The Memoirs of Jahāngīr (Jahāngīrnāma) 6.6
The Tūzuk-i-Jahāngīrī (Rogers, Beveridge) 6.6
- Language
- English
6.6.1
On Friday, the 6th Rabi'u-l-akhir, I came to the quarters of Khurram (Shah-Jahan), which had been made in the Urta Garden. In truth, the building is a delightful and well-proportioned one. Whereas it was the rule of my father to have himself weighed twice every year, (once) according to the solar and (once according to the) lunar year, and to have the princes weighed according to the solar year, and moreover in this year, which was the commencement of my son Khurram's 16th lunar year, the astrologers and astronomers represented that a most important epoch according to his horoscope would occur, as the prince's health had not been good, I gave an order that they should weigh him according to the prescribed rule, against gold, silver, and other metals, which should be divided among faqirs and the needy. The whole of that day was passed in enjoyment and pleasure in the house of Baba Khurram, and many of his presents were approved. As I had experienced the excellencies of Kabul, and had eaten most of its fruits, in consequence of important considerations and the distance from the capital, on Sunday, the 4th Jumada-l-awwal, I gave an order that they should send out the advance camp in the direction of Hindustan. After some days I left the city, and the royal standards proceeded to the meadow of Safid-sang. Although the grapes were not yet fully ripe, I had often before this eaten Kabul grapes. There are many good sorts of grapes, especially the Sahibi and Kishmishi.
6.6.2
The cherry also is a fruit of pleasant flavour, and one can eat more of it than of other fruits ; I have in a day eaten up to 150 of them. The term shah-alu means gilas (cherry), which are obtainable in most places of the country, but since gilas is like gilas, which is one of the names of the chalpasa (lizard), my revered father called it shah-alu. The zard-alu paywandi is good, and is abundant. There is especially a tree in the Shahr-ara garden, that Mirza Muhammad Hakim, my uncle, planted, and is known as the Mirza'i. The apricots of this tree are quite unlike the apricots of other trees. The peaches also are very delicious and plentiful. They had brought some peaches from Istalif. I had them weighed in my presence, and they came exactly in weight to 25 rupees, which is 68 current misqal. Notwithstanding the sweetness of the Kabul fruits, not one of them has, to my taste, the flavour of the mango. The parganah of Mahaban was given as jagir to Mahabat Khan. 'Abdu-r-Rahim, paymaster of the Ahadis, was promoted to the rank of 700 personal and 200 horse. Mubarak Khan Sarwani was appointed to the faujdarship of the sarkar of Hisar. I ordered that Mirza Faridun Barlas should have a jagir in the Subah of Allahabad. On the 14th of the aforesaid month I gave Iradat Khan, brother of Asaf Khan, the rank of 1,000 personal and 500 horse, and presenting him with a special robe of honour and a horse, bestowed on him the paymastership of the Subah of Patna and Hajipur.
6.6.3
As he was my qurbegi, I sent by his hand a jewelled sword for my son (farzand) Islam Khan, the governor of the aforesaid Subah. As we were going along I saw near 'Ali Masjid and Gharib-khana a large spider of the size of a crab that had seized by the throat a snake of one and a half gaz in length and half strangled it. I delayed a minute to look on at this, and after a moment it died (the snake). I heard at Kabul that in the time of Mahmud of Ghazni a person of the name of Khwaja Tabut had died in the neighbourhood of Zuhak and Bamiyan, and was buried in a cave, whose limbs had not yet rotted asunder. This appeared very strange, and I sent one of my confidential record writers with a surgeon to go to the cave and, having seen the state of affairs as they were, to make a special report. He represented that half of the body which was next the ground had most of it come asunder, and the other half which had not touched the ground remained in its own condition. The nails of the hands and feet and the hair of the head had not been shed, but the hair of the beard and moustache as far as one side of the nose had been shed. From the date that had been engraved on the door of the cave it appeared that his death had occurred before the time of Sultan Mahmud. No one knows the exact state of the case.
6.6.4
On Thursday, the 15th Arslan Bi, governor of the fort of Kahmard, who was one of the servants of middle rank(?) of Wali Muhammad Khan, ruler of Turan, came and waited on me. I had always heard that Mirza Husam, son of Shahrukh Mirza, had been killed by the Uzbegs. At this time a certain person came and presented a petition in his name, and brought a ruby of the colour of an onion, which was worth 100 rupees, as an offering. He prayed that an army might be appointed to assist him, so that he might take Badakhshan out of the Uzbegs' hands. A jewelled dagger-belt was sent him, and an order given that, as the royal standards had alighted in those regions, if he really was Mirza Husain, son of Mirza Shahrukh, he should first hasten into my presence, so that having examined his petitions and claims I might send him to Badakhshan. Two hundred thousand rupees were sent for the army that had been sent with Maha Singh and Ram Das against the rebels of Bangash.
6.6.5
On Thursday, the 22nd, having gone to the Bala Hisar, I inspected the buildings in that place. As the place was not fit for me I ordered them to destroy these buildings and to prepare a palace and a royal hall of audience. On the same day they brought a peach from Istalif, barabar sar-i-buh bakaldni, " as big as an owl's head^?). I had not seen a peach of such a size, and ordered it to be weighed, and it came to 63 Akbari rupees, or 60 tolas. When I cut it in half its stone also came into two pieces, and its substance was sweet. I had in Kabul never eaten better fruit from any tree. On the 25th news came from Malwa that Mirza Shahrukh had bid farewell to this transitory world, and God Almighty had submerged him in His mercy. From the day on which he entered the service of my revered father till the time of his departure, from no act of his could dust be brought into the royal mind. He always did his duty with sincerity. The aforesaid Mirza apparently had four sons: Hasan and Husain were born of the same womb (i.e. they were twins). Husain fled from Burhanpur and went by sea to Iraq, and thence to Badakhshan, where they say he now is, as has been written about his message and his sending some one to me. No one knows for certain whether it is the same Mirza Husain, or the people of Badakhshan have raised up this one like other false Mirzas and given him the name of Mirza Husain.
6.6.6
From the time when Mirza Shahrukh came from Badakhshan and had the good fortune to wait on my father until now, nearly 25 years have passed. For some time the people of Badakhshan, on account of the oppression and injury they have to undergo from the Uzbegs, have given notoriety to a Badakhshan boy, who had on his face the marks of nobility, as really the son of Mirza Shahrukh and of the race of Mirza Sulaiman. A large number of the scattered Uymaqs, and the hill-people of Badakhshan, whom they call Gharchal (Georgians ?), collected round him, and showing enmity and disputing with the Uzbegs, took some of the districts of Badakhshan out of their possession. The Uzbegs attacked that false Mirza and captured him, and placing his head on a spear sent it round to the whole country of Badakhshan. Again the seditious people of Badakhshan quickly produced another Mirza. Up to now several Mirzas have been killed. It appears to me that as long as there is any trace of the people of Badakhshan they will keep up this disturbance. The third son of the Mirza is Mirza Sultan, who excels in appearance and disposition all the other sons of the Mirza. I begged him from his revered father, and have kept him in my own service, and having taken great pains with him reckon him as my own child. In disposition and manners he has no likeness to his brothers. After my accession I gave him the rank of 2,000 personal and 1,000 horse, and sent him to the Subah of Malwa, which was his father's place.
6.6.7
The fourth son is Badi'u-z-zaman, whom he always had in attendance on himself ; he obtained the rank of 1,000 personal and 500 horse.