[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Dark Ages](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages) › [Mughals (1526–1857)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal) › [Later Mughals (1707–1857)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later) › [Siyar al-mutaʾakhkhirīn](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin) › [A Translation of the Seir Mutaqherin (Haji Mustafa)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa) › 1 # Siyar al-mutaʾakhkhirin 1: TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. A Translation of the Seir Mutaqherin (Haji Mustafa) 1 - **Language:** English ## Contents - [1.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.1) — 7 parts - [1.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.2) — 7 parts - [1.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.3) — 7 parts - [1.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.4) — 7 parts - [1.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.5) — 7 parts ### TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. ### [1.1.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.1.1) That the man who has not the honor to be born an Englishman, and is far from being a Persian; who never has seen England, and never had any other master in either language but himself, should attempt to translate from the Persian into English, and moreover to appear in print, is such a strange proceeding, and borders so much upon impudence and temerity, that the least I owe to an indulgent public, and to my own character, is to submit to their pleasure some account of so unusual a transaction, that they may see themselves by what a chain of strange circumstances I have been insensibly drawn into so adventurous an undertaking. And here I am conscious that I am going to fall, (through contagion probably) into a course of irksome egotisms; but as my story is likely to give many an insight into the customs and characters of Hindostan; and I have no other way of accounting for the temerity of my translation, I humbly conceive that, on that sole account, it may find grace with many of my readers, if ever I shall have any. ### [1.1.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.1.2) About eighteen years ago, when I was master of an Eastern Library, and of a Cabinet of Eastern Curiosities, I had conceived a design of spending my leisure hours in a variety of translations, and likewise in a reasoned catalogue of my Library, Oriental Miniatures, and Antiquities. But all that, with the remainder of my fortune, was sacked and plundered at Djeddah and Mecca in 1770; and I returned to India, with an intention indeed to begin the world anew under the patronage of my friends (the English), but with a firm resolution never to employ any money in books: I had even taken a dislike to them, I mean to Oriental books; when an event happened that reconciled me to them again. Such a narrative, I acknowledge, would figure pretty well at the end of the one thousand and one nights, but it is nevertheless true, and to my sorrow, but too true. I had seen so much bad weather in my youthful days, and so often suffered both hunger and thirst in India, that whilst I was scraping together the little fortune which I since lost at Mecca, I thought it prudent to abstain from many a comfort of life, in order to lay-by the sooner a provision for a day of distress. ### [1.1.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.1.3) But when I returned to India, and saw myself introduced by the national munificence, and private partiality of my English friends into a little competency, I thought it prudent, to snatch as fast as I could at those gratifications of which I had deprived myself hitherto, and at those pleasures which were now leaving me one after another. In time, I came to think it more prudent and more delicate to employ my industry and time in assembling a Seraglio of my own: this gratification, so luscious and fascinating in theory, but so irksome and cloying, as well as dangerous in practice, and which together with an Indian cabinet of curiosities, had always been a wish of my heart, was soon acquired; and whilst many of the English, who fancy I never travel without some mighty scheme in my head, thought I was actually upon the wing for some political project; I diverted myself with the ludicrous purpose for which I was really taking so many trips to Lucknow. But men on the decline of life, who after abandoning the scheme of making a collection of books, jump at once into the project of making a collection of Female Beauties, must lay their account with cutting now and then a capital figure in certain adventures, which never fail to spring up in a house where youth and beauty are jumbled together with old age and wrinkles. I discovered that a beloved girl of mine was in intrigue with one of my dependants; ### [1.1.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.1.4) and the consequence of that amour soon proved of a nature which self-love could not put up with, but which a sense of humanity and a high regard for the girl, would not permit me either to chastise or to suppress. At last I resolved on turning the girl out of my house with a sum of money in her hands : but upon recollection, I remembered that a dear bought experience had taught me, that money and liberty together, were the very worst presents that could be made to young women who have always lived immured within lofty walls ; and fain was I to provide for her in another manner. A Mushatta, that is a Procuress, was sent for, I mean one of those discreet, shrewd, inquisitive, old women, so common in Hindostan, where the business of finding a wife or a husband, is necessarily transacted by brockerage : after rummaging the whole city of Lucknow for three months together, and rejecting a number of parties, a young man of about thirty, stout, and of a good mien, was found out at last. It was a Mogul-Baccha, or man of Mogul origin, and a trooper ; and of course, according to the notions universally received all over Hindostan, a gentleman to all intents and purposes. Contrary to the rules of the country, an interview was managed between the young folks ; and by dint of reasoning and entreaties, I prevailed upon the girl to accept him. ### [1.1.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.1.5) She was repeatedly heard to say that she felt no inclination for his company, but I objected that I could not with any regard to myself keep her at home, nor with any regard to her own welfare, entrust her person to herself. "You want then" said the girl, with an air which struck me, "You want then to turn me out of the house, and to chain me to that man"? — "Be it so," added the girl, — after a pause — "But you shall one day repent of it." Witnesses were now procured, a contract was passed, and she was married. The girl received with her own clothes and trinkets, some small presents, and a purse of three hundred rupees ; and she was carried away by her husband. But what is singular she was bathed in tears, and all the women of the house were weeping likewise ; and although such a circumstance is always part of the etiquette on such occasions, there was now an air of sincerity which greatly affected me. A month had not elapsed, when she found means to send me complaints, and to wish herself dead : this was her expression ; and there were many others. In two months more, the girl in a dark rainy night presented herself at my door ; and I was astonished to find her in my house again. I informed her that I had divested myself by a public writing of every right over her person; that she was another man's wife; and that my interfering in their quarrels, would neither do her good, nor redound to my honour. ### [1.1.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.1.6) She fell a weeping, and complained that her husband, an antiphysician professed (as are most Moguls), passed his time in a company of non-conformists, and had besides gamed away her little dowry; so that she sometimes suffered for want of necessaries, the government being in arrears to him by full nine months. The unfortunate girl's case was truly affecting; and her tears — and her protestations, that she would jump into a well (and she attempted it) rather than return to him, would have melted a statue of stone, and puzzled a man of sense. At last, after three days' deliberation, I hit upon a party, which I prevailed upon her to admit; for her inexperience was such, that she thought she could live securely in my house: I hired a garry or a covered coach in a distant part of the town, and sometime before day-break I had her conveyed thither in a hamper, after having, as I thought, attended to her necessities, by putting in her hands a draught of two hundred rupees upon Benares; and provided for her safety by recommending her to an old man who had orders to see her landed in that city. I likewise contrived to get her escorted as far as one day's journey from Lucknow. We parted with tears on both sides; and she was seen safe at twelve cosses distance. Seven days after, as I was getting out of my house at day-break to take an airing, I perceived a bag close to my door; ### [1.1.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.1.7) and on my ordering one of my people to see what it could be, I went to look at it myself, and the first object that caught my sight, was an arm with a mole and an elegant hand, on a small finger of which I soon recollected a ring made of hair and gold wire. There was no standing such a spectacle. I returned into the house, and my troubled imagination made me see in the hall, right before me, the girl in tears, and saying: "be it so — but you shall repent." ### [1.2.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.2.1) Few weeks had elapsed after this event, when I received intelligence that Governor Hastings was going to depart for Europe: this circumstance, to which he seemed to have been preparing our hearts, completed the unhinging of my mind as if by some unexpected stroke. That Gentleman had been one of my oldest acquaintances among the English: I had conceived an affection for his person so early as twenty-five years ago; and he had proved in the sequel, the principal author of my well-being: his quitting India at a time when I was yearly losing some of my friends by their departure for Europe, or by death; and when my mind, affected by these discouraging losses, and impressed with the thoughts of that ill-fated girl, wanted some potent relief, became a calamity that overwhelmed all my faculties. Some people observed that I was talking to his picture, a picture of striking likeness, by the inimitable Zophanii. I was sensible myself that some strange alteration had taken place within me, and I was thinking how to make a diversion to so much accumulated sorrow, when my good fortune interposed. On my going into one of the Navvab's seats, an old woman, among other articles of sale, offered me some broken leaves of a decayed book, in which the author talked with encomiums of the English Parliament in Europe, and with some asperity of the English Government in Bengal. A Persian discourse upon English Politics! strange indeed! ### [1.2.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.2.2) I took the broken leaves, and perused some of them in the Garden; and the style, as well as the matter, having awakened my curiosity, I seized on this opportunity to afford some relief to my wearied mind. I resolved to translate it, in order to shew the author's opinions to a couple of friends; but on translating, I found that I had in hand only some broken leaves of a second volume, and that the first and third were wanting; and these I found at Moorshoodabad, on my soon returning to Bengal. My views by this time had been greatly enlarged by the perusal of my author; and after having lightly thought of translating some parts of his book, merely as an object of curiosity, but especially as a resource against grief and deep felt sorrow, I resolved to translate the whole of it, as a matter of honor and benefit, being then intent on sending two of my children to England, and anxious to add something to an independent fund which I wished to establish for their education. Shall I end the phrase? I translate it now as a matter of information, which it is incumbent upon me to impart to my adopted Countrymen (the English) ; and as a warning which I owe to their prosperity. Having lived or strolled full five and-twenty years among them ; being so far accustomed to their language, that I cannot, for want of practice, write any other so fluently ; having been this long series of years an admirer of their language and history ; ### [1.2.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.2.3) and being indebted to their national munificence, as well as to their private partiality, for the little competency upon which I now subsist ; the transition is but natural, (and this is but a very small merit, if any at all) from such a set of sentiments to such another, as would render me a well-wisher to their government and a friend to their prosperity : my own welfare has flowed from theirs, and even now does flow from it. The general turn of the English individuals in India, seems to be a thorough contempt for the Indians (as a national body). It is taken to be no better than a dead stock, that may be worked upon without much consideration, and at pleasure : But beware ! that national body is only motionless, but neither insensible, nor dead. ...There runs throughout our author's narrative, a subterraneous vein of national resentment, which emits vapours now and then, and which his occasional encomiums of the English, can neither conceal nor even palliate ; and yet he is himself but a voice that has spoken among a million of others that could speak, but are silent : Nor have signs of this national sullenness been wanting these sixteen years. Living myself in the centre of Moorshoodabad ; wearing an Hindostany dress, and making a practice in the evening to walk the streets with only a servant, either to listen to, or to mix with, any company I meet with either there or in the market place ; ### [1.2.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.2.4) I necessarily get a variety of information, which is often out of the power, and always out of the way, of any other European : for an example of this, I shall appeal to the testimony of Mr. William Wroughton, now Chief at Dacca, a gentleman, to whose person and abilities, no man in Bengal will object. Full fifteen days before government had received any official account of that calamitous event, I wrote him an affecting note about the ferment actually caused in the city of Moorshoodabad, by the defeat at Vargam near Poonah ; and expressed a wish that government might receive an early notice of it. ### [1.2.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.2.5) I hope it is admitted on all hands, that small accidental stories, and unpremeditated expressions on an important event, will better point out the national turn of mind, however dormant, than any professed reasoning. The unfortunate affair at Benares with Cheyt-Sing, was repeatedly reported at Moorshoodabad with such woeful circumstances, as seemed to partage the whole Nation; numbers were deeply affected (and to be affected for an European governor, or indeed for any European at all, is a very novel matter in India) and they used to say : " Pity ! a great pity ! the father of the Hindostanies is gone, — we shall never see such another man." But others, and this was the majority, left the person out of the question ; and minded only the crisis. " What ! are we not men as well as " Cheyt-Sing's People ? and what could prevent me from giving " a slap to one or two of his chairmen ? (the Governor's) they " would have dropped his palanquin, as by a signal, and any " man could have killed him with ease. I saw him at Barwa : " he had not an armed man by him ; and his chairmen were " but a dozen of people ; and this would have at once produced " a revolution — You talk to me of the Brigade at Behrampore ; " it is a name only — there are not two thousand men in it ; ### [1.2.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.2.6) " and a full half of them will desert on hearing of his death — " well. Sir, and the other half ? well, the other half — are they ' not Hindostanies ? and at all events we are such multitudes " here — with each a brick-bat in our hands, we could knock them " down to a man." These and the like expressions I heard at that very time in one of the best companies in Moorshoodabad. Two days after, as a Regiment of Sepoys on its way to Chunar-ghur, was marching through the City at day-break, I went out, and was standing to see it pass by, the Regiment halted ; and a few men from the centre ran into a dark lane, and laid hold of a hen and some roots : the people screamed. " Do not make so much noise," said one of the men in his Bodjpooria Idiom ; " we go to-day with the Frenghees, but " we are all servants (tenants) to Cheyt-Sing, and may come back " to-morrow with him ; and then the question will be not about " your roots, but about your wives and daughters." The street, although the main thorough-fare, could admit but six men in front, and there had been two halts more, in which time I had opportunities of hearing such suspicious words and expressions, that I resolved to write a letter to Colonel Ironside on that subject. But two days having been accidentally spent in determining upon the expediency or propriety of the letter, I thought it better to take counsel from time itself, and I went to pay my respects to that Commander who kept me to dinner. ### [1.2.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.2.7) He had a great deal of task with me : "I find no great harm," said the Colonel, " That now and then, a Governor, with a " couple of Colonels or two should make way for others ; but " what gives me concern is, to hear that we are not liked in " the city, and that some disaffection has crept amongst our " own Sepahees." Finding the man upon the right way, I thought it better to drop my own information as it might produce a counter order to the regiment, with some other serious inconveniencies. ### [1.3.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.3.1) What has been just said may serve for a specimen of the turn of genius of the people of Moorshoodabad at that time. Here is a specimen of the temper of the inhabitants of Benares at that critical moment : " Kill that man," said a young Mogul to Mirza-Saadet-Ally, as they were both marching to Chunar-ghur. — " Kill "that man: he is only with another Frenghee in the field yonder, flying for his life; say but one word, and four of us shall go and dispatch them both, and bring you his head; and after that, march down from hence to the very gates of Calcutta. There is not one man in arms from hence to Moorshoodabad, or if there be any, on seeing the head, they will all desert to you; all the Zemindars will join you with a whistle; this day two months I will salute you Lord of Bengal — one word, — say but one word. — Has any amongst you," said the Mirza, looking to the right and left — "Has any one of you a lancet about him? No," answered a voice: "A pen-knife? a pen-knife?" replied another, "We? No, to be sure." "A sharp pishcabz or poniard?" "Yes, — what for, pray?" "Only to let some blood from that man instantly: Do not you see that he is in a high fever? Man, you are very ill certainly; get your-self blooded, or go to the Ganges yonder, and take several plunges, until you are thoroughly cooled and cured: The sun indeed is sultry." ### [1.3.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.3.2) After so strange an anecdote, (and I have heard of twenty more such stories) the reader has a right to ask me my voucher, as I was not present myself. Here it is: The man himself had been an acquaintance of mine about ten years ago at Moorshoodabad, where I used to make him dine with me sometimes, giving him plenty of liquor, whereas I never drink any myself. As he was a handsome young fellow, and in high favour with some Ladies, he, when once in his cups, used not only to mention their names at length, (the very thing for which I sought his company) but he had such a knack at mimicking their particular tones of voices, and some other particulars in a day of engagement, as would have raised a horse-laugh in a dead man. As I was just landed at Benares, and examining the sculptures in a famous Gentoo chapel, in Sevaleni, (the very critical spot where the tragedy had been acted but a year before, and where Saadet-Ally himself lived) the man perceived me and came down; and I found that he was in the Prince's service at a hundred rupees per month, on condition of furnishing four horsemen more at fifty rupees each. He invited me to see his lodgings, a genteel seat, full of sculptures; and, to oblige him, I carried two bottles of liqueurs. ### [1.3.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.3.3) As soon as the man was a little heated, he became talkative, and informed me himself of his conversation with Mirza-Saadet-Ally, and of some very curious particulars of the then temper of the citizens of Benares, as well as of the neighbouring Zemindars. On quitting my drunken Mogul, I went to a large stone Caravan-Sera, where I took up my quarters, waiting for my baggage, when in comes my old toothless broker — "Talvar Khoob Chelaw," said the man for all salute, and with as emphatical a gesture and tone of voice, as if the massacre had happened but the day before. "The Sabre has worked well," said again the worthless blockhead, without minding the reprimand I gave him, for his making such a mighty matter of a couple of hundred men cut down by multitudes, whilst they were either preparing their meat or taking their afternoon nap, without any one of them having so much as a ball to his musquet. "And suppose they should have had" broke out the wretch in fury, "Ten Thousands would have been pouring upon them, "instead of Ten Hundreds; and the whole city would have "risen upon the Frenghees and their adherents." ### [1.3.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.3.4) I could fill a volume of such and the like stories, either from my own knowledge or from hearsay. But this is not all: the man (I mean the Mogul,) had been so imprudent in his cups, as to banter Saadet upon his faintness of heart, and the latter having attempted to see the other's wife, they parted upon bad terms together; so that the man lost his horses as well as his appointment. He came to Lucknow, took service with Assef-ed-doulah, the prince of the country, fell into a course of drinking and gaming, and in one unlucky day, gamed away both his wife and horse, and that too, to a man he was jealous of; insomuch that, rather than submit to the latter for a sum of four hundred rupees, he applied to me; and I took his bond, his horse, and his wife, which remained with me a couple of months. The latter had been a famous singer and an elegant dancer at Benares; and so esteemed by her troop, that but for Saadet-Ally's interest and support he would have never been able to have carried her away. She was a woman of an agreeable person and much sense; and she not only confirmed to me the above story, but mentioned some other matters, which shew that the disaffection to the English had risen at once to a height all over the country, and amongst the principal men that frequented Saadet-Ally's court. Two months after, the man came to me wounded, and brought me three hundred and twenty rupees, and I returned him his bond, horse, and wife. ### [1.3.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.3.5) The inference to be drawn from these sentiments of the people at large, is now known in Europe ; and some persons of Bengal, to the number of eight or ten, may have at that time suspected the disaffection of the natives ; but I had opportunities of knowing it several years before ; when about the year 1778, I made application to Mr. B. for his interest, as I intended to obtain the office of Provincial Fodjdar of Moorshoodabad. In enumerating some of the qualifications necessary for a man in that station, I chanced to mention an open table ; and I added, that as the emoluments of such an office could not afford the expense, I would endeavour to find it in my own private purse, as a political engine of great use. I was going on with my harangue, whilst we were walking towards the tea-table, through a dark hall, when at the word political engine, I observed the gentleman turn his head to the right, and endeavour, but in vain, to stifle a burst of laughter ; the Ladies in the room prevented my descanting any more upon that new political engine. Surely a man of so much genius and knowledge, was not to be informed, that in a populous capital, the ambassador, who, being abstemious himself, can give entertainments oftenest, is always the best informed. ### [1.3.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.3.6) By the same rule, an open table for a dozen of persons, and an exhibition of fine dancers once a week, ought to be two important parts of the politics of a Fodjdar of such a city in time of war : these will attract successively all the company good or bad in the city : men naturally unbend their minds and fall off their guard in such assemblies of pleasure ; and if he be an intelligent man himself, and by all means an abstemious one, and also heartily mixes in conversation, he will learn more in one week's time with an open table, than fifty harcaras or spies could tell him in six months. Mr. B. seated at the top of a towering lofty tree, could descry from afar the elephants and rhinoceroses that came to tear off some branches of the tree, and the tigers and bears that wanted to climb up to it : In the humble station in which I moved, close to the trunk, I was too low to discover any thing of those elephants and tigers, but very properly seated, however, to discover those myriads of white ants that were approaching the trunk in their covered galeries; and although I pretended to no knowledge either in politics or in physics, I knew for certain, that if ever they devoured the bark, there was an end of the tree. ### [1.3.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.3.7) The reader accustomed to read the accounts of India these twenty or thirty years past, will possibly wonder at my warning him against the disaffection of a nation, which, by all accounts, seems to be the tamest, and most pusillanimous set of men, on the face of the earth, and the most incapable of any manly exertion. I acknowledge the charge; but even after having admitted it in a very extensive sense, we shall still find that it cannot be an indiscriminate one: we shall find here and there exertions that would do honour to any European nation. We shall find a Hadji-Yoosuf-Khan, defending Madura, with an activity and perseverance, that cost the English more blood and trouble in a few months time, than had done the whole French war in India in as many years: We shall find a Morai-Rao, breaking with fifteen Troopers through a whole regiment of European English, ranged square upon four in depth, and after the square had closed up and shut him within, we shall find him breaking out on the opposite side, himself the sixth, and escaping safe: We shall find in the Awd province a small, pitiful, mud-enclosure, defended only by twelve Radjpoots, who, refusing to surrender, wound and kill two English and fifty Sipahees, (that is twenty times more in proportion, than had cost the great and decisive battle of Plassy and Bacsar,) support assaults and reduced to six, are taken wounded and fighting. ### [1.4.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.4.1) Nor are these, so solitary facts, as we are apt to imagine: to my wonder and amazement I find that they are only some loose links of a chain that seemed once to bind the whole nation at large. The perusal of the present history has necessarily altered my private ideas of the Indians; a foreign yoke and a long peace may have enervated, and emasculated them; and the equal and steady, though light pressure, of the English grasp, may keep their necks bowed to the ground: but this history evinces, that they have been very lately quite another set of men from what they appear to be now. What shall we say of a man that tells his friend, " get upon my Horse, and fly ; I will " stand alone at the door of your tent and fight myself out " against these armed men that are coming for you : I will be " cut down at last undoubtedly ; but you shall gain half an hour's "distance ; and this will save you, farewell "...the man does as he says, and is cut down ; but his friend distances his pursuers and escapes unhurt. What shall we say of a woman, a delicate Princess of the imperial blood, who possibly had never heard the report of a musquet ? her quarters, somewhat asunder from the main army, are attacked by a superior force : the troops placed for her guard are going to be overpowered : in that critical, trying moment, this delicate Princess turns out an heroine at once ; ### [1.4.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.4.2) she flings away her mask and veil, gets upon a war-elephant, pushes on to the enemies, kills and wounds people to the right and left with her arrows, and repeatedly cries aloud : " If you behave like women, I declare to you that women shall behave like men." ### [1.4.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.4.3) Look yonder at that inactive, incapable, effeminate Coran-Writer ; he is at this moment mightily taken up with admiring flights of pigeons ; and he has been admiring them these twenty years past some thousands of times. Would you suspect him to-day to be the self-identical man, who contrived and executed that heroical retreat of his, through the middle of ten thousand men that had broken into his house, and were actually firing at him from the top of the walls ? he contrives and executes that retreat through a whole army, himself the sixteenth : he executes it, like a rough determined Grenadier, killing and wounding five or six men to the right and left : fifty times turning about upon his pursuers, and fifty times pushing forward only to gain some respite, in order to turn about again fifty times more : his numbers at last are reduced to six men ; spent with the exertions of the retreat and the fatigue of the way, he is going to be overpowered : " Prince, cries a young man of twenty-two, your " life is destined to procure a subsistence to thousands and ten " thousands ; but mine is only that of an individual : Run forwards and gain a couple of hundred yards : I undertake meanwhile to bring our pursuers to a stand. "...This young man does as he says, and is overpowered and cut down ; but meanwhile the Prince distances his pursuers, and escapes himself the fifth. This Prince is no other than Shah-Alum himself, the reigning Emperor of Hindostan. ### [1.4.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.4.4) But all this, however, seems to be greatly inferior to Aly-Verdy-Khan's retreat from Midnapore to Catwa, for the space of seven days, through a miry country, under incessant showers of rain, with no bed for any man in the army but the bare ground, no covering but the Canopy of heaven, and no food but field-grass and tree-leaves. History records but two retreats to my remembrance: that of the ten thousand, which implies contradictions and improbabilities without number, and bears evident marks of being a romance, like the life of Cyrus; and the other, that of Marechal de Bellisle from Prague. Both the one and the other were conducted over a mountainous tract of Land; and both armies were never overtaken, but partially. Bellisle in particular had stolen a march on the enemy, and was never attacked, but by his light Cavalry. But Aly-Verdi-Khan's retreat was over a flat ground, and over boundless plains, under a perpetual series of engagements, and under all the disadvantages which we have just mentioned, and which may be seen at length in our author. The Indians then have been a more dangerous nation than they seem to be now: They may be in a slumber; but they may awake, and they deserve a more watchful eye than the English Government seems to think; our author says, a more winning deportment, and a more caressing hand, than seems to be the genius and turn of mind of their conquerors. ### [1.4.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.4.5) After having taken so much liberty with the public, as to differ from it on the opinion that ought to be entertained of the Indians; and presumed so far upon the patience of my readers, as to have talked so much of myself, it may be expected I should say something of my author; his matter is certainly novel, there being no other history extant on that subject in any language; and as such, it cannot fail to please, at a time when all Britain is intent upon the transactions in the East: he will, however, be found to speak for himself abundantly: he speaks of himself, of his family, of his connections, of his own private concerns, in so many places of his history, that he has, without designing it, delineated the features of his own mind; he appears almost everywhere, a sensible, well informed, grave, sincere man; his style is free enough from those blemishes which would give offence in Europe, and which characterise all Eastern productions: I mean metaphors and allegories without end, and antitheses without number, with a greater attention to the jingling of a cadenced prose, than to the clearness of the sense, or the accuracy of the diction. He performs exactly enough the promise made in his preface, of his intending to recount in a plain unornamented style; and he appears, in general to be an honest man, and a zealous patriot; ### [1.4.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.4.6) but should any rigorous reader take offence at some defects which are to be seen in his history, and which ought to be attributed rather to the writer's education, country, and age, his severity would be infallibly disarmed on perusing the following passage, which I shall transcribe whole. After having recounted the unjust death of two illustrious brothers, inhumanly hacked to pieces by Seradj-ed-dowlah's orders, and in his presence, he goes on in these words: "The innocent blood spilled on that occasion, proved to be as fertile as that of Siavosh of old: It produced a series of events that proved fatal to that power and dominion, which Aly-Verdi-Khan had been rearing with so much toil: It lighted up a blind fire, which commenced emitting smoke soon after these two murders had been perpetrated; and, which breaking out in flames at last, destroyed, in its progress, all that numerous family; and extending its ravages far and wide, consumed every thing in those once happy regions of Bengal, and prostrated and overwhelmed totally those rich provinces, which it has reduced to heap of ashes and yet smoaking coals: It verified that tremendous sentence, once revealed to the Prince of Messengers: So shalt thou have done, and so shalt thou receive." ### [1.4.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.4.7) "After that unhappy transaction, Aly-Verdi-Khan returned to his capital, and his son-in-law, Sayd-ahmed-qhan, took the road of Poorniah; but the latter was uneasy in his mind, and thoughtful, at what he had seen and heard lately; and as this had put an end to all the confidence which he had hitherto reposed in his uncle and his nephew, he resolved, henceforward, to spare nothing that might secure himself in his post; and it is from that very time, that an avenging providence commenced "providing materials for its future exertions. But, as it is the faithful historian's duty to bring to light whatever he knows with certitude, I shall take the liberty to assemble such events as are come to my knowledge, and to speak of them precisely as they have happened, without being biased by either envy or love, and without flattering either side or party. I repose so much confidence in the candor and equity of my generous readers, as to flatter myself, that without suffering their minds to be darkened by the dust of discontent, they shall abate in behalf of the poor man (me), something of the punctilious delicacy of their taste ; and that they shall overlook all the blemishes of this history, in favour of its sincerity and exactitude : I flatter myself, I say, that they shall cover the writer with the cloak of forbearance, should they judge the writing itself unworthy of their praise." ### [1.5.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.5.1) After an harangue so affecting, it is difficult to judge the author with any severity : If then, I have been obliged to speak of some blemishes of his history, it is because I felt that they might disgust European readers, little accustomed to put a difference between the defects of the composition itself, and those which are incident to the writer's education, language and country ; and likewise because I have been obliged to account for some slight alterations and additions into which I have been occasionally drawn, in order to adopt my narrative to the prejudices and particular taste of my readers ; and it is in that view, that I shall touch upon certain observations, which seem particularly to be of the translators province, how faulty and inadequate soever his translation may prove. All the Eastern Authors, at least those I have seen, know nothing of transitions, that is, of that art, which by the means of one or two phrases that look either way, connects two separate subjects, and serves as a bridge of communication to cross over from one to the other. They seem to be strangers to that art ; so that the reader at every new subject, is stopped short, to be ferried over by a boat. Our author, like every one of them, passes from one subject to another, with an oo, that is, the particle and : From the Afghan War, to the affairs of Bengal. ### [1.5.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.5.2) But here I have some small resource against so sudden, and so abrupt a change of hands : I can say, and I have said : Matters were not so prosperous in Bengal : — Let us now resume the affairs of Bengal : — The course of our history requires that we should revert to the affairs of the capital : — It is to be wished we could speak with as much precision of the affairs of the Decan ; — and these little additions will answer some purpose, and shall be forgiven me, I hope, by the public ; but how to manage with a man, who often interrupts the narrative of public affairs, to talk of himself, of his brother, Naky-aly-khan, of his Djaghir or Landed Estate, of his glorious Mother, whose shadow may long remain stretched over her son, the poor man, — &c. &c. Who, after having mentioned with wonder, how Governor Hastings conceived and executed the project of sending two English armies across the whole continent of India, and was very nearly doing with Poonah, what some others had done with Moorshoodabad and Lucknow, gives a spring at once, jumps over my head, and then turns about, to tell me abruptly, and the poor man went to Calcutta, had some interviews with the Navvab Djeladet-djung, the valiant Governor Hushtin, and spoke to him of his Djaghir. I have no resource against such an unexpected leap ; ### [1.5.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.5.3) I am obliged to have resource to some awkward addition of my own, and to bring the new subject about by some such words as these : It was in those days of trouble and anxiety that I was obliged to repair to Calcutta ; and to address the Governor upon my Djaghir. He said, he said, and he said, are the only words the Eastern Writers make use of, to repeat a dialogue, even a most animated one ; nor were the Greeks and Latins much behind them in that particular, the Poets especially, although to make us some amends probably, they never fail to inform us that their hero spoke with his mouth. No European reader now will bear such a repetition of the words ; he said, and I am obliged to enliven the dialogue by intermixing it with the following expressions, so common in an European conversation : He answered — his antagonist rejoined. No, said he, with a surprise : you ought, replied the other with a smile. ### [1.5.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.5.4) Mahmed-yar, an officer of determined courage, was sent with two thousand men to intercept a convoy of treasure : He marches over a tract of seventy-two cosses, in six and thirty hours, overtakes the convoy with only seventy men, and had defeated the escort, and seized the money, by the time his troops are joining him by scores. Our author adds, with one and the same breath, and the Navvab was displeased with him, and he quitted the service. Here the narrative seems to be interrupted by some chasm; and I am obliged to fill it up by adding: "Such an important service, instead of making his fortune, ruined him in the Prince's mind: He took umbrage at so daring a character: A coolness ensued; and the man disgusted, quitted the service." Such and the like indispensible liberties, although taken with ever so sparing a hand, shall possibly surprise those gentlemen employed at the public offices of Calcutta, in translating Persian Letters. I acknowledge with them, that Letters connected with twenty matters actually passing in review, may bear, nay often require, such a dry, scrupulous translation, where even the turn of the phrase is obligatory; but in a narration of any length, in an history of the times, I am convinced that it could not answer; and I hope that they shall upon due consideration, indulge me with their connivance, if not favour me with their approbation. ### [1.5.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.5.5) I had at first translated about a hundred pages of my author, (the last part of his first volume) in that scrupulous manner; and the translation went pretty easily down with me on my perusing it by a couple of pages at a time, just as I translated it—but when I came to read the whole, I acknowledge I found myself tired, sick, of my performance, jaded to death, and unable to drag my attention to the twentieth page; and if this has been the case with myself, how could I pretend to engage the attention of my readers? I have been obliged therefore to set up a method of my own: I read a few pages of the original in the evening, thought the whole of them in English a couple of hours after; and the next morning chewed the cud over, by reading and translating phrase after phrase; sometimes connecting by one or two words what seemed disjointed, and then parting what I thought confused; and not seldom pruning what appeared too European in my translation, or else paring what seemed to step aside from the text. I acknowledge, indeed, that I might have read a whole page, and after having thought it in English, might have couched it down in one and the same breath; but this would have proved to be my own style, of which the public cares little, and not the style of Seyd-Gholam-hussein-khan. Upon the whole then, I can assure the public that this translation, awkward, and inadequate as it shall probably come out to be, is in general a faithful and a literal one. ### [1.5.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.5.6) And here it becomes proper to inform the reader, of some other deviations from the letter of my author, to which, I have thought myself obliged. The author, for instance, speaks first of Mahmed-amin, then of Saadet-khan, a few pages after of Burhan-el-mulk, lastly of Burhan-el-mulk-saadet-khan; and yet it is one and the same man. At the seige of Bedjapoor by Aoreng-zib, his eldest son, Soltan-muazzem, is called within the short period of six pages, Shah-aalum, then Soltan-mahommed-muazzem, then Mahommed-muazzem, then Bahadyr-shah, then Soltan-mahommed-bahadyr-shah, although this prince was not complimented with the title of Bahadyr-shah, but several years after, when he ascended the throne. Such a succession of names on the same man occasions in the reader's idea, still more confusion than those titles of Earl and Duke of such and such country, cause in the English history, where you see the same title, or if you will, the same name, borne successively by noblemen that had not a foot of land in those countries, and were of different, and sometimes of inimical families. But yet, in the English history, the same man carries the same title or name, throughout a whole reign, or even farther, whereas, here the self-same man passing and repassing before you, round and round with a number of new personages, and at each time with a new mask, and in different dress; you come at last to mistake and confound the identity of his person. ### [1.5.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.5.7) To remedy that confusion, which has so much puzzled me at times, I have made it a point to stick invariably to the first name under which I see a man, and to carry him under that name throughout his whole history. But even this rule, general as I have made it, has suffered some deviations, which I have thought to be unavoidable : for instance, there is no mentioning a Mirza-djeladdeen-haider, still less a Mirza-mehmed or a Mirza-shah-cooly-khan : for the English know nothing, but of Sudjah-ed-doulah, and nothing but of Seradj-ed-doulah. Nevertheless such is my hard case, that although I have mentioned this, as an exception to my rule, I have been obliged to except upon the exception itself : I have been obliged amongst the several successive names of one and the same person, to attend to that which the English were most accustomed to ; for instance, in my original, Nassyr-ed-doulah, Viceroy of Decan, is the name generally used : it is that known in the Decan and in Hindostan ; but the English are accustomed to Nassyr-djung ; Mehabet-djung is the name generally used in Bengal. — But the English never heard but of Aly-verdy-khan. — By the same rule Alemghir is constantly Aoreng-zib with me, Burham-el-mulk is constantly Saadet-khan ; nor do I ever part with Sultan-muazzem, but when himself, on ascending his throne, parts with that name to adopt that of Bahadyr-shah. ### [1.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1.6) Long, very long as is this address, I am obliged to add two remarks more : were an enlightened foreigner to read a translation of some of those excellent books published in such numbers by the English, or of the debates in Parliament, or of the protests of the House of Lords, he would be apt to believe, that the language spoken by such a nation of thinkers-born, must needs be the most regular language that ever was spoken by the mouth of man ; and yet on learning it himself, he would find that this language of theirs, beautiful, nervous, energetic, abundant, versatile and commodious, as it is, is nevertheless inconsequent : the grammar of such a nation is inconsequent ; and their alphabet is still more inconsequent ; and although the alphabet of all the nations which have adopted the Roman letters, is more or less liable to the same imputation, yet I cannot help believing that the English alphabet is nearly intractable. I have been therefore obliged to write all the Oriental names of this history in the Italian alphabet, or if you will the Scotish alphabet, as the sound of its letters is less variable, and it requires the fewer letters for one word. My second observation is on those numerous poetical quotations, with which our author abounds, as well as all the Oriental writers. When I compare those inimitable translations of the Æneid, and of the Iliad, made by the English, with those prose translations published by the French; and I consider what a figure the latter never fail to cut when set against the former, I become convinced at once, that nothing but poetry ought to translate poetry; and that our author's Persian verses ought to have been translated by English verses at least, if not by English poetry. — But here I found myself out of my depth at once: and although, sometimes an English verse or two, would drop from my pen, when I least thought of it; I found by a woeful experience, that the muses would not come near me, when I was most inclined to court their company. — Over-ruled by the sense, and brow-beaten by the quantity, as well as endlessly bullied by the rhyme, I became sick of my task: I became tired of cudgelling refractory word into its place, and of dragging a rhyme by the hair; and I have therefore translated in prose all the verses of my author: the more so, as I was afraid of affording a handle against the genuineness of the translation, by applying for assistance to a better versificator than myself; nor was this apprehension groundless; for an ingenious friend having chanced to observe, that I could hardly say in two lines what the author had said in one; surmised moreover, that I must have been assisted or corrected by some English hand. — Such a remark having given much offence to my sincerity, or if you will, to my vanity; and being myself on the other hand, so very proud of my acquisitions in the English language, I beg leave to declare, that the awkward and uncouth gown, in which I take the liberty to come forward, and to make my respectful bow to the public, is entirely of my own cutting and stiching. Nor am I afraid, that those, to whom I have the honor to be known these many years, both in London and in Bengal, shall ever refuse their full assent to the veracity of my assertion. Calcutta, 2nd November, 1786. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.later.siyar-al-mutaakhkhirin~en-mustafa.1) · Pramāṇa