All manner of praise*
be to God, for that His promises are
sure, and that He assists His servants, and exalts His armies,
and scatters in rout the bands*
of those who give associates
unto Him.*
He is one, and except Him there is nothing.
O Thou who hast exalted the standards of Islām, by means
of the friends of the faith,*
who walk in the right way; and
who hast dashed down the standards*
of idols, by dispersing
in flight the enemies of the Musulmans, who are rejected; for
verily he cuts down*
and destroys the race which practises
oppression; all praise belongs unto God, who is the creator of
the world; and may the blessing of God light on the best of
his created beings Muhammed, the greatest of holy warriors,
and of such as ever waged war on the heathen; and blessing
be on his family and friends*
who are the pointers of the true
road, even till the day of judgement. The constant succession
of God’s mercies is the cause of the number of praises
bestowed on the Most High; and the number of the praises
and glorifyings of God is again, in its turn, the cause of
the constant succession of God’s mercies. For every mercy
a thanksgiving is due, and every thanksgiving is followed
by a mercy. To pay the due praise and thanksgiving to
the Almighty, far exceeds human ability, and even the best
are altogether unable to discharge the mighty debt. But,
above all, thanksgiving is due for a grace, than which
no more mighty favour is, or for evermore can be, in this
world,*—for
victory over the heathen, and the defeat of
powerful sinners*;
for these are those heathen and sinners*
concerning whom revelation has been made*;
and verily,
in the sight of men of understanding, there can be no blessing
more excellent; all good and all blessing proceed from God.*
And that grand favour, that mighty gift (which, from the
cradle till the present moment, was the most ardent wish and
most fixed desire of this heart that longs for the good of
mankind, and is eager in pursuit of truth), at this fortunate
and auspicious moment, showed itself from the hidden
store of the mercies of the sublime majesty of the Wisest of
the Wise*;
and the Accomplisher who never reproaches, and
He who is bountiful without cause, with the keys of victory
has opened the doors of bounty before the face of the wishes
of us the Nawāb, success-adorned*;
and the illustrious names
of our ever-successful armies have been inserted in the book of
the illustrious warriors of the faith, while the standards
of Islām, with the aid of our victorious hosts, have attained
the highest heights of exaltation and glory. The particulars
of this happy transaction, and the details of this glorious
event, are as follows: When the glancing of the swords
of our soldiers, who are the stay of the faith, illuminated
the regions of Hindustān with the splendours of conquest
and victory; and the hands of divine assistance exalted
our victorious banners in the kingdoms of Delhi, and Agra,
and Jonpur, and Kharīd, and Behār, and elsewhere, as has
been made known in former accounts of our victories*;
many tribes of men, both of the heathen and of such as
professed the faith, submitted to and became subjects of us
the fortunate Nawāb. When, according to what is written,
he*
hath waxed rebellious and presumptuous, and is become
one of the heathen,*
some having raised up their heads*
in revolt like Satan, and having become the leaders of the
army of the accursed, and the generals of the soldiers of the
rejected, were the cause of the gathering of these bands,
composed of some who bore on their necks the zunnār,*
(that yoke of perdition), and of others who fixed thorns
from the pangs of apostacy*
in the hem of their garments;
now the sway of the accursed Pagan, May the Almighty
consign him to perdition*
at the day of judgement, was so
extensive in the country of Hind, that before the rising of
the sun of the imperial dominion, and before our attaining
the Khalīfat and empire,*
(although mighty Rajas and
Rais, who, in this contest, have obeyed his mandates, and
Hākims and rulers, glorying in apostacy, who were under his
control in this warfare, having regard to their own dignity,
did not obey nor assist him in any former war or battle,
and had never accompanied the Pagan in any of his former
enterprises, but had only deceitfully flattered and fed his
vanity*),
yet the standards of the heathen streamed in
two hundred cities inhabited by people of the faith; whereby
the destruction of mosques and holy places had ensued,
and the women and children of the Musulmans of these
towns and cities have been made captives; and his strength
had reached such a pitch, that, calculating according to
the custom in Hind, by which a country yielding a lak*
furnishes one hundred horse, and one yielding a kror (or
ten millions) ten thousand horse, the countries subject
to that Pagan had attained the amount of ten krors (or one
hundred millions), which afforded one hundred thousand
cavalry. And at this time, many heathen of eminence, who
never before in any war had any one of them assisted him,
actuated by hatred to the armies of the faith, increased his
villainous array, so that ten independent princes, each of
whom raised on high like smoke the boast of revolt, and
who in different quarters were the leaders of the pagan
hosts, and were like the chains*
and fetters on the limbs of
these wretched pagans*;
each of those ten infidels, who,
unlike the ten blessed,*
unfolded the misery-freighted
banners, which mark them out for futuretorment and wailing*,*
possessed many dependants and armies, and wide-extended
pergannas. As, for instance, Silāhed-dīn*
possessed*
thirty
thousand horse; Rāwal Ūdai Sing Nāgari,*
ten*
thousand
horse; Medini Rai, ten*
thousand; Hassan Khan Mewāti,
twelve thousand horse; Bārmal Īdari, four thousand horse;
Narpat Hāda,*
seven thousand; Sattervi Kachi, six thousand;
Dharm Deo, four thousand; Narsing Deo,*
four thousand
horse; Mahmūd Khan, the son of Sultan Sikander, though
he possessed no country nor perganna, yet had gathered
about him ten thousand horse, who adhered to him in the
hopes that he might succeed in establishing his pretensions;
insomuch, that the total number of all these wretches, who
were separated from the fields of salvation and bliss, if an
estimate be formed from the capacity of their dominions
and pergannas, was two hundred and one thousand.
These haughty-minded, yet blind pagans,*
having latterly
united their hearts*
with those of the other black, hard-hearted,
ill-fated pagans, like one darkness coming upon
another, advanced in hostile array, to war with the people
of Islām, and to destroy the foundation of the religion of
the Chief of Men, on whom be praise and blessing. The
holy warriors of the imperial army, coming like the divine
mandates on the head of the one-eyed Dajāl,*
showed to
men of understanding the truth of the saying, whenever
fate arrives the eye becomes blind; and having placed before
their sight the text of the blessed Korān, where it is written,
Whoever engages in a holy war, of a truth fights for his own
soul,*
exhibited their obedience to the commandment ever to
be obeyed, engage in war with the heathen and the impious.* *
March 16.
A.D. 1527.
On Saturday, the 13th of the latter Jumāda, in the year 933,
of the good fortune of which day the sacred words, since
God has given a blessing on your Saturday, are a proof, the
encampment of the victorious army of Islām was established
in the neighbourhood of Kānwā, one of the districts of
Biāna, hard by a hill which resembled the grave of*
the
enemies of the faith. When the accounts of the glorious
array and parade*
of the army of Islām reached the ears
of the accursed pagans, the enemies of the faith of Muhammed
(who, like the warriors of the elephant, were eager to
destroy the kaabeh of the people of the faith, and who
made the mountain-formed, demon-looking elephants their
confidence), all with one heart and mind drew out their
armies, which marched under ill-starred standards.