The Memoirs of Jahāngīr (Jahāngīrnāma) 15.5
The Tūzuk-i-Jahāngīrī (Rogers, Beveridge) 15.5
- Language
- English
15.5.1
At this time Khwaja Hashim, of Dahbid, who at this day vigorously maintains in Transoxiana the profession of a dervish, and in whom the people of that country have great belief, sent a letter by the hand of one of his disciples pointing out his old devotion (to the royal family) and connection and friendship of his ancestors with this illustrious family, together with a farji and a bow and a couplet which the late king Babar had made for a saint of the name of Khwajagi, who also belonged to that sect of dervishes. The last hemistich is as follows:— "We are bound to the Khwajagi and are servants to the Khwajagi." I also with my own pen wrote some lines in the style of that writing, and sent impromptu quatrains with 1,000 Jahangiri muhrs to the said Khwaja— "O thou whose kindness to me is ever more and more, The State has remembrance of thee, O Dervish, As from good tidings our heart is rejoiced, We are glad that thy kindness passes all bounds." As I ordered that whoever had the poetic temperament should recite (compose?) this quatrain, Hakim Masihu-z-zaman said, and said very well— "Although we have the business of kingship before us, Every moment more and more we think on the dervishes. If the heart of our Dervish be gladdened by us We count that to be the profit of our kingship." I gave the Hakim 1,000 muhrs for the composition of this quatrain.
15.5.2
On the 7th of the month of Day, when I was coming back from Pushkar and returning to Ajmir, on the way forty-two wild pigs were taken. On the 20th, Mir Miran came and waited on me. A summary of his circumstances and of his family is now written. On the side of his father he is the grandson of Mir Ghiyasu-d-din Muhammad Mir Miran, son of Shah Ni'matu-llah Wali. During the reigns of the Safawi kings the family had attained to great respect, so that Shah Tahmasp gave his own sister Janish Khanim to Shah Ni'matu-llah, and so on account of his being a great Shaikh and of his being an instructor he was made a relative and a son-in-law (of kings). On the side of his mother he was the daughter's son of Shah Isma'il Khuni (Isma'il II, the Bloody). After the death of Shah Ni'matu-llah, his son Ghiyasu-d-din Muhammad Mir Miran received great consideration, and the late Shah (Tahmasp) gave to his eldest son in marriage a daughter from the royal family. He gave the daughter of the above-mentioned Shah Isma'il to another son of his, Khalilu-llah, to whom Mir Miran was born. The aforesaid Mir Khalilu-llah, seven or eight years before this, had come from Persia and waited on me at Lahore. As he belonged to a high and saintly family, I was much interested in his affairs, and gave him a mansab and a jagir, and honoured and cherished him.
15.5.3
After the seat of government was at Agra, in a short time he was attacked by bilious diarrhoea from eating too many mangoes, and in ten or twelve days gave up his soul to the Creator. I was grieved at his going, and ordered what he had left in cash and jewels to be sent to his children in Persia. Meanwhile Mir Miran, who was 22 years old, became a qalandar and dervish, and came to me at Ajmir in a way that nobody on the road could recognize him. I soothed all the troubles of his mind and the miseries of his inward and outward condition, and gave him a mansab of 1,000 personal and 400 horse, and presented him with 30,000 darabs in cash. He is now in waiting and attendance on me. On the 12th, Zafar Khan, who had been removed from the Subah of Behar, came and waited on me, and made an offering of 100 muhrs, as well as three elephants. On the 15th of Day I increased the mansab of Qasim Khan, the Subahdar of Bengal, by 1,000 personal and horse, so as to make it 4,000 personal and horse. As the diwan and bakhshi of Bengal, Husain Beg and Tahir, had not done approved service, Mukhlis Khan, who was one of the confidential servants of the Court, was nominated to these duties. I conferred on him a mansab of 2,000 personal and 700 horse, and also gave him a standard. The duty of 'arz-mukarrir (reviser of petitions) I ordered to be given to Dayanat Khan. On the 25th, Friday, the weighing of my son Khurram took place.
15.5.4
Up to the present year, when he is 24 years old, and is married and has children, he has never defiled himself with drinking wine. On this day, when the assembly for his weighing was held, I said to him : "Baba, thou hast become the father of children, and kings and kings' sons have drunk wine. To-day, which is the day of thy being weighed, I will give thee wine to drink, and give thee leave to drink it on feast days and at the time of the New Year, and at all great festivals. But thou must observe the path of moderation, for wise men do not consider it right to drink to such an extent as to destroy the understanding, and it is necessary that from drinking only profit should be derived." Bu 'Ali (Avicenna), who is one of the most learned of hakims and physicians, has written this quatrain — " Wine is a raging enemy, a prudent friend ; A little is an antidote, but much a snake's poison. In much there is no little injury, In a little there is much profit." With much trouble wine was given to him. I had not drunk it till I was 15 years old, except when in the time of my infancy two or three times my mother and wet-nurses gave it by way of infantile remedy. They asked for a little spirit from my revered father, and gave it me to the extent of a tola mixed with water and rosewater to take away a cough, designating it as medicine.
15.5.5
At the time when the camp of my revered father had been pitched in order to put down the disturbance of Yusufza'e Afghans at the fort of Attock, which is on the bank of the Nilab (Indus) River, one day I had mounted to go out to hunt. When I had moved about a good deal and the signs of weariness had set in, a gunner of the name of Ustad Shah-quli, a wonderful gunner out of those under my revered uncle Mirza Muhammad Hakim, said to me that if I would take a cup of wine it would drive away the feeling of being tired and heavy. It was in the time of my youth, and as I felt disposed towards it I ordered Mahmud, the Ab-dar (person in charge of drinking water, etc.), to go to the house of Hakim 'Ali and bring me an intoxicating draught. He sent me the amount of one and a half cups of yellow wine of a sweet taste in a little bottle. I drank it, and found its quality agreeable. After that I took to drinking wine, and increased it from day to day until wine made from grapes ceased to intoxicate me, and I took to drinking arrack ('araq, spirits), and by degrees during nine years my potions rose to twenty cups of doubly distilled spirits, fourteen during the daytime and the remainder at night. The weight of this was six Hindustani sirs or one and a half maunds of Iran. The extent of my eating in those days was a fowl with bread and vegetables (lit. radish).
15.5.6
In that state of matters no one had the power to forbid me, and matters went to such a length that in the crapulous state from the excessive trembling of my hand I could not drink from my own cup, but others had to give it me to drink, until I sent for Hakim Humam, brother of Hakim Abu-l-fath, who was of the most intimate with my revered father, and informed him of my state. He, with excessive sincerity and unfeigned burning of heart, said to me without hesitation, "Lord of the world, by the way in which you drink spirits, God forbid it, but in six months matters will come to such a pass that there will be no remedy for it." As his words were said out of pure good-will, and sweet life was dear to me, they made an impression on me, and from that day I began to lessen my allowance and set myself to take filuniya. In proportion as I diminished my liquor, I increased the amount of filuniya.
15.5.7
I also ordered that the arrack should be diluted with wine of the grape so that there should be two parts wine and one part arrack. Every day I diminished the quantity I took, and in the course of seven years I brought it down to six cups. The weight of each cupful was 18 1/2 misqals. It is now fifteen years that I have drunk at this rate, neither more nor less. And my drinking time is the night except on the day of Thursdays, as it is the day of the blessed accession. Also on the eve of Friday, which is the most blessed eve of the week, and is the prelude to a blessed day (I do not drink). I drink at the end of each day with these two exceptions, for it does not appear right that this eve (Thursday night) should be spent in neglect, and that there should be an omission (on Friday) of returning thanks to the True Benefactor. On the day of Thursday and on the day of Sunday I do not eat meat. Not on Thursday, because it is the day of my auspicious accession, and not on Sunday, because it is the birthday of my revered father, and he greatly honoured and held dear the day. After some time I substituted opium for filuniya. Now that my age has arrived at 46 solar years and 4 months, I eat eight surkhs (a red berry used as a weight) of opium when five gharis of day have passed, and six surkhs after one watch of night.