The Memoirs of Jahāngīr (Jahāngīrnāma) 7.3
The Tūzuk-i-Jahāngīrī (Rogers, Beveridge) 7.3
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7.3.1
"Besmeared with wine Fighani went to the dust. Alas! if the angels smelt his fresh shroud!" He left 1,500,000 rupees. He has one very stupid son, called Ri'ayat. On account of his father's claims for services performed, I gave the superintendence of half the farrashkhana to him and the other half to Tukhmaq Khan. Kamal Khan was one of the slaves sincerely devoted to my service; he is of the caste of the Kalals of Delhi. On account of the great honesty and trustworthiness that he had shown I made him bakawal-begi (chief of the kitchen). Few such servants are ever met with. He had two sons, to both of whom I showed great kindness, but where are there others like him? On the 2nd of the said month La'l Kalawant, who from his childhood had grown up in my father's service, who had taught him every breathing and sound that appertains to the Hindi language, died in the 65th or 70th year of his age. One of his girls (concubines) ate opium on this event and killed herself. Few women among the Musulmans have ever shown such fidelity. In Hindustan, especially in the province of Sylhet, which is a dependency of Bengal, it was the custom for the people of those parts to make eunuchs of some of their sons and give them to the governor in place of revenue (mal-wajibi). This custom by degrees has been adopted in other provinces, and every year some children are thus ruined and cut off from procreation. This practice has become common.
7.3.2
At this time I issued an order that hereafter no one should follow this abominable custom, and that the traffic in young eunuchs should be completely done away with. Islam Khan and the other governors of the Subah of Bengal received firmans that whoever should commit such acts should be capitally punished, and that they should seize eunuchs of tender years who might be in anyone's possession. No one of the former kings had obtained this success. Please Almighty God, in a short time this objectionable practice will be completely done away with, and the traffic in eunuchs being forbidden, no one shall venture on this unpleasant and unprofitable proceeding. I presented the Khankhanan with a bay horse out of those sent me by Shah 'Abbas; it was the head of the stable of my private horses. He was so rejoiced over it that it would be difficult to describe. In truth a horse of this great size and beauty has hardly come to Hindustan. I also gave him the elephant Futuh, that is unrivalled in fighting, with twenty other elephants. As Kishan Singh, who was accompanying Mahabat Khan, performed laudable service, and was wounded in the leg by a spear in the fight with the Rana's men, so that about twenty noblemen of his were killed and about 3,000 made captive, he was promoted to the rank of 2,000 personal and 1,000 horse. On the 14th of the same month I gave an order for Mirza Ghazi to betake himself to Qandahar.
7.3.3
A strange occurrence was that as soon as the aforesaid Mirza started from Bakhar for that province the news of the death of Sardar Khan, the governor of that place, came. Sardar Khan was one of the permanent and intimate attendants of my uncle Muhammad Hakim, and was known as Tukhta Beg. I gave half his rank (the pay of it) to his sons. On Monday, the 17th, I went on foot on my pilgrimage to the enlightened mausoleum of the late king. If it had been possible, I would have traversed this road with my eyelashes and head. My revered father, on account of my birth, had gone on foot on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Khwaja Mu'Inu-d-dln Sanjarl Chishti, from Fathpur to Ajmir, a distance of 120 kos: if I should traverse this road with my head and eyes, what should I have done? When I was dignified with the good fortune of making this pilgrimage, I saw the building that had been erected in the cemetery. It did not come up to my idea of what it ought to be, for that would be approved which the wayfarers of the world should point to as one the like of which was not in the inhabited world. Inasmuch as at the time of erecting the aforesaid building the affair of the ill-starred Khusrau took place, I started for Lahore, and the architects had built it after a design of their own. At last a certain expenditure was made until a large sum was expended, and work went on for three or four years.
7.3.4
I ordered that experienced architects should again lay the foundations, in agreement with men of experience, in several places, on a settled plan. By degrees a lofty building was erected, and a very bright garden was arranged round the building of the shrine, and a large and lofty gateway with minarets of white stone was built. On the whole they told me the cost of this lofty edifice was 1,500,000 rupees, equivalent to 50,000 current tumans of Persia and 4,500,000 kharris, according to the currency of Turan. On Sunday, the 23rd, I went with a band of courtiers who had not seen it to look at the reservoir in the house of Hakim 'All, like one that had been made at Lahore in the time of my father. The reservoir is 6 gaz by 6 gaz. At its side has been erected a well-lighted room, the entrance to which is through the water, but the water does not get into it. Ten or twelve people could meet in it. He made an offering of some of the cash and jewels that had accumulated in his time. After looking at the room, and the entering of a number of courtiers therein, I raised him to the rank of 2,000, and returned to the palace. On Sunday, the 14th Sha'ban, the Khankhanan was honoured with a jewelled sword for the waist, a robe of honour, and a special elephant, and was given leave to go to his duty in the Deccan. Raja Suraj Singh, who was attached to him in that service, was raised to the rank of 3,000 personal and 2,000 horse.
7.3.5
As it was again represented to me that oppression was being committed by the brethren and attendants of Murtaza Khan on the ryots and people of Ahmadabad in Gujarat, and that he was unable properly to restrain his relations and people about him, I transferred the Subah from him and gave it to A'zam Khan, and it was settled that the latter should attend at court, and that his eldest son Jahangir Quli Khan should go to Gujarat as his deputy. The rank of Jahangir Quli Khan was fixed at 3,000 personal and 2,500 horse. An order was given that in company with Mohan Das diwan and Mas'ud Beg Hamazani bakhshi he should carry on the business of the province. Mohan Das was promoted to the rank of 800 with 500 horse, and Mas'ud Beg to 300 with 150 horse. Tarbiyat Khan, one of the personal servants, was given the rank of 700 with 400 horse, and Nasru-llah the same. Mihtar Khan, whose circumstances have been related, died at this time, and I promoted his son Munis Khan to the rank of 500 personal and 130 horse. On Wednesday, the 4th Zi-l-hijja, Khusrau had a son born to him by the daughter of the Khan A'zam, and I gave him the name of Buland-akhtar. On the 6th of the same month Muqarrab Khan sent a picture (with a report) that the belief of the Franks was this, that the picture was that of Timur.
7.3.6
At the time when Yildirim Bayazid was taken prisoner by his victorious army, a Nazarene, who at that time was ruler of Constantinople, had sent an ambassador with gifts and presents in token of submission and service, and an artist who had been sent with the ambassador took his likeness and brought it away. If this story were true, no better gift could be presented to me. But as the picture had no resemblance to any of his descendants I was not satisfied of the truth of the statement.