Muntakhab al-tawarikh 78.16
Muntakhabu-t-tawārīkh (Ranking, Lowe, Haig) 78.16
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78.16.1
“ Awake ! with a view to the last sleep, Like a camel at ‘ Id,’ or a butcher’s bullock. The apple of her chin became through destiny Withered like an apple of last year.” Her father and mother seeing her in this case at once despaired of her life, and forgave her delinquencies : — “ No one takes tribute from a ruined village ”, And after that a total derangement, such as takes place in the pulse of persons on the point of death, became apparent in her whether in motion or at rest, every moment like one mad, and at war with herself, she would sit in a corner disconsolate, and beat her breast with a stone. Then making the pronunciation of the name of Sayyid Musa the practice of her lips and the amulet of her life, in the presence of the pious Mir Sayyid Jalal, who was the religious leader of the day, she recited the confession of Islam, and cast herself on the dust of her pure lover, and surrendered her soul to her beloved, as Sayyid Shahi the author of that poem points out: —
78.16.2
"When the moon heard of this event, She came suddenly towards us in her wandering : She took upon her lips the confession of faith, She became a Musalman before a congregation. When she obtained dignity from the religion of Islam, She put on the Ihram for the pilgrimage of eternity. When love became conjoined with her beauty, It burnt that taper as though it were a moth. She uttered a cry through affection and love, She took Musa on her lips, and gave up her life. In one moment those two princes of love Became martyrs of the dagger of love. So that in the midst of the garden of paradise They might be hidden from all mankind. Those two spiritual companions Went away from this transitory world. From the pain and grief of separation they were freed, Concealed from all they sat together. O Sayyid why dost thou weep ? Why dost give up thy heart to mourning ? Forget all this misadventure, Strive after fortitude, and be still." Praise be to God for the gift of Doctrine, and Faith! The author begs leave to observe, that although in strict accordance with his promise of conciseness, there was no room in this story for indulgence in high-flown language, still what could he do! For the language of love carried the reins of my pen irresistibly out of the grasp of my control, and prolixity has been the result. Forgive me!
78.16.3
“Listen O ear to the story of love, The melody of love from the scratching of the pen. My business is love, and my friend is love, The sum-total of my days is love. What can I do? this is in my temperament, From eternity my Destiny is this. For this purpose have they created me, For this purpose have they drawn me forth.” My hope from Court of the Creator, who pities his creatures, is that he will not make me a liar in this my boast; but that he will make me live in the pain of love, and in that same pain make me to die:— “The man, who but for one day has his heart-pain, To him and to me alike may there be good fortune!” A somewhat similar event had taken place prior to this. It was as follows: One of the sons of a Shaikh of Gwalyar, who was related to Shaikh Muhammad Ghous, and was renowned for his remarkable equity and purity, became enamoured of a singing girl in Agra:— “In the darkling west of her tresses she mustered A hundred caravans of moons, and of planets. In the skirt of union and separation she bound The ill-fated and the happy-starred alike. In the circle of her tresses she hid The turban of the circling sphere.”
78.16.4
This came to the ears of the Emperor, and he gave that singing to Muqbil Khan, who was one of his courtiers. Then the son of the Shaikh having lost the desire of his heart, went one night to the guarded castle, whither his rival had carried his beloved and imprisoned her, and throwing the lasso of determination, climbed up and carried her off. The Emperor commanded Shaikh Ziya’uddin, son of Shaikh Muhammad Ghous, who now has succeeded to his father on the pathway of spiritual direction and guidance, to bring back that relative of his and that house-devastating woman by means of persuasive advice and friendly counsel. When they came into his presence, the Emperor requested that they would unite them in marriage, but Shaikh Ziya’uddin and the others forbade. So the disconsolate lover, being unable to endure his grief, killed himself with a stroke of the dagger, and obliterated his name from the register of existence. And a great dispute arose among the learned men with respect to his interment and burial. Shaikh Ziya’uddin said that in accordance with the tradition: “He who loves and is chaste, and conceals his love and dies, dies a martyr”, he was a martyr to love, and he ought to be committed to the dust just as he was:— “I am a martyr to the dagger of love, With the blood of my eyelids besmeared. Commit me to the dust just as I am, Full of blood, and wash me not.”
78.16.5
But Shaikh ‘Abdunnabi, the chief Çadr, and other ‘Ulamá-s and Qázís, who were controllers of the çadr court, said that having died unclean and stained with adultery, he was not resting in love; but God knows best! And on account of the fate of her lover that singing girl went into mourning, and tearing the skirt of patience, clothing herself with a winding-sheet upon his grave, elected to sweep his tomb, till after some days having gone to the unveiling in the house of non-existence, they two were perfectly united:— “When the Fair-ones lift up the veil, The Lovers expire at the sight of such majesty.” Or as Falconer has well rendered the lines of Hakim Sanáí: “Ah! when the Fair, adored through life, lifts up at length, he cried, The veil that sought from mortal eyes immortal charms to hide, ’Tis thus true lovers fevered long, with that sweet mystic fire, Exulting meet the Loved-one’s gaze, and in the glance expire.”
78.16.6
And in this year Shaikh Gaddi Kambōh of Dihli, who was a retired financier, and through the foolish flattery of the knaves of the day had become a very idol in self-conceit and pride, departed this life. And * You are dead you great hog * was found to give the date. And in the year nine hundred and seventy-seven (977), when the news of the taking of Chitōr and Rintambhor became spread abroad on all sides (P. 120) and in all directions, and Rām Chand the ruler of Bhat’h found that his fortresses could no longer hold out, and that they were short of water, he began to consider seriously what would be the result of continued opposition, and before matters came to such a pitch that he would be obliged to capitulate, sent the key of the fortress of Kālinjar with valuable presents to Court. This fortress he had bought for a considerable sum of money from Bijlī Khān, the reputed son of Bahādur Khān Sarwānī. The Emperor committed this fortress to the charge of Majnūn Khān Qāqshāl, who had a jāgīr in that neighbourhood. He also sent a conciliatory farmān to Rājah Rām Chand, and gave him the parganna of Arail (which is near to Jhōsī, and Piyāg known as Ilhābās) together with its dependencies as jāgīr. On the seventeenth of the month Rabī’ulawwal of this year, when seven hours of the day had passed, the auspicious birth of the Imperial Prince Sultān Salīm took place at the abode of Shaikh Islām Chishtī at Fathpūr:
78.16.7
“You would say that a star had come to the earth, That Joseph had come a second time to the world. On the crown of his head through wisdom There shone a star of eminence.” The Emperor set out with all expedition from Āgrah, and in the excess of his joy ordered all prisoners to be released, and for seven days held high festival. The poets presented him with congratulatory qasīdahs. Of that number was Khwājah Husain Marwī, who recited a qasīdah, of which each first hemistich contains the date of the Emperor’s accession, and each second hemistich the date of happy birth of the Imperial Prince, the refuge of the world. He received two lacs of tankahs in money. The Qasīdah is as follows:
78.16.8
Praise to God for the pomp and glory of our king ! (P. 121) A pure pearl from the ocean of justice is come to the shore : A bird from the nest of pomp and bounty has alighted : A star from the pinnacle of glory and beauty is manifested : A rose of this sort they have not shown on the ground of the garden. A tulip of this sort has not opened in the tulip-bed, The nurse of the spring-cloud, through the tenderness of excellence, Made the grass the companion of the rose, the pearl that of the jewel. The Sun said : ‘ It is right that for that Piece-of-moon It should make an ear-ring of Zohrah for the adorning of beauty : The coming of a son adds to the adornment of a king, perhaps The incomparable Lulu would add to the adornment of the royal Pearl. All hearts were glad that again from the heaven of justice and equity The world once more revived, through the Sun of the days of spring. That new-moon of the mansion of power and bounty and pomp came down, And that shoot of the desire of the soul of the king bore fruit. The king of the realm of fidelity, the Sultan of the palace of purity, The taper of the assembly of the heart-broken, the desire of the heart of the hopeful, The noble the perfect Muhammad Akbar, Lord of conjunction, The renowned king, seeking and attaining his desire, The perfectly capable sage, the most just of the kings of the world, Noble, loftiest, a sage without a rival in the world.