Siyar al-mutaʾakhkhirin 42.5.2

42.5.2

and being remembered with pleasure or with imprecation, he serves as an example to excite, or as a warning to deter, living men, by the remembrance of the departed ones; and as these last are daily mentioned by the living ones, these likewise will one day furnish a matter of talk to their descendants, and will be judged by their actions and works. It is for such a reason, and with such a view, that I have brought together about the end of these sheets, some parts of Aoreng-zib's life, a Prince who under the veil of piety and of an austere virtue, knew how to conceal all the vices of a boundless covetousness, and an insatiable ambition. Nor are these particulars unauthenticated. They have been made up out of what has been transmitted to posterity by the Kings, Generals, Grandees, and other eminent persons, who lived with him on a friendly footing, or were in distinguished stations in his service. The sayings, as well as the memoirs of those illustrious well-informed personages constitute what may be called Aoreng-zib's history; and they are recorded in that valuable book, written by Mohammed-hashem-qhan, whose father had been a long time in the service of Morad-baqsh, brother to that Emperor, and who, after that Prince's defeat and total ruin, was taken into the service by Aoreng-zib himself, and in a little time became an object of the highest favour with that discerning Prince; so that whatever he records is in the greatest part from his own personal knowledge.