Muntakhab al-tawarikh 77.5
Muntakhabu-t-tawārīkh (Ranking, Lowe, Haig) 77.5
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77.5.1
When they arrived at Agra, Pir Muhammad Khan was indisposed for some days, and the Khan Khanan came to visit him. One of the servants, who was in the habit of keeping off people, both great and small, came to stop him, and said : “ Be pleased to wait until your request has been made known, when you have made application you may come in on this the astonishment of the Khan Khanan knew no bounds, and he said : — “ For a wilful fool there is no cure !” When this came to the ears of Pir Muhammad Khan, ill as he was, he came running, and “ after the destruction of Bozrah” begged forgiveness, saying : “ Forgive me, for my Porter did not know you.” The Khan Khanan answered : “ Nor you either !” In spite of this, when the Khan Khanan came in, not one of Pir Muhammad’s household was dismissed except Tahir Muhammad Sultan his chamberlain, who had obtained that position with great difficulty. Praise be to God ! for if the fortunes of that man be such what shall I say of myself ! — “ O go not to the Sultan’s Court, For there indeed thou ’lt profit naught. Let the gruff Porter’s stern rebuff For wisdom’s warning be enough.” And the Khan Khanan, after he had sat down for a moment, came out again, and Pir Muhammad was left to meditate upon the affair.
77.5.2
After two or three days the Khan Khanan sent to Pir Muhammad Khan the following message, by the hand of Khwajah Amina (who afterwards became Khwajah Jahan), and of Mir ‘Abd-ullah Bakhshi, and a number of courtiers : “ You will remember that you came to Qandahar in the position of an unfortunate student, and that when we found that you possessed ability and the quality of fidelity, and when also some worthy services had been performed by you, we raised you, a mere student and beggar, from the lowest step among the degraded, to the highest grade among the exalted in Sultanship and Khanship, and to the post of an Amir of Amirs; but, since the carrying of a high position is not in your capacity, nothing but a suspicion of rebelliousness and baseness remains in you. So we will take away from you for a time the insignia of your pride, that your base disposition and inflated brain may come to their senses. Now it is right that you should surrender the standard, and kettle-drum, and paraphernalia of pomp.” So Pir Muhammad Khan, in accordance with this command, surrendered on the spot to some of the Khan’s people those accessories of conceit (which have carried a host of ignorant men off their balance, and do so still, and have driven, and still do drive them, from the path of manliness and generosity, and have made, and still make, them associates of the Ghuls of the desert), and became the same Mulla Pir Muhammad that he was before; nay he became poorer still:—
77.5.3
“Whatever the rolling heaven gives is but a loan, In a mill the white is but contingent to the stone.” Soon after this they sent the Mulla to the fortress of Biyanah, and there he was confined. And from this place he wrote numberless pamphlets on the subject of proof by tamanu', which is that made use of in the verse of the Qoran [XXI, 22]: “If there were in them gods beside God, verily both heaven and earth would come to ruin,” and is a well known method of argument among logicians: and others besides addressed to the Khan Khanan, and thus made endeavours at reconciliation, and liberating himself; but all was in vain:— “ The heart’s a glass, if broken, how repair the ill ! It is no earthen cup to be cracked and patched at will. After some days they sent him from Biyanah by order of the Khan Khanan, on a pilgrimage to the sacred Mekka : and he was still in Gujrat, when the decline of the Khan Khanan’s power began. Then he returned, and came to pay his homage to the Emperor, and having obtained the name of Nasir-ul-mulk, he was appointed to go in pursuit of the Khan Khanan, as shall be recorded in its proper place if God (He is exalted!) will. (P. 29) And the office of vicegerent of the Khan Khanan was transferred from Pir Muhammad Khan to Haji Muhammad Khan Sistani, who was also one of the Khan’s followers. And the following line is applicable to this occurrence ; — “ The dog sits down in the sausage-seller’s place.”
77.5.4
And Shaikh Gada-i Kamboh, son of Jamal Kambo-i (a poet of Dihli, who after the second defeat in India during the time of the exile at Gujrat had come to the Khan Khanan) through the influence of the latter, they put over the heads of all the magnates of Hindustan and Khurasan, and appointed him to the high office of Çadr. And the Khan Khanan, nay even the Emperor himself, was often present at his house at singing parties, where the most abject flattery rained down on all sides, and which became a regular hypocrisy-shop. And, — since, from the time of the establishment of Islam in Hindustan, God (praise to Him, and glorious is His Majesty!) has created the great Shaikhs of this country, just the opposite in nature to the secular princes, viz., always peasantnatured, servile in disposition, and low-minded, and since their pomp and glory has never consisted in smiting with the sword, but in flattering others, in spiritual hypocrisy, and ignominy, and the garb of dignity and honour has ever been too strait for the stature of their ambition — the chief Imams, at this exaltation of Shaikh Gada-i, about the eminence of whose family they had stories, went mourning from house to house, and so the Arabic Proverb “ The death of the great has exalted me” became verified : — “ At my rival’s insolence I’m mightily surprised, O may that beggar Gada-i ne’er be highly prized.”
77.5.5
And he drew the pen of obliteration through the grants of land and pensions of the old servants of the crown [Afghans, Blochm.], and to every one who bore the disgrace of coming to his levees he gave a sayurghal, but not unless. But still, compared with this [niggard] age, in which demurs are made to the giving of a single acre of land (P. 30), or even less, as madad i ma‘ash, one might call Shaikh Gada-i a very “world-giver.” Then the princes and nobles of the kingdom, as many as came, flew into a rage at the advancement, honour, and unseasonable exaltation of Shaikh Gada-i, and some of them consoled themselves with these words : — When a fool is exalted through riches, In the assembly, above the wise and excellent, He is still the last in all good qualities, As though the accusative were to prevent the nominative. If an Emperor sit humbled, It is neither disgrace to him, nor praise to you. Dost thou not see that the Sura Ikhlas Comes after “ May the hands of Abu Lahab perish ?” And my Sayyid Ni'mat-i Rusuli, who has been mentioned, repeated the distich, and made it well known in mosques and monasteries. And in the mosque, and in Shaikh Gada-i’s own tribunal they wrote up his disgraceful deeds, until he came to read them and had them erased. Still it was no good: and this is one of the lampoons: “Mention not Gada-i’s name, eat not his bread Since beggary is bad, Gada-i’s face is black.”
77.5.6
And some instances of his insincerity, and stupidity, and evil goings-on with respect to the servants of the Emperor were exposed, which will be mentioned in their proper place. And in these days the king studied under that paragon of greatness Mir ‘Abd-ul-Latif, who is one of the great Sayfi-Sayyids of Qazwin, and who came from the country of ‘Iraq to India in the year 963, and with him he began reading the Diwan of “mystic language.” And ‘Abd-ul-Latif’s able son (an Amir endowed with excellent qualities, and commendable dispositions, in whom is reflected the truth of the Arabic proverb: “A well-bred son takes after his noble parents,” whose name is Mir Ghiyas-ud-din, and surname Naqib Khan, a very miracle of knowledge in manners and customs, chronology, biography, and all subjects of conversation, one of the wonders of the day, and a blessing of the blessings of the age, a second Preserved Tablet, and who bears to myself, the writer of these pages, the relation of co-temporary, fellow-student (P. 31) and co-religionist, is at present in attendance on His Majesty, giving all his attention to reading history, and all books of verse and prose, both day and night. And in the year 966 the capture of the fort of Gwalyar took place. A ghulam of ‘Adali, Buhail Khan by name, who was beseiged therein, sued for quarter and gave up the keys.
77.5.7
The date will be found contained in the words Fath-i bab-i kil‘ah-e Gwaliar, “The opening of the gate of the fortress of Gwalyar.” And in this same year Sangram Khan, also a ghulam of [the late] ‘Adali, sold the fortress of Rantambhor into the hand of Rai Surjan Hada. The facts of the case are as follows. Before the Emperor made the city of Agra the goal of his prosperous journey, he had appointed some of the Amirs, such as Hindu Beg Moghul, &c., to reduce the fort of Rantambhor. They beseiged Sangram Khan and ravaged the environs of the fortress, and the surrounding district, but were unsuccessful in their main object. But when Biyanah was given as a fief to Habib ‘Ali Khan, one of the followers of the Khan Khanan, and Basawar, and Todah Turk ‘Ali, which is better known as Todah Bhyun, were given to Chaghatai Khan, then Habib ‘Ali Khan was honoured with the command of the army, and, superseding the Amirs of the surrounding district, was appointed to undertake the seige. When he had beseiged the place for the space of one year, and reduced the garrison to great straits, Sangram Khan made proposals of peace, and sending a messenger of entreaty with a view to acting upon the Khan’s feelings, asked for special conditions for his own personal advantage. The Khans chose my father, and that pilgrim to the two sacred precincts, Haji Bhikan Basawari, and sent them to arrange this important matter.
77.5.8
After much altercation Sangram Khan agreed to surrender the fortress on certain conditions, among which was one that he should receive part-compensation in the shape of ready-money, goods, and the most valuable of the furniture (P. 32) of his own house. But when the Amirs, since they had not the money to pay down, practised delay and procrastination in the matter, and moreover there was some idea of after all taking the fortress by assault, then Sangram Khan gave up the fortress to Rai Surjan, and got all he wanted from him: and this unfortunate army after so many years of effort got no thanks. Then Sangram Khan in company with Hajji Khan Alwari went to Gujrat. And Rai Surjan strengthened the fort with the stores of provisions and arms. Thus by means of riches and address he became master of some also of the pargannas in the vicinity of the fortress. Then Habib ‘Ali Khan and the Amirs, after spending some time in ravaging the country, separated and returned to their fiefs.