The Institutes of Akbar 132.1.5

132.1.5

When the quibbling and wrangling had reached the highest point, some courtiers, according to an order previously given by His Majesty, commenced to tell rather queer stories of the Mauláná, to whose position one might apply the verse of the Qorán (Sur. XVI, 72), ‘And some one of you shall have his life prolonged to a miserable age, &c.’ Among other stories, Khán Jahán said that he had heard that Makhdúm ul mulk had given a fatwá, that the ordinance of pilgrimage was no longer binding, but even hurtful. When people had asked him the reason of his extraordinary fatwá, he had said, that the two roads to Makkah, through Persia and over Gujrát, were impracticable, because people, in going by land (Persia), had to suffer injuries at the hand of the Qizilbáshes (i. e., the Shi’ah inhabitants of Persia), and in going by sea, they had to put up with indignities from the Portuguese, whose ship-tickets had pictures of Mary and Jesus stamped on them. To make use, therefore, of the latter alternative would mean to countenance idolatry; hence both roads were closed up. Khán Jahán also related that the Mauláná had invented a clever trick by which he escaped paying the legal alms upon the wealth which he amassed every year. Towards the end of each year, he used to make over all his stores to his wife, but he took them back before the year had ‘actually run out.’