Later Mughals v1.c9.s39: Sec. 41.—The Conduct of the Sayyids Considered.
Later Mughals v1.c9.s39
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Sec. 41.—The Conduct of the Sayyids Considered.
v1.c9.s39.1
On few subjects does there seem to have been such violently contradictory views expressed as upon the conduct of the Sayyids at this juncture. Writers who are themselves Sayyids and Shias defend their action as the only course that could have been pursued. But, as the two brothers soon fell from power and lost their lives, the partisans of their rivals and successors have not hesitated to denounce them, and hold them up to the execration of mankind. The two extremes are even embodied by rival poets in chronograms composed for the occasion. Mirza Abdul Qadir Bedil wrote :
v1.c9.s39.2
∗ Khafi Khan, 820; Kamwar Khan, 200; Qasim, 260.
v1.c9.s39.3
'Didst thou see what they did to the mighty king?
A hundred harsh and cruel deeds they did, unthinking :
I asked Wisdom for the date. She answered :
'The Sayyids behaved disloyally to their king.' '
v1.c9.s39.4
To this Mir Azmat-ullah Bilgrami Bekhabar, using the same form and rhymes, replied :
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'To the infirm monarch they did what they ought,
What a physician should do, that they did ;
By light of Wisdom's lamp this date was prescribed :
'The Sayyids treated him as the case required.' '
v1.c9.s39.6
It is impossible, I think, to accept to the full either conclusion. To none but extreme believers in the divinity that doth hedge a king, will it seem wrong to have removed from power such a worthless thing as Farrukh-siyar. But the way of doing what had become almost a necessity was unduly harsh, too utterly regardless of the personal dignity of the fallen monarch. Blinding a deposed king was the fixed usage ; for that the Sayyids are not specially to blame. But the severity of the subsequent confinement was excessive ; and the taking of the captive's life was an extremity entirely uncalled for. As Shah Nawaz Khan says, the Sayyids were forced into action by a regard for their own lives and honour. At the same time, as he points out, the nobler course would have been for them to have abandoned the struggle, and contented themselves with some distant Government, or they might have quitted the service of the State and proceeded on a pilgrimage to Mecca. "But it is not in the power of mortal man to rise superior to that worst of evil passions, the love of power and place." The pious Muhammadan consoles himself by the reflection that God in his good purposes saw fit to impose expiation on the two brothers, by their own speedy death and the destruction of all their power ; and thus in His mercy He allowed them to atone for whatever sin they had committed, and did not exclude them from final redemption. Their own violent deaths sufficed to save their souls. [M. U. i. 321, 344-345.]