Tarikh-i Daʾudi 3.3.4

3.3.4

The Sultán was, however, in the habit of listening to the surná, and ten performers on it, called sháhnák, played every night in the royal darbár, commencing at nine o'clock; they were ordered only to play these four tunes: 1 Málíkur, 2 Kalyán, 3 Kánra, 4 Husaini, and then cease for the evening; if they ever played other tunes, they were chastised. Every business had its appointed time, and an established custom was never changed; no one could possibly have found fault with any of his actions, with the exception of his shaving his beard. When he had once allowed an individual meat and drink, he never, till the close of his reign, made any alteration in the allowance. It is related that Shaikh 'Abdu-l Ghaní, a man of eminence, came from Jaunpúr to visit the Sultán during the hot weather, and that a portion of food was allotted to him, which, in consequence of the heat of the weather, was accompanied by six jars of sharbat, and that even when he came in winter-time the same quantity of sharbat was sent to him. He always behaved to the nobles and great men of his time in the way he did on the first day of the interview, whether they revisited him after the lapse of years, or remained with him doing daily service. The Sultan's conversation was under discipline, and he was never desultory. Every chief had his appointed post in his presence, where he always stood. He possessed a retentive memory.