Muntakhab al-tawarikh 51.2

51.2

He composed a commentary upon the Kuran, 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 Abu-l Fazl, "What is this blackness? Surely the Shaikh has been rubbing dentifrice on his teeth, according to the Indian fashion?" "No," replied Abu-l Fazl, "it is the stain of the blood which he has been spitting." 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. * * *