Muntakhab al-tawarikh 79.19
Muntakhabu-t-tawārīkh (Ranking, Lowe, Haig) 79.19
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79.19.1
On the 17th of the month Jamada’-s-sani he arrived at Lahor. Contemporaneously with these events the worthless head of ‘Arab Bahadur, who in the neighbourhood of Bahraich had made war against the servants of Hakim Abul-Fath, and was killed, [was brought; at least] most say, that he died by a natural death, and that they cut off his head and brought it to Court. And his head came down rolling from the mountains of Kamaon, and found its resting-place on the pinnacles of the fortress of Lahor. And thus this disturbance was quelled. On the 19th of the month Rajab the Emperor married the daughter of Rai Singh B’hatta to the Prince Sultan Salim. And at the beginning of the month of Sha‘ban Muhammad Qasim Khan, Mir-bahr, and Fath Khan, the Master of the Elephants, and general, started with a number of the Amirs to conquer Kashmir. When, before this the Emperor had imprisoned Yusuf Khan Kashmiri, who had come under the safe-conduct of Rajah Baghwan Das, and wished to have him put to death, Baghwan Das in order to save his safe-conduct and sense of honour struck himself with a dagger. But by the advice of Shaikh ‘Abd’ur-rahim the heretic, he gained his point, and eventually in companionship became a partner with him.
79.19.2
When the Amirs arrived at the Pass of Katril, Ya'qūb the son of Yūsuf, who had been received among the nobles of the Court, and like Muzaffar of Gujrāt had received 30 or 40 rupees a month, and had fled to Kashmir, and on account of his bigotry for the Shī'ah heresy had killed the Sunni Qāzi of that place with his own hand, laid schemes for disaffection, and gathered round him the servants of his father, and considered his father as good as dead. He came to oppose the Amīrs, and having fortified a defile of the mountain, he took up his position there with a large force, he was altogether a bad fellow part of his men left him, and came over to Muhammad Qāsim Khān, and some of them in Srinagar, which is the capital of Kashmir, raised the standard of revolt. Ya‘qūb considering it the most important to stop rebellion in his own house returned to the city. And the Imperial army entered into the heart of Kashmir without any one to oppose them. Ya‘qūb having no power to resist them flew for refuge to the mountains. Thus the kingdom of Kashmir at one blow came into their power. Again Ya'qūb collected a force and attacked Qāsim Khān, but was defeated. Again he made a night-attack, and gained no advantage. And the Mirzādah ‘Ali Khān was killed in this battle. And when they had driven him up into a narrow corner, and were on the point of making him prisoner, he came abjectly and had an interview with Qāsim Khān, and went with him to do homage to the Emperor.
79.19.3
Finally the Emperor sent him before his father to Bihār to Rājah Mān Singh. And Yūsuf and Ya'qūb were both of them imprisoned in the cell of affliction, and by the sickness of melancholy and spleen they were released from the prison of the body.
79.19.4
On the 19th of Ramazān Mīr Quraish the ambassador, with Hakīm Humām, brother of Hakīm Abul-Fath, and Mīr Sadr Jahān the mufti of the imperial dominions, an inhabitant of the village Pihānī in the district of Qanouj, were despatched to Transoxiana in order to offer condolence to Sikandar Khān, the father of ‘Abd-ullāh Khān. And he sent as a present nearly a lac and a half of rupees and all sorts of gifts of the valuable things of Hindūstān by the hand of Muhammad ‘Alī the treasurer. these days the Roshanais with about 20,000 foot and 5,000 horse came against Sayyid Hamid of Bokhara one of the great Amirs of the Sultáns of Gujrat. He having withdrawn with the few soldiers that he had, gave battle at Peshawar, and was killed. And Zīn Khān Kokah and Shah Quli Khan Mahram, and Shaikh Farid bakhshī were sent in that direction to repair this disaster. And Mān Singh came out from Kabul with all his force to the Khaibar Pass, and fought a severe battle with the Roshanais, and defeated them. And there he held his ground. The next day they made a general onslaught throughout the night and day, and shouting like jackals poured their forces down on them from all sides. At this time his brother Madu Singh, who with Isma'il Quli Khan was at the station of Auhand (?) with a well-appointed army, came to the assistance of Man Singh, and the Afghans fled. Nearly 2,000 of them were killed.
79.19.5
At the same time Mirza Sulaiman who had fought a battle with the Uzbeks in Badakhshan, and been partly victorious and partly defeated, came from Kabul, and had an interview with Man Singh in the Khaibar Pass. Thence he went to Hindūstān, and in the month of Rabi'ul-awwal of the year nine hundred and ninety-five (995) he paid homage at Lahor. Among the notable things which happened is the following: Muhammad Zamān Mirza, son of Shāh Rukh, in the twelfth year of his age, after his father's defeat in battle with the Uzbeks, had been made prisoner, and 'Abd-ullah Khan had given him in charge to his own teacher and spiritual guide, Khwajah Kalan Beg Naqshbandi, one of the grandsons of Khwajah Ahrar (God sanctify his glorious tomb!), intending that he should include him with the other prisoners, and put him to death. And they say that that holy man, punished in his stead a prisoner worthy of death, and set him at liberty and allowed him to depart. At this time Sulaimān Mirzā arrived at Court in incognito, together with beggars from Transoxiana, and paid homage to the Emperor. He received the sum of 1,000 ashrafi as a gratuity.
79.19.6
Thence he went on a pilgrimage, and returned to Badakhshan. There he collected a considerable body of men, and fought several times some gallant battles with the Uzbeks, and beat them. At last he gained possession of the mountain district of that country, and collected the spoil. The Emperor sent to him from Lahor by the hand of Mir Tughan an Ahadi 12,000 ashrafi, and a bow, and a number of muskets and other valuable presents. For several years he made head against the Uzbeks; but being defeated by them he retired to Kabul. The issue of his affairs will be related further on, if God, He is exalted, will. On the eleventh of the month Rabi'-us-sani of the year nine hundred and ninety-five (995) the celebration of the Imperial New Year’s Day (P. 350), and the commencement of the thirty-second, or according to the Mirza the thirty-third, year from the Accession took place. And in the manner, which has been before described, the feast was held. And other customs were further introduced. Among them was this, that people should not have more than one legal wife, unless he had no child. In any other case the rule should be one man, and one woman. When a woman had passed the time of hope, and her menses ceased, she should not wish for a husband. And widows, if they wished to marry again, should not be forbidden, as the Hindus forbid re-marriage. Also a Hindu woman of tender years, who could have got no enjoyment from her husband, should not be burnt.
79.19.7
But if the Hindus take this ill, and will not be prevented, then in case of the wife of one, who had died, one of the Hindus should take the girl and marry her in that very interview. Another of these customs was, that when the Emperor’s disciples met one another one should say “Allah Akbar,” and the other should say “jalla jalaluhu”, and that this was to take the place of “Salam” and the response “Salam”. And another was, that the beginning of the reckoning of the Hindi month should be from the 28th and not from the 13th (which was the invention of Rajah BikramAjit, and an innovation of his), and that they should fix the well-known festivals of the Hindus according to this rule. But it never attained currency, although farmans went forth to this effect from Fathpur to Gujrat on one side, and Bengal on the other. Another was that they were to prohibit the basest people from learning science in the cities, because insurrections often arose from these people. Another was that a learned Brahman should decide the case of Hindus, and not a Qazi of the Musalmans. And that if there was any need of an oath, they were to put a red-hot iron into the hand of the denier, if he was burnt, he was to be known as a liar, but if not, he should be acknowledged as speaking the truth. Or else that he should put his hand into boiling oil;
79.19.8
or that, while they shot an arrow and brought it back, he should dive into the water, and if he put his head out of the water before they returned, the defendant should satisfy the claims of the plaintiff. Another was that they should bury a man with his head towards the East and his feet to the West: and he always fixed his own going to sleep in this manner.