Siyar al-mutaʾakhkhirin 26.1.5
A Translation of the Seir Mutaqherin (Haji Mustafa) 26.1.5
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26.1.5
Hence those Princes lived amongst their people, and amongst their nobles, as kind and condescending parents amongst their children; nor did they suffer the dust of sorrow to darken the heart of any of the creatures of God, by a show of tenderness to one part of the people, and of rudeness to the other. For they looked upon them all, whether conquerors or conquered, with an equal eye; so that for several ages together, down to the times of Shah-djehan, every thing in Hindostan was quietness, love, and harmony. It is only since the times of Aoreng-zib-Aalem-ghir, his son, a Prince extremely warlike and ambitious, that evils have crept upon the land. But yet these were light matters; for such were the abilities, prowess, and strictness of government under that reign, that the established rules and institutions did not suffer any considerable injury from the wickedness of the turbulent Grandees; nor did the people of God meet with much oppression in the civil wars, during which it never ceased to be protected and cherished. The main evil resulting from his time was this, that to make a diversion in the minds of the people, to the ill renown of ingratitude and hardness of heart, which he had acquired by killing his brothers, and keeping his father in prison, he had assembled the Ecclesiastics about his person, and had given them such unbounded sway, that the populace complimented him with the titles of the Faithful Emperor, ever victorious, and the constant Cherisher of Religion.