During the reign of the Sultán this Shaikh was Royal Munshí at Khurasán, and to him was confided the Divan (or Committee board) of cor­respondence, which is the depository of secrets. His powerful intellect and intelligence, &c., shone like the sun’s rays throughout all Khurasán, and the fame of his elegant pen, gentle nature, penetrating intelligence and lofty views with regard to worldly things and money, was diffused around. He rose by degrees to various ranks in the Sultán’s service, until he was appointed to the Divan of Presentations (Master of Bequests), and on account of his preponderance, the Sultán assigned him the high employment, and responsible office of collect­ing the revenue and levies of those regions, and in all affairs which in guiding those provinces came into his consideration, he displayed all the evidences of wisdom, efficiency, care and fidelity. Thus he attained renown, and his humanity, bounty and liberality were in every mouth, so that they came from all parts of the world to him, as the object of their hopes and petitions. He was like rain in his care and attention to all, the proofs of his kindness and generosity could be established only by the testimony of observation and by the eyes. And the Vízíer Abúl-Abbás derived information from his enlightened sufficiency in affairs of State, and formed a special intimacy with him, as well for his sagacity as on account of his office which he held so near to His Majesty, and when the Sun of that vizérát was eclipsed by the excrescence of dismissal, whilst the Sultán happened to be engaged in the conquest of Názdín, he committed to the care of the Shaikh Khalil all the affairs of his Divan, charging him with the care of his Court and house­hold, and the outgoings of the revenue, and sending him a patent, whereby he was appointed to superin­tend all that was brought or accrued to the royal treasury, and although he did not receive the name of Vízíer, yet the whole business of the kingdom was fully appropriated to him. And whilst the vizárát lay under the curtain of dismissal, the Sultán issued a royal order, by which he summoned the collectors of Khurasán to the presence, and de­manded their accounts, and they accordingly attended at the Court; at that time the Sultán had resolved to turn back, and he appointed a number of his army and serving followers over the head of the collectors to act as motives to them, that by the most disgraceful coercion, they might bring in the greater possible amount of revenue. And while this was going on, the Sultán placed him upon the seat of authority, and honoured him with the robe of Vízíer, and delivered into his hand the power of binding and loosing, of imprisoning and liberating. This Shaikh Khalil devoted himself with prudent efficiency, to expedite, to enter in day books, to settle and to arrange the Customs and scattered business, and compelled the collectors to zeal and duty, and purified the extent of the kingdom from its destruction and decay. He placed Abú-Ishak, one of the Divan over the collectors of Khurasán, and in conducting his office he shone like his father as administrator and counsellor of the throne, and when the standard of the Sultán returned to Ghazna, and he saw that by the wise and happy management and rule of his Vízíer, the affairs of State were settled in a well ordered course, and all affairs of collection secured, confirmed and guarded, he sent him to the Súbah of Khurasán, that he might attend to the weakness which he had discovered there, and put in a proper way of pro­ceeding the revenues so much diminished and fallen away, and prescribe good and acceptable regulations for Khurasán. The Shaikh Khalil went therefore to Herát, and the dread of his com­mand and rule bound the hands of oppressors be­hind their back, and overthrew the flags of dark­ness, and whatever they had acquired out of the receipts and expenditure by means of confusion and in time of tumult, and whatever they had collected by extortion and procuration, that he seized from them, and thus by his gentle vigour, he dispatched to His Majesty an amount of gold and silver, of plate, ready money, and vessels dedicated to pious uses, the like whereof had at no time ever reached the treasury of any king from Khurasán.

And the people of Khurasán sent statements and notes to the Court, discovering the evil prac­tices of the Diván lord (i. e., whom the Vízíer had sent thither). The Sultán issued an order to enquire into the truth of this, and sent commis­sioners to realize and sell his property. They obtained much wealth from him: he gave up whatever ready money and furniture and vessels he possessed, and sold the residue of his slaves, but was excused the payment of the rest which he had sold. And whereas the Vízíer Abúl-Abbás pos­sessed no capital stock in the business of writing, and profited not at all in handling the pen, and in lecturing on good manners (i. e., belles lettres, humanities) so that, in his time, they translated the State writings into Persian, and thus the market of the excellent was ruined and the splendour of elo­quent authors became slender, so that the learned and foolish, the virtuous and insignificant, were reduced to the level of the same rank. When the Shaikh Khalíl adorned the Musnud of Vizier he brought the stars of authors from the gulphs of declination to the zenith of glory, so that the rose of ingenuity and distinction budded in the breeze of his favour, and the countenance of the clever was exalted in his fostering abode. He commanded that the State writers should avoid Persian, and that as an established rule all diplomas, orders, and preaching, (or public proclamations) should be written in Arabic, except where the proclaimers did not know or understand Arabic. His orders and intimations were famed throughout all parts of the world, as current proverbs, and circulating poems, and all tongues commended his beautiful models and ornamented examples. The ingenious ones of the world in their verses and rhymes decorated the title pages of their volumes with his praises and commendations, and came with song, like nightingales into the garden of his presence. He took all ranks under his beneficent and kind favour, and by his blessed equity united all the community under the shadow, veil, and canopy of his virtuous security, so that the world became peopled, and hearts wounded and diseased by sorrow, were healed by the medicine and plaister of his attention and knowledge. By his counsels he incited the Sultán to be firm in the principles of rectitude, and to seek the reward of the other world. Thus the state of the world and the empire became regulated and fixed, and all being settled upon the basis of knowledge and foresight, became firmer by lapse of time. May his (memorial) columns become higher as days advance, and may the building (of his fame) become stronger and firmer unto the fated end of time (Verse)