The Book of Akbar 300: CHAPTER LXII.
The Akbarnama (H. Beveridge), vols. I–II 300
- Language
- English
CHAPTER LXII.
300.1
It was his excellent intention that when Venus rose and the moment became auspicious he would hold a grand assembly and make promotions of officers. At the beginning of the evening he wished to descend and when he came to the second step, a reciter (muqri), by name Miskin (wretched), raised an untimely call to prayer. His Majesty, out of respect to the call, wished to sit down where he was. As the steps (darjat) of the stair (zina) were sharp (tez) and the stones slippery (laghzanda) his blessed foot caught in the skirt of his robe at the moment of sitting down and his good staff slipped. He lost his feet and fell upon his head, his right temple receiving a severe blow, so that some drops of blood issued from his right ear. As he possessed a heart acquainted with mysteries he immediately, and in order that he might give comfort and also make dispositions for the world, sent an affectionate dispatch containing a report of his welfare to the nursling of the light of fortune by the hands of Nazr Shaikh Culi. One of the wondrous flashes of his (Akbar’s) intelligence was that in the middle of that very day (the day of the accident, not of the announcement) he had said to some of his suite that a great misfortune would happen to an eminent man and that probably he would die.
300.2
The loyalists who were on the spot endeavoured to conceal the dreadful occurrence and took measures to send information to the heir-apparent of the masnad of the khilāfat and to collect the principal officers who had obtained leave to various parts of the kingdom. With extreme prudence they kept this life-destroying event from the public for seventeen days. Those who were present at court and the counsellors of the threshold of the khilāfat, viz., Khizr Khwāja Khān, ‘Alī Qulī Khān, Laṭīf Mīrzā, Khizr Khān Hazāra, Qunduq Khān, Qambar ‘Alī Beg, Ashraf Khān, Afzal Khān, who were in the list of helpful ministers (vuzarāi kifāyat sha‘ār) and Khwāja Ḥusain of Merv, Mīr ‘Abdu-l-Ḥai, Peshrau Khān, Mihtar Khān, and after some days Tardī Beg Khān, who inscribed on his heart’s tablet the office of Amīr-al-Umarā (Blochmann, 240) assembled together and on the 28th of the same month, 11th February, 1556, they recited the khutba in the famous name and lofty titles of the Khedive of the age, and so healed and mended the distracted world and gave the terrene and terrestrials a message of enduring restoration. The stewards of heaven, who had been in expectation of this, rejoiced, and the desires of the administrators of the natural world were accomplished. Mīr ‘Abdu-l-Ḥai Ṣadr recited this couplet:— Verse. If the world’s new year be destroyed, Let the hundred-leaved red rose remain.
300.3
Several persons had recited this verse, and it had become well known and had been made the subject of conversation at assemblies. A strange thing was that at the same time one of the literate (fāzil) had found the second line to give the date of the accession of the Khedive of the Age, but this was by writing the word gul with an i, gull, though in one sense the ordinary orthography does not lend itself to this form. And during the days of concealing this fatal affair they on one occasion dressed up Mullā Bīkasī in the clothes of the deceased (lit: that pardoned pinnacle) and brought him out on the top of the terrace (aiwān) which was His Majesty's place of sitting, and showed him to the people with his face towards the river. The people performed the kornish and were in some measure relieved from their distress and confusion. When the sad misfortune was made known a great disturbance and trouble, such as was natural at a crisis like this, arose. The officers exerted themselves to soothe hearts and give people confidence and did what was proper at this time of dispersion both in respect of friends and of foes. They did what they could to mend the breach and to cement the crack. And how could the bond of the eternal fortune of this noble family not attain corroboration and shape when the world-adorning glory of the personality of His Majesty the Shahinshah, the true heir of sovereignty, had seized the summit of the throne of the khilāfat of the terrene and of terrestrials.
300.4
Good God! How could it enter into the circle of the thoughts and imaginings of the farseeing that a being so wondrous in his perfections and so befriended of fortune, at once the arranger of the visible world and the acquirer of spirituality, should so soon leave this earth? But as the time had come when the Creator would give rejuvenescence to the old world and give a new education to mankind,—a time which had not arrived in many cycles of the past,—of necessity He designed to exhibit the nobly-constituted and consummate paragon who should be the perfection of mortals. sequently the occurrence of this unavoidable event, though in the eyes of the superficial a subject of mourning and sorrow, might be reckoned by the eyes of the mature of vision as a treasury of glory and beauty. For by the bounteous presence of this sublime pearl of sovereignty the visible and invisible worlds became again glorious, and the market-square of dominion, spiritual and temporal, became active.
300.5
And as the lofty intelligence of this lord of the age was come to perfection, and the constituent elements of the rule of this great-thoughted one had been put in order and the die of dominion had turned up inscribed with his name, seeing that with real ancestorhood he wore the vesture of sonship, if the ruler of the age (Humayun) had on account of his right-seeing and good qualities been preserved in the prison of visible life, it must have followed that, on account of the submission to the noblest, which is proper according to the rules of wisdom, this eminent one of the age (Humayun) should submit to the nursling of light (Akbar). But as the robe of fatherhood is an imposing one and cometh from God, it could not harmonise with obedience to the offspring. Also the happiness of children cannot be recorded in the book of fate except when they submit to their fathers and obey their behests. Consequently it was unavoidable that the beginning of the feast of fortune should be the lord of the earth’s leaving this world.
300.6
In fine, after giving consolations and congratulations, the imperial servants who were collected in Delhi separated in order to unite distracted hearts, and each hastened to his own place. Tardi Beg Khan, who in concert with them was at Delhi, in order to arrange the affairs of this city, sent the insignia of sovereignty along with Ghulam ‘All SJaastjangasht and other trusty servants to the world-protecting court and made declarations of obedience and devotion. M. Abu-l-Qasim, the son of M. Kamran, was also sent to do homage.