On the 9th of the month Muḥarram* in the year nine hundred and ninety (990) A'zam Khán came from Bengál. And one evening in course of conversation the Emperor said to him, “We have found out proofs for part of the reality of metempsychosis, Abu-l-Fazl shall convince you of it!’ And he accepted it all. The Emperor then appointed some Amírs who were absent from the army of Kábul to accompany him, and sent him [back to Bengál] to repulse Muçúm Kábulí.

On the 15th of the month Çafar* of this year the New Year came round again, and the twenty-seventh year of the Reign commenced:—

“When the Pen of the Worker of Spring came into action,
It made the Pearl of the Equinox into a paint-palate at the time of Aries.”*

(P. 301.) And the Emperor commanded both the private and the public audience chamber to be deccorated with all sorts of precious materials. And they prepared costly articles of various colours, and European curtains, and they made most incomparable paintings, and erected lofty pavilions. And they decorated the bazaar at Ágrah and at Fatḥpúr in a similar manner, and kept high festival for eighteen whole days. And the Emperor sent for all sorts of troops of singers and musicians both Hindú and Persian, and dancers, both men and women, by thousands of thousands: and each day one of the renowned Amírs came and was honoured with his society, and received from him a considerable present, and other proofs of hos­pitality.

And since, in his Majesty's opinion, it was a settled fact, that the 1000 years since the time of the mission of the Prophet (peace be upon him!), which was to be the period of the continuance of the faith of Islám, were now completed, no hindrance remained to the promulgation of those secret designs, which he nursed in his heart. And so, considering any further respect or regard for the Shaikhs and Ulamá (who were unbending and uncompromising) to be un­necessary, he felt at liberty to embark fearlessly on his design of annulling the statutes and ordinances of Islám, and of establishing his own cherished pernicious belief [in their stead].

The first command that he issued was this: that the “Era of the Thousand” should be stamped on the coins, and that a Táríkhí Alfí,* commencing with the Death of the Prophet, should be written. And many other wonderful and strange innovations, by way of politic and wise expedients, did he devise. For one thing he decreed that Sijdah,* under the name of Zamín-bos,* ought to be offered to kings. Another was that wine might be drunk, if for the healing of the body* by the advice of the physicians. But, lest confusion and wickedness should become more common on this account, he laid down severe punishments on excessive drinking, carousals, and disorderly conduct. And in order to keep the matter within due bounds he set up a wine-shop near the palace, under the charge of the Porter's wife who belonged by birth to the class of (P. 302) wine-sellers, and appointed a fixed tariff. Persons who wished to purchase wine, as a remedy for sickness, could do so by having their name, and that of their father and grandfather, written down by the clerk. Some by deceit had false names written down, and so obtain­ed wine—for who could accurately enquire into such a matter? And [in point of fact] a shop for the benefit of drunkards was opened. They say, moreover, that swine-flesh formed a component part of that wine, but God knows! In spite of all precautions confusion and wicked­ness raised its head, and, however many persons were every day punished, no practical result was effected. And there was another matter, which comes within the meaning of [the saying], “Bend, but do not break in pieces,”* viz. that of the prostitutes of the imperial dominions, who had gathered together in the Capital in such swarms as to defy counting or numbering. These he made to live outside the city, and called the place Shaitánpárah.* And he ap­pointed a keeper, and a deputy, and a secretary for this quarter, so that any one who wished to associate with these people, or take them to his house, provided he first had his name and condition written down, might with the connivance of the imperial officers have con­nection with any of them that he pleased. But he did not permit any man to take dancing-girls to his house at night, without con­forming to these conditions, in order that he might keep the matter under proper control. But if any one wished to have a virgin, if the petitioner was a well-known courtier, he sent a petition by the Deputy, and obtained permission from Court. Nevertheless, in spite of the rule, all the libertines carried on these affairs under assumed names, and so drunkenness and debauchery led to many acts of bloodshed, and however many were brought to punishment, another troop [of delinquents] would strut arrogantly past the Inspector of that department:—

“Her endless beauty, as often as it slays a lover,
Another troop in love makes its appearance from the unseen.”

And a number of well-known prostitutes he called privately before him, and enquired (P. 103) who had seduced them. And after learn­ing their names, several important Amírs were severely reprimanded and punished, and imprisoned for a considerable time. Among them one mentioned the name of Rája Bír Bir, who had become a disciple of His Majesty's religion, and had made such progress in the four degrees, that he had become conspicuous as endowed with the essentials of the Four Virtues,* and scarcely ever left the society of his own daughters. At the time he happened to be in the parganna of Karrah in his own jágír. When news of this reached the veil of his door, he wished to become a Jogí.* But on the Emperor's send­ing for him in reassuring terms he came to the Court.

Another thing was the prohibition to eat beef. The origin of this embargo was this, that from his tender years onwards the Emperor had been much in company with rascally Hindús, and thence a reverence for the cow (which in their opinion is the cause of the stability of the world) became firmly fixed in his mind. Moreover he had introduced a whole host of the daughters of eminent Hindú Rájas into his ḥaram, and they had influenced his mind against the eating of beef and garlic and onions, and association with people who wore beards—and such things he then avoided and still does avoid. And these customs and heretical practices he introduced pur et simple into his assemblies, and still retains them. And in order to gain their love and good will and that of their castes, he abstained entire­ly from everything which was a natural abhorrence to these people, and looked on it as a mark of special devotion to himself if men shaved off their beards—so that this became a common practice. And certain pandering pimps brought forward proofs in favour of shaving the beard. They affirmed that the beard drew its nourish­ment from the testicles, and that since for this reason they never saw any eunuch with a beard, what could be the virtue and distinc­tion of preserving it! Moreover that ascetics of olden time had looked upon letting the beard grow, as a kind of mortification, because it exposed them to reproach, but that, since the foolish Lawyers looked now on the cutting of the beard, not the letting it grow, as a dis­grace, it was now a courting of the reproach of the world, and a mortification to cut it and (P. 304) not to let it grow. But if any one looks at this argument from an unbiased point of view, he will see that it tends to the opposite conclusion. Unprincipled and scheming Muftís quoted also an unknown tradition.* Kamá yaf'alu ba'ḍ-ul-quzát, they interpreted as meaning that some of the Qázís of 'Irák were in the habit of shaving their beards, whereas the true reading is Kamá yaf'alu ba'ḍ-ul-'uçát ‘as some obstinate sinners do.’ One day Ḥakím Abu-l-Fatḥ, at the beginning of my atten­dance at Court, observed that my beard was a little shorter than it was the custom to wear it. He said: “A short beard does not become you.” I replied: “It is the barber's short-coming not mine.” He said: “Well don't do it again, for it is neither proper nor becoming.” Some time after this he himself becoming one of the Shí'ahs and religi­ous mendicants, or rather of the Hindús, and shaving his head, became so utterly smooth-faced, as to be the envy of the handsome beardless youths:—

“He who vexes his brother about a fault,
Dies not until God has tried him in that very thing.”

And beating the gong after the manner of the Christians and ex­hibition of the Form of One Person of the Trinity,* and of Cunabula which is their way of keeping Festival,* and other such like childish games became of daily occurrence: and ‘Unbelief became common’ they found to give the date.* Ten or twelve years later things had come to such a pass, that abandoned wretches, such as Mírzá Jání, Governor of Tattah, and other apostates, wrote their confession to the following effect—this is the form—‘I who am so and so, son of so and so, do voluntarily, and with sincere predilection and inclination, utterly and entirely renounce and repudiate the religion of Islám, which I have seen and heard of my fathers, and do embrace the “Divine Religion” of Akbar Sháh, and do accept the four grades of entire devotion, viz., sacrifice of Property, Life, Honour, and Religion?’ And these lines—than which there could be no better passport to damnation—were (P. 305) handed over to the Mujtahid* of the new religion, and became the source of confidence and promotion. Well nigh did the heavens burst asunder thereat, and the earth gape, and the hills crumble!

And in contempt of Islám ceasing to consider swine and dogs as unclean, he kept them in the ḥaram and under the fort, and regarded the going to look at them every morning as a religious service. And the Hindús who are believers in Transmigration, persuaded him, that the boar* is one of the ten forms, which the Divinity (praise to Him, glorious is his Majesty!) assumed in coming down:—