Siyar al-mutaʾakhkhirin 10.2.2

10.2.2

It is doubtless of such characters and morals that the Poet Saady had in view when he wrote these verses:— "Never be guilty of such actions as dishonour your family and person, "For fear lest people one day should curse both your person and family." Shudjah-qhan, after having firmly established his Government, dismissed such Zemindars and other landholders, as he found to be innocent, and free from crime or fraud; as to the others, he ordered them to be all brought into his presence and to form a circle round his person; and this being done, he asked them, how they would behave in future, should he release them from the miseries of confinement and restore to them the blessing of liberty and the sweets of free air? The poor people, who had been for years languishing in confinement, and had undergone a variety of torments and racks, surprised at this address, broke forth in encomiums on his generosity and goodness; and after supplicating Heaven to grant him a long series of prosperous years, they unanimously raised their voices, and promised that henceforward they would pay their rents with a thousand times more punctuality than they had done heretofore, and would, moreover, prove obedient and dutiful in whatever services his goodness might think fit to command.