From the news-letter of Persia sent by Muhammad
Sadiq, the leader of the merchants, the Emperor learnt
that Shah Abbas had left his capital Isfahan, halted two
leagues outside the city, and sent his ‘advance-tents’ on
towards Aghrabad. The Emperor immediately mounted
his own Arab horse and issued forth. Nobody could
venture to speak to him [against this course] at that
time. Muhammad Amin Khan, the son of Mir Jumla, being
exceedingly bold, submitted, “Your Majesty's ‘advance-
His Majesty answered, “Before I knew [of the Persian king's hostile intentions] I might have been excused [for lingering here]. But after getting the information, negligence and delay would only be causes of the decline of my fortune. What need is there of the arrival of the ‘advance-tents?’ (Verse)
The man of God is not a stranger in the east or the west;
Whichever way he goes, the country has not parted from Him!”
After entering the garden [outside Agra], the Emperor held a public audience and told his officers and clerks that the march would begin the next day and that he would halt [only on reaching] Lahor. The Chamberlain petitioned, “This march has been undertaken all of a sudden. It is impossible for the necessary things to reach us.”
Across the sheet of the petition the Emperor wrote, “The eternal journey, which no man can avoid, will have to be undertaken all of a sudden, without previous warning. What shall I do then? This my present journey should be considered as like that [eternal voyage]. I shall march further on in the same manner in which I have arrived up to this place. Nay, it is not even necessary to mark out the stages [for the successive days' marches]; I shall [daily] travel as far as I can. (Verse)
The wayfarer in the path of death is not in need of stages.”
Text.—Abdus Salam Khan's second MS.
Notes.—In September, 1666, Aurangzib, then at Agra, learnt from the reports of his spies that Shah Abbas II wanted to enter Khurasan with a view to invading India. The Emperor at once sent his son Muazzam with Jaswant Singh towards the Panjab (4th September). On 9th October, he himself left Agra for Delhi, but made no haste to reach the north-western frontier. On 12th December, at the hunting-lodge of Palam, he learnt that the Shah had died on 22nd August. (A. N. 974, 984; M.A. 56—58). A taunting letter which the Shah sent to Aurangzib by the hand of Tarbiyat Khan, the Mughal envoy in Persia, shortly before his death, is given in Faiyaz-ul-qawanin, 496-499. In it he threatens to invade India. [History of Aurangzib, iii. ch. 29].