Siyar al-mutaʾakhkhirin 12.20.1

12.20.1

It may be worth observation that the young man's father, Abdol-nebi-qhan, was of the Shyah sect, and had served Aazem-shah, son to Aoreng-zib. He was a man of a noble descent, and valuable for a number of estimable qualifications. A great friend of his was Mir-abdol-aziz, who was of one of the principal Seid families settled at Samana in the territory of Lahor, as well as one of those who had been left in Oressa at the head of their brigades for the support of Government. This officer told me, that Abdol-nebi-qhan, entangled by the ties which attached him to Mustapha-qhan, whose countryman he was, but whose pretensions he did not approve, being one day alone with him he had disclosed his heart in these very words: "My friend Seid, "you perhaps know not that this boy (meaning Mustapha-qhan,) "pretends to play the ungrateful, and has wrapped about his "head a number of whimseys and strange schemes. I am myself "in a strange perplexity on that head, like a horse urged alternately by two opposed spurs. If I join the boy, I shall incur the "name of an ungrateful fellow, and of a traitor and deserter, an "ugly name which has never been borne by any one of my family; "and if I stick to Aaly-verdy-qhan, I shall not escape the reproaches of my nation, and the hatred of my own clan. They "shall say, look at this man;