Muntakhab al-tawarikh 78.20.5

78.20.5

During this year a dreadful fire broke out at Badaun, and so many Hindus and Musalmans perished in the flames as to exceed all computation. Carts filled with the charred remains were driven down to the river, and none could tell who was a Moslem and who an infidel. Many to escape being burnt rushed to the ramparts of the fortress, and men and women on account of the heat of the flaming fire threw themselves down from the top of the wall. Others escaped with burns and scars. Water on that fire (P. 139) acted like oil of naphtha. All this I witnessed with my own eyes, and heard the noise of the flames with my own ears. Some it warned, others it destroyed. Before this catastrophe a half-witted fellow came from the Doab, and I took him into my house, and associated with him. He said to me in private : “ Flee out of this city.” I said : “ Why ? ” He said : “ A terrible visitation is about to happen to it. ” But since he was a frequenter of taverns I did not credit him : — “ Why do you ask about Badaun and its distracted state, For it is a revelation of the verses about ‘ The punishment of fire ’?”