Maʾathir-i Jahangiri 1.1

1.1

When the King of Kings (Jahangir) was residing in the city of Allahabad, before he succeeded to the throne, a body of seditious and turbulent people, who had the privilege of addressing the Emperor Akbar in his paradisaical Court, were in the habit of spreading false reports openly and clandestinely against that ornament of the crown the Prince Salim. Sometimes they represented that he had conferred upon his servants the titles of Khan and Sultan, and at other times they said that he had ordered coins to be struck in his name. By such misrepresentations they every day attempted to excite the alarm of the Emperor, who, being endowed with a very enlightened and noble mind, was but little affected by their insinuations. In truth, in the relation of father and son, there were those ties of love and affection between the Emperor and the Prince which existed between Jacob and his son Joseph. One of the events of those days was the murder of Shaikh Abu-l Fazl, who, by his superior wisdom and vast learning, was the most distinguished of all the Shaikhs of Hindustan. The following is a detailed account of this event. The Shaikh, intoxicated by the wine of fortune, and vain of the influence he had obtained over the Emperor’s mind, had lost his senses, and having suffered the thread of wisdom and the knowledge of self to drop from his hands, had become proud of his position, and acted with rancour and animosity against his master’s son.