The Book of Akbar 321.3

321.3

The cause of the disagreement was that as the Begum by her ability and planning managed the political and financial affairs of Badakhshan, and exercised full powers in favouring one part and depressing another, envious and narrow-minded people wickedly said improper things about her to M. Ibrahim and so made him displeased with her. So far did this go that that simpleton of a Turk lost his self-control and got hold by a stratagem of Haidar Beg, the Begum’s younger brother, and about whom men had their suspicions and put him to death. The Begum was displeased at this and came to Kabul. For some time she was in attendance on the chaste ladies. After that, the Mirzās (father and son) repented of what they had done, and sent men and induced the Begum to return. She in her little sense, and evil soul, had seen the outward state of Kabul, and resolved to get possession of it. She represented this to M. Sulaiman as an easy undertaking, but the prestige of H.M. Jahānbānī made success impossible to those short-sighted wicked people. When the unavoidable event (Humāyūn’s death) occurred this Walī N‘iamat Kāfir-N‘amat (this so-called benefactress, but really forgetter of benefits) became in a roadless country the guide in paths of destruction. When Mun‘im Khān learned the state of the case, he wisely did not engage in battle, but set himself to putting the fort in order, rebuilt what was broken, and repaired the bastions and bulwarks.