The Book of Akbar 342.4

342.4

Moreover he had the fault of levity and of making jokes, which perhaps is the worst of offences in the eyes of the great. He uttered pleasantries about the leaders of the age, and under the guise of witticisms—which the ignorant call agreeable facetiousness—he said things which were far from being proper, so that there was no one who did not carry in his side a wound from the thornbrake of his jesting. At this time when Ghaznin had been entrusted to him on the recommendation of Muhammad Quli Khan Barlās, designing persons got their opportunity and both embittered Mun‘im Khan’s mind, and revived his old desire of being revenged upon him. In India too they stirred up Bairām Khan to kill him, and so were the cause of still further troubling Bairām’s mind. Where is that far-seeing and good man who regards his master’s welfare and does not for his private ends make useful servants the target for the arrows of revenge, and who casts out of view his own loss or gain and exerts himself in bringing forward men of ability? When the Khwāja heard that Mun‘im Khan had given up his intention of going to India and that he was meditating revenge, he fell into great perplexity. He could not go to India for the Lord of the Age was behind the screen of insouciance, and Bairām Khan was very powerful. Considering that in the time of H. M.