History of India, as Told by its own Historians: The Muhammadan Period - The History of India, Volume 5

Infallibility of the Emperor.⁵³¹

[Text, vol. ii. p. 270.] [In the same year (987), a declaration made its appearance, which bore the signatures and seals of Makhdúmu-l Mulk, Shaikh 'Abdu-n Nabí Sadru-s Sudúr, Kází Jalálu-d dín Multání, who was Kázíu-l Kuzát, of Sadr-i Jahán, the muftí general, of Shaikh Mubárak, the most learned man of the age, and of Ghází Khán Badakhshí, who had no rival in the science of metaphysics. The object of this declaration was to establish the complete superiority of the Imám-i 'ádil (just leader) over the Mujtahid (chief lawyer); and to make his judgment and choice a preponderating authority on divers questions, so that no one could possibly reject (his) commands, either in religious or political matters, but must by them be self-convinced. ^{532 * * *} I copy the document verbatim.

[Preamble — Citations from the Kurán and the Traditions.] “We have agreed and do decree that the rank of a Sultán-i'ádil (just ruler) is higher in the eyes of God than the rank of a Mujtahid. Further we declare that the Sultán of Islám, the refuge of mankind, the leader of the faithful, the shadow of God in the world — Abú-l Fath Jalálu-d dín Muhammad Akbar Pádsháh-i Ghází (whose kingdom God perpetuate!)—is a most just, wise, and God-fearing King. Therefore, If there be a variance of opinion among the mujtahids upon questions of religion, and His Majesty, in his penetrating understanding and unerring judgment, should incline to one opinion, and give his decree for the benefit of mankind and for the due regulation of the world, we do hereby agree that such a decree is binding on us and on the whole nation. Further we declare that should His Majesty, in his unerring judgment, issue an order, which is not in opposition to the Kurán, and which is for the benefit of the nation, it shall be binding and imperative on every man. Opposition to it shall involve damnation in the world to come and loss of religion and property in this life. This document has been written with honest intentions, for the glory of God, and the propagation of Islám, and is signed by us, the principal 'ulamá and lawyers, in the month of Rajab, 987 Hijra.”

The draft of this document was in the handwriting of Shaikh Mubárak. The others had signed it against their will. But the Shaikh of his own accord added at the bottom that he had most willingly signed his name, for it was a matter which for several years he had been anxiously looking forward to.

After His Majesty had obtained this legal opinion, the road of deciding religious questions was opened, the superiority of the judgment of the Imám was established, and opposition was rendered impossible. The legal distinction between lawful and unlawful was set aside, the judgment of the Imám became paramount over the dogmas of the law, and Islám was called Taklíd (counterfeit). ^{* * *} His Majesty had now determined publicly to use the formula, “There is no God but God, and Akbar is God's representative.” But as he found that the extravagance of this led to commotions, he restricted the use of it to a few people in the harem.]

Experimental Seclusion of Infants.

[Text, vol. ii. p. 288.] [In this year (989 H.), in order to verify the circumstances of the case (of the man who heard without ears⁵³³ ), an order was issued that several suckling infants should be kept in a secluded place far from habitations, where they should not hear a word spoken. Well-disciplined nurses were to be placed over them, who were to refrain from giving them any instruction in speaking, so as to test the accuracy of the tradition which says, “Every one that is born is born with an inclination to religion,” by ascertaining what religion and sect these infants would incline to, and above all what creed they would repeat. To carry out this order, about twenty sucklings were taken from their mothers for a consideration in money, and were placed in an empty house, which got the name of Dumb-house. After three or four years the children all came out dumb, excepting some who died there—thus justifying the name which had been given to the house.]

Friendship of the Author of the Tabakát-i Akbarí.

[Text, vol. ii. p. 296.] [One day when near Kábul, the Emperor directed the Sadr-i Jahán to make out and present to him a list of the pensioners (ahl-i sa'ádat) who were present with the army, and another of those who were absent. When my (the author's) name came up, the late Khwája Nizámu-d dín Ahmad, the author of the Táríkh-i Nizámí, with whom I had become acquainted about a year before that time, but who was as friendly as if I had known him a hundred years, in the great kindness and consideration which he showed to all his friends, and to me in particular, caused me to be put down and returned as sick.]

Innovations.⁵³⁴

[Text, vol. ii. p. 301.] [His Majesty was now (990 H.) firmly convinced that a period of 1000 years from the mission of the Prophet was the extent of the duration of the religion of Islám, and that period was now accomplished. No obstacle remained to promulgating the designs which he secretly held. He was now free from the respect and reverence due to the shaikhs and 'ulamá, and from the deference owing to their authority. To his entire satisfaction, he was able to carry out his project of overturning the dogmas and principles of Islám, to set up his novel, absurd, and dangerous regulations, and to give currency to his own vicious belief.

The first order which he issued was, that the “Era of the Thousand” should be used upon the coins, and that a Táríkh-i Alfí, or history of the thousand years, from the rihlat, or death of the Prophet, should be written. Other extraordinary innovations were devised as political expedients, and such strange orders were given that men's minds got quite perplexed. ^{* * *} Wine was allowed, if required, for strengthening the body, and if prescribed by doctors; but that no strife and disturbance might arise, severe punishments were prescribed for drunkenness, carousals, and rows. For the sake of proper surveillance, His Majesty established a wine-shop near the palace, and put the wife of the porter in charge of it, because she belonged to the wine-selling class. The price of wine was fixed by regulations, and any sick person could obtain wine on having his own name and that of his father and grandfather written down by the clerk of the shop. Of course, people got fictitious names put down, and obtained supplies of wine. It was, in fact, nothing else but a licensed shop for drunkards. Some people even said that pork was used in the manufacture of the wine (but God knows!). Notwithstanding all restrictions, much mischief and trouble arose, and though many people were punished every day, there was no sufficient check. So (the result verified) the saying, “Upset, but do not spill.”

The next matter was that the prostitutes of the realm, who had collected at the capital, and could scarcely be counted, so large was their number, had a separate quarter assigned to them outside the town, which was called Shaitánpúra or Devilsville. A keeper, a deputy (dárogha), and a clerk also were appointed over it, to write down the names of those who resorted to prostitutes, or who took them to their houses. People might indulge in such connexions, provided the toll-collectors were cognizant; but without permission no one was allowed to take dancing-girls to his house. If any well-known courtier wanted to have a virgin, the dárogha made a statement of the fact, and got permission from the Court. ^{* *} Drunkenness and folly led to bloodshed, and though some persons were brought to punishment, others walked about proudly and insolently parading their delinquencies. His Majesty called some of the principal prostitutes before him in private, and asked them who had deprived them of their virginity. After getting the names, some of the most renowned and trusty grandees were punished and condemned, and many of them were kept for a long time in confinement.

Another matter was the interdiction of beef, and the declaration of its being defiling. The reason of this was, that from his youth His Majesty had associated with Hindú libertines, and had thus got implanted in his heart a reverence for the cow, which, in their opinion, is a cause of the preservation of the world. The daughters of the great Rájás of Hind, of whom he had several in his harem, obtained such an ascendancy over him as to make him abstain from eating beef, garlic, or onions, and from associating with men who wore beards and such like persons.]

Declaration of Adherence to the Divine Faith.⁵³⁶

[Text, vol. ii. p. 304.] [Ten or twelve years after the commencement of these changes, matters came to such a pitch that wretches like Mirzá Jání, chief of Tatta, and other apostates, wrote their declarations to the following effect: “I, so and so, son of so and so, have willingly and cheerfully renounced the false and pretended religion of Islám, which I have received from my ancestors, and have joined the Divine Faith (Dín-i Iláhí) of Sháh Akbar, and have assented to its fourfold rule of sincerity— (the readiness to) sacrifice wealth and life, honour and religion.” These writings—there could be no more effectual letters of damnation—were handed in to the Mujtahid of the new creed (Abú-l Fazl).

[p. 325.] His Majesty gave his religious system the name of Tauhíd-i Iláhi, Divine Monotheism.]

Wealth of Makhdúmu-l Mulk.

[Text, vol. ii. p. 311.] [Makhdúmu-l Mulk died at Ahmad-ábád, and in the year 990 Kází 'Alí was sent from Fathpúr to ascertain what property he had left. When he came to Lahore, he found such vast treasures as defied the key of conjecture to open their lock. Several chests of ingots^536a of gold were discovered in his sepulchre, where he had caused them to be buried as corpses. And the wealth which lay open to the eyes of the world was such that none but the Creator could ascertain it. All these bricks of gold, together with his books, which he looked upon as bricks, were placed in the public treasury. His sons several times underwent torture, and fell into abject poverty.]

Translation of the Mahá-bhárat.

[Text, vol. ii. p. 320.] In the year 990 His Majesty assembled some learned Hindús, and gave them directions to write an explanation of the Mahá-bhárat, and for several nights he himself devoted his attention to explain the meaning to Nakíb Khán, so that the Khán might sketch out the gist of it in Persian. On a third night, the King sent for me, and desired me to translate the Mahá-bhárat, in conjunction with Nakíb Khán. The consequence was that in three or four months I translated two out of the eighteen sections, at the puerile absurdities of which the eighteen thousand creations may well be amazed. Such injunctions as one never heard of—what not to eat, and a prohibition against turnips! But such is my fate, to be employed on such works. Nevertheless, I console myself with the reflection, that what is predestined must come to pass!

After this, Mullá Shí and Nakíb Khán together accomplished a portion, and another was completed by Sultán Hájí Thánesarí by himself. Shaikh Faizí was then directed to convert the rough translation into elegant prose and verse, but he did not complete more than two sections. The Hájí aforesaid again wrote it,⁵³⁷ correcting the errors which had appeared in his first translation, and settling the conjectures which he had hazarded. He had revised a hundred sheets, and, nothing being omitted, he was about to give the finishing touch, when the order was received for his dismissal, and he was sent to Bakar. He now resides in his own city (Thánesar). Most of the scholars who were employed upon this translation are now with the Kauravas and Pándavas. May those who survive be saved by the mercy of God, and may their repentance be accepted!

The translation was called Razm-náma, and when fairly engrossed and embellished with pictures, the nobles had orders to take copies, with the blessing and favour of God. Shaikh Abú-l Fazl, who had already written against our religion, wrote the Preface, extending to two sheets. God defend us from his infidelities and absurdities!

Houses of Charity.

[Text, vol. ii. p. 324.] In A.H. 991 the King erected two buildings outside the city where he might feed fakírs, both Musulmán and Hindú; one he called Khairpúra, the other Dharmpúra. Some of Abú-l Fazl's people had the charge, and used to spend the King's money in procuring food. As the jogís also used to flock there in great numbers, a separate receiving-house was built for them, and called Jogípúra. Nightly meetings were held in private with some of these men, and they used to employ themselves in various follies and extravagancies, in contemplations, gestures, addresses, abstractions and reveries, and in alchemy, fascination and magic. The King himself studied alchemy, and used to exhibit the gold which he made. One night in the year, called Shív-rát, was appointed for a grand assembly of jogís from all parts of the country, on which occasion he would eat and drink with the best of them; and used to be gratified by their assurances of a life three or four times longer than the natural life of man.

Rám Chand Bhath.

[Text, vol. ii. p. 335.] [The Emperor stayed four months at Alláhábád, and from thence he sent Zain Khán Koka and Bírbal, who was formerly in the service of Rájá Rám Chand Bhath, on an embassy to Chaurágarh. Rám Chand consented to do homage, and after attending to the duties of hospitality, he detained Zain Khán, and proceeded along with him to Fath-púr, to wait upon the Emperor. He presented a most valuable tribute of one hundred rubies and other precious stones. The value of one of the rubies exceeded 50,000 rupees. He left his son Bábú in attendance on His Majesty, but the young man soon obtained leave to return home. Soon afterwards he went to his last home in the hottest hell. This Rám Chand has left no equal behind him for princely generosity. Among his other gifts, he gave a kror of gold (kror zar) to the minstrel Míán Tán Sen in one day. The Míán did not wish to leave the Rájá, but a guardsman was sent to bring him back.]

Translation of the Rámáyana.

[Text, vol. ii. p. 336.] [In this year the King commanded me to make a translation of the Rámáyana, a composition superior to the Mahá-bhárat. It contains 25,000 shloks, and each shlok is a verse of sixty-five letters. The hero of its story is Rám Chand, King of the city of Audh, who is also called Rám, and whom the Hindús worship as a god in human form.]

[Text, vol. ii. p. 366.] [In the month of Jumáda-l awwal A.H. 999, I completed the translation of the Rámáyan, having occupied four years in the work. When I presented the book, it was greatly praised.]

Anniversary of the Coronation.

[Text, vol. ii. p. 342.] In A.H. 993 the King held the festival of the anniversary of his coronation, according to the practice established in olden time, during which the King received entertainment from every shopkeeper,⁵³⁹ and appropriate presents from the nobles, so that even food, scents, and the profits of dancers and fiddlers were carried away into the treasury. From a mansabdar of 5000 to a humble footman, all had to present offerings; and even I, this powerless atom, who was held in no account at all, except that I used to be styled hazárí, from holding 1000 bíghas rent-free, and was accustomed to liken myself to the old woman in the story of Joseph (God's blessing on him!), had to present my forty rupees, which received the honour of being accepted. I do not like my position, and should be glad to be in any other!

During this festival, the King's eldest son received a mansab of 12000; the second, one of 9000; and the third, one of 7000.

Rájá Todar Mal.

[Text, vol. ii. p. 365. Thirty-third Year.] [Kalíj Khán now returned from Gujarát, bringing various offerings, and an order was issued associating him with Rájá Todar Mal in the administration of the Civil and Revenue business. The Rájá was now grown feeble and senile, and one night an enemy in ambush inflicted a superficial wound upon him with a sword.]

The Author's Lands.

[Text, vol. ii. p. 368.] In A.H. 996 the King called to mind something about the book which I was then translating, and directed Hakím Abú-l Fath to give me a horse, a shawl, and some other presents. He then observed to Sháh Fathu-lla 'Azdu-d daulah, that the whole of Basáwar had been granted to him in jágír, with all its ayma land, and that as I, a native of Badáún, had thus lost my madad-m'ásh land, His Majesty had conferred upon me some of equal value in Badáún, in lieu of it. Sháh Fathu-lla then presented in a bag an offering of 1000 rupees, which, by exactions and other most oppressive means, his agents had recovered from the wretched widows and orphans of Basáwar; and upon his representing that his officers had collected this surplus from the ayma lands (fraudulently alienated from the public rent-roll), the King told him to retain the money for himself. Three months after this the Sháh died, and when my farmán was engrossed, I took leave for a year, went first to Basáwar, and then to Badáún, from which place I wished to make a journey to Gujarát, to see Mirzá Nizámu-d dín Ahmad, but delays occurred to prevent my carrying this intention into effect.

Rájá of Kumáún.

[Text, vol. ii. p. 365.] In A.H. 996, the Rájá of Kumáún arrived at Lahore from the Siwálik hills, for the purpose of paying his respects. Neither he nor his ancestors (the curse of God on them!) could ever have expected to speak face to face with an Emperor. He brought several rare presents, and amongst them a Tibet cow and a musk-deer, which latter died on the road from the effect of the heat. I saw it with my own eyes, and it had the appearance of a fox. Two small tusks projected from the mouth, and, instead of horns, it had a slight elevation, or bump. As the hind quarters of the animal were enveloped in a cloth, I could not examine the whole body. They said that there were men in those hills, who had feathers and wings, and who could fly, and they spoke of a mango-tree in that country which yields fruit all the year round. God knows whether this is true!

The Emperor's Illness.

[Text, vol. ii. p. 376.] [In this year the Emperor was somewhat indisposed. He had pains in his stomach, and other disturbances which no one could account for. Through this inability to understand his ailment, suspicions arising from malevolence were cast upon the eldest prince, and whispers of poison flew about.]

The Coinage.

[Text, vol. ii. p. 380.] [Among the edicts issued (in the thirty-seventh year of the reign), was one that all the dirhams and dínárs bearing the devices of former kings should be melted and sold for the price of the gold and silver, so that not a trace of them should remain in the world. The various ashrafís and rupees of the Emperor's coinage, whether old or recent, were at once to be put in circulation, and no difference whatever between them and the old coins was to be recognized. Kalíj Khán endeavoured to enforce this order. Sarráfs were every day called up; bonds were taken from them, and fines were inflicted on them. As a last resource, some were put to death. But for all this they did not refrain from counterfeiting the coin (kallábí). Orders and instructions upon this subject were written and sent to the most remote parts of the dominions, but without effect, until Khwája Shamsu-d dín Khwáfí, the díwán, succeeded in putting all these orders in force.]

Shaikh 'Abdu-n Nabí.

[Text, vol. iii. p. 79.] Shaikh 'Abdu-n Nabí, Sadru-s Sudúr, was son of Shaikh Ahmad, son of Shaikh Abdu-l Kudús, of Gangoh. He went several times to Mecca and Medina, and studied the traditions. * * * He put on the appearance of great piety. When he was appointed to the Sadárat, he distributed among the people an immense quantity of madad-m'ásh, wakf, and pensions. No Sadr during any former reign had so much power, and no one gave away one-tenth of the wakf which he did.⁵⁴² The King was for some time so intimate and unceremonious with him, that he would rise to adjust the Shaikh's slippers when he took his leave. At last, through the enmity of Makh-dúmu-l Mulk and some other ill-disposed and deceitful doctors, he fell in the King's estimation, and began to be treated very differently. The chief reason of the change was this:—

At the time that the King arrived at Fathpúr from Bánswára, Kází 'Abdu-r Rahím, of Muttra, complained to the Shaikh that a rich and obstinate Bráhman had taken all the materials, which he had collected for the building of a mosque, and applied them to his own purposes in building a temple for an idol, and that when he remonstrated with him, the Bráhman, in the presence of a multitude of people (may his mouth be crammed with mud!), applied foul and abusive language to the Prophet (the peace of God rest with him!), and grossly reviled all Musulmáns. When the Bráhman was summoned before the Shaikh, he refused to come, so Shaikh Abú-l Fazl was sent to bring him. Shaikh Abú-l Fazl on his return represented what he had heard from the people of Muttra; namely, that the Bráhman certainly had used foul language. Upon this, the learned in the law decided, some of them for death, some for public exposure and fine. They were consequently divided into two parties, and disputed at great length on the subject. Although the Shaikh went to ask for leave to punish him capitally, the King would give no distinct reply, but said vaguely, that the Shaikh was himself responsible for carrying into execution the sentence of the law, and inquired why he consulted him. During this long suspense the Bráhman continued in prison, and notwithstanding that the ladies of the royal household used their exertions to get him released, yet out of regard to the Shaikh, the King would not give his consent.

The Shaikh continued to importune the King for a reply, but all he could get was, that he had already expressed his opinion, and the Shaikh knew what it was. When the Shaikh returned to his home, he immediately issued orders for the Bráhman's death. When the King learnt this, he was very angry. The ladies within, and the Hindús without, the palace, exclaimed, “Is this the man whom you have promoted and favoured, and has he reached to such a pitch of insolence as not to regard your wishes, and to put a man to death for the mere purpose of displaying his power and authority?” They continued to pour such-like complaints into the ears of the King, so that he could no longer endure them. * * * One night, at Anúp-táláo, a conclave of divines assembled, from whom he inquired their opinions on the subject. * * The King at last singled me out, and said, “When ninety and nine opinions are in favour of a sentence of death, and a hundredth in favour of acquittal, do you think it right that the muftís should act upon the latter. What is your opinion?” I replied, that it was a legal maxim that punishment should not be inflicted where there was any doubt. The King was sorrowful, and said, “Was not Shaikh 'Abdu-n Nabí aware of this maxim, that he killed that unfortunate Bráhman?” I replied, that the Shaikh was certainly a wise man, and that he no doubt had acted in direct contravention of the law, but that he might possibly have adopted that course for the sake of expediency. * * *

The King's agitation was so great that his hair stood on end, like that of a roused lion, and some people behind me whispered that I should not carry the controversy any further. All of a sudden, he turned towards me and said, “You are not at all right.” Upon which I made a low bow, and retired to a little distance. From that day I have abandoned my presumptuous and controversial manner, and take my place apart from the groups which surround the throne. It is only now and then that I venture to advance, and make my obeisance at a respectful distance.

It was on this account that Shaikh 'Abdu-n Nabí's prosperity declined. * * * He died in the year 991.

Shaikh Faizí.

[Text, vol. iii. p. 299.] Commonly called the “chief of Poets.” He excelled in the arts of versification, enigmatic lines and rhyming. In history, in philology, in medicine, in letter-writing, and in composition, he was without a rival. His earlier compositions in verse bear his titular name of Faizí, which he subsequently dignified into Faiyází, in order that it might correspond with the grammatical amplification of 'Allámí, by which his younger brother, Abú-l Fazl, was known; but the change was ill-omened, for he survived to enjoy his last title only one or two months, and then met his death with great alarm and inquietude.

As an author, he was sometimes serious, sometimes jocose, conceited, proud, and malevolent. He was full of hypocrisy, malignity, dissimulation, ambition, arrogance, and egotism. In his obstinacy and animosity he reviled the earlier and later Khalífas and disciples, the ancestors and descendants of the Prophet, the wise and the excellent, the pious and the saintly, and, in short, all Musulmáns in general, and ridiculed the principles of their faith, privately and publicly, by night and by day. His conduct was so abominable, that even Jews, Christians, Hindús, Sabians, and Guebres are considered a thousand times less odious. He acted entirely against the tenets of the Muhammadan religion. What was forbidden in that, was lawful to him, and vice versâ.

He composed a commentary upon the Kurán, consisting entirely of letters without diacritical points, in order to obliterate his infamy, but the waters of a hundred oceans will never cleanse the stain he has contracted, until the day of judgment. He composed it in the very height of his drunkenness and impurity, and dogs were allowed to tread on every letter of it. In the same spirit of pride, stubbornness, and infidelity, he met his final doom, and in a manner which I trust no one may again see, or hear of; for when the King paid him a visit on his death-bed, he barked at his face like a dog, as the King himself acknowledged in public; his whole face was swollen, and his lips appeared black, insomuch that the King observed to Abú-l Fazl, “What is this blackness? Surely the Shaikh has been rubbing dentifrice on his teeth, according to the Indian fashion?” “No,” replied Abú-l Fazl, “it is the stain of the blood which he has been spitting.”⁵⁴⁶ In truth, even this scene was but a small retribution for the blasphemies of which he had been guilty, and for the contumelies which he had uttered against the Prophet, the last of the apostles (the peace of God be upon him, and all his family!). Several abusive chronograms were written on the occasion, of which the following are only a few. * * *

He had composed poetry for forty years, correct enough in point of versification and language, but utterly destitute of beauty, either in sentiment or religion.^546a He has joined the dry bones together pretty well, but the skeleton has no brains. The condiments of verse are sufficiently abundant, but quite tasteless, * * * as is proved by no one remembering his lines, although the very vilest poets meet with some quoters and admirers. Nevertheless, he wrote, what with díwáns and masnavís, more than twenty thousand lines, and, notwithstanding that he expended the rich revenues of his jágír upon their transcription, and in sending copies to his friends, far and near, not one of them ever read his poems twice. The following verses of his own selection were given by him to Nizámu-d dín Ahmad and others, as a memento. * * * * Pray tell me what beauty there is in them!

At the time that Shaikh Faizí had gone to take charge of his office of the deputyship of the Dakhin, I wrote him two letters from the foot of the Kashmír hills, and informed him of the cause of the King's displeasure and his refusal to allow me to pay my respects. Upon this he wrote to the King a letter of recommendation, which was couched in the following words, and despatched it, on the 10th of Jumáda-l awwal, A.H. 1000, from Ahmadnagar to Lahore, and orders were given to Abú-l Fazl to place it in the Akbar-náma, so that it might be generally read.

“May it please Your Majesty! Two friends of Mullá 'Abdu-l Kádir have arrived from Badáún in great distress and sorrow, representing that the Mullá has been for some time ill, and that in consequence of his failing to perform the promise which he made respecting his return, the servants of the government have treated him with great severity, and that there is no knowing what the result of it may be. They inquired also if the prolonged illness of the Mullá was known to Your Majesty.

“Healer of the broken-hearted! Mullá Abdu-l Kádir is a very able man, and is well acquainted with all the sciences usually cultivated by the Mullás of Hindústán, and he was also a pupil of my father's. Your slave has been acquainted with him for nearly thirty-seven years. Besides being a person of deep learning, he is a poet, and composes elegantly in Arabic and Persian. He is not a mere imitator, but an original thinker. He also knows a little of Hindú astrology and accounts, and is not at a loss in any field of knowledge. He is acquainted with foreign, as well as with native music, and can play at both the small and big games of chess; moreover, he writes a pretty good hand. Notwithstanding that he possesses all these accomplishments, he is content and entirely divested of avarice, of equable temperament, and a person of excellent morals and manners, but poor, and with no fixed income. He is sincere and warmhearted, and has every confidence in Your Majesty's kindness.

“At the time that the army was before Kombhalmír, he volunteered to join it. There he did the State good service, and received a donation for his wounds. Jalál Khán Korchí, when he first introduced him at Court, said, ‘I have brought a preacher to present to Your Majesty, that Your Majesty may be gratified.’ Mír Fathu-lla also represented something respecting the Mullá's circumstances, and my worthy brother, Abú-l Fazl, also knows him well. But according to the proverb, ‘A grain of good luck is better than a sack full of skill.’

“As the Court is the abode of the virtuous, I have taken the liberty to bring this destitute person to notice, and to place him before the foot of the throne, as if I was myself present. Did I not advocate his claims at this time, I should consider myself guilty of an offence against the cause of truth and justice.

“May God, the omnipotent, place the slaves of the Court under the heavenly shadow of your royal Majesty! and may he mercifully make their feet firm in pursuing the path of rectitude and justice, and in acquiring the knowledge of truth! May he preserve Your Majesty as the protector and nourisher of the helpless, the bestower of mercy, the pardoner of errors, throughout the world and all worlds, and bless you with thousands upon thousands of sources of wealth, abundance, grandeur and felicity, upon earth and in heaven! I implore all this for the sake of the pure spirits who surround the throne of grace, and the saints upon earth who join in the matutinal chorus of prayer. Amen, Amen, Amen.”

Should any one, upon perusing this, observe, that Shaikh Faizí's regard and affection for me, which is evidenced by this letter, is but ill requited by the harshness and severity with which I have spoken of him, especially after his death, when the precept of “speak not ill of the dead” should be strictly observed, I have only to reply, that the observation is perfectly just, but under the circumstances, I inquire, what could I do? seeing that the truth of religion and the maintenance of one's faith are paramount to all other obligations, and that the maxim I never deviate from is, that my love and hatred should be subservient to God's cause. Although I was Shaikh Faizí's companion for forty years, nevertheless, after he apostatized from his religion, changed his manners, and entered on vain controversies, I became gradually estranged from him, and, especially after what occurred at his death, I hold myself no longer his friend. When we are all summoned before the throne of God, we shall receive sentence according to our deserts!

Shaikh Faizí left a Library of 4600 volumes, some of them exquisitely copied with, what may be said to be, even unnecessary care and expense. Most of them were autographs of the respective authors, or at least copied by their contemporaries. They were all transferred to the King's Library, after being catalogued and numbered in three different sections. The first included Poetry, Medicine, Astrology, and Music; the second, Philosophy, Súfyism, Astronomy, and Geometry; and the third or lowest grade, included Commentaries, Traditions, Theology, and Law. There were also 101 different copies of his poem, Nal-Daman.

APPENDIX.

[The following Notes are reprinted from the old volume of 1849, with such additions and notes as were added to them by Sir H. Elliot in his private copy.]

The Nasíbín,⁵⁵⁰ mentioned in the text (suprà, p. 152), is the Nisibis of classical authors, the position of which, on the frontier of the Persian and Roman Empires, made its occupation of so much importance in the estimation of the contending parties, from the time that Lucullus plundered it, till its capture by the Arabs, when it continued as frequent a source of contention between them and the Greeks as between them and the Persians at a later period. It was surrounded by a treble inclosure of brick walls defended by a deep ditch, and was considered so impregnable that Asiatics, as will be presently seen, are fond of resorting to supernatural means to account for its capture. Sapor made three separate attacks upon the town A.D. 338, 346, 350, and the disappointed monarch, after urging his attacks above sixty, eighty, and a hundred days, was repulsed each time with loss and ignominy;^550a but it was at last ceded to him by Jovian^550b in 363, and it remained henceforth with the Persians (if we except two short intervals), as it had remained for the two previous centuries with the Romans, a strong bulwark against hostile encroachments.

On the third occasion of Sapor's attack, unusual means were resorted to, to obtain possession of the place. At the stated season of the melting of the snows in Armenia, the course of the river Mygdonius was, by the labour of the Persians, stopped below the town, and the waters were confined on every side by solid mounds of earth. On this artificial lake, a fleet of armed vessels, filled with soldiers and heavy engines of war, was launched, and the accumulated pressure of the waters made a portion of the walls give way. Nevertheless, the monarch failed of success, and Nisibis retained its character as an inexpugnable stronghold.⁵⁵¹

Under one of his predecessors, Sapor I., the Sháhpúr of the Persians, Mírkhond informs us that a miracle placed the town in the hands of the Persian Monarch. Wearied with the siege, Sháhpúr commanded his army to unite in supplication to the Supreme Being for its conquest, and while they were imploring the aid of heaven, the wall fell down before them, and their faith and devotion received a signal reward.^551a

Nisibis is now but a small and insignificant place, with scarcely more than one hundred houses, but it is surrounded with ruins which attest its former magnificence.^551b

The facts above related, with reference to the many obstinate defences of Nasíbín, show how natural it was that a credulous Oriental writer should resort to the marvellous to account for such unusual success as attended the arms of the Arabs in the seventeenth year of the Hijrí.

The passage against which the captious opponent of 'Abdu-l Kádir took exception runs thus in the Táríkh-i Alfí, in the Annals of the seventh year after the death of Muhammad. Very few of the Arabic historians notice the circumstance recorded in it, nor do Ockley, Gibbon, or Marigny mention it.⁵⁵²

“The army of Islám sat eight months before the fort of Nasíbín. Now, in and around that city, there were exceedingly large black scorpions, and no man who was bitten by them escaped with his life. The Arab General consequently gave orders that a thousand small jars should be filled with these reptiles, inclosed in loose mould around them, and that they should be thrown at night into the city by the engines. As the jars broke when they fell on the ground, the scorpions crawled out, and killed every one whom they stung. In the morning the garrison were so dispirited, and found themselves reduced to such extremities, that they could no longer hold the fort. The Musulmáns, taking advantage of their consternation, made a sudden assault, broke open the gates, and slew several who had escaped the venom of the scorpions. It is said that in the time of Noshírwán, the fort of Nasíbín was captured in precisely the same way.”

If we concur with the objector, and hesitate to receive this narrative as true, we may perhaps be able to explain it in some other more rational manner. In the first place, it may occur to us as not altogether improbable, that this story owes its origin to the use of the propelling machine called the “Scorpion,” which we learn from Vegetius^552a was so called, because it threw small javelins with fine points which occasioned death. Others say because the darts were poisoned.^552b

Later writers may have copied the statement, and put an interpretation upon it suited to their own comprehensions. It is to be observed that the Scorpion was used, even in Europe, as late as 1428 A.D.⁵⁵³

There seems to be another way of accounting for this improbable story, if we reject the literal meaning of the words, by supposing that a combustible composition, formed of some bituminous substances, was used upon the occasion. We know from several excellent authorities, that for many years before the invention of gunpowder, such substances were used in warfare, and, what is still more remarkable, that the cases in which they were enveloped were known by the name of Scorpions. Casiri^553a gives us the following extract from aṇ Egyptian Geographer, called Shahábu-d dín,^553b who flourished about A.D. 1250. “Bodies, in the form of Scorpions, bound round, and filled with nitrous powder, glide along, making a gentle noise, then they explode, and throw out flames.^553c But there are others which, cast into the air, stretch along like a cloud, roaring horribly as thunder roars, and on all sides vomiting out flames, they burst, and burn, and reduce to cinders whatever comes in their way.”^553d It is also a very curious coincidence, that the ancient Indian weapon, or rocket, called sataghní, with the etymological meaning of the hundred-slayer, should also signify a Scorpion.^553e

As there will be occasion again to allude to the early use of gunpowder in the East, there is no need to dwell upon this passage from the Egyptian author with any reference to that subject. It is merely adduced here, to show the undoubted use at an early period of a combustible called a Scorpion.

Now, it is remarkable that Dion Cassius, in speaking of the expedition of Alexander Severus against Atra, which was close to Nisibis, says that, in the last extremity, the Atreni defended themselves by throwing naphtha⁵⁵⁴ both upon the besiegers and upon their engines, by which they were burnt and destroyed. According to Price, naphtha was discharged in pots at Khwárizm.^554a

Three hundred years before this, the same author tells us, that when Lucullus was besieging Tigranocerta, not fifty miles^554b from Nisibis, “the barbarians” defended themselves by throwing naphtha balls against the engines. “This substance is bituminous, and so inflammable that it burns to ashes everything on which it impinges, nor is it easily extinguished by anything wet.”^554c

Nor can we wonder that these noxious implements “fed with naphtha and asphaltus” should have been so frequently and so early used in Mesopotamia; for from the Persian Gulf to the Euxine, from the Dead Sea, where asphaltum floats on the water, to Bákú on the Caspian,^554d where naphtha streams spontaneously through the surface of the soil, and where a boiling lake emits constant flames, the whole country is impregnated with bituminous matter, which is especially abundant on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates^554e —so that if the Scorpions alluded to by 'Abdu-l Kádir were combustible, there would be no great improbability in the narrative.

But if we reject these solutions as too elaborate and remote, we must fall back upon the literal interpretation, and, improbable as it is, there are many reasons to encourage us to maintain that it is strictly true.

In the first place, the application of living scorpions to such an improbable purpose would not be altogether a novel stratagem. The Táríkh-i Yamíní tells us, that Khalaf defended himself in the fort of Ark⁵⁵⁵ by throwing from his catapults wallets of snakes upon the besieging army.

M. de Sacy,^555a in abstracting the passage from the translation of Jarbádkháni, says, “ils lançoient sur les troupes de Hossain des cruches remplies de scorpions et de reptiles venimeux.” For this I can find no authority in the original; but Rashídu-d dín also says in his Jámi'u-t Tawáríkh, that scorpions, as well as snakes, were used upon the occasion. At folio 8 of his History of Sultán Mahmúd we read: “When Khalaf had borne down the ‘riders of crocodiles’ (nihang-sawar) and the footmen, he continued to harass the besiegers with crafty arts and stratagems. Wherever they established themselves, he, with slings and catapults, cast upon them pots full of snakes and scorpions, and their places of security he converted into places of ambush.”^555b

Abú-l Fidá, Mírkhond, and the Tabakát-i Násirí have nothing on the subject.

Cornelius Nepos and Justin inform us, that by means precisely similar Hannibal dispersed the superior fleet of Eumenes:

“Imperavit (Hannibal) quam plurimas venenatas serpentes vivas colligi, easque in vasa fictilia conjici. Harum cum confecisset mag-nam multitudinem, die ipso, quo facturus erat navale prælium, classiarios convocat, hisque præcipit, omnes ut in unam Eumenis regis concurrant navem, a cæteris tantum satis habeant se defen-dere; id facile illos serpentium multitudine consecuturos.”^555c

Then again we find the Atreni, noticed above, making use of this very mode of defence against the troops of the Roman Emperor. Herodian says⁵⁵⁶ (and Gibbon^556a has declared his account of this reign to be rational and moderate, and consistent with the general history of the age), “They cast upon them large birds and poisonous animals^556b which fluttered before their eyes, and penetrated every part of their bodies that was exposed,” * * * “so that more perished by these means than by direct attacks of the enemy.”^556c

Frontinus also speaks of this mode of warfare in his book of stratagems;^556d and we read of something like it being practised by the Soanes, a people of Colchis, near Caucasus, who endeavoured to suffocate, with poisonous exhalations, those enemies, with whom they could not contend in close combat;^556e this was done at Nice in the first Crusade, and again at Antioch.^556f At the sieges of Jotopata and Jerusalem, dead bodies of men and horses were thrown by the war-machines on the besieged.⁵⁵⁷

Moreover, we know from unquestionable testimony, that scorpions abound so much in the neighbourhood of Nasíbín as to be the object of special remark by Oriental Geographers.

Istakhrí, or the author translated by Ouseley, speaking of Kurdan, close to Nasíbín, says, “It produces deadly scorpions; and the hill on which it stands abounds in serpents, whose stings occasion death.”^557a Abú-l Fidá, quoting Azízí, says, “At Nasíbín there is an abundance of white roses, but a red rose is not to be seen. There are also deadly scorpions.”^557b Edrísí also notices, in his geographical work, the deadly scorpions of Nasíbín.^557c

Taking, therefore, into consideration these concurrent testimonies to the fact of venomous reptiles being sometimes used in warfare, and to their abundance in the vicinity of Nasíbín, we may pronounce in favour of 'Abdú-l Kádir and his Arab authorities, and declare him justified in exclaiming, “that he had not been guilty of any fabrication, that he had seen the anecdote in books, and had written accordingly; and that, as the accuracy of his statement has been fully verified, he is, by God's grace, relieved from the charge of invention.”

A passage in the Táríkh-i Alfí, which speaks of Kusdár being “near the dominions of Násiru-d dín Subuktigin,”^557d would seem to imply that Kusdár was a city of India, and it is so called by Abú-l Fidá and Kazwíní. The compiler of the Táríkh-i Alfí copies the whole of his narrative, with only a few verbal alterations, from the Rauzatu-s Safá, but the first clause is an addition of his own, from which it appears that Kusdár was by him thought to be the first city conquered in India; but as it was so remote from Jaipál's possessions, it does not seem probable that its capture could have inspired him with such fear for his own safety as the text represents, nor is it proper at any period to place the borders of India so far to the west.⁵⁵⁸ The last instance of its being mentioned as a portion of India is where, in the second part of the Táj'u-l Ma-ásir, it is said to have been included in the dominion of Shamsu-d dín after his capture of Bhakkar. The name of this town is so differently spelt by different authors that it is not often easy to recognize it in its various disguises. Its position is sufficiently indicated by the Táríkh-i Yamíní,^558a which, speaking of a period subsequent to that noticed in the text, tells us that when Mahmúd thought it necessary to chastise the Governor of Kusdár, because he would not pay his tribute, he gave out that he was going on an expedition to Hirát, and had marched as far as Bust on that route, in order to disguise his intention, when he suddenly turned off towards Kusdár, and came so unexpectedly upon it, that the rebellious Governor came out and supplicated for pardon, and was reinstated after paying a considerable fine, as a penalty for his disobedience.

Kusdár lies to the south of Bust, and is the present Khuzdar of our maps, the capital of Jhálawán in Bilúchistán.^558b It is spelt both and , according to Abú-l Fidá, but both he and Sádik Isfahání prefer the former. The latter, however, is the most usual mode of spelling it.

Von Hammer^558c says that Wilken is correct in writing it Kasdár, but this is by no means authorized by either of the two Geographers mentioned above. Sádik Isfahání^558d spells it Kisdár, and Abú-l Fidá^558e Kusdár, and to his authority we must defer, as he is so very careful in specifying the vowel-points. Briggs calls it in one place Kandahar, in another Khoozdar.⁵⁵⁹ The Nubian Geographer calls it Kardán Fardán,^559a and Kazwíní Kasrán Kasrán.^559b M. Petis de la Croix calls it Custar, and M. Silvestre de Sacy Cosdar.^559c

When Ibn Haukal visited the valley of Sind, he found Kusdár under a separate government, and during the whole period of Arab occupation it was considered a place of importance. He describes it as a city and district between Túrán and Sind. Kusdar is frequently mentioned by Biládurí.^559d He quotes an Arabic poet, who thus rapturously speaks of its merits.

“Almonder has descended into his tomb at Kusdár, deprived of all commerce with people endowed with reason.

“What a beautiful country is Kusdár! how distinguished its inhabitants! and how illustrious both for his worldly policy as well as his religious duties was the man who now lies buried in its soil!”^559e

Nizámu-d dín Ahmad mentions no other event of Ibráhím's reign but the following: “The Sultán turned his face towards Hindú-stán, and conquered many towns and forts, and amongst them was a city exceedingly populous, inhabited by a tribe of Khurásání descent, whom Afrásiyáb had expelled from their native country. * * It was so completely reduced by the power and perseverance of the Sultán, that he took away no less than 100,000 captives.” Abú-l Fidá and the Tabakát-i Násirí are silent. The Táríkh-i Alfí says, “Ibráhím next marched against Derápúr in Hindústán, a place which many great emperors found it impracticable to conquer. Several histories state that this place was inhabited by the descendants of the people of Khurásán, who for their disloyal and rebellious conduct had been long before banished the country by Afrásiyáb, Emperor of Turán.” The Muntakhabu-t Tawáríkh has nothing more on the subject than is contained in the Tabakát-i Akbarí. The Rauzatu-s Safá is the same as the Táríkh-i Alfí, except that the former omits the name of the place. Firishta adds a few particulars not to be found in the others. He says:—“The King marched from thence to another town in the neighbourhood, called Derá, the inhabitants of which came originally from Khurásán, and were banished thither with their families by Afrásiyáb, for frequent rebellions. Here they had formed themselves into a small independent state, and, being cut off from intercourse with their neighbours by a belt of mountains nearly impassable, had preserved their ancient customs and rites by not intermarrying with any other people. The King, having with infinite labour cleared a road for his army over the mountains, advanced towards Derá, which was well fortified. This place was remarkable for a fine lake of water about one parasang and a half in circumference, the waters of which did not apparently diminish, either from the heat of the weather or from being used by the army. At this place the King was overtaken by the rainy season; and his army, though greatly distressed, was compelled to remain before it for three months. But as soon as the rains abated, he summoned the town to surrender and acknowledge the faith. Sultán Ibráhím's proposal being rejected, he renewed the siege, which continued some weeks, with great slaughter on both sides. The town, at length, was taken by assault, and the Muhammadans found in it much wealth, and 100,000 persons, whom they carried in bonds to Ghazní. Some time after, the King accidentally saw one of those unhappy men carrying a heavy stone, with great difficulty and labour, to a palace which he was then building. This exciting his pity, he commanded the prisoner to throw it down and leave it there, at the same time giving him his liberty. This stone happened to be on the public road, and proved troublesome to passengers, but as the King's rigid enforcement of his commands was universally known, no one attempted to touch it. A courtier one day having stumbled with his horse over the stone, took occasion to mention it to the King, intimating that he thought it would be advisable to have it removed. To which the King replied, ‘I commanded it to be thrown down and left there; and there it must remain as a monument of the calamities of war, and to commemorate my sense of its evils. It is better for a king to be pertinacious in the support even of an inadvertent command than that he should depart from his royal word.’ The stone accordingly remained where it was; and was shown as a curiosity in the reign of Sultán Bairám several years afterwards.”

The position of this place is very difficult to fix. Firishta says that in the year 472 H. Ibráhím marched in person to India, and conquered portions of it never before visited by the Musulmáns. He extended his conquests to Ajodhan, now called Pattan Shaikh Faríd Shakr Ganj. He then went to Rúdpál, situated on the summit of a steep hill, which a river embraced on three sides, and which was protected by an impervious wood, infested by serpents. He then marched to Derá, which Briggs seems to place in the valley of the Indus, because he adds in a note, “Derá seems a common name in the vicinity of Multán for a town.” The reading of the Táríkh-i Alfí with respect to the two first places is much the most probable, —namely, a fort in the country of Júd⁵⁶¹ and Damál.

The Rauzatu-s Safá does not mention the first place, and speaks of the second as if it were on the sea-shore. The third place he does not name. In Firishta it is Derá, and in the Táríkh-i Alfí Derápúr. This would seem to be the place called Derabend, near Torbela, on the Upper Indus.^561a It is possible that the Dehrá of Dehrá Dún may be meant; but, though the belt of mountains, the inaccessible jungle, the seclusion of the inhabitants, and the identity of name, are in favour of this supposition, we are at a loss for the inexhaustible lake and the impregnability of the position.

All the authors, however, who mention the circumstance, whether they give the name or not, notice that the inhabitants were banished by Afrásiyáb; and this concurrent tradition respecting their expulsion from Khurásán seems to indicate the existence of a colony of fire-worshippers in these hills, who preserved their peculiar rites and customs, notwithstanding the time which had elapsed since their departure from their native country.

Putting aside the probability, which has frequently been speculated upon, of an original connexion between the Hindú religion and the worship of fire,⁵⁶² and the derivation of the name of Magadha from the Magi, there is much in the practical worship of the Hindús, such as the hom, the gáyatrí, the address to the sun^562a at the time of ablution, the prohibition against insulting that luminary by indecent gestures,^562b —all which would lead an inattentive observer to conclude the two religions to bear a very close resemblance to one another. It is this consideration which should make us very careful in receiving the statements of the early Muhammadan writers on this subject; and the use of the word Gabr, to signify not only, especially, a fire-worshipper, but, generally, an infidel of any denomination, adds to the probability of confusion and inaccuracy.^562c

Khusrú, in the Khazáinu-l Futúh (p. 76), calls the sun the kibla of the Hindús, and it is quite evident that throughout his works Gabr is used as equivalent to Hindú. In one passage he speaks of the Gabrs as worshippers both of stones and fire.

European scholars have not been sufficiently attentive to this double use of the word, and all those who have relied upon M. Petis de la Croix's translation of Sharafu-d dín, have considered that, at the period of Tímúr's invasion, fire-worship prevailed most extensively in Upper India, because Gabr is used throughout by the historians of that invasion to represent the holders of a creed opposed to his own, and against which his rancour and cruelty were unsparingly directed. There is distinct mention in the Matla'u-s Sa'dain of fire-worshippers, as distinct from the Hindús; and the Kashmirians, according to Firishta, were fire-worshippers at the time of the Muhammadan invasion.⁵⁶³ The men of Deogír are called fire-worshippers in the Táríkh-i 'Aláí.

But though the word is used indiscriminately, there are certain passages in which it is impossible to consider that any other class but fire-worshippers is meant. Thus, it is distinctly stated in Tímúr's Memoirs, and by Sharafu-d dín, that the people of Tughlikpúr^563a believed in the two principles of good and evil in the universe, and acknowledged Ahrimán and Yezdan (Ormuzd). The captives massacred at Loni^563b are said to have been Magians, as well as Hindús, and Sharafu-d dín states that the son of Safí the Gabr threw himself into the fire, which he worshipped.^563c

We cannot refuse our assent to this distinct evidence of the existence of fire-worshippers in Upper India as late as the invasion of Tímúr, A.D. 1398-9. There is, therefore, no improbability that the independent tribe which had been expelled by Afrásiyáb, and practised their own peculiar rites, and whom Ibráhím the Ghazni-vide attacked in A.D. 1079, were a colony of fire-worshippers from Írán, who, if the date assigned be true, must have left their native country before the reforms effected in the national creed by Zoroaster.

Indeed, when we consider the constant intercourse which had prevailed from the oldest time between Persia and India,^563d it is surprising that we do not find more unquestionable instances of the persecuted fire-worshippers seeking an asylum in Northern India as well as in Gujarát. The instances in which they are alluded to before this invasion of Tímúr are very rare, and almost always so obscurely mentioned as to leave some doubt in the mind whether foreign ignorance of native customs and religious rites may not have given a colour to the narrative.

The evidence of the Chinese traveller, Hiuen-thsang, to the existence of sun-worship at Multán in 640 A.D., is very decisive. He found there a “temple of the sun, and an idol erected to represent that grand luminary,” with dwellings for the priests, and reservoirs for ablution;⁵⁶⁴ yet he says the city was inhabited chiefly by men of the Bráhmanical religion. A few centuries before, if Philostratus is to be believed, Apollonius, after crossing the Indus, visited the temple of the sun at Taxila, and Phraotes, the chief of the country, describes the Indians as in a moment of joy “snatching torches from the altar of the sun,” and mentions that he himself never drank wine except “when sacrificing to the sun.” After crossing the Hyphasis, Apollonius goes to a place, which would seem to represent Jwála Mukhí, where they “worship fire” and “sing hymns in honour of the sun.”^564a When the Arabs arrived in the valley of the Indus, they found the same temple, the same idol, the same dwellings, the same reservoirs, as had struck the Chinese, but their description of the idol would lead us to suppose that it was a representation of Budh. Bírúní, however, whose testimony is more valuable than that of all other Muhammadans, as he was fully acquainted with the religious system of the Hindús, plainly tells us^564b that the idol of Multán was called Aditya,^564c because it was consecrated to the sun, and that Muhammad bin Kásim, the first invader, suspended a piece of cow's flesh from its neck, in order to show his contempt of the superstition of the Indians, and to disgust them with this double insult to the dearest objects of their veneration.⁵⁶⁵

Shortly before Bírúní wrote, we have another instance of this tendency to combine the two worships. In the message which Jaipál sent to Násiru-d dín, in order to dissuade him from driving the Indians to desperation, he is represented to say, according to the Táríkh-i Alfí: “The Indians are accustomed to pile their property, wealth, and precious jewels in one heap, and to kindle it with the fire, which they worship. Then they kill their women and children, and with nothing left in the world they rush to their last onslaught, and die in the field of battle, so that for their victorious enemies the only spoil is dust and ashes.” The declaration is a curious one in the mouth of a Hindú, but may perhaps be considered to indicate the existence of a modified form of pyrolatry in the beginning of the eleventh century. The practice alluded to is nothing more than the Jauhar, which is so frequently practised by Hindús in despair, and was not unknown to the nations of antiquity. Sardana-palus performed it, on the capture of Babylon. “He raised a large pyre in his palace, threw upon it all his wealth in gold, silver, and royal robes, and then placing his concubines and eunuchs on it, he, they, and the entire palace were consumed in the flames.”^565a The Saguntines did the same, when their city was taken by Hannibal;^565b Juba also had prepared for a Jauhar,^565c and Arrian gives us an account of one performed by the Bráhmans, without noticing it as a practice exclusively observed by that class.^565d The peculiarity of the relation consists in Jaipál's declaration that the Indians worshipped the fire, not in the fact of their throwing their property and valuables into it. The practice of self-cremation also appears to have been common at an earlier period; and there were conspicuous instances of it when foreign nations first became acquainted with India. One occurs in Vol. II. p. 27, where this very Jaipál, having no opportunity of dying in the field of battle, committed himself to the flames. Other histories tell us that it was then a custom amongst the Hindús that a king who had been twice defeated was disqualified to reign, and that Jaipál, in compliance with this custom, resigned his crown to his son, lighted his funeral pyre with his own hands, and perished in the flames. The Greeks and Romans were struck with the instances which they witnessed of the same practice. Calanus, who followed the Macedonian army from Taxila, solemnly burnt himself in their presence at Pasargadæ, being old and tired of his life.⁵⁶⁶ Zarmanochegas, who accompanied the Indian ambassadors sent by a chief, called Porus, to Augustus, burnt himself at Athens, and directed the following inscription to be engraved on his sepulchral monument:—“Here lies Zarmanochegas, the Indian of Bargosa, who deprived himself of life, according to a custom prevailing among his countrymen.”^566a

Strabo correctly observes, on the authority of Megasthenes, that suicide is not one of the dogmas of Indian philosophy; indeed, it is attended by many spiritual penalties:^566b and even penance which endangers life is prohibited.^566c There is a kind of exception, however, in favour of suicide by fire and water,^566d but then only when age, or infirmity, makes life grievous and burdensome. The former has of late years gone quite out of fashion, but it is evident that in ancient times there were many devotees ready to sacrifice themselves in that mode.

Quique suas struxere pyras, vivique calentes
Conscendêre rogos. Proh! quanta est gloria genti
Injecisse manum fatis, vitâque repletos
Quod superest, donasse Diis.———

Pharsalia, iii. 240.

It was, therefore, a habit sufficiently common amongst the Indians of that early period, to make Lucan remark upon it as a peculiar glory of that nation. All this, however, may have occurred without any reference to fire as an object of worship; but the speech of Jaipál, if not attributed to him merely through Muhammadan ignorance, shows an unquestionable devotion to that worship.

But to continue, Istakhrí, writing a century earlier than this transaction, says, “Some parts of Hind and Sind belong to Gabrs, but a greater portion to Kafirs and idolaters; a minute description of these places would, therefore, be unnecessary and unprofitable.”⁵⁶⁷ Here, evidently, the fire-worshippers are alluded to as a distinct class; and these statements, written at different periods respecting the religious creeds of the Indians, seem calculated to impart a further degree of credibility to the specific assertions of Sharafu-d dín, Khondamír, and the other historians of Tímúr's expedition to India. But the people alluded to by them need not have been colonies of refugees, fleeing from Muhammadan bigotry and persecution. There are other modes of accounting for their existence in these parts. They may have been Indian converts to the doctrine of Zoroaster, for we read that not only had he secret communication with the Bráhmans of India,^567a but when his religion was fully established, he endeavoured to gain proselytes in India, and succeeded in converting a learned Bráhman, called Tchengri-ghatchah by Anquetil du Perron,^567b who returned to his native country with a great number of priests. Firdúsí tells us that Isfandiyár^567c induced the monarch of India to renounce idolatry and adopt fire-worship, insomuch that not a Bráhman remained in the idol-temples. A few centuries afterwards, we have indisputable testimony to the general spread of these doctrines in Kábul and the Panjáb. The emblems of the Mithraic⁵⁶⁸ worship so predominate on the coins of the Kanerkis, as to leave no doubt upon the mind that it was the state-religion of that dynasty.^568a

Ritter entertains the supposition, that as the Khiljí family came from the highlands which afforded a shelter to this persecuted race, they may have had a leaning to these doctrines, and he offers a suggestion, that the new religion which 'Aláu-d dín wished to promulgate may have been that of Zoroaster,^568b and that this will account for the Panjáb and the Doáb being full of his votaries at the time of Tímúr's invasion. But this is a very improbable supposition, and he has laid too much stress upon the use of the word Gabr, which, if taken in the exclusive sense adopted by him, would show not only that these tracts were entirely occupied by fire-worshippers, but that Hindús were to be found in very few places in either of them.

After this time, we find little notice of the prevalence of fire-worship in Northern India; and its observers must then have been exterminated, or they must have shortly after been absorbed into some of the lower Hindú communities. Badáúní, however, mentions the destruction of fire-altars one hundred years later by Sultán Sikandar in A.H. 910. It may not be foreign to this part of the inquiry to remark, that Abú-l Fazl speaks of the Gubree language as being one of the thirteen used in the súba of Kábul (Áín-i Akbarí, vol. ii. p. 1263). The Gubree language is also mentioned in Bábar. There is a “Gubber” hill and pass not far from Bunnoo, inhabited by the Battani tribe; and on the remotest borders of Rohilkhand, just under the hills, there is a tribe called Gobrí, who retain some peculiar customs, which seem to have no connexion with Hindú superstition. They are said to have preceded the present occupants of the more cultivated lands to the south of the Taráí, and may possibly be the descendants of some of the Gabrs who found a refuge in Upper India. The name of Gobrí would certainly seem to encourage the notion of identity, for the difference of the first vowel, and the addition of a final one, offer no obstacle, any more than they do in the name of Gobryas,⁵⁶⁹ who gave information to Socrates on the subject of the Persian religion, and is expressly declared by Plato to be an . According to J. Cunningham, there is a wild tribe called Magyas between Málwa and Gujarát, who are used as shikárís. They are supposed to have been fire-worshippers, but they have no pyrolatrous observances at present.

There is another inferior Hindú tribe, to the west of the upper Jumna, and in the neighbourhood of the Tughlikpúr mentioned above, who, having the name of Magh,^569a and proclaiming themselves of foreign extraction (inasmuch as they are descendants of Rájá Mukhtesar, a Sarsutí Bráhman, King of Mecca, and maternal grandfather of Muhammad!!),^569b would seem to invite the attention of any inquirer after the remnant of the stock of Magians; but all their customs, both religious and social, are of the Hindú stamp, and their only peculiarity consists in being the sole caste employed in the cultivation of mendhí (Lawsonia inermis).⁵⁷⁰

It is a common error to suppose that Faizí (v. p. 479) was the first^570a Muhammadan who mastered the difficulties of the Sanskrit,— that language, “of wonderful structure, more perfect than Greek, more copious than Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either.”

Akbar's freedom from religious bigotry, his ardent desire for the cultivation of knowledge, and his encouragement of every kind of learning, and especially his regard for his Hindú subjects, imparted a stimulus to the cultivation of Indian literature, such as had never prevailed under any of his predecessors. Hence, besides Faizí, we have amongst the Sanskrit translators of his reign 'Abdu-l Kádir, Nakíb Khán, Mullá Sháh Muhammad, Mullá Shabrí, Sultán Hájí, Hájí Ibráhím, and others. In some instances it may admit of doubt, whether the translations may not have been made from versions previously done into Hindí, oral or written. The word Hindí is ambiguous when used by a Muhammadan of that period. Nizámu-d dín Ahmad, for instance, says that 'Abdu-l Kádir translated several works from the Hindí. Now, we know that he translated, amongst other works, the Rámáyana and the Singhásan Battísí.⁵⁷¹ It is much more probable that these were in the original Sanskrit, than in Hindí. 'Abdu-l Kádir and Firishta tell us that the Mahá-bhárata was translated into Persian from the Hindí, the former^571a ascribing the work chiefly to Nakíb Khán, the latter to Faizí.^571b Here again there is every probability of the Sanskrit being meant. In another instance, 'Abdu-l Kádir tells us that he was called upon to translate the Atharva Veda from the Hindí, which he excused himself from doing, on account of the exceeding difficulty of the style and abstruseness of meaning, upon which the task devolved upon Hájí Ibráhím Sirhindí, who accomplished it satisfactorily. Here it is evident that nothing but Sanskrit could have been meant.^571c But though the knowledge of Sanskrit appears to have been more generally diffused at this time, it was by no means the first occasion that Muhammadans had become acquainted with that language. Even if we allowed that they obtained the abridgment of the Pancha Tantra, under the name of Fables of Bidpai, or Hitopadeśa, through the medium of the Pehleví,⁵⁷² there are other facts which make it equally certain that the Muhammadans had attained a correct knowledge of the Sanskrit not long after the establishment of their religion; even admitting, as was probably the case, that most of the Arabic translations were made by Indian foreigners resident at Baghdád.

In the Khalifate of Al-Mámún, the Augustan age of Arabian literature, the treatise^572a of Muhammad bin Músa on Algebra, which was translated by Dr. Rosen in 1831, and the medical treatises of Mikah and Ibn Dahan, who are represented to be Indians,^572b show that Sanskrit must have been well known at that time; and even before that, the compilations of Charaka and Susruta^572c had been translated, and had diffused a general knowledge of Indian medicine amongst the Arabs. From the very first, we find them paying particular attention to this branch of science, and encouraging the profession of it so much, that two Indians, Manka and Sálih by name,—the former of whom translated a treatise on poison into Persian,—held appointments as body-physicians at the Court of Hárúnu-r Rashíd.^572d The Arabians possessed during the early periods of the Khalifate several other Indian works which had been translated into Arabic, some on astronomy,^572e some on music,^572f some on judicial astrology,^572g some on interpretation of dreams,^572h some on the religion and theogony of the Hindús,⁵⁷²ⁱ some on their sacred scriptures, ⁵⁷³ some on the calculation of nativities,^573a some on agriculture,^573b some on poisons,^573c some on physiognomy,^573d and some on palmistry,^573e besides others, which need not be here enumerated.

If we turn our eyes towards India, we find that scarcely had these ruthless conquerors gained a footing in the land, than Bírúní exerted himself with the utmost diligence to study the language, literature, and science of India, and attained, as we have already seen, such proficiency in it, as to be able to translate into, as well as from, the Sanskrit. Muhammad bin Isráíl-al Tanúkhí also travelled early into India, to learn the system of astronomy which was taught by the sages of that country.^573f There seems, however, no good authority for Abú-l Fazl's statement in the Áín-i Akbarí,^573g that Abú Ma'shar (Albumazar) visited Benares at an earlier period;—and the visit of Ibn-al Baithár to India, four centuries afterwards, rests solely on the authority of Leo Africanus.^573h

Again, when Fíroz Sháh, after the capture of Nagarkot, in the middle of the fourteenth century, obtained possession of a valuable Sanskrit Library, he ordered a work on philosophy, divination, and omens to be translated, under the name of Daláil-i Fíroz-sháhí, by Mauláná 'Izzu-d dín Khálid Khání,—and to have enabled the translator to do this, he must have acquired no slight knowledge of the original, before his selection for the duty.

In the Nawwáb Jalálu-d daula's Library at Lucknow, there is a work on astrology, also translated from the Sanskrit into Persian in Fíroz Sháh's reign. A knowledge of Sanskrit must have prevailed pretty generally about this time, for there is in the Royal Library at Lucknow a work on the veterinary art, which was translated from the Sanskrit by order of Ghiyásu-d dín Muhammad Sháh Khiljí. This rare book, called Kurrutu-l Mulk, was translated as early as A.H. 783 (A.D. 1381), from an original, styled Sálotar, which is the name of an Indian, who is said to have been a Bráhman, and the tutor of Susruta. The Preface says that the translation was made “from the barbarous Hindí into the refined Persian, in order that there may be no more need of a reference to infidels.” It is a small work, comprising only 41 pages 8vo. of 13 lines, and the style is very concise. It is divided into eleven chapters and thirty sections. The precise age of this work is doubtful, because, although it is plainly stated to have been translated in A.H. 783, yet the reigning prince is called Sultán Ghiyásu-d dín Muhammad Sháh, son of Mahmúd Sháh, and there is no king so named whose reign exactly corresponds with that date. The nearest is Ghiyásu-d dín 'Azím Sháh bin Sikandar Sháh, who reigned in Bengal from A.H. 769 to 775.⁵⁷⁴ If Sultán Ghiyásu-d dín Tughlik be meant, it should date sixty years earlier, and if the King of Málwa who bore that name be meant, it should be dated 100 years later; any way, it very much precedes the reign of Akbar.^574a The translator makes no mention in it of the work on the same subject, which had been previously translated from the Sanskrit into Arabic at Baghdád, under the name of Kitábu-l Baitarat.

From all these instances it is evident that Faizí did not occupy the entirely new field of literature for which he usually obtains credit.^574b The same error seems to have prevaded the history of European scholarship in Sanskrit. We read as early as A.D. 1677, of Mr. Marshall's being a proficient in the language, and without mentioning the dubious names of Anquetil du Perron⁵⁷⁵ and Father Paolino,^575a others could be named, who preceded in this arduous path the celebrated scholars of the present period. Thus, Holwell says that he read and understood Sanskrit, and P. Pons, the Jesuit (1740), knew the language. In such an inquiry as this also must not be omitted the still more important evidence afforded by the Mujmalu-t Tawáríkh, from which Extracts have been given in Vol. I. p. 100.