Siyar al-mutaʾakhkhirin 24.7.1

24.7.1

But let us leave these disagreeable matters. We shall speak of them more at large hereafter, so as to elucidate the above sentence; for we must now return to the course of our narrative. We may remember how Mir-roh-eddin-hossein-qhan had by a sudden stroke of his destiny jumped into the Government of Pooraniah, and had kept possession of it. This sudden Governor proved to be a man thoughtless and indolent, opinionated, excessively prodigal and unprovident; ever immersed in a sea of pleasures and sensualities; and never emerging from the gulf of a variety of strange practices, but to plunge headlong into all the excesses of drunkenness and forgetfulness of himself. He had given the title of Qhan to a young man, called Asker-aaly, who was grandson of Shah Mustepha-caly, one of his father's Directors; and he had become so very fond of him, as to invest him with full powers over his public and private concerns. This fondness for him growing every day stronger and stronger, this young man, who was excessively intriguing and ill-natured, and withal so impatient and passionate, as to forget himself every moment, no sooner found out that his master was devoted to his will, than he did whatever he pleased. He made it a system to undermine all those that kept at a distance from him, whilst he promoted and carried forward his own creatures. He spent sums of money in the company of dancers of both sexes, singers, fortune-tellers, farcers, and a variety of such sorts of people ;