Akbar-nāmah - The Akbarnāma of Abū Fazl, Volume 1

VERSE.

Approach heaven-weighing observer,
Regard with understanding the connexion of the spheres,
Look at the beautiful horoscope of the Lord of conjunction,^69a
Behold the auspicious charter of two worlds,
Contemplate this glorious rescript,
Fortune upon fortune, light upon light.

When the victory-grasping standards were leaving the fort of Amarkōṭ, Maulānā Cānd, the astrologer, who was possessed of great acuteness and thorough dexterity in the science of the astrolabe, in the scrutinizing of astronomical tables, the construction of almanacs, and the interpretations of the stars,—was deputed to be in attendance at the portals of the cupola of chastity (Miryam Makānī, Akbar's mother), in order that he might observe the happy time and ascertain exactly the period of birth. He^69b reported in writing to the exalted camp that, according to altitudes taken by the Greek astrolabe, and by calculations based on the Gurgānī tables (Canon of Ulugh Beg)^70a the figure of the nativity was as follows:—

Although Virgo is a Bicorporal^71a Sign, partly Fixed and partly Tropical, yet in this frontispiece of felicity, the fixity of the horoscope is, on close observation and careful consideration, indicated by two circumstances. One is that the cusp^72a of the Ascendant is 7°,^72b and so belongs to the first third^72c (decanate) of the Sign which, astrologers are agreed, denotes fixity. The other is that Virgo is an earthy^72d Sign, and fixity^72e is the property of the earthy element. These are two proofs of the fixity of the throne of sovereignty and of the stability of the cushion (masnad) of the Khilāfat. Moreover, Mercury, the Lord of the Ascendant, is in this glorious nativity posited by the Greater Fortune,^72f for Jupiter, i.e., the Greater Fortune, is beside him, and Mercury is a planet who makes good luck, better luck. Venus, the Lesser Fortune, is in Mercury's^72g House (Virgo) and Mercury, in hers, viz., Libra.^72h He signifies wisdom, knowledge, dexterity and ingenuity, and both by equal distribution of (mundane) Houses and by Sign, he is in the Second House which is connected^73a with the means of livelihood and the support of life. He bestows on the Native^73b amplitude of perfect reason and understanding, so that he adorns the universe with the light of intellect in the affairs of this life and the next, and opens knots, whether spiritual or temporal, with the very finger-tips of his understanding.^73c As Venus who is renowned for auspiciousness and prosperity and who signifies joy and pleasure,—is in this horoscope, (i.e., the Ascendant or First House) she keeps ever ready the things of joy and gladness and the materials of magnificence and glory. It is a remarkable circumstance that whilst the lord of the Ascendant (Mercury) is in the House of wealth (the Second), the lord of the House of wealth (Venus)^74a is in the Ascendant (the First or House of Life.) Thus the two together signify personal and circumstantial felicity, and bestow a life of power and pleasure. Jupiter—the Greater Fortune—who signifies justice, integrity, magnanimity, firmness of soul and civilization,^74b is also in the Second House and, as he is in sextile^74c to the Fourth House which is that of finality, he keeps perfection of power and pleasure closely associated with the glorious condition of his Majesty, down to the very end. The double-natured (dipsychus) Mercury has acquired extreme auspiciousness, by reason of his vicinity to the Greater Fortune, and has heaped felicity upon felicity. He signifies that the Native will, by greatness of genius and loftiness of development, become the apex of mankind, and he indicates assemblages of the masters of understanding and reason and of the lords of perception and penetration. The philosophers of the age and sages of every sect will attend the wisdom-protecting Court, and ingenious wits of all countries will forsake their native lands, and donning the pilgrim's garb, will circumambulate his sublime threshold. Whatever the ray of illumination shall have darted into his inspired soul, will be consonant with reason and reality. Having opened the gates of justice and equity to all mankind, he will in every action hold fast by the principles of rectitude and protection (diyānat u ṣiyānat). He will apply his genius to founding magnificent buildings such as have rarely been constructed in the times of former princes, and in those choice mansions he will pass his time in varieties of joys and happinesses and in all manner of ease and independence.

Among remarkable^74d circumstances we have this,—that Venus is in the House of Mercury and Mercury in the House of Venus. Thus three happy influences are combined;—viz., 1°. the happy influence of Jupiter,—2°. the happy influence of Venus;—3°. the happy influence which Mercury has imbibed from the fortunate twain. This is something very uncommon.

The Great Light (the Sun), the benefactor of the universe and moderator^75a of the affairs of mortals, and the special bestower of glory, power, pomp and prestige is in the Third House and in a Fixed Sign (Scorpio), signifying the grant of dignity, glory, greatuess and magnificence. As he has come out of his fall^75b and his face is set toward his exaltation, he has made the Native's glory increase, day by day, and as he is in aspect^75c to the Ninth House (Taurus) which is that of travel, the standards^75d of victory and conquest will always be upraised on the march,^75e while he himself protects mankind from the confusions and calamities of the age and is the light-giver of the world.

As the Third House which is that of kindred, is Scorpio, it is significant of Scorpion-kinsmen.^76a (◌ aqārib-i-‘aqārib.) Saturn there sends those alien relatives (distant-near ones) by calamities and disasters, to the nethermost hell of destruction and perdition.

The Fourth angle^76b is Sagittarius and is the House of the final issue of things. Jupiter, its lord, is in sextile to it and is contiguous^76c to the ameliorated Mercury,^76d and in his own term^76e and triplicity.^76f Whatever the Native deigns to undertake, will be accomplished with the greatest ease, and the terminations of his works will be prosperous.

The Fifth House is that of offspring and is Capricornus, a sign indicative of many^77a children. Mars, the soldier's planet, is there and is a kadkhudā^77b of the Ascendant which is the centre^77c of the laws of life. It is a glorious thing that this warlike planet is in his House of exaltation, and by face,^77d triplicity,^78a darijān,^78b ādarjān^78c and dodecatemorion^78d has endowed the Native with long life, and has given him the enjoyment of many sons and grandsons. His sons, too, will be fortunate and capable. He will also have world-traversing, victorious soldiers. It is a beautiful coincidence that in the horoscope of the Lord of Conjunction, (Timur) Mars is in the Fifth House, as mentioned in the Ẓafarnāma.^78e Experienced philosophers have laid stress on the power of Mars in the horoscopes of princes. The present powerful and holy horoscope excels that of the Lord of Conjunction in that this majestic planet is in his House of exaltation (Capricornus) and has the other dignities mentioned above. This signifies glory and greatness, lofty rank, victory and dominion, and that yet his glory will be greater and better from his youth upwards. The Moon who is the intermediary^79a between the celestial influences and the terrestrial elements, having come as an increaser^79b of light, points the way to daily increasing dominion.

She is also the hyleg, which is the tabernacle of the soul and guardian of the body, and is in the Fifth House. As she is separating (munṣarif) from Mars and is in trine to Venus, she is a cause of continual health, soundness of constitution and bodily strength.

The Sixth House is Aquarius and signifies armies. Saturn is the dominant and he is in the Third House which is that of allies and helpers. The Dragon's Head (Rās^80a or Anabibazon) is there and signifies soldiers of loyal and devoted clans.

The Seventh angle (i.e., the Descendant or west angle) is Pisces at the seventh degree, which is the term^80b of Venus and belongs to her triplicity^80c and ādarjān.^80d She gives^80e chaste veiled ones who are constant in pleasing service and respects; and she makes the Native happy and prosperous by their good offices.

The Eighth House is Aries; Mars is its lord and his benefic influences have already been described. He is in trine to the Ascendant and signifies the Divine protection^80f in positions of fear and hidden dangers.

The Ninth House (Taurus) is that of travel. As its regent (Venus) is posited in the Ascendant—Virgo, she holds in readiness, tranquillity and pleasure in distant journies and makes them a cause of increase of territory.

The Part of Fortuno (Pars Fortunae)^81a is in the Tenth angle which is that of dominion and prosperity (iqbāl). Its lord, the auspicious Mercury, is in trine to it. As the Greater Fortune (Jupiter) is also in trine to it, this signifies majestic sovereignty, perfect reason and justice, and brings the world's treasures into the powerful grasp of the Native.

The Eleventh House (Cancer) is that of Hope. Its lord is the crescent Moon. She is in the Fifth House of the horoscope, and as she is in trine to the Ascendant, she is a cause of safety and of the attainment of desires.

The Twelfth House (Leo) is that of enemies. The Dragon's Tail^81b (Ẕanab) being posited in it, makes the enemies of eternal fortune downcast and contemptible. It turns every wretch who averts his face from the altar of obedience, topsyturvy into the wilderness of annihilation. Its lord, the Sun, being posited in the Third House, viz., that of allies and helpers, will bring many opponents to repentance and the path of submission and devotion. A wonderful thing in this horoscope is that the Tenth House, that of dominion and sovereignty, is in Gemini of which the lord of the Ascendant, (Mercury) is the regent. It is established that every lord of the Ascendant desires to promote his own signification (or perhaps, what is committed to him), but that he may be frustrated by obstacles to his power. Now in this auspicious horoscope, Mercury's House is also that of dominion and sovereignty. Seeing that dominion (daulat) is posited in his own (Mercury's) House, why should he (Mercury) hold back from carrying out his own signification (or, from what has been committed to him)?

◌ darījān. Vullers describes this as an astrological rule according to which a Sign is divided into three parts and a planet assigned to each. The original Persian form is ◌ darīgān. It is the dreshkāna or drekkāna of the Hindus. Albīrūnī (II. 222) says, “Further, there are the triangles, called drekkāna. There is no use in enlarging on them, as they are simply identical with the so-called draijānat of our system.” Unfortunately Albīrūnī did not foresee a time when Arabian and Persian astrology would be forgotten and his Canon Masudicus a sealed book. Sachau speaks of it (there are four copies in Europe and one in the Mullā Fīrōz Library at Bombay) as awaiting the combination of two editors a scholar and an astronomer, but probably, a third, an astrologer, would also be required. Colebrooke says (Asiatic Researches IX. 367) that the dreshkāna answer to the decāni of European astrologers. The decāni also correspond to the wajh of Arabian astrologers and according to the Lucknow editor of the Akbarnāma, are called by Hindus ṣūrat, face. Decanus, according to Scaliger's notes on Manilius, (329) comes from the Latin and not from the Greek. The Luck. ed. gives an explanation of the word darījān (27) and the corresponding term drekkāna is explained in Bengali books on astrology. It seems that every sign is divided into three parts each of 10°, that the planet who presides over the sign, is lord of the first 10°, that the next 10° are ruled by the planet who presides over the Fifth Sign from that under division, and that the third 10° or drekkāna is ruled by the planet presiding over the Ninth Sign from that under division.

(With reference to the “triangles” in the above quotation from Sachau, it should be observed that the word in the original is ◌ alaṯlāṯ, the plural of ṯāliṯ and should be translated thirds and not triangles. The drekkāna are not triangles but ten degrees or thirds of a Sign.)

◌ ādarjān. This word puzzled me for a long time. It is not to be found in the dictionaries except under the form ◌ or ◌. They however do not explain even this word; saying only that it means “certain figures and mysteries in astrology.” (See Vullers 78 and Steingass.) The Lucknow editor (27) says that ādarjān is the same as wabāl, and he repeats this explanation at page 30. He there says also that ādarjān, is a fortitude or dignity superior to that of the darījān, but inferior to that of the wajh face. It is clear therefore that it cannot bear the same meaning as wabāl which is a debility and corresponds to the English detriment. Perhaps the editor connected it with auj, apsis or exaltation. Another explanation was sent me from India, to the effect that when two planets were in the same muṯallaṯat or triplicity, each was said to be the ādarjān or partner of the other. If this were so, the word might be connected with the Arabic ◌ or ◌ idraj or idrāj, a fold or folding; but I now believe this explanation is quite incorrect. The fact seems to be that ādarjān or ādarajān is merely a form of the word darījān and is probably nothing but that word with the Arabic article al prefixed. The word occurs in the Mafātīḥu-l-‘ulūm (ed. Vloten, Leyden 1895, 226) under the forms aldahaj and aldaraj and is there explained as synonymous with wajh, ṣūrat and dārījān. The editor says it is the same as the Greek ◌. That this explanation is correct appears from the Latin translation of an early treatise on Astrology by an Eastern writer, commonly known as Alchabitius, but whose real name was ‘Abdu-l-‘azīz ibn ‘Uṯmān Alqabīsī and who, according to the Biographie Universelle lived in the 10th century. He wrote a Madkhal or Introduction to Astrology which was translated into Latin by Johannis Hispalensis and was several times reprinted. Its Arabic title is given in Ḥājī Khalfa's Lexicon (V. 473) as Madkhal fī ‘ilm-al-nujūm. In the Differentia Quarta (Cap. IV. The pages are not separately numbered, but this chapter is a few pages after dd4.) of this work, there is the following passage:—

“Modus inveniendi dominum decani.”

“Et ex hoc adorogen, hoc est ut dividas ascendens in tres partes; et sit omnis divisio 10 graduum; dabisque divisionem primam domino ascendentis; et secundam domino quinti signi ab eo; et tertium domino noni; nam ascendens, 5, et 9 una semper sunt triplicitas. Verbi gratiâ, ab initio Arietis usque in decimum gradum ejus est dorogen i. (i.e.) decanus est Martis. Et si fuerit ex 10 gradu usque 20 gradum erit ejus dorongen sol, dominus Leonis. Et si fuerit 20 usque in finem ejus erit dorongen Jupiter, dominus Sagittarii.”

The same volume contains a commentary on Alchabitius by John of Saxony and at M.M. 3, we have these words, “Et ex hoc adoringen. Hic docet invenire decanum.” This commentary, it seems, was written in 1331, though apparently not printed till 1485.

The book is in the British Museum, and there is another copy of Alchabitius and of John of Saxony's Commentary which was printed at Venice in 1521. In this, too, we have the expression, “Et ex hoc adorogen” and “et ex hoc adorogen.” This is the passage according to the Venetian editions of 1485 and 1521. In another edition, printed at Bologna in 1473 (B.M. press-mark 8610 d. 10.) we have the form abdorungen, but otherwise the wording is the same. It begins, “Et ex hoc abdorungen” and lower down has the important expression “ejus abdorungen, id est, decanus, est Mars.” The occurrence of the letter b certainly seems to favour the supposition that the first syllable is merely the Arabic article, the b being a misprint for l. As for the expression et ex hoc, the explanation is that the Differentia Quarta is a glossary of astrological terms and that et ex hoc seems a literal rendering of the Arabic ◌ wa-minhu. The difficulty arising from A.F.'s using the word as if it were of different meaning. from darījān, his speaking, for instance, both of the darījān and ādarjān in the same passage.

This is due, I think, to the fact that each House of a horoscope consists of about 30° i.e., of three decanates or darījāns. Hence, in mentioning the dignities or properties of a House, instead of saying darījān and darījān or using the word wajh (face) three times over, he varies the expression for the sake of euphony. What the exact etymology of the word ādarjān or darījān is, I am unable to say. The varieties of spelling lead one to suppose it a foreign word. It is clear from Alchabitius, that ādarjān or ādarajān is the proper spelling, and that the form aradjān of the Bādshāhnāma and the Dictionaries is incorrect.

Most probably the word comes from the Greek ◌, a triangle. I do not think it can come from ◌, for I do not see how the letter r came to be inserted. It appears, from Sachau's Albīrūnī, that the word which in our dictionaries is spelled darījān is in Arabic draijān. I have suggested above that the first syllable or letter of ādarjān is the Arabic article, but there may be another explanation. As Persian does not admit of conjunct consonants at the beginning of words, it is possible that when the word was borrowed from the Arabic or the Greek, the dr or the tr of the Greek necessitated either a prosthetic or a medial vowel. Thus trīgonon or draijān became in Persian, either adrajān or darījān. In a similar manner we have both Iskandar and Sekandar as transliterations of Alexander and dirham for the Greek drachme, Firangi for Frank, etc. But if ādarjān comes from trigonon and not from decānus, it must still be acknowledged that it came to have the same meaning as decanate in English or drekkāna in Sanscrit, and is stated by Alchabitius to be the equivalent of decānus.

If anything were necessary to prove that the word ādarjān is identical in meaning with wajh, facies, I think it is furnished by the fact that Haly, (i.e., Abu-l-ḥasan ‘Alī ibn Abī-'l Rajāl al-Shaibānī) in his elaborate work on astrology, says nothing about darījān or ādarjān, though he has a chapter De Faciebus or, (as the Arabic has it) Fi-l-wujūh.

Moreover Guido Bonatus has this passage (ed. Basle 1550 825) De dorungez non dico hic (the passage occurs in a chapter on the triplicities) aliquid quoniam videtur spectare ad considerationem facierum, de quibus latius ac sufficienter dictum est superius in Tractatu primo in cap. ed Faciebus.

Scaliger has yet another spelling of darījān; he calls it dorogen and says the Arabs apply the term to the dodecatemoria. (Notes on Manilius 179 1.38.) This seems to be a mistake.

By the calculations of the Indian astrologers, his Majesty's auspicious horoscope falls under Leo which is a Fixed Sign and is significant of perfect supremacy, victory, energy and superiority. The Sun, which takes more note^85c of kings than of all the other objects in the universe, is the dominant, and this is a clear indication that the Native will be victorious and paramount over famous sovereigns and mighty rulers.

The pillars of his sovereignty and government will gain stability and strength, day by day, and the regulations of his exaltation and glory will be carried out firmly and with permanence. The rays^85d of his wrath will^85e consume the fore-arms^85f of stiff-necked, evil-disposed ones, and the beat of his war-drums will turn to water the courage of rank-breaking, tiger-hearted men.

The scheme of the holy nativity is hereby set down in accordance with the writing of the foremost of Indian astrologers, the Jotik^86a Rai who was one of the servants of the royal threshold.

Notwithstanding^86b the perfect simplicity and unceremoniousness of his Majesty, the King of Kings, such rays of glory and power^87a stream from the forehead of his might as to indicate that the Indian astrologers are not far from truth when they assert that his noble horoscope belongs to Leo. In their books of stellar influences, it is laid down that the Native of this Ascendant is wealthy, victorious over enemies, forgiving towards offenders, ruling according to just and equal laws, and accomplishing his purposes by force of his own reason and by firmness in his own opinions. He will be fond of travel^87b and will reap benefit from it. And he is lord of excellent and obedient children. The meeting^87c of Jupiter and Venus in the Second House makes the Native a guide in various arts and sciences.

As the Greater Fortune (Jupiter) is in the House of Mercury, he (the Native) will be endowed with beauty of form, proportional admixture of the elements, gravity of speech, social graces, lofty understanding, and sublime apprehension in theology and divine worship, and will be adorned with well-doing, and with ability to accomplish everything in accordance with propriety.

Venus in Virgo, takes charge of the adornment of virtuous veiled ones and provides for the increase of beauty^87d and elegance. As the Sun is in the Third House,^87e he (the Native) will accomplish whatever great undertaking he desires to compass, without reference to any other person. He will be powerful and his brethren will not attain to him. Indeed the star of the brothers' horoscope is occulted.^87f Men will be united and agreed in love of him. As Mercury is in the Third House, he (the Native) will be talented, versed in business, and disliking idleness, a subduer of difficulties, and a slayer of enemies (mashaqqat-kash u dushman-kush). His acute thoughts will revel in theology and other philosophies and will attain the rank of ecstacy. And as (Mercury) is in Libra, he will be famed throughout the world, and his good deeds will be widely known. He will be world-conquering and world-ruling for lengthened periods of time, and excellent contrivances and ingenious plans are indicated. As Saturn is in the Third House, he (the Native) will enjoy repose and much tranquility, and will have attached servants innumerable, but he will act according to his own personal courage and his own ripe reason. As (Saturn) is in Libra, and in exaltation,^88a he (the Native) will be master of the treasures of the world, and as Saturn is under the shade of the venerable, world-warming Sun, his boundless treasures will last for lengthened periods and will remain unaffected by prolonged usage of them.

He will make delightful journeys with success and accomplishment of his objects. And there will not be a greater than he upon earth. Mighty^88b black beasts (elephants) will await at his gate. As he grows in years, his power will increase, and he will, without trouble or pains, acquire great armies and perfect dominion and glory. His power and his felicity will be lasting, for there is no slower^88c planet than Saturn, and among his gifts are extent of fortune, permanence of sovereignty, and length of days. The Sun, Saturn and Mercury are in one Sign. He will, therefore, be friend-cherishing, foe-subduing, well knowing the laws of amity and inimity. Mars being in Sagittarius, mankind will glorify him. For Mars is in the triplicity^88d of the ascendant; and in the house of his friend.^88e This powerful friend is the Greater Fortune and puts away the sorrows and the apprehensions of the nations. And he will be happy and joyful. And by power visible and invisible, essential and accidental, he becomes Great of the Great and King of Kings. The glory of his renown embraces the world and the fame of his majesty extends from shore to shore. Many princes and rulers will be subject to him, and, being afraid of him, will be obedient and submissive. And as Mars is in the House of Jupiter and the Sun is in sextile to him, the princes throughout the world will place their heads on the line of his command and make the dust of his threshold the adoration-spot of their obedience. The Moon is in the Sixth House; he may have powerful enemies but they will not reach him, nor be able to withstand the scorching lightning of his wrath and might, and they will always endeavour to gain his friendship so that by borrowing^89a the lights of his alliance, they may be in safety from evil.

As the Moon's detriment^89b is in Capricorn, the weakness of his enemies is signified. And there comes a sweet reasonableness to the Native which enables him to decide disputes according to equity and the real merits of the cases.

And having examined contradictory faiths, and different dispositions, he guides every sect in the way of good works. His desire is that men should leave the hollow of imitative routine, and emerge into the straight highway of inquiry. And as Jupiter is in aspect towards him,^89c the royal power and might will be beyond calculation. He will become possessed of tractable children and, as Venus is in aspect, high-minded chaste ones of excellent actions will serve him for long periods of life and he^89d will have obedient and amiable children.

There are certain principles, too, to be found in the books of Indian philosophers which prove the grandeur of this holy nativity. If a planet occupy the twelfth (dodecatemorion) of the Moon, the Native will have pleasure throughout a long life, and the dust of sickness will hardly touch the garment-hem of his health and, while in the fullness of his powers, and having become a manifestation of planetary dignities^90a and having attained the acme of felicity,— he will obtain a great kingdom, and will have long life and abundant blessings, and will be joyful in sublime stations and lofty palaces. Now, as in this horoscope Mars occupies the dodecatemorion of the Moon, all these things are fully proved and established. He will be lord of victorious armies, and be line-breaking and foe-scattering on the battle-fields, and everyone on whom the glance of his wrath shall fall, will be melted by his terrible majesty. And if an auspicious planet be in the dodecatemorion of the Sun, the honoured Native will be a mild prince, eloquent and wise, firm and fortunate. And in emergencies when the brave in battle and men of men may hesitate, the owner of these happy omens will never swerve, but will keep a steady foot on the skirt of fortitude and great-heartedness, and the trace^90b of doubt and the smallest vestige of change will not reach the court of his circumspection. Now in this holy horoscope, the meeting^90c of the two Fortunes in the dodecatemorion shows abundant auspiciousness. If the Sun be lord of the Ascendant, and be in the Third House, the noble Native will be advanced to lofty sovereignty. Now this glory is visible in the fortunate frontispiece (the diagram of the horoscope). If Jupiter, Mercury and Venus be all three in aspect to the Moon, this signifies that the Native will open up countries and will rule over them. Now in this embellished tablet (the diagram) they (the three planets) are kindling the lamp of dominion.

If the cusp of the Ascendant or the Moon be in the nuhbahr^90d of a Sign and four planets or more are in aspect to the Moon, the Native will have 22 Kingdoms^92a and many countries will be permanently in his possession. Now, in this horoscope, not only are the cusp of the Ascendant and the Moon in their nuhbahr, but five planets are in aspect to the Moon, viz., the Sun, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn and Mercury. And in this holy nativity, the lord of the ascendant (the Sun) is in the Third House. If the Native have a brother, the latter will not be long-lived^93a but many devoted friends will gather round him (the Native) and he will be beneficent, bounteous (or forgiving) and powerful and will enjoy sovereignty, free from calamity, and prosperity without end.

The lord of the Second House (Mercury) is in the Third and so, he (the Native) will do great things and will bring wondrous works to pass. He will devise laws of dominion and wisdom and be a terror to the evil-minded, and no alarm on this account will touch the hem of his lofty spirit.

The lord of the Third House is in the Second. The Native will assist the helpless and downcast, and deal benignantly with well-disposed kindred. And all those who walk rightly will experience his bounty and benevolence, and will gather fruits from the gardens of his bounties and liberalities. It is certain that if the lord of the Third House be auspicious, the Native will attain great sovereignty. Now in this holy nativity, the Lesser Fortune^93b (Venus) is lord of the Third House. This signifies a great Khilāfat and majestic Government.

The lord of the Fourth House is Mars and he is posited in the Fifth. His (Akbar's) venerable sire will help him from his place^94a in heavenly secret aids and his noble children will be long-lived and will be great and famous for dominion and fortune.

The lord of the Fifth House (Sagittarius) is Jupiter and he is in the Second. He (the Native) will have ample treasures and great countries will come under his sway. And as Venus is also in the Second House, he will be acute and discriminating in musical notes,^94b in subtle harmonies and in the secrets of melody.

Saturn,^94c the lord of the Sixth House (Capricornus) is in the Third; so some of his (the Native's) servants will put forth evil thoughts and be trodden under foot by his wrath.

Saturn, the lord of the Seventh (Aquarius), is in the Third House; he (the Native) will perform works of majesty and splendour by his own well-directed exertions. And there rises the longing in his heart, “Oh!^94d that I might have a brother who would rise high in my service!”

Jupiter, the lord of the Eighth (Pisces) is in the Second House. He (the Native) will gather abundance of goods and incalculable treasures by his own exertions. It may also happen that an inheritance^95a will enure to him.

Mars, the lord of the Ninth House (Aries) is in the Fifth, viz., (Sagittarius) the House of Jupiter. This signifies strength of retention. He will have a powerful memory and whatever he transacts with mortals, will be done in a becoming manner. Fitting worship of the Creater is also indicated. And he will excel in good regulations for the prosperity of his subjects and the administration of justice. He will have fortunate and truthful children and they will be respectful and obedient.

Venus the dominant of the Tenth House (Taurus) is in the Second. He (the Native) will be respectful and submissive to his parents and the elders of his family.

Mercury, the dominant of the Eleventh^95b House (Gemini) is in the Third. He (the Native) will love the attendants and servants of the Court and will protect mankind. His enemies will be turned into nothingness without any trouble or exertion on his part.

The Moon, the lord of the Twelfth House (Cancer) is in the Sixth (Capricornus). He (the Native) will have many blasphemers and opponents but they will be dispersed and scattered by the reverberating sound of his war-drums and the tumult of his majestic onset, and will descend with loss and frustration into the abode of annihilation. And if Jupiter or Saturn be in the Second House, the fortunate Native will be a great monarch and will prevail over his enemies. And whenever the Moon is in Capricorn, which is the House of Saturn and is in the nuhbahr of Saturn, this is a proof that much of the world will be submissive to the illustrious Native. His territories will be bounded by the ocean^95c and his auspicious reign be long. It is also certain that, if in the nativity, Saturn be in exaltation, the noble Native will attain great empire and have long life. Now all these principles and significations are illustrated in this auspicious horoscope:

In the year in which the pattern of natural philosophers, sifted flour of erudition-amassing doctors, delicate balance of sciences, key of the locks of opinions, raised to lofty dignities, expounder of material truths, assayer^96b of the jewels of verity, solver of Greek problems, render of the curtain between light and darkness, discerner of the stations and motions of earthly and heavenly bodies, soaring phoenix (‘anqā), very learned of the Age, ‘Aẓdu-d-daulah Amīr Fatḥu-l-lāh of Shīrāz, under the guidance of good fortune, was elevated to the pedestal of the lofty throne and obtained a robe of honour, together with degrees of exaltation and steps of advancement,—the writer of this noble volume one day remarked to him that the horoscopes of the auspicious nativity were discrepant, and expressed the hope that he would examine them according to the true namūdār, and weigh them in the trutine of inquiry. The honoured Mīr, having after complete investigation, deduced the horoscope from the Persian rules and the Greek canon, found that the birth was in Leo. As in the opinion of the writer, this is the most reliable horoscope, he gives its figure here, together with some specimens of the prognostications.

Dr. Bloch has kindly pointed out to me that there is an iẓāfat after ḥarf in the second hemistich of the third verse on p. 2 of text, and that the metre requires this. My translation therefore appears to be wrong and the true translation probably is—“For this is the case (ḥarf) of the Muslin and the moonlight.”

If this be so, the preceding line should apparently be translated “Think not that there is a letter of it (i.e., of God's Praise) in the (i.e. the writer's) book.”

^97a97b

The cusp^98a of the glorious Ascendant in this holy horoscope which is a masterpiece of the revolutions of the stars and planets, is 28° 36' Leo. The angles^98b are in Fixed Signs and as the cusp of the fortunate-starred Ascendant is in the Sun's House, no planet is its dominant. It is the term of Mars, and Jupiter is lord of the triplicity,^98c in companionship with the Sun and with Saturn in attendance. There are the face and darījān^99a of Mars, the nuhbahr of Jupiter, ādarjān and haftbahr^99b of Mars, twelfth of the Moon and detriment^99c of Saturn. The degree is masculine and lucid, free from misfortune. The Sun is dominant over the Ascendant with intent towards an alliance with Saturn. Venus is in 26° 23' 37" Virgo. Admittedly the Part^99d of children is 24° 23' (Virgo); that of wealth, 25° 7'; that of father's death 24° 23'; that of brethren 8° 47'; and that of the number of brethren 14° 12' Virgo.

The cusp of the Second House is 28° 43' Virgo; it is the House and exaltation of Mercury, and term of Saturn. The Moon is master of the triplicity in companionship with Venus and the doryphory^99e of Mars. There are the face and nuhbahr of Mercury, darījān of Venus, ādarjān of the Moon, twelfth of the Sun, haftbahr and fall of Venus and detriment of Jupiter. The Moon is dominant over the House. The degree is masculine, void of darkness or light, of good or bad fortune. Jupiter is posited in 15° 13' 37" and Mercury in 25° 24' Libra. The Part of hope is 12° 53'; that of victory and conquest is 1° 17' Libra. The place of anterior conjunction is 24° 50' Libra.

The cusp of the Third House is 28° 1' Libra. It is the House of Venus, exaltation of Saturn, term of Mars, and Mercury is lord of the (aerial) triplicity in companionship with Saturn and attended by Jupiter. There are the face of Jupiter, the darījān, nuhbahr, twelfth and haftbahr of Mercury, ādarjān and fall of the Sun, and detriment of Mars. Saturn is paramount over this House. The degree is feminine, lucid, and void of good or bad fortune. Saturn is in 10° 40' 33" Scorpio. The Part of Fate is 17° 50' Scorpio. The Part of good Fortune, according to Ptolemy^100a and Muḥyī'u-d-dīn Maghribī,^100b is 18° 9' Scorpio. The Part of true friends and of welfare^100c (?) and that of servants are admittedly 23° 12.' The Part of ailments is admittedly 17° 21'. The Sun is 0° 45' 57" Scorpio.

The cusp of the Fourth House is 27° 21' Scorpio. This is a cardinal point (angle) and is the House of Mars, term of Saturn, face, twelfth and detriment of Venus. The Lord of the triplicity is Mars in companionship with Venus and attended by the Moon, and there are the darījān of Mercury and the nuhbahr and haftbahr of Jupiter. Mars is paramount over this House. The degree is masculine, fixed (qayyima) and void of good or bad fortune. The Part of land journeys is 12° 28' Sagittarius. The Part of law-suits is 28° 32 Scorpio.

The cusp of the Fifth House is 27° 11' Sagittarius. It is the House and nuhbahr of Jupiter and the exaltation of the Dragon's Tail (Katabibazon), the term of Mars and face of Saturn; the lord of the triplicity is Jupiter in companionship with the Sun and with Saturn in attendance. There are the Sun's darījān, the ādarjān of Venus, the twelfth of Mars, the nuhbahr of Jupiter and haftbahr of Saturn, the fall of the Dragon's Head (Anabibazon) and the detriment of Mercury. Jupiter is paramount over the House with an inclination for the alliance of Saturn. This degree is masculine, fixed and void of good or bad fortune. The Part of sovereignty and territory is 28° 39' Sagittarius. Cygnus and Aquila are in 25° Capricorn and Mars is in 10° 48' 23". The Moon is in 19° 48" 14' Capricorn.

The cusp of the Sixth House is 26° 46' Capricorn. It is the House of Saturn, exaltation and term of Mars and face of the Sun. The Moon is master of the triplicity in companionship with Venus and attended by Mars. There are the darījān and nuhbahr of Mercury, ādarjān and twelfth and fall of Jupiter, the haftbahr and detriment of the Moon. Mars is paramount over this House in companionship with Saturn and the Moon. The degree is masculine, lucid and unfortunate. The Dragon's Head is 27° 29' 13" Aquarius. The Part of war^101a and of captives is 24° 44' Capricorn. The Part of the deaths of brethren is 2° 1' Aquarius.

The cusp of the Seventh House is 28° 36' Aquarius. It is the House and twelfth and term of Saturn. The lord of the triplicity is Mercury in companionship with Saturn and attended by Jupiter. There are the face of the Moon, the darījān of Venus, ādarjān and nuhbahr of Mercury, haftbahr of Jupiter and detriment of the Sun. Saturn is paramount over this House in companionship with Mercury and with inclination to the companionship of Jupiter. The degree is masculine, dark and void of good or bad fortune. The Part of friendship, constancy, firmness and love is 20° 8' Pisces.

The cusp of the Eighth House is 28° 43' Pisces. It is the House and nuhbahr of Jupiter, exaltation of Venus, term,^101b face, darījān and ādarjān of Mars who is lord of the triplicity in companionship with Venus and the doryphory of the Moon. It is the term, haftbahr and twelfth of Saturn and the fall of Mercury. Venus is paramount over this House in companionship with Mars and with inclination to alliance with the Moon. The degree is masculine, fixed, and void of good or evil fortune. The Part of excellence is 20° 8' Aries and the Part of valour 2° 53' of the same.

The cusp of the Ninth House is 28° 1' Aries. It is the House of Mars, the exaltation^102a of the Sun, the term,^102b fall^102c and ādarjān of Saturn, and face and detriment of Venus. The lord of the triplicity is Jupiter, in companionship with the Sun, and the doryphory of Saturn. It is the darījān, nuhbahr, twelfth and haftbahr of Jupiter. Mars is paramount over this House in companionship with Jupiter and with inclination towards alliance with Saturn. The degree is masculine, light and belonging to the deep or pitted^102d degrees. The Part of male children is admittedly 23° 49 Taurus. The Part of sea-voyages is 2° 36'. The Part of messengers^102e is 5° Taurus.

The cusp of the Tenth House is 27° 21' Taurus. It is the House and ādarjān of Venus, the exaltation of the Moon who is master of the triplicity in companionship with Venus, and with attendance of Mars, the darījān of Saturn, the nuhbahr and haftbahr of Mercury, the twelfth term and detriment of Mars. Venus is paramount over this House in complete companionship with the Moon and in companionship with Mars. The degree is masculine, lucid and void of good or bad fortune. The Part of good fortune is admitted by all with the exception of Ptolemy and Muḥyī‘u-d-dīn Maghribī to be 9° 22' Gemini. The Part of reason and of speech is 9° 51' Gemini. The Part of disease is 25° 27' Gemini. The Part^103a of male offspring is admittedly 29° 40' Taurus. The Part of abstinence (temperance) is 4° Gemini. The Part of possessions is 19° 36'. The Part of enemies is admittedly 25° 27' Gemini.

The cusp of the Eleventh House is 27° 11' Gemini. It is the House and nuhbahr of Mercury and he is lord of the triplicity in companionship with Saturn and with attendance of Jupiter. It is the exaltation of the Dragon's Head (Anabibazon) and the term and darījān of Saturn, the face of the Sun, ādarjān of Jupiter, twelfth and haftbahr of Venus. This degree is feminine and fixed, and void of good and evil fortune. The Part of the conclusions of actions and the Part of marriage are 14° Cancer. Mercury is paramount over this House in companionship with Saturn.

The cusp of the Twelfth House is 26° 46' Cancer. It is the House and face of the Moon and the exaltation,^103b nuhbahr and the darījān of Jupiter. It is the term and detriment of Saturn. Mars is lord of triplicity in companionship with Venus and with the Moon in attendance. It is the ādarjān, dodecatemorion, haftbahr and fall of Mars. The Moon is paramount over this House with Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Saturn. The degree is feminine, lucid and void of good or evil fortune. The Dragon's Tail is in 27° 29' 13" Leo. The Part of knowledge and clemency (al-‘ilm wa-l-ḥilm) of superiority and victory is 18° 22'. The Part of offspring is admittedly 2° 49' The Part of fear and pain is 22° 15'. The Part of life is 2° 49' The Part of the father is 18° 22' Leo.

The hyleg^104a in this horoscope is;—firstly, the point^104b of anterior conjunction; secondly, the Part of Fortune; and thirdly, the Ascendant. As regards the hyleg, the kadkhudā^104c is Saturn and then Jupiter; as regards^105a the Part of Fortune, Jupiter comes first, then Saturn; as regards the Ascendant, the Sun comes first, then Mars.

As the foundation of the holy horoscope has been firmly laid, it is indispensable that an explanation of a few out of its many wonderful judgments should be given.

As the cusp of the Ascendant is Leo which is the Sun's House, this signifies lofty genius and excellence, and that the holy frame^106a will be strong and athletic, with a large head, broad forehead, wide chest, strength and length, courage, majesty, gravity, beauty of feature and powerful brain. As most of the degrees of the Ascendant (First House) belong to the Sign of Virgo, which is the House and exaltation of Mercury who is in the House of Venus (Libra) or Second House of the horoscope, and is near^106b Jupiter and in his own term and triplicity, it is fitting that the Native should fall back upon his own exquisite intellect in all affairs of finance and state, and should accomplish his momentous enterprises by his own excellent plans. As the Sun is regent of the noble Ascendant in alliance with Saturn, the Native will have complete sovereignty over all the countries of India and over part of the fourth^106c climate. And as, with reference to position,^107a the Sun comes after Saturn, the empire of Hindūstān will precede that of the fourth climate. And as the lord of the second cusp, viz., Mercury, is near the lord of the Ascendant (the Sun), this is a proof that prosperity and principality (māl u mulk) will be easily acquired. As the Ascendant, the Part of Fortune and the place of prior conjunction of the Sun and Moon belong to Signs possessing many planets,^107b there is strong evidence of length of life and duration of sovereignty.

As the cusp of the Second House belongs to Virgo, which is the House of Mercury who is near the Sun, and most of it belongs to Libra, the House of Venus, and as Venus is in the Ascendant^107c which is the House and exaltation of Mercury,—this signifies that wealth and territory will be acquired by means of excellent contrivances and perfect reason, and that the Native will obtain the office of king. And Jupiter's being in this House in his own term, and Mercury's being near him, are a strong proof of this and also that the Viziers will manage affairs by the abounding reason of the Native and not by their own plans. On the contrary, their ideas will not endure in the presence of the designs of the Lord of the Age. And as the lord of the Second House (Mercury)^108a is in the Ascendant, he (the Native) will collect countless treasures; and as Jupiter is in this House, he will spend his wealth in ways pleasing to God, and will walk in God's paths and his property will increase daily.

And the fact of Jupiter's being in his own term, is a proof of long life, so that he will have honoured grandchildren and these fortunate ones will grow up under his discipline.

As Saturn is in the Second House and in exaltation, harm will never come to his (the Native's) treasures. The hyleg which is the degree of first conjunction (qu. conjunction prior to the nativity?) is in this House and is a strong proof of the above statement. The kadkhudā (lord of the geniture) which is Saturn and is in exaltation, and his companion Jupiter having come into this House, give to the holy life the influences of two kadkhudā(s). Mars is the third (kadkhudā) so that the Native will exceed the natural period of life, viz., 120 years.^108b The Moon's being paramount over this House is another corroboration of the well-groundedness of this blessing.

As the lord of the Ascendant (the Sun) is in the Third House, this signifies perfect mildness, sedateness, constancy and reverence and the succouring of kinsmen. But this tribe, out of short-sightedness, will not be single-minded. However as that centre (markaz) where the lord of the Ascendant (Scorpio) is, is the House of Mars and also his triplicity, term, decanate, ādarjān and darījān, and as he himself is in the Fifth House which is his House of exaltation^109a and his gaudium (faraḥ) and is the triplicity and face of Jupiter, and the ādarjān of the lord of the Ascendant,—the improper thoughts of this faction will become a cause of increased glory and enhanced dominion to the Native. And as the beginnings of the Third House which have to do with brethren, are a station^109b of the Sun's majesty, this signifies that brethren will be of no account alongside the glory of the holy being (Akbar) and that they will quaff the cup of anguish to the dregs. The middle and last portions of the Third House, which signify allies and helpers^109c are, according to Ptolemy, the Part of Fortune and they are also the face of the Sun and he is co-partner with the kadkhudā (Saturn). This signifies that friends and loyalists will be on the carpet of union (lit: one colour) and devotion, and be steadfast in respect, and will be advanced by the Native to prosperity and wealth. And as this place of the Third House has connection with Mars who is in his exaltation, and that House is the gaudium and House of Saturn who is a foremost kadkhudā and who is also in his exaltation,—friends will always be in honour and glory, And as Saturn who is a kadkhudā and is in exaltation, is paramount in the House, this is a convincing proof of these things. And the lord (Mars) of the Third House being in the Fifth, is a proof of the establishment of noble children, and also signifies that there will be travelling and short^110a excursions^110b which will be provocative of joy.

One of the wonderful things is that the part of the other world, according to all, and the Part of Fortune, according to Ptolemy and Muḥyī'u-d-dīn Maghribī, are in one^110c place; to wit, 18° Scorpio in the Third House. This rarely occurs in horoscopes, and forcibly indicates that good fortune upon good fortune will come in succession from the other world, and is also strong evidence for information about hidden matters, so that the enlightened mind of the Native will be a rendezvous of mysteries.

As Mars is lord of the cusp (markaz) of this House, and he is in his exaltation,^110d face, and his own trigon (muṯallaṯa) and is dominant over this House and it is the term of Jupiter, what is signified is that in the beginning of his (the Native's) career territory will come into possession through the exertions of military officers. And as this House is a Fixed Sign, and its lord (Mars) is in exaltation and has a beneficent^111a aspect, territory will continually be coming into the possession of the King's^111b servants and whatever so comes will remain there permanently.

As the 8th and 4th^111c of the degrees which belong to the beginning of Scorpio are Gemini (Jauzā') whose lord (Mercury) is occulted by the Sun's rays, this signifies that when the Native shall arrive at years of discretion, the might of his intellect will become displayed, and that his honoured^112a father will at this time, have his face turned towards the hidden and inner world and will depart to the eternal city. As most of this House belongs to Sagittarius and the lord of the term (Jupiter) is in the Second House of the horoscope, the Native will be affectionate and grateful to his father and will receive an appanage^112b from his dominions.

As the lord of most of the Third House which is connected with lovers and sincere friends and helpers, to wit, Mars, is in the Fifth and in exaltation, this signifies the glorious condition of the sons of the Native and their sincerity and affection. And as Saturn is paramount over this House, is in exaltation and in his own triplicity and is a kadkhudā,—and as Jupiter is in his face and triplicity and is associated with the kadkhudā (Saturn) and is lord of the cusp of this House,—this signifies that the sons of the Native will be fortunate and be defenders of the State and that they will not remove the head of respect from the plane of well-pleasing. Aquila, who is of the constitution of Mars, and Jupiter and Cygnus, who is of the constitution of Jupiter and Venus, are in this House and forcibly indicate an abundant catch (ṣaid) of pleasure and auspiciousness.

As the master (Saturn) of this House (Capricorn) is in his exaltation, and the Dragon's Head is in this House, they signify the lasting sovereignty of the Native and the acquisition of abundant wealth and property, and permanence of elemental health, and equability of disposition. Should a little sickness affect the hem of his holy constitution, it will speedily terminate in perfect health. And as Mars is paramount over this House, in co-partnership with Saturn, and both are in exaltation, there will be numerous auspicious servants^113a and attendants.

As the lord of the cusp of the Seventh^113b House is Saturn^113c and he is in exaltation, the Native will in his first youth, marry^113d chaste veiled ones from the ruling families of India. And as Saturn is in the Second House,^113e this may indicate that those chaste, curtained and holy ones will belong to his tributary and wealth-increasing princes. And as the Part of friendship and love is this House, this signifies increasing relish of friendship and love, especially as the Part of affection is in Pisces which is the House of Jupiter and the exaltation of Venus.

As the cusp of this House belongs to Pisces and its lord, Jupiter, is in the Second, in his own term and triplicity and the Part^113f of excellence is in this House, and as Venus is paramount over this House in co-partnership with Mars who is in exaltation,—this signifies the absence of fear^113g and danger, and the being rendered safe by the protection and defence of God.

As the cusp of this House is in the Sign of Aries and its lord, Mars, is in his exaltation and gaudium (faraḥ) and is dominant over this House, the Native will reap benefit from travel,^114a and the journies which take place, will be accompanied by acquisition of territory.

As the cusp of this House belongs to Taurus, which is the House of Venus, and she is dominant over it and is in the Ascendant, this signifies perfect felicity and general superiority, which is an expression for a great kingship; also that this sublime dignity will long be in the possession of the Native, especially as this House is the exaltation of the Moon. And the Moon is in an aspect^114b towards this House and towards the Ascendant which is one of entire friendship. And as the Part of Fortune is, by the opinion of the majority, in this House, this signifies perfect fortune and increase of State, and that the Native will spend most of his days in managing and arranging the affairs of Church and State. And as the Part of reason and speech is in this House, it signifies that his reason and speech will be king of reasons and at the head of utterances. Much too of the specialties of Venus, who is lord of pleasure and joy, will be bestowed on him.

As the cusp of this House belongs to Gemini and its regent (Mercury) is in the Second House, which is that of wealth, this signifies that the hopes which he forms with regard to fortune and territory will be realized to his heart's desire. It also proves that he will have sincere friends and that the masters of wisdom and knowledge will arrive at high rank in his service. And as the Part of the conclusions of actions is in this House, this signifies that his hopes^114c and desires will have a happy termination.

As the cusp of this House belongs to Cancer and its lord, the Moon, is in detriment^114d and gaudium (faraḥ), this proves that the enemies of the State will be constantly in adversity and distress to whatever extent may be agreeable to the Native. And the fact of the Dragon's Tail^115a (Katabibazon or Ẕanab) being there in the first degree, is strong evidence of this. And as the Part of knowledge and clemency is in this House, it signifies that the Native will, together with his insight (into character), be clement and forgiving to the short-sighted and cross-grained ones. And patience, breadth of view and general benevolence will be among his necessary attributes.

May Almighty God prolong the life of the Lord of Fortune for generations and cycles, since the attributes of greatness,—which are the root and flower of universal sovereignity and world-adornment, and are a cause of capturing the hearts of friends and foes, and attract souls and knit together the thoughts of high and low,—are revealed in all their perfection and (as it were) on an open highway (Praise be to the gracious God for it) in the aggregation of refined qualities of this Doctor of the High School of Unity; and have made him by his idiosyncracy and fundamental nature, sole owner of sublime dignity and peculiar grace. And of a certainty, all those admirable qualities and dispositions have, without effort or vaunting, become the blissful possession of this celestial Being, so that from this fountain-head of justice, they are distributed by the garden-channel of the lords^115b of liberality.

Verse.

For ever, and so long as there are stars in the firmament,
For ever, and so long as there are bodies with souls,
May there be no revolution of the spheres without thy pleasure,
No movement of the heavenly bodies except according to thy will.

This is a sketch of the judgments of the auspicious horoscopes; but if the gifts of the stars, the blessings of the aspects, and the significations of the Houses, were fully set forth, registers would be compiled and books composed.

Verse.^116a

His exquisite exaltations cannot be reckoned up,
Star-gazing mathematicians can but adumbrate them.

At the time of writing these pages which are a record of auspiciousness, a horoscope came under my view which had been drawn by the very erudite Maulānā Alyās of Ardabīl who held high rank among mathematicians and was one of his Majesty Jahānbānī Jannat-āshiyānī's courtiers.

This horoscope also has been copied in sketch^117b but without details of the influences of the Houses and the Judgments. It has been copied partly in consideration of the repute of the drawer,^117c and partly because, unlike the others, it is based on the Īlkhānī Tables.

Some scientific men used to think that the disagreement between the Indian and Greek astronomers,—the former placing the horoscope in Leo and the latter in Virgo, was due to a difference of opinion among philosophers about the movement of the Zodiacal Heaven. A crowd^119a of ancient philosophers, including Aristotle, were agreed that the Eighth^119b Heaven had no motion. The philosopher Hipparchus contended that it did move, but he did not ascertain the rate of progression. Ptolemy said the motion was one degree in a century and that the revolution was completed in 36,000 years. Most philosophers hold that the rate is one degree in seventy years and that the revolution is completed in 25,200 years. Another school say that a degree is traversed in sixty-three^119c years and that the revolution is completed in 22,680 years. The cause of such discrepancies is a difference in the equipment and instruments of the observatories and difference in the profundity and subtlety^120a of the observations.

The fact is, the earliest philosophers did not suspect the motion of the Fixed Stars, on account of its exceeding slowness. For this reason, they did not get sufficient time to observe it.^120b

At the time when the Signs of the Zodiac were determined, the figure Leo which was regarded as a constellation of several fixed stars, was opposite to and in front of a (certain) part of the Heaven of Heavens,^120c and now, owing to the movement of the Zodiacal Heaven,^120d it has moved from that part and is in the station where Virgo then was. Similarly Virgo has moved to the station of Libra, Libra to Scorpio and so on, up to the last Sign. Now the calculation of Indian astrologers^121a is in accord with the observations of the ancient philosophers which were based on the notion that the Fixed Stars did not move. The calculation of the new observations^121b is founded on the movement of the Zodiacal Heaven which has caused the constellation Leo to move to the House of Virgo. The difference between the two calculations is 17°,^122a each Sign having moved 17° from its place. From this it may be known that 1190 years have elapsed from the observations of the Indian philosophers to the new ones, assuming that a degree is traversed every seventy years, and most philosophers are agreed that we should multiply 17 by 70. On the view of Ptolemy that the movement is one degree a century, the interval between the two sets of observations is 1700 years.

Keen-sighted inquirers after truth and subtle perceivers of the secrets of the skies fell into the valley of perturbation on account of these discrepancies. Now that the pattern of the philosophers of the Age, ‘Aẓdu-l-daulah Amīr Fatḥu-l-lāh of Shīrāz, has shewn by the Greek Canon and the Persian rules that his Majesty's auspicious horoscope is in Leo as has been stated above, it clearly appears that the explanation of the disagreement is not, as was commonly supposed, that the Indian philosophers deny the existence of the spheres, as has been set forth in the Second Volume.^122b Rather it was the Divine wisdom (ḥikmat-i-ilāhī) and the Divine jealousy which demanded that the description of this cavalier^122c of the plain of majesty and confidant of the sublime cabinet, should remain hidden from the gaze of keen-sighted, penetrating, minute inquirers, as well as from the eyes of the evil-disposed and inwardly blind.

It was from this cause, that his Majesty Jahānbānī Jannat-āshiyānī, who in astrolabic investigations and studies of astronomical Tables and observations, was at the head of the enthroned^123a ones of acute knowledge and was a second Alexander,—in spite of his perfect labours and exertions in the matter of the horoscope of the Lord of the Age, did not attain to the truth (did not reveal the whole truth). And likewise all those others who were versed in the secrets of astrology, remained within the curtain of contradiction and did not arrive at a perfect knowledge of the mystery. And notwithstanding the identity of the canons of calculation and the inquiries of right-thinkers,—for natural philosophers do not materially disagree in these matters,—owing to the jealousy of God, the truth of the holy nativity remained under the veil of concealment and was hidden behind the curtain of contradiction. But on the whole, if each of the horoscopes be looked at with the eye of judgment—and a sketch of each has been given,—it becomes plain that in the matter of power, dignity and sublimity, external and internal, there is nothing equal to them. Though the horoscopes are discrepant, they agree in external and internal splendour and congratulate the Native as supreme over the visible and invisible worlds. And those intimate friends of his Majesty Jahānbānī Jannat-āshiyānī, whose outward and inward beings were clothed with truth and righteousness, have been heard to tell that when his Majesty had the auspicious horoscope shewn to him and had considered it, it happened several times that when in his private chamber and with the doors all closed, he fell a'dancing, and from excess of exultation, revolved with a circular motion. Why indeed should not sitters in the front ranks of the pavilion of true glory, and tasters of the trays of eternal knowledge—who have partaken of the sweets of ecstacy and the knowledge of God, indulge in transports of joy at the sweets of this revelation, and why should they not chaunt strains of rapture? For these perfections are steps or stages of exaltation and are the essence of Divine knowledge. And his Majesty Jahānbānī Jannat-āshiyānī was by the perfection of his personality, enlightened by flashes of forthcoming events and glimpses into the future, and his senses were warmed by the auspicious advent of his Majesty, the King of Kings. And all these lights were seen, before realization in the ranks of actions, in the mirror of the wondrous horoscope. And he many times said to those who were privileged to converse with him, that the horoscope of this Light of Fortune was superior, in several respects and by sundry degrees, to that of his Majesty, the Lord of Conjunction^124a (Tīmūr) as indeed clearly appears to the scrutinizing students of the prognostications. And when these two auspicious documents are compared, and the gifts of the planets and the blessings of the heavens^124b are weighed in the balance of reflection, it will be seen what are the communications of the horoscope of the Lord of Conjunction, and what are those of the holy horoscope. Praise be to God! notwithstanding the remoteness of the horoscopists in time, place and condition, and the discrepancy of their canons, every one of the glorious schemes agrees—as has been shewn—in this, that the Native will attain lofty, spiritual and temporal rank, and that his holy personality will be a collection of inward and outward excellencies and will be possessed of various perfections and will have sway over the visible and invisible world. He will have various kinds of sovereignties and various degrees of rule, and will attain lofty rank in worship of the Truth and in theology. He will befriend the poor and humble, and will have long life and soundness of body and an equable disposition and will be praised by high and low and thanked by great and small. He will have perfect knowledge of the world, and will rule countries and guard the paths of righteousness, and will perform the duties of government and of the administration of the world.

It is a remarkable circumstance that all those qualities which astrologers have come to know by toil and meditation, are read by simple-minded persons who know nothing of the diagrams of stellar mysteries, by dint of their own insight, on the forehead-page^125a of his Majesty's career, though they have humbly to acknowledge the inability of language to expound them.

Verse.

Thy attributes have made tongues incoherent,
Thy glorious personality has changed certainty into conjecture.

Abu-l-faẓl gives four horoscopes. The first and fourth however appear to be substantially the same. Both were made by Muḥammadan servants of Humāyūn,—the first by Maulānā Cānd and the fourth by Maulānā Alyās of Ardabīl. Maulānā Cānd's was drawn up according to the “New Tables,” i.e., those of Ulugh Beg Mīrzā who was Tīmūr's grandson. These were calculated for 1437. Maulānā Ilyās' horoscope was cast according to the Īlkhānī or Imperial Tables, i.e., those made by Naṣīru-d-dīn Ṭūsī at Marāgha— about 50 miles S. by W. of Tabrīz—in the reign of Hulāgū Khān cir. 1272.

Abu-l-faẓl, writing in the 40th year of Akbar, (1596) says (Jarrett II, 4.) that 362 years had elapsed since Naṣīru-d-dīn built his observatory and 156 since Ulugh Beg built his at Samarqand. This gives a date of 1440 for Ulugh Beg's Tables and of 1234 for Naṣīru-d-dīn's, but the latter is certainly wrong, and probably there is some clerical error in the text. If Hulāgū Khān first established him in Marāgha, it is assuredly wrong, but A. F. evidently thinks he was there earlier. (Āīn II, 11.)

The second horoscope was made by Jotik Rai, Akbar's astrologer. We do not know its exact date but it was, of course, drawn many years after Akbar's birth and after the construction, by Humāyūn's orders, of the first and fourth horoscopes.

The third was made by Fatḥu-l-lāh of Shīrāz and could not have been drawn earlier than 991 (1583), for this astronomer did not come to Akbar's Court till that year. Indeed A. F. tells us that it was in the first year of Fatḥu-l-lāh's service that he asked him to compare the horoscopes and reconcile their discrepancies.

Both Maulānā Cānd and Maulānā Alyās put the birth under Virgo and there is no doubt this is correct,—if correctness can be predicated of such matters. The Indian astrologers probably put the birth in Leo because that Sign is the House of the Sun, between whom and Akbar there was supposed to be a mysterious connection. Possibly however, the earlier date of their Tables warranted them in putting the birth under Leo, as A. F. has explained in his chapter on the discrepancies. But granting that this was so, we are not told why their Tables should be preferred to those of Naṣīru-d-dīn and Ulugh Beg. And indeed Abu-l-faẓl does not prefer them. He tells us that Indian Tables agree with the observations of those philosophers who are not aware that there was a movement of the Fixed Stars. In other words, he admits that they are wrong.

If the precession of the equinoxes account for the difference between the Tables, why stop short at the Hindū observations? A. F. calculates that these were made 1190 years before Ulugh Beg's, i.e., about 1336 before Fatḥu-l-lāh cast Akbar's horoscope. According to Bābar (Erskine 51.) the Hindū Tables were made at Ujjain in the time of Vikramāditya, i.e., cir. 57 B.C. According to Tod, (Rājpūtānā) Hindū astronomers now follow the Tables of Jai Singh which were made in 1728. (See Dr. Hunter's paper, Asiatic Researches V, 177.) But why did not he or Fatḥu-l-lāh carry the calculation further back and ascertain the position of the constellations of the Zodiac at the time, say, of the birth of Adam or at least, of Enoch or Idris who, according to Muḥammadans, is the father of astronomy? Some astrologers professed to know the position of the stars at the time of the Creation and held that Adam was born under 1° Capricorn (See infra for A. F.'s account of Adam). And at all events A. F., who seems to have accepted the chronology according to which Adam was born about 7000 before his own time, could have had no difficulty in calculating the position of the constellations at that period, allowing one degree for every seventy years.

According to A. F. the difference between the Indian astrologers and Maulānā Cānd amounts to 17°. But apparently Fatḥu-l-lāh did not adopt the Indian calculations, which indeed he probably could not read. (He was a Persian and we are told in the Āīn (Blochmann 104) that he superintended the translation of part of Ulugh Beg's Tables, though, if as has been supposed, these were originally written in Persian, one does not see what necessity there was for translating them. There is however a doubt on the point and A. F.'s remark implies that Ulugh Beg's Tables were written in a foreign language, e.g., Arabic or Turkish. According to D'Herbelot, they were first written in Arabic but Sédillot has no doubt that Persian was their original language). Fatḥu-l-lāh, we are told, based his calculations on the Greek and Persian Tables, not on the Indian, and found the cusp of the Ascendant to be 28° 36' Leo.

Leo is the Sign immediately preceding Virgo, and if the difference of the Hindū and Persian calculations be 17°, the cusp according to the former, should apparently be 20° Leo, for Maulānā Cānd's horoscope brought out the cusp of the Ascendant as 7° Virgo. We are not told what Tables Fatḥu-l-lāh used and are left in the dark as to his modus operandi. The difference between his calculations and those of Maulānā Cānd was apparently, about 81/2° viz., from 28° 36' Leo to 7° Virgo. If, as A. F. does, we take the rate of precession to be one degree in 70 years, Fatḥu-l-lāh must have used Tables made about 600 years before Ulugh Beg's. This would give a date of about 830 A.D., which approximates to the Baghdād observations of the Khalīf Māmūn referred to in the Āīn (Jarrett II. 3.)

If we take the more correct rate of precession, viz., one degree in 72 years, we get a still closer approximation for 81/2°=612 years and this, deducted from 1434=822 A.D.

I regret that I have not been able to translate the four horoscope chapters in a satisfactory manner. They are difficult, for several words of frequent use in them, are not to be found in our dictionaries, at least not with their astronomical meaning. Dozy's Supplement is of little or no use for astrological terms, and Lane appears to ignore them altogether. Unfortunately with all his amplitude of detail, A. F. fails us at the very pinch of the case. That is, he gives no explanation of Fatḥu-l-lāh's modus operandi and does not tell us how he managed to bring the horoscope into Leo.

It is probable that in places, the text is corrupt.

Books on astrology are very numerous. One of the best of the old treatises is De Judiciis Astrorum by ‘Alī Abu-l-ḥasan (Albohazan Haly Aben Rajal). He, it appears, was born in Spain, for he is styled Ash-Shaibānī and Ash-Shabīlī (Hispaliensis) and his full name is Abu-l-ḥasan ‘Alī Ibn Abi-r-rajālu-sh-shaibānī.

In Hammer-Purgstall's History of Arabian Literature, (6436) he is styled ‘Alī Ibn Rajāl and we are told that Europeans called him Aben-Ragel and that he was born at Cordova and lived in the beginning of the 5th century of the Hijra.

His work on astrology, “Opus magnum de astrologia, octo partibus comprehensum,” was first translated from Arabic into Spanish by order of Alphonso, the king of Castile, and afterwards from Spanish into Latin. He appears also to have been a poet, for a poem of his on astrology is mentioned in Casiri's catalogue of the Escurial Library I, 128 and 344. The best edition of Haly's work appears to be that by Anthony Stupa, Basle, 1551. There is a copy of this in the British Museum and bound up with it, is an elaborate treatise on astrology by Guido Bonatus and also a commentary on the Tetrabiblos.

Guido Bonatus, also called Guido Bonatti and Bonati, was a noted astrologer of the 13th century. He was a native of Florence, but is commonly called Foroliviensis or De Foro Livii, the modern Forli, a town on the eastern side of the Appenines and not far from Ravenna. He is said by his astrological skill to have saved Forli from a siege. Eventually he became a monk and died in 1296.

Lilly quotes Abu-l-ḥasan under the name of Haly and Sir Walter Scott makes Guy Mannering refer both to him and to Guido Bonatus. Délambre says, in his History of astronomy in the Middle Ages, that Abu-l-ḥasan's book “est l'un des plus clairs, des plus méthodiques, and des plus complétes que nous ayons. C'est une compilation de tout ce que les sages de différents pays et de différents siécles avaient écrit sur ce sujet futile.” It appears that Haly was a Christian. There is a MS. copy of his work in the British Museum written in beautifully clear Arabic characters. It is numbered 23,399. See Codices Arabici 623b. It is to be hoped that some day an Arabic scholar will print and edit it.

Lilly's Christian Astrology and the works of Zadkiel are useful and so also are Wilson's Dictionary of Astrology (London, 1819), and a work by E. Sibley in two quarto volumes and published in 1817. For Hindū astrology, I can recommend two Bengali books kindly sent me by Dr. Grierson, viz., the Jyōtiṣa Prakāça (Beni Madhab De & Co., Calcutta, 1882, Sak. 1804) and the Varāha Mihira of Kali Prosanna Chattarji (1891, Fasli 1300). I have also found the notes of Muḥammad Ṣādiq ‘Alī the Lucknow editor of the Akbarnāma very useful and I have obtained some light from the two elaborate horoscopes of Shāh Jahān,—one of his birth and the other of his accession,—which are given in ‘Abdu-l-ḥamīd's Bādshāhnāma.

Mr. Rehatsek's Catalogue of the Mullā Fīrōz Library in Bombay shews that it is very rich in Persian works on astrology.

To the useful books on Astrology may be added the treatise of Julius Firmicus Maternus, a Latin writer of the 4th century A.D. A good and cheap edition of this work is in course of publication at Leipsic under the editorship of Charles Sittl. Firmicus describes the Dodecatemoria, p. 48, the Decani, p. 41, and has a chapter, p. 233, on empty and full degrees, the full being degrees where the Decani are found, and the empty where their influence does not operate.

When the lightsome day of his creation arrived, at once was Heaven envious of Earth for his passing,^129b and Earth exultant o'er Heaven for his august advent. The status of knowledge and insight became exalted, and with rites which are the glory of the ministers of outward show, was that holy essence and pure pearl —already washed and cleansed at the fountain-head of Divine Light and in the ocean of infinite knowledge (ma‘rifat)—bathed and composed by the hands of shade-loving, radiance-darting, chaste, rose-bodied nymphs. Even-tempered, spiritually-minded nurses swathed the divine form and heavenly body in auspicious swaddling-bands, purer than angelic veils, and laid him with respect and reverence in the sacred arms and bosoms of pure-dispositioned ones. And then his honied^129c lips being brought in contact with the benign breasts, his mouth was sweetened by the life-giving fluid.

Verse.

He drew forth milk by the bounty of his lips,
Milk and sugar were commingled.
It was not milk he drank from the breast of hope,
'Twas water from the Sun's fountain that he imbibed.

As the nobly-born Shamsu-d-dīn Muḥammad of Ghaznī had done a good service at Kanauj,^130a his Majesty Jahānbānī Jannat-āshyānī, shortly before the rising of this light of fortune, (Akbar) in magnificent recompense of his deed, made him hopeful of eternal bliss by promising him the majestic boon, that his high-souled, chaste-natured consort—who has now the lofty title of Jījī^130b Anaga—should be clothed with the glorious head-dress (mi‘jar) and mantle of distinction, by obtaining the auspicious service of nursing this new fruit of the spring-tide of sovereignty and fortune, and should have the blissful charge^130c of the nosegay of the house-garden of greatness and glory.

Accordingly her Majesty, Maryam-makānī, Qadasī-arkānī (Pillar of Purity) having sent for that adorner of Heaven's table (i.e., celestial caterer) placed in an auspicious moment, the child-treasure in her hopeful bosom. But as the period of pregnancy^130d of this purely-framed nurse was not yet fulfilled, her Majesty ordered that receptacle of chastity, Dāya Bhāwal—a special servant of his Majesty Jahānbānī, and distinguished for virtue and purity—to suckle the infant. It appears that first of all, he accepted the milk of his royal mother. Then Fakhr-i-nisā,^130e wife of Nadīm Koka was honoured by the charge, then Bhāwal Anaga, then the wife of Khwāja Ghāzī,^130f then Ḥakīma. After these, the chaste Jījī Anaga, in accordance with her wish, obtained external and internal felicity. After her, Kokī Anaga, wife of Tōgh Begi^131a and after her, Bībī Rūpā^131b had their turn of this auspicious service. Then Khāldār (i.e., the mole-marked) Anaga, mother of Sa‘ādat Yār Koka,^131c was selected for this great boon. And at last, that chaste matron, Pīja Jān Anaga,^131d mother of Zain Khān Koka, acquired a stock of everlasting greatness by obtaining her wish for this great blessing. Many other fortunate cupolas of chastity were exalted by the excellence of this service. It was as if there were Divine wisdom in thus implanting varied temperaments^131e by this series of developments (i.e., the wet-nurses) so that the pure entity,^131f advancing by gradations, might become familiar with the divers methods of Divine manifestation. Or it might be designed that the acute and discerning should perceive that this nursling of fortune belonged to the limpid streams of Divine bounty and was not such as to make spiritual progress by outward nutriment, for as to the spiritual nature of this company (of nurses),^132a it is evident to all of what kind that was, as also are the lofty degrees of the holy stages of this chosen one.

Among other wondrous indications there was this, that contrary to the way of other infants, his Majesty, the king of kings, at his birth and at the first opening of his eyes on the visible world, rejoiced the hearts of the wise by a sweet smile.^132b Penetrating physiognomists recognized the smile as the herald-augury of the smiles of the spring of dominion and fortune and saw in it, the opening bud of hope and peace.

After that (i.e., the suckling), in a cradle lighter than a phantom (which the carpenters of the throne of sovereignty had framed of sandal-wood and lign-aloes, and where they had, as it were, commingled civet^132c and rose-leaves, and on whose corners and sides they had hung rubies and pearls of price) was laid with gentlest movement that unique Pearl of nine mothers o'pearl,^132d and then they softly swayed and rocked him. For cheer and soothing, they chaunted with musical (mūsīqī) rhythm the name—auspicious to begin with and fitting as a close—of the Creator, the Lord of Glory and Bounty. The inmates^132e of holy hermitages and those who live in the throng of men who are the stewards of time and the terrene and hold together the spheres of the universe, attained their desires and thus were benefits bestowed on the world and on mankind. They sang this gratulatory strain to the darling^133a of the skies.

Verse.

Hail to thee to whom is committed reason's exaltation.^133b
The kingly revolution of the universe is for thee.
Like thee, the earth has no garden;
Like thee, heaven's vault no lamp.
Creative ocean rolled many a wave
Till it cast ashore a pearl like thee.
Fate's pencil drew many a sketch
Till she made a portrait like thee.
The world's book is but an allusion^133c to thee,
Heaven's volume but an analysis^133d of thee.

It is singular that this name does not occur in the list of Akbar's nurses. This may be due to Māham Anaga's being a title and not a proper name, and it is possible that the lady who was afterwards thus designated, is mentioned in the list under some other appellation. She may, for instance, be the nurse described as the wife of Khwāja Ghāzī and whose own name is not given. But even if the title were not bestowed till a later period, one would have expected A. F. to have added it to his description, just as he mentions Shamsu-d-dīn's wife by her title of Jījī Anaga. The true explanation of the omission probably is that Māham Anaga means Head or Superintendent of the nurses rather than chief nurse and that the Māham Anaga of the Akbarnāma was not a wet-nurse. She certainly was not the chief nurse in the sense that the child Akbar drew most of his nourishment from her, for we are told that Jījī Anaga was chief in this respect, so much so that the other nurses accused her of practising witchcraft in order to prevent the infant prince from accepting any breast but her own.

Though Anaga seems primarily to mean a wet-nurse, it has not always this meaning. Pavet de Courteille says (Turkish Dictionary, 57) “◌ et ◌, nourrice, sage-femme, gouvernante; on donne aussi à la mère du Khān le titre de ◌.” We find also that the mother of Cingīz Khān had this title, her name being given in the Akbarnāma (I. 72, top line) as “Olun Anaga” though Erdmann spells it Eke. Apparently the Turkish pronunciation is Enge. See Redhouse s. v. He states that it means a sister-in-law, the wife of an elder brother or lady-relative of a bridegroom who is sent to fetch the bride home. A. F. sometimes calls Māham Anaga, Māham Bega and Māham Āgha, and it is generally by the title of Bega that Bāyazīd Sulṭān speaks of her in the so-called Tārīkh-i-humāyūn. (I. O. Ms. No. 216). He calls her (15) Māham Bega and adds the explanation ke āgha anaga Nawāb-i-īshān būd, i.e., who was head of the Prince's nurses. And then follows the statement that she was accompanied by Jījī Anaga, wife of Shamsu-d-dīn Mu. Ghaznawī who was the Prince's nurse (anaga). (Unless indeed the word is atgah and refers to Shamsud-dīn.)

In the Akbarnāma (II. 55) we are told that Māham Anaga had served the prince from his cradle, but it does not follow that she first did so in the capacity of wet-nurse. It may be remarked too that the fact of our not hearing that she had a husband or a child of about Akbar's age militates against the notion that she was his wet-nurse. Though her son, Adham Khān was a young man at the time of his death, he was probably several years older than Akbar as otherwise Bāyazīd would hardly have named him in the list of servants in Akbar's train at the time when Humāyūn marched to India.

As the world-seeing eye and auspicious glance of his Majesty Jahānbānī Jannat-āshyānī was looking for the glorious vision of the king of kings, a gracious order was issued that he should be brought to the curtain^135d of honour and encampment of fortune, in charge of her Majesty Maryam-makānī. Khwāja Mu‘aẓẓam,^135e Nadīm Kūkal-tāsh and Shamsu-d-dīn Mu. of Ghaznī were sent to be in attendance on the auspicious litter. Accordingly his Majesty left Amarkoṭ, on the 11th Sha‘bān^135f in a fortunate hour, under the care and in the arms of her Highness Maryam-makānī and departed in a travelling litter.^135g

Verse.

Ere the cradle had fulfilled its season,
His exalted fortune (bakht) sat on a throne, (takht)^136a
Eye unopened, but with the eye of the mind,
He looked to the ordering of religion and realm;
Hand unopened, but his heart desiring
To put the world 'neath his signet-ring,
Of his thousand roses, not one in bloom,
Yet the world was culling flowers from the garden of his fortune.

When the travelling litter of his Majesty, the king of kings, the ambulatory treasury of Divine knowledge, had nearly arrived and but two stages remained, a world-obeyed order was issued that the chief officers^136b and pillars of the State and the general public, small and great, should turn towards the altar of fortune and go to meet the ka‘ba of hopes. Avant-couriers of good tidings were arriving every minute and bringing, from time to time, the news of the appropinquating of the glorious advent.

Verse.

The cavalcade approaches with the king of both worlds in its wake,^136c
The caravan of joy goes forth to meet him.

And on the last day of Sha‘bān which was the day for the glorious alighting, and when the camp of good fortune was only one stage distant, his Majesty (Humāyūn) was pleased to observe “Assuredly the child is compact of auspiciousness, of potent horoscope and has the good fortune of the two worlds enfolded in him, for, as he draws nigh, there is another^136d assemblage of spectators in the upper world who exhibit a virgin joy.” What marvel is it that the pure soul and illumined intellect of his Majesty Jahānbānī Jannat -āshyānī should be cognizant of the Divine secrets and be aware of the truths hidden in celestial treasuries? Or how is it strange that there should be an epiphany on the apparition of his Majesty, the king of kings, the shadow of God, the archetype of the strange frontispieces of the universe, and collection of the catalogues of the perfections of the sons of Adam? And in an hour which held the auspicious influences of the conjunctions of the two Fortunes^137a and of the two luminaries (the Sun and Moon), his Majesty (Akbar) alighted with felicity and dominion at the majestic and glorious enclosure, and became fortunate by arriving at the station of light and took repose under the shadow of the phoenix (humā) of eternal prosperity. The blessed crown (tārak, i.e., crown of the head) of his Majesty, the king of kings, was made fortunate by touching the throne-brushing feet of his Majesty Jahānbānī and by becoming united to a perfect saint (pīr). The latter took him lovingly in his arms and kissed him on the luminous brow, the tablet of the fortunes of the two worlds and title-page of happiness everlasting.

Verse.

Whiles he held him to his lip, whiles to his heart, and whiles to his head.

After gazing on this holy light, the inspired tongue engaged in returning thanks to the Lord God, Most High and Most Glorious, and the pole-star-like^137b head was lowered in supplicating prostration at the portals of the All-sufficient One.

Verse.^137c

Not only was the head ever bowed,
Each hair of his body also bent in adoration.

The guardians of the Divine bounty and the treasurers of infinite auspiciousness delivered that deposit of eternities—past and future—into the king's gracious bosom and warbled, sweet and low, this strain of thanksgiving.

Verse.

This is the Divine deposit.
Ask of this treasury whatever thou desirest,
This is he in whose heart they placed
Essential substance, verity absolute.
This is he whose threshold's ka‘ba^138a
Is seized upon by kings as their altar (qibla).
This is he who hath the foot of dominion,
Enlightener of the throne royal.

Readers of the page of the human countenance beheld him with the eye of meditation and reflection and physiognomists perused him with the glance of consideration and contemplation.

Verse.

What did they see? A picture such as never
Did they see in Creation's tables.
From astonishment naught did they say, save
Hail, Light of Wisdom, Eye of Insight, hail.

Kingly lights shone from his lustrous brow. The letters “Shadow of God” were apparent in the lines of his palm. The witnesses of Reason were visible in the composite of his substance. The notes of Theosophy were manifest in his whole being. Justice was demonstrated in the evenness of his temperament. Proofs of beneficence were revealed in the essence of his nature. The characters of a Lord of Conjunction shone out from the fair schedules of his ephemeris. Knowledge of occult sciences was evidenced in the illumined records of his constitution. Remote mysteries were revealed by his keen sight. Far-reaching thoughts streamed out from his lofty glance.

Ingenious men made eteostics in prose and verse on the noble nativity and composed gratulatory odes. They tendered them for acceptance at the Court of his Majesty Jahānbānī which was the assay-room of human jewels, and received glorious gifts.

Among them, this chronogram by Maulānā Nūru-d-dīn Tarkhān^139a received the palm of applause and approbation.

Quatrain.

When the fateful pen of destiny wrote the record,
It added a comment to the immortal verse
And wrote, “From the birth-boon of the world's king of kings
The date is Shāhinshāh Jahāngīr.”^139b (World-seizing king of kings.)

And this wonderfully apposite chronogram was discovered by one of the learned of the Age.

Verse.

Laus Deo! there has come into being
He who is the world's epitome,
A king greater^139c than the kings of the Earth,

Akbar his name, Jalāl (Glorious) his title.
The year, the month, nycthemeron of birth
Are “Sunday night, five Rajab.”^140a (949 H.)

Although it be a heavy sorrow that, at the rising of the Luminary of Fortune, the author of this noble volume was in the abode of non-existence,^141a without being or the adornment of Divine worship, yet how can he discharge his debt of thanks for the grand mercy of his having witnessed the era of the subjectively and objectively Great One, the ruler of the visible and the invisible? and of having been one on whom has fallen the glance of his favour and guidance? And hundreds more of thanks for this, that, ere he had seen the holy horoscope, or its noble secrets and wondrous glories had been revealed to him, he had understood that perfection of sanctity and sovereignty which is beyond the reach of the astrologer's science, and was a slave of the Divine power.^141b And praise upon praise be to God that I am not, like Imāmu-l-kalām, Ḥassānu-l-‘ajam, Lisānu-l-ḥaqīqat, Ḥakīm Khāqānī,^141c sighing for the Lord of the Age who is indispensable for the control of the visible and invisible worlds. For instance he has written thus:—

Quatrain.

They say that every thousand years of the world
There comes into existence a true man.
He came before this, ere we^142a were born from nothingness,

He will come after this when we have departed in sorrow. Elsewhere he says,

Every now^142b and then, the world is saturated with wretches,
Then a shining soul comes down out of the sky.
Khāqānī! seek not in this Age for such a thing,
Sit not by the way for the caravan will come late.

By auspicious good fortune, I obtained the service of this issuer of universal orders and explicator of the ways, and by the favour of his patronage and exalted kindness, comfort was brought to my soul,— perturbed by the deceptions of the day and dumb-founded in a wilderness of wants,—and no connexion with the world nor anxiety remained save to acquire his favour which indeed is tantamount to the pleasing of God. And my mind being freed from the bondage of secularity and the restraints of the world, was neither agitated^142c by regret for the past nor longing for the future. Hereafter^142d there will be given in its proper place, an account of my obtaining the blessing of his service, of my reaching the shade of favour and kindness, and of my being exalted above the apices of honour and eminence to the Seventh^142e Heaven of cognition (ma‘rifat).

The following list gives the excellent appellations of the heaven-descended forefathers of his Majesty, who are linked to celestial^143a ancestors by degrees of exaltation and gradations of greatness, and all of whom came as kings, kings of kings, kingdom-bestowers and king-makers, and governed the world by God-given wisdom and true insight, such as justice and equity require, so that they have left behind them on this earth the reverberation of a good name, which is a second life, or rather, is life eternal.

Of the descendants of Qīyān are;—

Let it not be concealed that the auspicious record of these high-born ones is implanted and contained in the breast-pages^146a of the transmitters of words, and recorded and expressed by the conserving tongues of the writings of epochs, as far as Yaldūz who is the 25th^146b (i.e., counting upwards) in ascent from his Majesty and that for the period from Mangalī Khwāja to Īl Khān^146c which may be reckoned as 2,000^146d years, nothing has come to light. The cause of this will be explained hereafter.

From Īl Khān to Adam there are 24^146e persons. These have been described by historians, and a brief account of them will be given.

Far-sighted philosophers who with ripe judgment and God-given wisdom, have investigated the records of the past, and who have made the recognition of truth a sacred trust, and who exhibit research in the weighing of facts, are aware that the hearsay reports and traditions about man's origin occurring 7,000 years ago is a thing not to be accepted by sages who contemplate the rise^147a and decay of the world and (can appreciate all the tones) of the seven climes.

In these matters, right-thinking and far-seeing Reason, after true and just investigation, sometimes answers in the negative, and sometimes, out of caution—that baiting place of tranquillity and station of wisdom—delays either to admit or to deny.

By help of Reason—the glory of the world,—and the assistance of trustworthy records and reliable statements about the world, such as the ancient books of India and Cathay (Khiṭā), etc., which have been preserved from the agitations of accidents and with which agree the principles of astronomy and the conclusions of astronomical observations, (and such things yield trustworthy evidence) and also from the successive series of the biographies of the sages of those countries and the catena of opinions of this disciplined body (philosophers), it appears that the beginning of the world and of mortals and the source of the manifestations of the Divine attributes has not been discovered. Either it is eternal, as was the opinion of many ancient philosophers, or of such antiquity as to approximate to eternity.

The sect of Sīūrhā^147b (Jains) who are preëminent in all the countries of India for austerity, asceticism and science, divide time— called kāl in the Indian language—into two parts. One is Avasarpiṇī (descending cycle), i.e., the period whose beginning is joyful and end grievous, and the other is Utsarpiṇī (ascending cycle), i.e., the opposite of the first. Each of these periods is divided into six parts, called āras.^148a Each āra has a distinct name in accordance with its speciality.

The first āra of the Avasarpiṇī is called Sukhmān-sukhmān, the meaning of the reduplication being that this portion brings joy upon joy and happiness upon happiness. The length of this happy time is four kōrākōr-sāgar. The name of the second āra is Sukhmān, i.e., a time of felicity and joy. Its duration is three kōrākōr-sāgar. The name of the third āra is Sukhām (Sukhmān) Dukhmān, i.e., sorrow and misfortune crop up in the time of joy. Its duration is two kōrākōr-sāgar. The fourth āra is called Dukhmān-sukhmān, i.e., joy and freedom from care rise up in the time of grief and sorrow. Its duration is less than one kōrākōr by 42,000^148b years.

The fifth āra is Dukhmān being the opposite of the second which was Sukhmān. The duration of this āra is 21,000 years. The sixth āra is Dukhmān-dukhmān being the opposite of the first. Its length is likewise 21,000 years. The names of the āras of the second period (Utsarpiṇī) are the same but the first of them corresponds to the sixth āra of the first period, the second to the fifth, the third to the fourth, and the fourth to the third, the fifth to the second, and the sixth to the first of the first period. Their opinion is that at the present day, two thousand and odd years of the fifth āra of the first period have elapsed.

Be it known^149a that the arithmeticians of India call 100,000 a lak; ten laks a prayūt, ten prayūts a krōr, one hundred krōrs an arb, ten arbs a kharba, ten kharbs a nikharb, ten nikharbs a mahāsarūj or padm, ten padms a sankha, and ten sankhas a samudr or kōrākōr.

Be it known also that their opinion is that in a former period, in a particular place, a son and a daughter were born at each birth, a notion also prevalent amongst ourselves.^149b

This sect thinks also that the hair of the infants of the district of Delhi is 4096 times coarser than the hair of those beings whom they call juglī^149c (yugala).

And they say that if the hair of a seven days old juglī infant, which is excessively fine, be subdivided to the uttermost and an abyss (lit., a well) ten miles^150a in depth, breadth and length, be filled with such particles and after a lapse of a hundred^150b years, one segment be taken out, the time in which, at this rate, the abyss will be emptied is a palūpam (? ◌ palya). And when ten samudr,—an explanation of which term has already been given,—of palūpam(s) have elapsed, the period is a sāgar. The durations of the aforesaid cycles transcend, in their opinion, the power of calculation or description. Their opinion also is that for the management of the visible and invisible world, twenty-four venerable men (ādam) come forth from the hidden universe into the apparent one, every six āras and then pass^150c away. The name of the first of these is Ādināth and they call him also Raghunāth. The sway of this chosen one of God lasts fifty krōrs of laks of sāgaras. The name of the last is Mahāvīra.^150d His sway lasts for 20,000 years, of which 2,000 have elapsed at the present day. And the belief of this sect is that these twenty-four have come into existence many times and will come again many times.

The Brāhma of India whose teachings and practices are observed by the majority of Indians, are agreed that the revolutions of the world consist of four Ages. The first, the period of which is 1,728,000 years, they call the Sat Yug. In this Age every single action of mankind is right, and high and low, rich and poor, great and small make truth and uprightness their rule, and show a walk and conversation pleasing to God. The natural life of man in this Age is 100,000 years.

The second Age is called Trētā and lasts 1,296,000 years. In it, three-fourths of mankind follow ways well-pleasing to God, and the natural duration of life is 10,000 years.

The third Age is called the Dwāpar and lasts 864,000 years. In it, one-half of mankind speak and act rightly, and the natural life is 1,000 years.

The fourth Age is the Kal Yug. Its period is 432,000^151a years. During it, three-fourths of mortals follow ways of falsehood and unrighteousness, and the natural life is 100 years.

This school firmly believes that every now and then the Life-Giver of mankind and producer of beings, brings an ascetic and sage^151b from the veil of concealment and non-existence to the palace of manifestation and existence and makes him the instrument for the creation of the world. This mighty one is called Brahmā. Their belief is that a Brahmā lives 100 years, each consisting of 360 days^151c and every day^151d and every night is equal to a thousand times four Ages (Mahāyug.) In their opinion, the number of Brahmās who have come into existence cannot be known by the human intellect, but they say that according to what has been received from authorities^152a on the subject of Brahmā, the present Brahmā is the thousand and first, and that fifty years and half^152b a day of the life of this wondrous being have elapsed at the present time.

The writer of this divine masterpiece has written the account of these two doctrines according to the translation of learned and pious Indians^152c from their venerated books. Also in the writings of Shaikh Ibn ‘Arabī^152d and Shaikh Sa‘du-d-dīn^153a Ḥamūī who were great saints and masters of exposition and ecstacy, it is stated in the explanation of Divine (Ilāhī) days and of Rabbānī^153b days that each Rabbānī day is made up of 1,000 years and every Divine day of 50,000. And the author of Nafā'isu-l-funūn^153c has related that in the histories of Cathay, it is written that from the time of Adam Abū-l-bashar (Father of mankind) till now (i.e., the date when the author of the Nafā'is was writing) which is 735 H., (1334 A.D.) 8863 wans^154a (Text, 863) 9,800 years have elapsed.

A wan with them is 10,000 years. Such is the wide expanse of God's kingdom that it is not improbable that these tales and traditions may be true. There may have been many Adams. Indeed it is stated by Imām Ja‘far Ṣādiq, (Peace be on him!) that there have been thousands upon thousands of Adams before the Adam who was our father. And Shaikh Ibn ‘Arabī says it is not improbable that after a Divine (Rabbānī) week, which is 7,000 years and the period of the cycle^154b of the sovereignty of the seven planets, one race is terminated and another Adam puts on the robe of existence.

And now, giving truce to length of words and littleness of matter, I proceed to sketch in this glorious record, without converting^154c it into extensive histories, the blissful biography of those fifty-two persons who extend^154d from Adam down to his Majesty, the king of kings, so that it may be a cause of increase of knowledge. As I know that this exposition of grandeur will be a complement to the account of his Majesty, the king of kings, I shall treat it with the concision which is the adornment of an author.

It is well-known that he came into existence about 7,000^155a years ago through the perfect power of God, without the intervention of a father's loins or a mother's womb and that he was equably compounded of the four elements. His soul emanated from the fountain of bounty in perfection proportionate to his body. He was entitled man (insān) and received the name of Adam.

At that time the first degree of Capricorn^155b coincided with the eastern horizon, and Saturn was in that Sign, while Jupiter was in Pisces, Mars in Aries, the Moon in Leo, the Sun and Mercury in Virgo, and Venus in Libra. Some have said that at that time, all the planets were in their degrees of exaltation, but clearly this does not accord with astronomy for there is a difficulty about Mercury,— the Sun's exaltation being in Aries and Mercury's in Virgo. But Mercury can never be more than 27° distant from the Sun, how then can he be in exaltation when the Sun is in exaltation, or how can the Sun be in exaltation when Mercury is so? And reflecting on the astrological principle that Mercury takes the nature of whatever planet he be associated with, it has occurred to me that Mercury may have been in the condition of applying^155c to some other planet which was in exaltation.

Adam was of lofty stature, of a wheaten colour, had curling hair and a handsome countenance. There are different accounts of the stature of this patriarch, but most agree that he was sixty cubits high. Almighty God produced Eve from his left side and gave her in marriage to him, and by her he begat children. Historians have told many strange and wondrous things about this hero and though there be no difficulty about the extent of God's power, yet experienced and practical men of the world, on looking to the course of nature, rather hesitate about accepting them. It is said that at the time of his death, he had 40,000 descendants, and that his immediate children were 41, viz., 21 boys and 20^156a girls, but some say there were 19 girls. Seth was the most eminent of them all.

Some have said that Adam wrote about elixirs^156b (?) (ta‘fīnāt) and other occult sciences. For example the very learned Shahrazūrī^157a has so stated in his “Lives of Philosophers.” It is said Adam died in India and was buried on a mountain in Ceylon^158a (an island) which lies towards the south and which is now known by the name of Qadamgāh-i-ādam (Adam's footprint, i.e., Adam's Peak.) He was ill 21 days and Eve died, according to one account, a year, according to another, seven years and according to a third, three days after him. Seth, his successor and administrator, buried her by Adam's side, and it is reported that Noah brought their coffin on board the Ark at the time of the Deluge, and afterwards buried them on Abū qubais.^158b According to another account, they were buried in Jerusalem, and according to a third tradition, in Najf-Kūfa.^158c

Was the most excellent of Adam's immediate descendants, and was born after the catastrophe of Abel. It is said that whenever Eve became pregnant, she gave birth to a son and a daughter, but that Seth was born alone. Iqlīmīyā,^158d the (twin) sister of Cain was given in marriage to him (Seth.) When Adam reached the age of a thousand, he made Seth his successor, and enjoined all to submit to him. In succession to Adam, he carried on, by his weighty intellect, the administration of the temporal and spiritual worlds. He always conducted himself with outward composure and inward efficiency, and his were the only descendants who survived Noah's Flood. He is called the first Uria,^159a a word which in Syriac means teacher. He occupied himself with the medical,^159b mathematical and theological sciences, and spent most of his life in Syria. Many of his descendants abandoned secular affairs and practised asceticism in hermitages. He left the world when he was 912 years old. Some say that he was Adam's grandson and that his father was Sulha,^159c but this tale is without foundation.

Enosh was born when Seth was 600 years old. A number of writers say that his mother was an immaculately-born^160a one who, like Adam, was clothed with the garment of life without the instrumentality of father or mother. He succeeded his father in accordance with a testament, and was the first who in this cycle, laid the foundations of sovereignty.^160b They say he reigned 600 years. According to Jewish and Christian^160c traditions, he lived 965 years,— according to Ibn Jauzī,^160d 950,—and according to Qāẓī Baiẓāwī,^160e 600. He had many children.

Kenan was the most enlightened, fortunate and sagacious of the sons of Enosh. After his father's death, this hero, in accordance with a testamentary disposition, swayed the affairs of mankind and walked in the ways of his illustrious ancestors. He erected the buildings of Babylon and founded the city of Sūs.^160g They ascribe to him the first establishment of houses and gardens.

The numbers of mankind greatly increased during his time. By his wisdom, he distributed them (over the earth), and himself settled with the descendants of Seth in Babylonia. He lived 926 years, but some say he drank the water of life, (i.e., lived) 640 years, and one school says that he consoled the sorrows of the world, (i.e., reigned) for about a century.

Mahalalil was the best of Kenan's sons. Kenan placed him on the throne when he himself had attained the age of 900. He ruled for 300 years. He lived either 928 or 840 or 895 years.

Jared was the most right-minded of the sons of Mahalalil and by his honoured father's orders, he administered the affairs of the world. He made canals and conduits, and attained the age of 962 or, according to some, of 967 years.

All these magnates of the household of fortune came into existence during Adam's lifetime.

Enoch is generally known as Idrīs, and was the distinguished son of Jared and born after Adam's death. Though the last-born of Jared's sons, he was, in wisdom and intelligence, older than all of them, and was before them all in felicity and understanding. He is the first lawgiver since the time of Seth. Some say that Idrīs was 100 years old at the time of Adam's death and some that he was 360 years. He was unrivalled in his knowledge of the science of government and the refinements of contrivance. Though some assign all sciences and arts to Adam, yet, according to most, astronomy, writing,^161a spinning, weaving and sewing were introduced by Enoch. He learned wisdom from Agathodæmon^161b of Egypt whom they call Uria the Second.

Among his lofty titles is that of Harmasu-l-harāmasa^161c (Hermes of Hermeses or Trismegistus) and he is also called the third Uria. He attained high rank in theology and summoned^162a mankind to worship in seventy-two languages. He founded 100^162b cities, of which Madīna-i-roha^162c was the least. It was a city of Mesopotamia (Jazā'ir) though some place it in the Ḥijāz (Petrœa Arabia). It was inhabited up to the time of Hulākū Khān who, it is said, destroyed it for the sake of the honour of the country and the well-being of the people.^162d

He (Idrīs) instructed every tribe and every rank of mankind by a special procedure in accordance with their capacities. They say that he guided men to the reverence of the Great Light (the Sun) for most of them, before his time, were without his abounding wisdom and did not give thanks for that light of lights. He regarded it as the stock of visible and invisible fortune, and prescribed a great festival at the time of its passing^162e from one Sign to another which is a special time of glory, and above all when it enters Aries. And whenever the planets, who are fed from the bounteous table of its rays, entered their own Houses or attained their exaltation, he regarded them as of special dignity, and gave thanks for the wonders of creation. Such seasons he looked upon as stations and manifestations of the favour of God, and he spent all his days in the service of holy spirits and pure forms.

He also built the pyramids of Egypt which are known as the Domes of Haramān (Gumbaẕ-i-haramān). And in those lofty buildings, all the arts and their tools have been depicted, so that if the knowledge of them be lost, it may be recovered. It is recorded that he deputed one of his nobles to lay the foundations of these pyramids whilst he himself traversed the entire world, eventually returning to Egypt.

Abū Ma‘shar^163a of Balkh relates that there have been many Hermes but that three were preëminent;—(1). Harmasi-harāmasa (Hermes of Hermeses) or Idrīs whom the Persians call the grandson of Kayūmarṯ.^163b (2). Hermes of Babylon who built Babylon after the Deluge. Pythagoras was one of his disciples. By the exertions of this Hermes of Babylon, the sciences which had been lost in Noah's Flood were resuscitated. His home was in the city of the Chaldeans (Kaldānīn)^163c which is called the city of the philosophers (wise men) of the East (Madīna-i-filāsafa-i-mashriq). (3) The Hermes of Egypt who was the teacher of Esculapius (Asqlīnus).^163d He too excelled in all sciences, especially in medicine and chemistry and spent much time in travel.

The birth-place of Harmasu-l-harāmasa (Idrīs) was Manīf (Memphis) now known by the name of Manūf,^163e in the land of Egypt. Before the founding of Alexandria, it was called the city of philosophers, but when Alexander built that city,^164a he brought the philosophers of Memphis and other places to Alexandria.

Among the sayings of Enoch is this, “The three^164b most excellent things are truth when angry, bounty when poor and mercy when strong.” Wonderful stories are told in histories about his departure from this world, which wise men hesitate about accepting. One tradition is that he was then 865, another that he was 405 and a third that he was 365.

Methusalah was the son of Enoch. He had many children, so that it is difficult to enumerate them. After his father, he was the head of his tribe and called men to Divine worship. When he was 900, he had a son whom he called Lamech. After that he lived 290 years.

Lamech was the unique of his time for lofty character and exalted virtue. After his father, he became firmly seated on the throne. The period of his life was 780 years. And some call him Lamkān, Lāmak, and Lāmakh.

Noah, the son of Lamech, was born under the Sign of Leo, 126 years after Adam's death. He was strong in the ways of religion and firmly based on the foundation of justice. The story of his calling^164c mankind to the worship of God, the disobedience of his people and the event of the Flood, etc., are well-known.

Historians have mentioned three floods. First, a flood which occurred before our Adam came into existence. Thus^165a the very learned Shahrazūrī says, “Adam belongs to the first cycle which commenced after the world had been devastated by the first flood.” The second flood was in the time of Noah and began at Kūfa, in the oven^165b of Noah's house. It lasted six months, and there were eighty persons in the Ark (kishtī). On this account the place where they disembarked and settled was called the Eighty-Market^165c (Sūqu-ṯ-ṯamānīn). The third^165d flood was in the time of Moses and was confined to the Egyptians. Although romancing historians,^165e in treating of the floods, make the last two also extend over the whole world, it is evident that this was not so, for in India,^165f where they have books many thousand years old, there is not even a trace of these two floods. To be brief, in a short space of time, all the eighty occupants of the Ark died except seven, viz., Noah, his three sons, Japheth, Shem and Ham, and their wives. Noah assigned Syria, Mesopotamia, ‘Irāq and Khurāsān to Shem; the western countries, and Abyssinia, Indian, Scinde and the Sūdān^165g to Ham; and China, Sclavonia^166a and Turkistān to Japheth. And in the opinion of historians, the aboriginal inhabitants of those countries at the present day, are descended from these three, and the lineage of mankind from the days of the Flood is derived from them. Noah died when he was either 1600 or 1300 years old. There are other stories too about his age, such as that he lived for 250 or 350 years after the Flood and that he was born either 126 years after Adam's death or in Adam's last days, and that he sat upon the throne of guidance, (i.e., became a prophet) when he was 50, or 150, or 250, or 350 years old, and that he was a guide to mortals for 950 years.

Ham^166b had nine sons, viz., Hind, Sind, Ẕanj (Zanzibar), Nūba, Canaan, Kush, Qabṭ (copt),^166c Berber, Ḥabsh (Abyssinia), and some have written that Ham had six sons. They omit Sind and Canaan and make Nūba the son of Ḥabsh.

Shem also had nine sons, viz., (1) Arfakhshad,^166d (2) Kayūmarṯ who is the progenitor of the kings of Persia, (3) Asūd^166e who founded Madā'in^166f (the twin-cities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon), etc., Ahwāz^166g and Pahlū (? Peleg) are his sons and Fārs is the son of Pahlū, (4) Īghan^166h the father of Shām (Syria) and Rūm (Asia Minor), (5) Būraj,¹⁶⁶ⁱ of whom historians tell nothing except the name, (6) Lāüz (? Lud) from whom the Pharoahs of Egypt are descended, (7) Elam who built the cities of Khuzistān; Khurāsān and Tambāl^166j are his sons, and ‘Irāq is the son of Khurāsān, and Kirmān (Carmania) and Makrān^167a are sons of Tambāl, (8) Aram from whom the tribe of ‘Ād is descended, (9) Būẕar whose sons are Āẕarbaijān, Arān, Arman and Farghān.

Some say that Shem too had only six sons and omit Kayūmarṯ, Būraj and Lāüz. In short, there is much discrepancy about the descendants of those two (Shem and Ham).

Japheth was the most just of Noah's sons. The lofty line of his Majesty, the king of kings, is linked with him, and the Khāns of the eastern cities and of Turkistān all derive from him. He is called the Father of Turk (Abū-l-turk), and some historians call him Alūnja Khān. When Japheth left Sūqu-ṯ-ṯamānīn with his wife and family, to go to the eastern and northern countries which had been assigned to him, he begged his father to teach him a prayer by which he might have rain whenever he wanted it. Noah gave him a stone which had the property of bringing rain, and indicated that he had pronounced over it the Ineffable Name^167b (lit. Great Name) with the design that the foolish should not comprehend the matter and transgress his precepts, or perhaps he really recited the Ineffable Name over it. And at present there are many of these stones among the Turks which they call yedatāsh. The Persians call them sang-i-yada^167c and the Arabs ḥajaru-l-maṭar, (rain-stone). And Japheth, on going to those regions, became a dweller in deserts, and whenever he wished, the cloud of God's bounty, came down in rain through the virtue of that stone. In course of time, children were born to Japheth and he established excellent laws among them, which were at once comforting to the short-thoughted and joy-increasing to lofty minds. He left eleven sons, viz., 1, Turk, 2, Cīn, 3, Ṣaqlāb, 4, Mansaj,^168a also called Mansak, 5, Kamārī,^168b also called Kaimāl, 6, Khalaj, 7, Khazan, 8, Rūs, 9, Sadsān, 10, Ghaz,^168c 11, Yāraj.^168d Some books mention only eight sons, omitting Khalaj, Sadsān and Ghaz.

Turk was the eldest son of Japheth, and the Turks call him Yāfiṯ Ōghlān.^168e He excelled all his brothers in wisdom, management and care for his subjects. On his father's death, he sat upon the throne of sovereignty and dispensed gentleness, manliness and relief of the oppressed. He settled in a place which the Turks call Sīl-ūk^168f or Salīkāī and which had hot and cold springs and delightful meadows. He made dwellings of grass and wood and constructed tents, and made clothes by sewing together the skins (and furs) of beasts of burden and of prey. Salt^168g was discovered in his time. One of his laws was that the son should inherit naught but a sword and that whatever was wanted should go to the daughter. They say he was contemporary with Kayūmarṯ, and that as the latter was the first king of Persia, so Turk was the first sultan of Turkistān. He lived to the age of 240.

Alinja Khān was the best of Turk's sons. When the measure of Turk's years was fulfilled, Alinja Khān was placed on the throne by the will of the chiefs. He made far-sighted wisdom his rule, and spent his days in the administration of justice. When he became old, he went into retirement (i.e., became a hermit).

Dīb Bāqūī became king on his father's retirement and in accordance with his appointment.

Kīyūk was the worthy son of Dīb Bāqūi. When the father bade adieu to the world, he made over the throne of the Khānate to Kiyūk who, knowing the duties of sove eignty, acted up to them.

Alinja Khān was the son of Kīyūk and became heir-apparent in the end of his father's days. He was extravagant in his liberalities, and in his reign the Turks became intoxicated^169c by the world and strayed from the path of wisdom. After a long time, twin-sons were born to him. One was named Mughul and the other Tātār. When they came to years of discretion, he divided his kingdom into two portions and gave one half to Mughul and one half to Tātār. When their illustrious father died, each of the two sons reigned in his own territory, in harmony with one other.

As this lofty line (Akbar's) has no connection with Tātār and his eightfold^169d branches (i.e., generations) I pass them over and proceed to relate the history of Mughul and his noble descendants.

Mughul Khān was a wise prince. He so conducted himself that the hearts of his subjects were attached and obedient to him and all tried to serve him properly. The generations of the Mughuls are nine in number, beginning with Mughul Khān and ending with Īl^170a Khān. The Mughuls have taken the usage of Tuqūz^170b (nine) from this, and they consider this number most excellent in all matters. The Creator bestowed on Mughul Khān four sons, Qarā Khān, Āẕar Khān, Kar Khān and Ūz Khān.

Qarā Khān was both the eldest son and preëminent in justice and the art of government. He sate upon the throne in succession to his illustrious father and made his summer (ailāq) and winter (qishlāq) quarters in Qarāqūm^170d near two mountains called Irtāq^170e and Kirtāq.

Aghūz Khān was the worthy son of Qarā Khān, and was born of his chief wife during the time of his rule. Romancing story-tellers relate things about his naming himself and about his progress in the path of piety, which a just-judging intellect is not disposed to credit. He was admittedly an enlightened, pious and just ruler and framed excellent institutions^171b and laws whereby the varied world was composed and the contrarieties of the Age conciliated. Among Turki kings, he was like Jamshīd among the kings of Persia. By his ripe wisdom, lofty genius, felicity and native courage, he brought under his sway the countries of Īrān (Persia) Tūrān,^171c Rūm^171d (Asia Minor), Egypt, Syria, Europe (Afranj),^171e and other lands. Many nations came within the shadow of his benevolence, and he established titles among the Turks suitable to their ranks and which are on men's tongues to the present day, such as Aīghūr,^172a Qanighlī, Qibcāq, (Kipcāk), Qārligh, Khalaj, etc. He had six sons, viz., Kūn (sun), Āī (moon), Yūlduz (star), Kōk (or Gōk) (sky), Tāgh (mountain), and Tangīz (sea). The three elders were called Buzmaq^172b and the three others Ujūk. His sons and sons' sons became 24 branches, and all the Turks are descended from these magnates. The term Turkomān did not exist in old times, but when their posterity came to Persia (Īrān) and propagated there, their features came to resemble the Tājīks. But as they were not Tājīks, the latter called them Turkomāns, i.e., Turk-like. But some say that the Turkomāns are a distinct tribe and not related to the Turks. It is said that after Aghūz Khān had conquered the world, he returned to his own settlement (yūrat), and seating himself on the throne of dominion, held a Khusrū-like feast and conferred royal gifts on each of his fortunate sons, faithful officers and other servants, and promulgated lofty ordinances and excellent canons as guides for the perpetuation of prosperity. He laid it down that the right wing, which Turkomāns call Burānghār, and the succession should appertain to the eldest son and his descendants, and the left wing, i.e., the Jarānghār and the executive (wakālat) to the younger sons. And he decreed that this law should always be observed, generation after generation;—hence at the present day, one half of the twenty-four branches is associated with the right wing and one half with the left. He ruled for 72 or 73 years and then bade adieu to the world.

Kun Khān took his father's place, in accordance with his testament and acted in administration and government by his own acute understanding, and^173a the sage counsels of Qabal^173b Khwāja who had been Vizier to Aghūz Khān. He so arranged about his brothers, his children and his nephews—who were 24 in number, for each of the six brothers had four sons—that each recognized his position and assisted in the management of the State. Having reigned for 70 years, he appointed Āī Khān his successor and departed.

Āī Khān observed the laws of his illustrious father, adorned justice with amicability, and combined wisdom with good actions.

Yuldūz Khān was the eldest^173d son and successor of Āī Khān. He attained high rank in world-sway and in the dispensing justice.

Mangalī Khān was the beloved son of Yuldūz Khān and sate upon the throne in succession to him. He was distinguished for devotion to God, and for praising the pious.

Tangīz Khān conducted the affairs of sovereignty after his honoured father's death and wore the crown of dominion in Mughulistān for 110 years.

Īl Khān was his noble son. When the father became old and weak, he gave Īl Khān the management of affairs, and alleging the number of his years as an excuse, went into solitary retirement.

Qiyān was the son of Īl Khān and, by the mysterious ordinances of Divine wisdom, he became a resting-place (maurid) of adversities. When the God of wisdom desires to bring a jewel of humanity to perfection, He first manifests sundry^174a favours under the cover of disfavours of misfortune, and grants him the robe of existence after having made some great and pure-hearted ones his ransom and sacrifice (fidā). There is an instance of this in the story of Īl Khān who, after the turn of sovereignty came to him, was passing his life according to a code which provided for the control of the outer world and the contemplation of the world of reality, and was binding up the hearts of the distressed, until that Tūr, the son of Farīdūn, obtained sway over Turkistān, and Transoxiana (Mā-wārāu n-nahr) and in conjunction with Sunij Khān, the king of the Tātārs and Aighūrs, made a great war upon Īl Khān. The Mughul army, under the excellent dispositions of Īl Khān, made a desperate struggle, and many of the Turks, Tātārs and Aighūrs were slain. In the combat, Tūr and the Tātārs were unable to resist and fled. They took refuge in stratagems and vulpine tricks and dispersed. After going a little way, they hid in a defile, and then at the end of the night, suddenly made an onslaught on Īl Khān's army. Such a massacre took place that of Īl Khān's men not one escaped except his son Qiyān, his cousin Takūz^174b and their two wives^174c who had hidden themselves among the slain. At night, these four withdrew to the mountains and with many troubles and difficulties, traversed the valleys and ravines, and came to a meadow which had salubrious springs and fruits in abundance. In their helpless state, they regarded this pleasant spot as a godsend and settled in it. The Turks call it Irganaqūn and say that the terrible calamity happened 1000 years after the death of Aghūz Khān.

The sage knows that in this wondrous destiny there lay the plan for the production of that all-jewel, his Majesty, the king of kings, so that the status of sacrifice might be attained and also that the ascents of banishment, seclusion, and hardship might, in this strange fashion, be brought together to the end that the unique pearl, his Majesty, the king of kings,—who is the final cause of the creation of the glorious series (ṭabaqa) and also the material for this record of Divine praise,—might become the aggregate of all the stages of existence and be acquainted with the grades of humanity, which might thus arise,—and should achieve spiritual and temporal success, and that in this way there be no defective round (girdī) on the periphery of his holiness.

In fine, after Qiyān and his companions had settled in that place, they begat children and grew into tribes. Those who sprang from Qiyān were called Qiyāt and those who descended from Takūz were called Darlgīn. No account is forthcoming of the descendants of Qiyān while they were in Irganaqūn—a period of about 2,000 years. Presumably in that place and age reading and writing were not practised. After the lapse of about 2000 years and in the last period of Nūshīrwān's^175a reign, the Qiyāt and Darlgīn desired to leave the place, as it was not large enough for them. A mountain which was a mine of iron barred their way at the beginning. Able minds devised deer-skin bellows (gawazn, perhaps elk) and with these they melted that iron mountain and made a way. Then they rescued their country from the hands of the Tātārs and others, by the sword, and contriving vigour, and became firmly seated on the throne of success and world-rule. From the circumstance that in four^175b thousand years previous to this event, (i.e., the emigration from Irganaqūn) there were twenty-eight lofty ancestors and twenty-five in the millenium after it, sagacious calculators conjecture that during these two thousand years (spent in Irganaqūn) there were twenty-five ancestors.

Be^176a it remembered that Mughulistān is to the eastward and far from civilization. Its circuit is seven or eight months' journey. On the east, its boundary extends to Cathay (Khiṭā) and on the west, to the country of the Aīghūrs; on the north, it touches Qargaz and Salīkā (? Kirghiz and Selenga) and on the south, it adjoins Tibet. The food of its people is the produce of hunting and fishing and their clothing the skins and fur of wild and tame animals.

Tīmūr Tāsh is of the auspicious stock of Qiyān. He was exalted by sovereignty and command.

Mangalī Khwāja is the worthy son of Tīmūr Tāsh. He exalted the crown of dominion and auspiciousness and possessed the dīvān of power and justice.

Yuldūz Khān was the high-thoughted successor of Mangalī Khwāja who at the coming out of the Qiyāt and Darlgīn was the chief and leader. From the time of Qiyān, his (Qiyān's) descendants had reigned generation after generation in Irganaqūn. Yuldūz Khān, by the help of the fortunate star of his dominion, gradually emerged from the horizon and civilized the tribes of the Mughuls. He was powerful and magnanimous and among the Mughul families, he is counted of good blood and fashion who can trace his origin up to Yuldūz Khān.

Jūīna Bahādur was the worthy son of Yūldūz Khān and when the cup of his father's years was full, sate on the throne of world-government.