[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Dark Ages](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages) › [General histories](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.general) › [Muntakhab al-tawārīkh](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.general.muntakhab-al-tawarikh) › [Muntakhabu-t-tawarikh (Ranking, Lowe, Haig)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.general.muntakhab-al-tawarikh~en-ranking-lowe-haig) › 79.29 # Muntakhab al-tawarikh 79.29 Muntakhabu-t-tawārīkh (Ranking, Lowe, Haig) 79.29 - **Language:** English ### [79.29.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.general.muntakhab-al-tawarikh~en-ranking-lowe-haig.79.29.1) “How long reproach me for my weeping eyelashes, Let me for once have also the sympathy of thy dark eye.” Eventually I impressed upon all the courtiers the fact, that all the people of India speak of the reward and punishment of good and bad actions. Their belief is as follows : When a person dies the scribe, who writes the chronicle of the deeds of mankind throughout the course of their lives, takes it before the angel, who is the Seizer of Souls, and is called the King of Justice. After he has examined into their good and bad actions, and has seen which has the preponderance, he says, “This person has his choice.” Then he asks him: “Shall I first for thy good actions take thee to Paradise, that thou mayest there enjoy to the full delights in proportion to thy good actions, and after that send thee to Hell to expiate thy sins; or vice versa?” When that period comes to an end, then he gives orders that the person should return to the Earth, and entering a form suitable to his actions should pass a certain period. And so on ad infinitum, until the time when he attains absolute release, and is freed from coming into and leaving the world. So that affair passed off well. On the day of Sharaf-i-shams the Emperor said to Çadr Jahán, without any one’s having suggested it to him; “How would it be if I were to appoint so and so to the guardianship of the blessed tomb of his holiness the Khwájah of Ajmír, which is without a guardian?” He answered, “It would be a very good thing.” ### [79.29.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.general.muntakhab-al-tawarikh~en-ranking-lowe-haig.79.29.2) So for the space of two or three months I did much running in the service of the Court, all the time hoping for a release from confusion. And for a time I wrote some formal petitions, to which I got no answer, and so it became necessary that (P. 401) I should take my departure. And the Inward Monitor said this:— “If thou put thy hand to anything, I will put a chain on thy hand. I will drown thee in a butt of wine, If thou mention the name of sobriety.” On the night of the last of the blessed month of Ramazan of this year, when Çadr Jahān asked the Emperor, what order should be given with respect to my dismissal? he replied: “He has business to do here, and every now and then I shall have some service for him to perform, produce me some one else.” But the omniscience of God (praise be to Him Most High!), and His will (glorious is His Majesty!) did not coincide with this intention, and I do not know what is best to do in this uncertainty and very gadfly’s condition: “Thou takest me from thine own door to the door of the rival, Then thou sayest, why dost thou go to the door of the rival? I have wandered for years in search of thy good face, Show thy face, and deliver me from this wandering.” ### [79.29.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.general.muntakhab-al-tawarikh~en-ranking-lowe-haig.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. ### [79.29.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.general.muntakhab-al-tawarikh~en-ranking-lowe-haig.79.29.4) If God (He is exalted!) will, I hope to have this book well finished in the course of the next two or three months, and that it will obtain me leave to go to my native country (which is the grave). But He is the right one to give permission, and He hath power over the wishes of his servant. During this year reports came from Hakīm ‘Ain-ul-mulk, and Shāhbāz Khān from the confines of Hindiah, that they had put to death Burhān-ul-mulk on account of his bad conduct, and had set up his son, who was twelve years old, as his heir. The Emperor sent a farmān to the prince Sultān Murād, and another farmān to the Khān Khānān ordering them to set out with haste, and proceed to the subjugation of the Dakhin. During the first part of the month of Zī-hajjah of this year Shāh Beg Khān Kābulī went to Qandahār, and Mīrzā Muzaffar Husain, commandant of Qandahār, came to Court in company with Qarā Beg Mīr-shikār, and brought valuable jewels with other precious things as a present to the Emperor. The Emperor treated him with special favour and kindness. Shāh Beg Khān fought a battle at Zamīn Dāwar with a great army of the Uzbeks, and defeated them. He slew most of their leaders, and to those whom the sword spared, he gave dresses of honour and released them. Another body of them fled to a fortress, and were besieged there. He bombarded the fortress and took it by storm. Then he continued his advance and took the garmsīr. ### [79.29.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.general.muntakhab-al-tawarikh~en-ranking-lowe-haig.79.29.5) The Emperor conferred the province of Chitōr on Bāz Bahādur, and took away the district of Sambhal from Abu-l- Fazl and gave it as jágír to Mírzá Qandahárí. And Multán, which had become completely desolated by the tyranny of Mírzá Rustam, he converted into Crown property. At this time Sa‘íd Khán Mughul came from Bangálah to Court, and brought an elephant and much money and precious products of that country from ‘Ísá Khán the Zamíndár as a present to the Emperor. In this year Shaikh Ya‘qúb Kashmírí, who had the takhalluṣ of Çarfí, had obtained permission to leave the Court, and return to his native country, when he died: “Verily we belong to God, and verily unto Him do we return”: — “All our friends are gone, and have taken the road to the Ka‘bah, We with tipsy foot remain at the door of the wine-seller. Not a word of the points we proposed has been solved, We are left beggars, without this world or the next.” On the night of the twenty-seventh of Zí-ḥajjah of this year Ḥakím ‘Ain ul-Mulk, who had gone on an embassy to Rájáh ‘Alí Khán, and had returned thence to Híndiah (which had been appointed as his jágír), after an illness of five months departed to the other world. Extolled be the perfection of God! our acquaintances and friends one by one withdraw their heart from our companionship, and lightly hastened, and still do hasten, to their everlasting home, while we in this sadness and despair drag on an existence in folly and forgetfulness of our end: — ### [79.29.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.general.muntakhab-al-tawarikh~en-ranking-lowe-haig.79.29.6) “O heart, since thou art aware that death follows existence, To what end this desire for length of days? Thou did’st make a pact with Fate, not Fate with thee, Why then this cry, that Fate is treacherous?” On the third of the month of Muharram of the year one thousand and four (1004) Hakim Hasan Gilani (P. 404), who was of a very dervish-like character, and kind, and possessed of excellent qualities, departed this life : — “ If a Rose were possible without a Thorn, Every moment in this world would be a new delight ; We should be happy enough in this old caravansarai of Life, If Death were not always at the door.” At this time Shaikh Musa Gilani Qadiri, son of the Master, Shaikh Hamid (God sanctify his tomb !), younger brother of Shaikh ‘Abd-ul Qadir who is a devotee at Uchh, chose to do homage to the Emperor, and was raised to the rank of Commander of Five hundred. ### [79.29.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.general.muntakhab-al-tawarikh~en-ranking-lowe-haig.79.29.7) During this month Qadr Jahan, the Mufti of the imperial dominions, who has been appointed to a commandership of One Thousand, joined the Divine Faith, as also his two foolish sons ; and having taken the Shast of the new religion, he went into the snare like a fish, and so got his commandership of One Thousand. He even asked His Majesty what he was to do with his beard, when he was told to let it be. On the same day Mulla Taqi of Shustar joined, who looks upon himself as the learned of the learned, and is just now engaged in rendering the Shahnāmah into prose in accordance with the Emperor’s orders, and whenever the word ‘ Sun ’ occurs he uses such phrases as jallat ‘azamatuhu and ‘azza shānuhu. Among others that joined was a ShaikhZadah, one Goshlah Khan by name, of Badaun, (but what good can be expected from a zādah !) and Mulla Shah Muhammad of Shahabad, and Cufi Ahmad musician of the Khanaqah of Dihli, who claimed to belong to the progeny of his holiness Ghaus-us-saqalain (God be favourable to him !) : — “ ‘Alī’s cub is like it ; How art thou like a prophet ? say ! ” --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.general.muntakhab-al-tawarikh~en-ranking-lowe-haig.79.29](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.general.muntakhab-al-tawarikh~en-ranking-lowe-haig.79.29) · Pramāṇa