Muntakhab al-tawarikh 78.27
Muntakhabu-t-tawārīkh (Ranking, Lowe, Haig) 78.27
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78.27.1
In this year a lofty college and high and spacious palaces were built on the road to Ajmir. And the cause of this was as follows: His Majesty’s extreme devotion induced him every year to go on a pilgrimage to that city, and so he ordered a palace to be built at every stage between Agrah and that place, and a pillar to be erected and a well sunk at every coss. Ever so many hundreds of stags’ horns, which the Emperor had killed during the course of his life were placed on these pillars as a memorial to the world. And Mil-shakh “Mile-horn” gives the date. Would that instead of these he had ordered gardens and caravansarais to be made! In this year at the instigation of Shahbaz Khan Kambu the custom of branding the government horses came into practice. And with one stroke of the pen he commanded the appointment of tax-gatherers throughout the whole empire, and that lands should be held directly from the Crown, as shall be narrated, if God (He is exalted!) will. In the latter part of the month Çafar of the year nine hundred and eighty-two (982) the Emperor embarked on board the crocodile-prowed vessel with the intention of conquering Bengal.
78.27.2
The reason for this journey was as follows: When Sulaiman Afghan Kararani died, who from the time of Islim Shah had held the district of Bengal and become quite independent, his son Bayazid succeeded him for a time, but on account of his bad conduct after a short space of time he was murdered by the contrivance of his brother-in-law Hansu and other Amirs. Then Daud the younger son of Sulaiman, who was his heir, took upon himself the title of king, and omitted the custom observed by Sulaiman of sending messages to inform the Emperor of his accession to power, and to assure him of his loyalty. News of the death of Sulaiman reached the Emperor at the fortress of Surat, and he immediately issued a farman to the Khan Khanan, Mun‘im Khan, who was at that time at Jounpur, to chastise Daud and conquer the kingdom of Bengal. The Khan Khanan levied a large army, and having seized two lacs of rupees and other goods and precious things as tribute settled the matter peaceably, and returned. Daud, who was then at Hajipur, at the instigation of Katlu Khan, governor of Jagannath, by cunning management in exciting his cupidity for an elephant, got Lodi into his power and imprisoned him. He had been governor of Orissa, but had since taken a hostile course and had assumed independent and absolute authority in the Fortress of Rohtas. They tell the story that one day Daud went out hunting with a small escort, and that Lodi with 10000 horsemen of Sulaiman’s formed the design of putting down Daud.
78.27.3
But Daud went back to the city, assembled his forces, and scattered Lodi’s followers. By his crafty management he got Lodi into his power, and appropriated all that he possessed. Lodi, knowing his death to be certain, did not withhold his advice from Daud. He said: “Although I know that you will be very sorry after my death, and that you will derive no benefit from it, still I give you one piece of advice, which if you act upon, you will prove victorious. And that is, that you place no reliance upon that peace which I effected not long ago by means of two lacs of rupees. The Moghuls will never let you alone for this trifling sum. Be beforehand with them, and make war on them immediately, for there is nothing like the first blow.” Daud thought that he had an evil design in what he said, and proud of the hollow peace which he had made with the Khan Khanan, but which was no better than a mirage, he put the devoted Lodi to death. Thus he struck his own foot with the axe, and at the same time uprooted the plant of his prosperity with the spade of calamity. When the Khan Khanan heard this news, his loaf fell into the butter and he turned towards Patnah and Hajipur. Then Daud began to recognize the worth of Lodi, and repented of having put him to death ; but what was the good of it ! “ The horse of your fortune was under your thigh, If you did not make haste, what could one do ! The dice of life were to your wishes, But you played badly, what could one do !”
78.27.4
Having repaired the wreck and ruin of the fortress of Patnah, without even drawing his sword, or a single arrow being fitted to the bow, he shut himself up in the fortress. But on account of his drunkenness and injustice his people deserted from him, until the Emperor at the aforementioned date appointed Mirza Yusuf Khan to the command of the army and sent him forward by land, and left Shahab-ud-din Ahmad Khan in charge of A'grah, and himself set off by river. The following ruba'i was composed on the occasion : — The justice-distributing and religion-protecting Emperor The world-conquering Jamshid Muhammad Akbar, Sat on the bank of the sea ; like Sikandar Both sea and land became subject to him. The Emperor took his eldest son with him. The face of the water was hidden by the number of boats and vessels (P. 176). And through the congratulations of the Kharwahas, who are a sort of sailors used to the river, and through their shouts and cries in the language peculiar to them, the birds of the air and the fish of the water were well nigh made to dance. And such a spectacle presented itself as no words can possibly describe. Every day the Emperor used to disembark and occupy himself in hunting, and at night he would cast anchor, and would spend it in searching into science and poetry, and in recitals and repetitions.
78.27.5
On the 23rd of the month Çafar mentioned above the Emperor encamped at Payág, which is commonly called Ilahabas, where the waters of the Ganges and Jumna unite. The infidels consider this a holy place, and with a desire to obtain the rewards which are promised in their creed, of which transmigration is one of the most prominent features, they submit themselves to all kinds of tortures. Some place their brainless heads under saws, others split their deceitful tongues in two, others enter Hell by casting themselves down into the deep river from the top of a high tree: “Although he committed the crime for the sake of reward, He went to Hell all the same by that road of water.”
78.27.6
He laid the foundations of a great building, and left the name of that city Iláhábád. From Banáras he sent Shér Bég Tawáchí in a very swift vessel to the Khán Khánán. And on the second of the month Rabí‘-uṣ-ṣání from a place called Yaliyápúr, one of the environs of Jounpúr, which is the meeting-place of the waters of the Ganges and the Gowadí, he had the boats of the Prince, with the ladies of the harem, and the judges and justices, towed against the stream of the Gowadí and sent to Jounpúr. He himself went up the river two or three days’ journey, and then returning in accordance with a request of the Khán Khánán in the greatest haste towards the Ganges, he gave rein to his river-drinking crocodiles. At this halting-place news arrived of the death of Sultán Maḥmúd of Bakkar, and of Muḥib ‘Alí Khán’s having taken possession of that kingdom. On the 16th of the aforesaid month the army arrived by land at the environs of the city of Gházípúr, and at this halting-place (P. 177) I‘timád Khán, Khwájah Saráí, came to the Emperor from the Khán Khánán and related at length the state of the army of the Khán Khánán, and pressed him to make as much haste as possible. On the seventh of this month Sayyid Mírak Iṣpahání a man learned in charms, who after the defeat of Khán Zamán had lived at Jounpúr, at the instigation of Naqíb Khán studied a great book of sortilege, and when he had selected the letters and arranged and compounded them, the following verse came out as the omen : —
78.27.7
"With quickness Akbar through royal fortune Will take the kingdom out of the hand of Daud." And it so happened that it turned out just in that way. And on his return, when he was encamped at Jaunpur, the afore-mentioned Sayyid hastened to do homage to the Emperor, and offered him another omen. And this verse also came true: "The news of the victory suddenly comes, The head of Daud comes to the Court." The compiler of this epitome was at that time a friend of his, and I asked leave of him to study that lore, and he consented. But he said that this lore was a special privilege of the Sayyids, and that there was a certain condition attached to the matter, which was fundamental, and the observance of which was indispensable. At last I found out that this indispensable condition was the embracing of the doctrines of the foolish Shi‘ah-s! This sort of omen like all omens is a forgery and an invention, for any one who has a little thinking power can invent the like of it, as came to my own experience and was seen by me. And in those days, without the favour of the instruction of the Sayyid, I practised it myself. The wiser Jami tells us: —