Muntakhab al-tawarikh 78.33.4

78.33.4

but this was not easy. In the month of Shawwál in the year nine hundred and eighty-three (983), on my applying for leave of absence, it was refused, but the Emperor excused my inspections of the horses. Still through the unfriendly disposition of the Qadr, and the unpropitiousness of the times he only allotted to me a tenure to the amount of 1000 bigahs of land, which in that iron age appeared to be equivalent to the fief of a commander of twenty. It was styled also in the farmán a madad-i-ma'ásh. I represented that with this small tenure I could not afford to be always in attendance on the Court, to which the Emperor replied that he would also give me subsidies and presents during the marches. And Shaikh ‘Abd-un- .Nabi said that no person of my quality had received from him so large a grant of land. As for the presents which I was promised, though twenty-two years have elapsed since my hopes were raised, I have received them but once or twice, and the rest have been concealed behind the veil of fate and have fallen like [dust] to the ground. These fine promises were nothing better than a mirage. I have performed services without rewards, and suffered useless restraints, from which I can now be relieved only by the humour of destiny: — “Either faithfulness, or news of union with thee, or [the death] of the rival, The playfulness of fate will do one of these three things.” ‘We are content with the decree of God, are patient under His trials, and thankful for His favours’: —