Muntakhab al-tawarikh 79.29.3

79.29.3

Contemporaneously with these events he one day said to Abu-l-Fazl in my presence: “Although the guardianship of Ajmīr suits so and so very well, yet since, whenever I give him anything to translate, he always writes what is very pleasing to me, I do not wish that he should be separated from me.” The Shaikh and others confirmed His Majesty’s opinion of me. That very day an order was issued that I should translate and complete the remainder of those Hindu lies, part of which had been translated by the command of Sultān Zīn-ul-‘Ābidīn, king of Kashmīr, and named the Baḥr-ul-asmār, while the greater part had been left untranslated. I was commanded to finish the last volume of that book, which was of the thirty or sixty juz in the course of five months. At this time also one night he called me into his private bed-chamber to the foot of the bed, and till the morning asked for stories out of each chapter, and then said: “Since the first volume of the Bahr-ul-asmār, which Sultān Zin-ul-‘ābidīn had translated, is in archaic Persian, and difficult to understand, do you translate it afresh into ordinary language, and take care of the rough copy of the book, which you have translated.” I performed the zamīnbōs, and heartily undertook the commission. I began to work, and after showing me a great deal of favour he presented me with 10,000 tankahs in small change, and a horse.