Muntakhab al-tawarikh 78.14
Muntakhabu-t-tawārīkh (Ranking, Lowe, Haig) 78.14
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78.14.1
At the beginning of the month Rajab of this year the Emperor arrived at Dihli, and occupied himself for some days in Qamarghah hunting in the neighbourhood of the Parganna of Palam, and afterwards in the latter part of the month Sha‘ban he came by successive days marching, and invested the fort of Rintambhor. In a short time Sabats were constructed and brought close up to the castle. And the Kahars, of whom there were some seven or eight hundred, drew fifteen pieces of ordnance, carrying balls of five to seven man in weight, by main force to the top of the hill Ran, which commands the fortress, and is mounted by so steep a path that even the foot of an ant would slip in climbing it. The first day they reduced the houses within the fort to ruins. Then Rai Surjan, when he contemplated the disastrous loss of the fort of Chitor, and the worthlessness of its garrison, foresaw his own fate, and sent his sons Doda and Bhoj, by the intervention of some of the zamindars, to do homage to the Emperor, and himself asked for quarter. Then Husain Quli Khan Khan Jahan came and gave assurances to Rai Surjan and brought him to Court. He delivered up the key of the fortress, and on Wednesday the 3rd of Shawwal of the aforesaid year the fortress was taken. And “Victory” repeated was found to give the date. Next day the Emperor with a small escort inspected the fortress in person. The fortress he gave in charge to Mihtar Khan Sultani.
78.14.2
Then leaving the camp under the command of Khwajah Amina (who is entitled Khwajah Jahan), and Muzaffar Khan, he gave the word to march towards Agrah. He himself went forward alone by forced marches with the intention of performing a pilgrimage to the tomb of that dispenser of splendours Khwajah Ajmiri. On Wednesday the 24th of the month Zi-lqa‘dah of the year nine hundred and seventy-six (976) he alighted at the Imperial Capital. And Mir Farighi, brother of Shah Fathullah Shirazi, composed the following mnemosynon for the date of the taking of that fortress:— “When the Rose of Victory blossomed in the garden of the king’s conquest, The announcer of the date said: They took the fort quickly” And Maulānā Shīrī composed the following : — "When by the fortune of the king the stronghold of infidelity was taken, Shīrī found its year to be : The infidel-breaking king." And in this year the Hāthīpūl gate, which is a new gate of Agrah, was completed, and the date of it is : — “The pen of Shīrī wrote as the mnemosynon : The Elephant-gate is without compare !”
78.14.3
Now the Emperor had had several children in succession born to him, and they had all passed away at a tender age. In this year one of the Imperial wives became with child, and he went to beg the intercession of Shaikh-ul Islām Chishtī living at Sīkrī, and he left his Empress at the monastry (P. 109) of the Shaikh. Some time before this the Shaikh had foretold to him the happy birth of a son, and after some days he had gone to visit the Shaikh in expectation of the fulfilment of his promise. On account of this bond of union between them the Emperor built a lofty palace on the top of the hill of Sīkrī near the monastry and ancient chapel of the Shaikh. And he laid the foundation of a new chapel, and of a high and spacious mosque of stone, so large that you would say it was a part of a mountain, and the like of which can scarce be seen in any inhabited quarter. In the space of about five years the building was finished, and he called the place Fatḥpūr, and he built a bazaar and baths and a gate, &c. And the Amīrs, one and all, built themselves towers and keeps and lofty palaces. And the Author found the date of the commencement of the whole palace, mosque, chapel, &c. to be as follows : — This chapel is the dome of Islām, May God exalt the glory of its builder ! The Spirit Gabriel gave its date: Its like is not seen in the lands. Another:— “The heavenly Ka'bah came down from heaven”. And Ashraf Khan found this mnemosynon;— “It is second only to the Mosque at Mecca”.
78.14.4
And such was the disposition of that paragon of excellence, his Grace the Shaikh, that he allowed the Emperor to have the entrée of all his most private apartments, and however much his sons and nephews kept saying, “Our wives are becoming estranged from us”, the Emperor would answer “There is no dearth of women in the world, since I have made you Amirs, seek other wives, what does it matter?” “Either make no friendship with an elephant-driver, Or make a house fit for an elephant”. And among the remarkable events of this year is the story of the death of Sayyid Musa of Garmsir, son of Sayyid Mikri, one of the chief Sayyids of Kalpi in the land of India. It is concisely as follows. Sayyid Musa had come to do homage to the Emperor, and by chance he became infatuated with the Hindu wife of a goldsmith, named Mohini, whose beauty was like gold of purest standard, and the lasso of her pure glance attracted him as her lover, and the bond of love and attachment grew strong on both sides. “Who is the lover, that the loved one regards not his state? O Khwajah it is not pain, or if it is there is a cure”.
78.14.5
When the expedition set out to Rintambhor, Sayyid Musa [begged] to remain behind. He took a house within the fortress of Agra, in the vicinity of his beloved on the banks of the river Jumna, near to Mir Sayyid Jalal Mutawakkil, and his affairs tended to madness. Once or twice accompanied by trusty persons of his own he had gone outside his own house, and had fallen either into the hands of the watchman, or into the hands of some goldsmiths of her caste: — “There is an angel on the battlement of yon round cupola, Which draws a wall before the desire of the unfortunate.” A period of two years and four months passed, during which they were content with a glance now and then from afar, till one night Sayyid Musa, at a hint from that fascinating lady, threw a lasso, strong as the covenant of the just, and straight as the promise of the liberal, over the cupola of Mohini’s house, and climbed up like a rope-dancer, and so they spent the night together in chaste affection. A poem called Dilfarib, which Sayyid Shahi, brother of Sayyid Musa, composed, has some verses on that subject: —
78.14.6
“However much the desire of the heart was boiling, Modesty made a proclamation: Be silent! Before his eyes the water of life, But not for a moment the power to drink it. Their hearts from extreme of thirstiness fevered, But their lips were sealed through modesty. One place of retirement, and two persons in love, Their hearts united, their bodies apart. They remained two heart-inflaming wounded ones, In the game of “united yet apart” till morning. This is true love in my opinion, Which has driven out of the heart all thought of desire. When the heart is once dead through desire, How can love take up its abode therein? There is not in this bewildered world A place for love, save in the purest heart. Love is the confidant of the pure in heart, Love is the friend of the sorrowful. a hundred caresses and blandishments They opened a thousand volumes of mysteries. And when they saw the dawn draw near, They bade each other adieu.” But at the time of saying adieu it so happened, that the beloved rising from the pillow of sleep, bade farewell to house and home, and despising fair fame and reputation, went with her lover, as the moonlight with the moon, or the shadow with the substance, and said:—
78.14.7
“O thou true and faithful lover, I am at one with thee, doubt not! The covenant, that first I made with thee, That covenant is the same as long as I live. Rise that we may show a care for ourselves, And may descend again from the roof, That, while it is not yet known, We may steal away before morning.” So they made off from that spot, borrowing swiftness from the wind, and speed from the water, and remained concealed for three days in the house of a trustworthy friend. Meanwhile the relatives of the lady surrounded the house of Sayyid Musa like a ring, and brought claims and litigation. And Sayyid Shahi, the younger brother of the aforesaid Sayyid, who has a sincere friendship for the writer of these pages, and put this story from beginning to end into verse, some of which verses have been quoted above, returned answer to them, and spent the time in ‘Perhapses’ and “Wouldthats.” The lady was informed of that concourse, and her heart being alarmed for Sayyid Musa, lest he should come to any harm at the hands of the Governor, through stress of circumstances parted from that lover, and cheered him with the promise of meeting him again. She herself, through fear of the stain of dishonour, which might cleave to her cheek, returned to her house, and made the following excuse.
78.14.8
She said: “On such and such a night, when sleep was firmly settled on my eyes, a person of such heart-ravishing form, that none ever sees the like of it in his dreams, took me by the hand, and I passed from dream-land to the land of imagination, and that sleep was changed into wakefulness. And I saw distinctly that glorious form, with a crown encircled with jewels upon his head, and two wings of light upon his breast. And over me like one bewildered, confounded, he reciting a charm caused his form to pass, and caught me up on his wings and pinions, and bore me to a certain city, the description of which may perchance have been heard in some fairy-tale, and took and set me down in a high and inaccessible tower full of wonders and strange things of every kind, and in every corner of it were troops of beings of Peri-birth: —