Storia do Mogor 269: Account of Farmans.

269

[421] These formaoens (farmans), which bear the royal seal with the impression of the hand in saffron colour, are sent by the king to the kings, princes, rajahs, and other potentates for an assurance of peace or other binding promises. By them he makes a gift of a province or lands. Others submit themselves, and become vassals and subjects, at the same time accepting the pay that the Mogul king promises them. But I have seen that many of them, after having submitted, come to the end of their life in a very short time, while others die miserably of hunger. This happened to Sldi Mas'ud, the intercessions of Qhazl-ud-din Khan being of no avail. For a whole year he was shunted from pillar to post without getting any relief; finally he was paid off with a mouthful of poison. The kings of Bljapur and Gulkandah had boxes full of these farmdns, and at last it happened to them as will be seen in my history.
There is another kind of farmdn, which is attested by the above seal only, with the countermark of the chief wazir. These serve as evidence for any villages, lands, houses, and so forth, of which the king makes a grant. But these orders are of little use, because the governors and faujddrs (military magistrates) turn out the grantees unless a present is made to them.
European nations also hold these farmdns; but they are not left to live in peace, nor have they any security under them. For within their jurisdictions these same officials never desist from squeezing from them what they can. Thus no reliance can be placed on this tribe in their oaths, their friendships, or their speeches — all of them are deceivers.