So he returned thence, and came to Gujrát, to stir up the Khán Khánán to the conquest of the Dak'hin, and bring him with him:—

“You have managed the affairs of the world so well,
That you now turn your hand to the affairs of heaven.”

And Rájah 'Alí Khán with the army of the Dak'hin marched against A'zam Khán, who had not the power to withstand him, and so retreated to Barár. Neither could he stand his ground there, and so having ravaged and laid waste Ilichpúr and not remaining even there, he hastened to Nadarbár. The Dak'hinís pursued him from station to station. A'zam Khán left his army at Nadarbár, and went alone with only a few men to Aḥmadábád to ask help of the Khán Khánán, who was his sister's husband. The Khán Khánán came out to meet him, and they had an interview at Maḥ-múdábád at the house of Nizám-ud-dín Aḥmad. And having by mutual consent, or by hypocrisy, made common cause, they agreed that Khán-i-A'zam with the Khán Khánán should go to Aḥmadá-bád to see his sister, and that thence they should set out to repel the Dak'hinís. And they sent Nizám-ud-dín Aḥmad with a number of the Amírs, who were appointed to that district, to go together to Barodah, and those two (P. 362) leaders followed him thither. And thence A'zam Khán went in haste to Nadarbár to collect his army, and the Khán Khánan went to Behroṇch. A'zam Khán wrote to him, that since the rainy season was at hand they must keep the army for that year in camp. A'zam Khán went from Nadarbár to Málwah and the Khán Khánán from Behroṇch to Aḥmadábád, and Rájah 'Alí Khán and the Dak'hinís went to their own homes again. Five months had passed since this event, when the Khán Khánán sent from Atak Banáras, which he also called Atak Katak,* a pe­tition to Court in the following terms: “Since the Emperor has determined to attempt the conquest of Badakhshán, the desire to kiss his feet has possessed me, in order that I may accompany him in this expedition.” And after the army came from Atak to Láhór a farmán was addressed to him, ordering that Qulíj Khán and Nizám-ud-dín Aḥmad should remain in Gujrát, and that the Khán Khánán should come to Court. This was the cause of the Khán Khánán's coming a second time in haste to Láhór, and of his bring­ing Azd-ud doulah, as has been already related. During the time of the Khán Khánán's absence the most praiseworthy efforts were made by Nizám-ud-dín in Gujrát, which are related at length in the Tárikh-i-Nizámí.

And in this year Mír Abu-l-Ghays of Bokhára, whose praise is beyond the power of the tongue or the pen:—

“How can the description of his praise be made
By a pen more broken than my heart,”

died at Láhór of an attack of cholic. This sacred bier was brought to Dihlí and buried in the Rouzah-i Ábá-i-kirám, and the date was found to be given by “The Mír of praiseworthy disposi­tion ”:* —(By the Author)

“I went into his cemetry one day to take warning, I saw a world of sleepers together in its plain.

[P. 363]

A multitude had gone from this side, but none returned from that, That I could ask of his state, or news of us reach him. In that city of the silent there was a multitude of my eloquent ones, Gone from the palace of the world to become its guests. Of that number was one pure-natured prince, like Buturáb* Abu-Ghais, whom the Heaven calls a Gous,* the pivot of the sky. Alas! for my lord of worthy disposition, and of as happy fortune, The nature of Muḥammad was manifest in his smiling face. A Bokháráí through whom Dihlí became the Qubbat-ul-Islám:* What is become of that Qubbah, and that Islám, and where O God! is its Musalmán? Since he was a derwish as well as a soldier, if I should meet with the dust of his feet, I would put it on the eye of my fortune, as though it were collyrium of Ispahán. At his pillow from the candle of my own heart I burnt a taper, Although the light of his poverty was a divine torch. I made the bed of his tomb wet with my tears, Although the cloud of Mercy washed him with the rain of Forgiveness.”

In this year a new command was issued that all people should give up the Arabic sciences, and should study only the really useful ones, viz., Astronomy, Mathematics, Medicine, and Philosophy. The date of this given by the words “Decline of Learning.”*

And in Sha'bán of the said year Mán Singh came to Court. News also came that Abd-ulláh Khán had taken Harí,* and slain 'Alí Qulí Khán, commandant of that place, together with an immense number of Turkománs and inhabitants of the town, and “the taking of Harí”* was found to give the date.