Muntakhab al-tawarikh 79.15
Muntakhabu-t-tawārīkh (Ranking, Lowe, Haig) 79.15
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79.15.1
At that time A‘zam Khan came in haste from Hajipur to Ilahabad and did homage, and receiving leave to depart he went quickly back again to bring his army. And the Amirs laid in that city the foundations of a great building ; and it was determined that thenceforth that place should be the Capital. And they struck a new coinage, and Sharif Sarmadi, the registrar of outposts of whom some one said : — “There were two registrars, and both were coarse, One was Sharif and not Nafis, The other was Nafis and not Sharif,” wrote this verse for the coin: “Ever may it current be, Like the gold of sun and moon, From east to west of the world, The coinage of Ilahabad.” About this time Mulla Ilahdad of Amrohah and Mulla Sheri attended the Court in order to flatter the Emperor; for they had been appointed to Sadr-ships in the Duab of the Panjab. Mulla Sheri presented to His Majesty, a poem composed by him, entitled Hazar Shu'a', which contained 1,000 qit'ahs in praise of the Sun. His Majesty was much pleased.
79.15.2
In the month Zi-hajjah of this year the Emperor returned thence, with a view to going to Fathpur to quell the disturbances in Gujrat; but in environs of Etawah news arrived of the victory of Mirza Khan. And in the month Çafar in the year nine hundred and ninety-two (992), when the Emperor returned to the capital gracious firmans were issued to the Amirs of Gujrat. To Mirza Khan was given the title of Khan Khanan, and a horse and a dress of honour, and jewelled girdle and dagger, and a tumantogh, and the rank of a commander of 5,000, which was the highest dignity of Amirs. And to Nizam-ud-din Ahmad, who had been the cause of their persevering in the conquest of that country, he gave a horse and dress of honour, and a rise in rank. And the ranks of the others also he increased, viz., raising them from 10 to 20, or from 10 to 30 according to the circumstances of each. In this year the Emperor commanded me to make a translation of the Ramayana, which is a superior composition to the Mahabharata. rata, it contains 25,000 couplets, and each slok-portion consists of 65 letters. The story is about Ram Chand Rajah of Oudh, whom they also call Ram. And the Hindus pay him worship as a god in human form. And the sum and substance of it is that a demon with ten heads named Ravan, ruler of the island of Lanka deceived his wife Sita and carried her off. And Ram Chand with his brother Lach’hman went to that island.
79.15.3
And a great army of monkeys, and bears whose number the intellect cannot count, gathered together, and threw a bridge of the length of 400 cosses over the briny ocean. And some of the monkeys they say leapt that distance, and others of the monkeys went on foot. And there are many contradictory idle tales like this, which the intellect is at a loss whether to accept or reject. At any rate Ram Chand mounted on the monkeys passed over the bridge, and for a whole week made a tremendous fight of it, and killed Ravan and all his children and relatives, and put an end to his family which had lasted a thousand years. And having entrusted Lanka to Ravan’s brother he turned to his own city. And in the opinion of the Hindus he reigned 10,000 years over the whole of Hindustan, and then returned to his original abode. And the opinion of this set of people is, that the world is very old, and that no age has been devoid of the human race, and that from that event 100 thousand thousand years have passed. And yet for all that they make no mention of Adam, whose creation took place only 7,000 years ago. Hence it is evident that these events are not true at all, and are nothing but pure invention, and simple imagination, like the Shahnnamah, and the stories of Amir Hamzah, or else it must have happend in the time of the dominion of the beasts and the jinnis — but God alone knows the truth of the matter.
79.15.4
And among the remarkable events of this time was this. They brought a low-caste woman into the Audience hall, and said that she had become a man, and one of the translators of the Ramayana went out of the company of the translators, and saw her, and came back and testified that she was a woman, who through shame covered her face, and uttered not a word. And the doctors brought forward many proofs confirming this matter, and said that such things often occurred, (glory to God who rules in his kingdom as he will !) And in this year Mulla Alim of Kabul, who was very learned, and sweet-voiced, and of pleasant conversation, and was the most cheerful fellow imaginable, died, and the date was found to be given by : “ The greedy man's hair is covered with dust ” and the Fawatih-ul-walayat is his work. At this time the thirtieth year from the accession, and the Nowroz-i-Sultani which corresponds with the Nowroz-i-jalali, arrived. On the eighth of the month Rabi’-ul-awwal of the year nine hundred and ninety two (992) the entrance of the Sun into Aries took place. And the customary fancy bazzaar and festival was held, and a great concourse came together, and new-fangled customs came into vogue, and hoards were sent flying. And bells — brazen bulls, like the calf of Samari — were played, and made a great noise. And bigas, which are tents looking like domes, and are an invention of the Europeans, were set up.
79.15.5
And they sacrificed their wealth, and life, replication, and religion to their friendship for the Emperor. And so many holy souls rushed upon this trial, that they cannot be numbered. And sets of twelve persons, by turns, and in exactly the same way, became disciples, and conformed to the same creed and religion. And instead of the tree-of-discipleship he gave them a likeness; they looked on it as the standard of loyal friendship, and the advance-guard of righteousness, and happiness, and they put it wrapped up in a jewelled case on the top of their turbans. And Allah Akbar was used by them in the prefaces of their writings. And dice-playing and usury were allowed, and other forbidden things in like manner. And gambling houses were set up at the Court, and the Emperor lent money to the players at interest from the treasury. And borrowing on interest, and giving money away to the spectators was looked on as a branch of economy. He forbade girls before twelve, and boys before sixteen years of age to be married. And the story of the consummation of the Prophet's marriage with Qah'qah (God bless him and his family and give them peace!) he utterly abhorred. And all his other heretical attacks on orthodoxy who can speak of! Would that my ears were filled with quicksilver, so that what things would they escape hearing! And the failings of all the prophets (God’s blessings, and His peace be on them all!) the Emperor cited as reasons for disbelieving, especially the story of David (P.
79.15.6
339) and Uriah, and the like. And whosoever did not agree with his creed, he considered worthy of death, and a reprobate, and eternally damned, and gave him the nickname of Lawyer and Enemy of the State, but in accordance with the proverb “What a man sows that shall he reap,” they themselves became notorious throughout the world for the errors of the most infidel religion; and the Mujtahid and spiritual director, got the name of Abu-l-Jahl; yea “when the ruler is oppressive, the vazir becomes deceitful.” The Emperor considered his secular power as subservient to his spiritual power, and so he considered these affairs the most important of all, and other things as mere accessories. And in order to abolish the stall of the glory of our religion, he ordered the stalls of the nowrōz to be thrown open from time to time for the amusement of the Begums and people of the haram, and the wives of high and low, and on such occasions distributed gold. And the important affairs of those, who were outside the haram, and marriage contracts and betrothal of sons and daughters were transacted in those assemblies. Nothing except an official post, and an eye to the Emperor's friendship, was looked on as worth anything. And, however much the Emperor endeavoured to remove this bond, yet of Hindu infidels, (who are indispensable, and of whom half the army, and country will soon consist, and as whom there is not among the Moghuls or Hindu-djānis a tribe so powerful), he could not have enough.
79.15.7
But to other people, whatever they might ask for, he gave nothing but kicks and blows, and utterly disregarded all their devotion, and zeal, and complaisance. In those days A'zam Khan came by forc'd marches from Hājīpūr [opposite] Patnah in accordance with his promise. And representations arrived from Mirza Muhammad Hakim to the effect, that Badakhshan had entirely fallen into the power of Abd-ullah Khan Uzbek, for that Mirza Sulaiman, who had come back from a pilgrimage to Makkah, had seized Badakhshan, and that Mirza Shahrukh had fought with the Uzbek, and being defeated by him, they had both of them fled for refuge to Hindustan.