Storia do Mogor 281.4
Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 281.4
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281.4.1
This prince does his utmost to maintain in the eyes of the world the prevailing opinion that he is zealous in the cause of justice. Each day he holds two audiences, where without distinction anyone can gain admission. He listens patiently to complaints, and causes the judgment he pronounces to be executed upon the spot. In spite of all these exertions, his kingdom is overrun with men whose only profession is to act as false witnesses or to forge signatures. These wretches assume a most modest attitude and attire, so that they impose upon people. They wear the clothes of penitents, have long beards, hold a chaplet constantly in their hand, and as they tell their beads are for ever mumbling a prayer. Such men are greatly in fashion, because they seem to be conforming to the king's intentions. Yet the whole country is full of the disorder that these hypocrites have sown in families by their vile falsehoods. For in this vile science they possess all imaginable skill and acuteness. I will lay one example before you.
281.4.2
A Mahomedan I knew had, to oblige a friend, become his surety for some amount of money or other. A little time afterwards the friend died before he had liquidated the debt for which the Mahomedan had stood surety. He to whom the money was due lost no time in taking measures to constrain the guarantor into paying. The latter was informed of the trick that was to be played upon him, and to cover himself he interviewed some of the honest gentlemen of whom I spoke above. In return for a consideration of two thousand five hundred rupees, which he disbursed to them, they were to fabricate for him documents and evidence, by virtue of which he would be entitled to make a still larger counter-claim than the sum his opponent demanded. The suit came before the king, and there the documents of the Mahomedan surety were inspected and accepted as so truly executed that the poor creditor, to whom a great deal of money was owing, was not only defrauded of the money he had demanded, but was further condemned to make over to the Mahomedan the total amount of these false bonds. I might bring up an infinite number of similar cases, for such are newly cropping up every day in Hindustan. But to continue would probably end in wearying my readers. However, I will tell one adventure, which not only I, but several other Europeans witnessed ; and it will serve as confirmation of the disloyalty of these people and their evil conduct.
281.4.3
An Armenian of Madras, having had several unlucky transactions, took flight to the kingdom of Gulkandah. He owed a considerable sum to an English inhabitant of the same town ; and this man soon afterwards caused him to be followed, and efforts were made to get payment, or at the least to recover something of what was due. The creditor hoped that on such an occasion the Mahomedans would lend him a helping hand, seeing the rightfulness of his claim. The poor man was sadly deceived ! He had also entered on his pursuit in the face of advice to the contrary, given him by a large number of people better informed than he was of the way in which justice is dealt out among these peoples. For the debtor collected false witnesses who deposed that the Englishman was largely in debt to the man whose creditor he really was. These wretches swore that in their presence he had admitted the debt, that he had even promised to pay one moiety on the spot. On this evidence he was decreed against, and even thrown into prison. The poor fellow, overwhelmed at this cruel result, wrote to me for advice as to how he should proceed to get out of this awkward fix. I answered as well as I could, giving him such counsels as I thought most useful. Since that time I have had no news of him, and cannot say what has become of him. This affair was an extremely thorny one ; for the whole Mahomedan population knows no other influence than that of money. Relations, friends, written recommendations, nothing avails ;
281.4.4
and besides, they never adjudicate on any dispute, unless they obtain at least one-third of the moneys forming the subject of the suit. This is the most widespread vice of that part of the population ; but one must admit that it is so mean a one that it obscures almost all the good qualities that this people might possess. There was also in the time of Shahjahan a private person who summoned one of his neighbours for the payment of some food-supplies owing to him. He took the case to the qazi of the town of Agrah, he being the head judge. The government of the place was at that time in the hands of a eunuch, a man of sense and great judgment. The complainant referred to put in an appearance at the qazi's court, and produced his papers and the evidence on which he had instituted his claim. The judge, after examining the documents, said to him that they were not sufficient, and he must in addition produce witnesses. The man was greatly perplexed, and being unable to find any men ready to serve him — for at that time they were not as numerous as they are in these days — he applied to the governor, and laid before him a report of the whole affair. This officer, a most enlightened man, as I have already said, recognised that the applicant was in the right, and what he asked for was most just. For this reason he advised him to go next morning to the qazi's court, and get as close to him as he could, taking every precaution that no one should overhear what he said.
281.4.5
Having observed these instructions, he should then pour into the qazi's ear all imaginable sorts of abuse, quite regardless of consequences. The man failed not to put this counsel into execution on the following day. On hearing these whispered words, the indignant qazi became beside himself with rage at such audacity, and forthwith passed sentence of death upon the man. But as it was necessary for the governor to confirm the order before its execution, the judge was obliged to appear before him to obtain his consent. Having arrived there at the audience-hall, he set forth to the governor the reasons for which he had condemned this man to death. Thereupon the eunuch asked him for witnesses to his assertions. The qazi answered that he had none, but he ought to be believed on his word. The governor retorted that this very man whom he had just condemned was thoroughly in the right in the action he had brought, and yet he, the head of the law, had declined to afford him justice, because he had no witnesses. To these remarks he added several words of salutary advice as to the course he should pursue in the exercise of his office, above all, when the matter in hand was the examination and admission of testimony. On hearing this discourse the judge withdrew in confusion, and without delay delivered judgment in that man's case exactly as he himself would have wished.
281.4.6
I think it important to reproduce these stories accurately, so that those who may read my work, and then travel to this part of the world inhabited by Mahomedans, shall be forearmed by reflecting on all that I say. Let them be well on their guard against acting on their own sentiments ; if they do, they will be cruelly undeceived, and will tumble into pitfalls from which the best advice in the world will be unable to pull them out ; just as it happened to the Englishman whose story I told a little while ago. To speak in general terms, the Mahomedans are great dissemblers, and of this the ceremonial of their prayers is an incontestable proof. When they acquit themselves of this religious duty, they keep their face turned towards the west, and never omit to deposit before them a stone. During the time of prayer they affect an attitude of abstraction and modesty. Their prayers are addressed to God and their false prophet. First they stand, next they kneel, and while in this position they are a long time striking their forehead against the stone in front of them, so that the mark of it is imprinted on the skin and remains as a sign to everyone that they have just prayed. This gives them great weight among the people, for by this method they are looked on as saints, and acquire such great credit that all they choose to say is held to be absolute verity. Then they employ this good opinion that is held of them as a means of duping and deceiving everybody.