[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Dark Ages](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages) › [Travellers (1500–1858)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel) › [Storia do Mogor](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci) › [Storia do Mogor (Irvine)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine) › 211.7.4 # Storia do Mogor 211.7.4 Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 211.7.4 - **Language:** English ### [211.7.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.211.7.4) I have stated that it is usual for Mogul princes to rear only four of their sons. Nevertheless, Shah 'Alam, by a very special grace from the king, has five. It happened that one of his wives — the one he loved best — was with child. Her name was Nur-un-nissa Begam. Aware that Aurangzeb would never consent to let her offspring live, she took drugs to procure abortion. What she had taken produced no effect, and in her husband's presence she asked me for drugs for that purpose. I betrayed my astonishment, and said to her that I felt persuaded His Highness kept me in his service for the preservation and not the destruction of human beings. Such a thing was no part of my business. They rejoined that they took on themselves the penalty. To that, after alleging further reasons to dissuade them from this evil course, among others what is written in the Gospel — that he who kills by the sword shall perish by the sword — and having held forth a long time on the subject, in the end I persuaded them to allow the innocent thing to live. The child lived some year and a half, when the unnatural monarch caused him to be secretly poisoned. If they did not procure an abortion, it was because they dreaded to hazard the life of the mother, as they wrote it. - [Previous: 211.7.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.211.7.3) - [Next: 211.7.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.211.7.5) - [Up: 211.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.211.7) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.211.7.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.211.7.4) · Pramāṇa