In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
In the outset of this book let the name of God be taken, who created light and darkness, by whose command eighteen thousand worlds were shapen: who is without body or attributes: who exalted man by the gift of love: who set this divine affection in his heart: who placed the torch of instruction in the hand of his unlettered Prophet, bidding him show to all people a lighted road: may the blessings of God be on the lofty soul of him, even Muhammad the Prophet, and on his family and on the companions be blessing and peace.
Thereafter:
I, Āhmad-ul-Umri, Turkomān, chanced to visit the parts of Mālwa, to see other marvellous cites of Hindustān and to hear tales of wonder therein. Of these tales of astounding one is that of Bāz Bahādur and Rup Mati which befell in Mālwa. He who told me the story was Sulimān Khān, who had seen the happenings with his own eyes. He was one of the followers of Shujā’at Khān, who was appointed to the throne of the governorship of Mālwa by Sher Shāh. The tale of my unfolding is a tale of grief and sorrow, yet therefrom the eye of intelligence may draw instruction. This woeful history was written down in the forty-third year of the reign of Sultān Jalāl-ud-din Akbār Shāh—may God preserve his kingdom for ever.