IX. QĀẒĪ YA‘QŪB OF MĀNIKPŪR.*

He was related to Qāẓī Faẓīlat,* and was well skilled in prac­tical theology and in the principles of that science. He was of a cheerful and open disposition, and used to compose Arabic verses in Indian metres. They say that while he was, for several years, the Qāẓī'u-l-Quẓẓāt of India, he used to take aphrodisiac electuaries in large quantities. One day when he was present at a party given by the Emperor, several intoxicating and stimulating drugs were handed round, and were offered to the Qāẓī among others. He refused them, and when he was asked what sort of drugs he took, one of the Emperor's Hindū favourites immediately replied, “The Qāẓī takes mercury.”*

After his dismissal from the post of Qāẓī'u-'l-Quẓẓāt he was appointed to be Qāẓī of Bangāl, and was sent off to that province,* and while there used to use aphrodisiacs to excess, a slave to the violence of his lusts. He was a confederate of Ma‘ṣūm-i-Kābuli in his rebellion* and was in consequence recalled from that province and sentenced to be imprisoned in the fortress of Gwāliyār, and on his way to that place removed the baggage of his existence from this world, and joined Mīr Mu‘izzu-'l-Mulk and Mullā Muḥammad of Yazd.*