Muntakhab al-tawarikh 78.43
Muntakhabu-t-tawārīkh (Ranking, Lowe, Haig) 78.43
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78.43.1
“I have not the fortune to have intercourse with the Beloved, I have not the fortitude to abstain from Love. I have not the power to fight against Fate, I have not the foot to flee from the field.” And while the Emperor was at Hisar, at the time that he was on his way to the Punjab, a despatch arrived at Court from Sher Bek Tawachi, to the effect that Muzaffar Husain Mirza having fled from Gujrat and gone to the Dak’hin, had been captured by Rajah ‘Ali Khan, and was held prisoner by him. So at the beginning of Zi-hijjah in the year nine hundred and eighty-five (985) the Emperor despatched a farman to Rajah ‘Ali Khan concerning Maqsu’d Jauhari, which resulted in his sending the Mirza to the Imperial Court. In the beginning of the sacred month of Muharram in the year nine hundred and eighty-six (986) was the new year’s day of the Jalali period, corresponding with the twenty-fourth year from the accession: “The Qaisar of the throne wins the day over the Sultan of the sky, Verily his fame rises up to Aries.”
78.43.2
At Patan the Emperor had the honour of visiting the tomb of the saint Ganj Shakar (may God sanctify his glorious spirit!), and then went for a Qamurghah hunt in the neighbourhood of Nandannah, and in the course of four days numberless game was enclosed. when it had almost come about that the two sides of the Qamurghah were come together, suddenly all at once a strange state and strong frenzy came upon the Emperor, and an extraordinary change was manifested in his manner, to such an extent as cannot be accounted for. And every one attributed it to some cause or other; but God alone knoweth secrets. And at that time he ordered the hunting to be abandoned: “Take care! for the grace of God comes suddenly, It comes suddenly, it comes to the mind of the wise.” And at the foot of a tree which was then in fruit he distributed much gold to the faqīrs and poor, and laid the foundation of a lofty building, and an extensive garden in that place. And he cut off the hair of his head, and most of the courtiers followed his example. And when news of this became spread abroad in the Eastern part of India, strange rumours and wonderful lies became current in the mouths of the common people, and some insurrections took place among the ryots, but these were quickly quelled. While he was at Bhera the Imperial Begum arrived from the Capital.
78.43.3
At this time he confided the government of the Panjāb to Sa'īd Khān Moghul, and appointed Qāzī ‘Alī Baghdādī (who is the grandson of Mīr Qāzī Husain Maibuzī) to rearrange the boundaries of the lands given as Madad-i Ma'āsh and Aymah in the Punjab and elsewhere, which had been encroached upon. He had orders to abolish the old boundaries and re-measure the enclosures, and to put them all together into one village. Thus an exact distinction was made between the different grant-lands of the empire, and all this was done in spite of Shaikh ‘Abdunnabī, and the dishonesty of his subordinates. Thence the Emperor set out on his return to Fatḥpūr. And near to Khizrābād Sādhūrah on the 5th of Jamādā’-s-sānī in the aforesaid year the Emperor embarked on board ship and the Amīrs and nobles of the kingdom also went on board a vessel to accompany him, but the army went by land. And on the 29th of this month the Emperor arrived at Dihlī. During the first part of the month Rajab he disembarking from the water-boat and mounted a land-boat (which is a figurative expression for a desert-traversing steed), and on the 5th of this month he reached Ajmir and attended the festival held at the tomb of the Saint. The next day at the same hour he started for the Imperial Palace, and travelling each day 50 cosses, he arrived at day-break on Friday the 9th. The compiler of these pages, who had come from Basawar to meet him, paid his respects to him at that time, and presented (P.
78.43.4
255) the Book of the Ahadis, which contains forty of them treating on the merit of war with Infidels, and the advantages of archery, and its names includes the date of it. It was admitted into the Library, and no mention whatever was made of any fault on my part in delaying to redeem my promise. And later that day the Emperor came to Fathpur. There he used to spend much time in the ‘Ibadat-khanah the company of learned men and Shaikhs. And especially on Friday nights, when he would sit up there the whole night continually occupied in discussing questions of Religion, whether fundamental or collateral. The learned men used to draw the sword of the tongue on the battle-field of mutual contradiction and opposition, and the antagonism of the sects reached such a pitch that they would call one another fools and heretics. The controversies used to pass beyond the differences of Sunni, and Shi‘ah, of Hanafi and Shafi‘i, of lawyer and divine, and they would attack the very bases of belief. And Makhdum-ul-mulk wrote a treatise, to the effect that Shaikh ‘Abdunnabi had unjustly killed Khizr Khan Sarwani, who had been suspected of blaspheming the Prophet (peace be upon him!), and Mir Habsh, who had been suspected of being a Shi‘ah, and saying that it was not right to repeat the prayers after him, because he was undutiful towards his father, and was himself afflicted with hemorrhoids. Shaikh ‘Abdunnabi replied to him that he was a fool and a heretic.
78.43.5
Then the Mullas became divided into two parties, and one party took one side and on the other, and became very Jews and Egyptians for hatred of each other. And persons of novel and whimsical opinions, in accordance with their pernicious ?, and vain doubts, coming out of ambush decked the false in the garb of the true, and wrong in the dress of right, and cast the Emperor, who was possessed of an excellent disposition, and was an earnest searcher after truth, but very ignorant and a mere tyro, and used to the company of infidels and base persons, into perplexity, till doubt was heaped upon doubt, and he lost all definite aim, and the straight wall of the clear Law, and of firm Religion was broken down, so that after five or six years not a trace of Islam was left in him: and every thing was turned topsy turvy:— "The matter of me and you has fallen upside down, You purchase the very thing I blame."
78.43.6
For this there were many causes and reasons, but in accordance with the Proverb 'A little guides to the much, and fear points out the culprit' a specimen of them is brought forward in the course of this history (and God is the assistant!). In a word crowds of learned men from all nations, and sages of various religions and sects came to the Court, and were honoured with private conversations. After enquiries and investigations, which were their only business and occupation day and night, they would talk about profound points of science, the subtleties of revelation, the curiosities of history, and the wonders of nature, subjects of which huge volumes could give only an abstract and summary: and in accordance with the saying:—
78.43.7
"Three things are dangerous, Avarice satisfied, desire indulged: and a man's being pleased with himself" every thing that pleased him, he picked and chose from any one except a Moslem, and any thing that was against his disposition, and ran counter to his wishes he thought fit to reject and cast aside. From childhood to manhood, and from manhood to his declining years the Emperor had combined in himself various phases from various religions and opposite sectarian beliefs, and by a peculiar acquisitiveness and a talent for selection, by no means common, had made his own all that can be seen and read in books. Thus a faith of a materialistic character became painted on the mirror of his mind and the storehouse of his imagination, and from the general impression this conviction took form, like an engraving upon a stone, that there are wise men to be found and ready at hand in all religions, and men of asceticism, and recipients of revelation and workers of miracles among all nations and that the Truth is an inhabitant of every place: and that consequently how could it be right to consider it as confined to one religion or creed, and that, one which had only recently made its appearance and had not as yet endured a thousand years! And why assert one thing and deny another, and claim pre-eminence for that which is not essentially pre-eminent?
78.43.8
And Samanas and Brahmans (who as far as the matter of private interviews is concerned gained the advantage over every one in attaining the honour of interviews with his Majesty, and in associating with him, and were in every way superior in reputation to all learned and trained men for their treatises on morals, and on physical and religious sciences, and in religious ecstacies, and stages of spiritual progress and human perfections) brought forward proofs, based on reason and traditional testimony, for the truth of their own, and the fallacy of our religion, and inculcated their doctrine with such firmness and assurance, that they affirmed mere imaginations as though they were self-evident facts, the truth of which the doubts of the sceptic could no more shake—