The Institutes of Akbar 389.1

389.1

Naqib Khan is the title of Mir Ghiasuddin ’Ali. His family belongs to the Saifi Sayyids of Qazwin, who were known in Iran for their Sunni tendencies. His grandfather Mir Yahya was ‘a well known theologian and philosopher, who had acquired such extraordinary proficiency in the knowledge of history, that he was acquainted with the date of every event which had occurred from the establishment of the Muhammadan religion to his own time.’ ‘In the opening of his career, Mir Yahya was patronized by Shah Tahmasp i Safawi, who called him Yahya Ma’sum,’ and was treated by the king with such distinction, that his enemies, envious of his good fortune, endeavoured to poison his patron’s mind against him, by representing that he and his son, Mir ’Abdullatif, were the leading men among the Sunnis of Qazwin. They at last prevailed so far as to induce the king, when he was on the borders of Azarbaijan, to order Mir Yahya and his son, together with their families, to be imprisoned at Isfahan. At that time, his second son, ’Ala-uddaulah was in Azarbaijan, and sent off a special messenger to convey this intelligence to his father. Mir Yahya being too old and infirm to fly, accompanied the king's messenger to Isfahan, and died there, after one year and nine months, in A. H. 962, at the age of 77 years.’