar) also appointed as his assistants Shāh Fakhru-d-dīn Khān, Dastam Khān, M'aṣūm Khān, Saiyid Ḥāmid Bokhārī, Shaikh Muḥammad Bokhārī and a large number of loyal heroes, and he encompassed them with favours above their positions. His purpose in sending them was that they might inflict suitable punishment on the Mīrzās if they should try to raise a disturbance there. On the day of Āẕar the 9th of the said month (Dai) he reached Baroda. Next day he learnt that the ill-fated Mirzas had strengthened the fort of Surat and had collected near Cāmpānīr. The Khān 'Aālm, Saiyid Maḥmūd Khān Bārha, Shāh Qulī Khān Muḥram, Rājah Bhagwant Dās, Mān Singh, and Khwāja Ghīāu-d-dīn 'Alī Iṣfahānī* and another body of troops were deputed to give those infatuated ones a lesson. It was past midnight when an intelligencer brought news that when the news of the advance of the Shāhinshāh's army reached Ibrāhīm Ḥusain M. in the fort of Broach, he put to death Rustum* Khān Rūmī who had resolved on becoming loyal and wished to do homage. Though he could not maintain himself in that fort against the world-conquering standards, yet the wine of pre­sumption in his brain was making him pass by at a distance of eight kos from the camp of fortune, in order that he might cause a distur­bance in the country. As many of the loyal servants had already 12 been sent against those vagabonds, the world-lord—who in his excess of courage always wished to wield his sword in the battlefield,—was pleased, and determined that he would personally make a rapid expedition and chastise those evildoers.