The Institutes of Akbar 73.12

73.12

At whatever page the readers daily stop, His Majesty makes with his own pen a sign, according to the number of the pages; and rewards the readers with presents of cash, either in gold or silver, according to the number of leaves read out by them. Among books of renown, there are few that are not read in His Majesty’s assembly hall; and there are no historical facts of the past ages, or curiosities of science, or interesting points of philosophy, with which His Majesty, a leader of impartial sages, is unacquainted. He does not get tired of hearing a book over again, but listens to the reading of it with more interest. The Akhláq i Násirí, the Kímiyá i Sa’ádat, the Qábúsnámah, the works of Sharaf of Munair (vide p. 48), the Gulistán, the Hadíqah of Hakím Sanáí, the Masnawí of Ma’nawí, the Jám i Jam, the Bústán, the Sháhnámah, the collected Masnawis of Shaikh Nizami, the works of Khusrau and Maulana Jami, the Diwans of Khaqani, Anwari, and several works on History, are continually read out to His Majesty. Philologists are constantly engaged in translating Hindi, Greek, Arabic, and Persian books, into other languages. Thus a part of the Zich i Jadid i Mirzai (vide IIIrd book, Ain 1) was translated under the superintendence of Amir Fathullah of Shiraz (vide p. 33), and also the Kishnjoshi, the Gangadhar, the Mohesh Mahanand, from Hindi (Sanscrit) into Persian, according to the interpretation of the author of this book.