The Book of Akbar 253.5

253.5

His Majesty held a royal festival and consulted with the atālīq about the conquest of Transoxiana. The atālīq represented that he was not a fit person to consult about such matters, but his Majesty replied that he bore marks of honesty, and that he should, without hesitation, say what he thought. Then the atālīq said that as the serviceable men of Pīr Muhammad Khān had fallen into his Majesty’s hands, he should put them all to death and go on in the career of victory, for Transoxiana would fall into his hands without a battle. His Majesty replied that it is ignoble to break one’s word and that this is especially so in the case of princes; that he had granted quarter and could not recede from this. The atālīq replied that if his Majesty did not approve of this plan, he might keep him prisoner and make a treaty to the effect that all the country on this side of Khulm should be his own and that an auxiliary force should be supplied (i.e., by Pīr Muhammad) whenever the expedition against India should take place. As the eternal will and stablished decree had gone forth against these two propositions, what was written by the pen of fate appeared to the Lord of Purpose to be preferable. His Majesty stayed there several days. Though the climate of Aibak and its abundance of fruit were a motive for staying, yet the chief reason was the non-arrival of M. Kāmrān. The wise and far-seeing used to insist that if this delay had not taken place, Pīr Muhammad