Later Mughals v1.c9.s5.8

v1.c9.s5.8

In connection with these lines, Warid tells a story in praise of Asad Khan's strength of mind and vigour of intellect, even at the extreme age that he had then reached, which, if true, would seem rather to prove his want of common feeling. At the moment that his son's death was announced to him, he hung his head for a little while, and then said to the bystanders, "My thoughts repeatedly recur to the words 'Ibrahim made of Ismail a sacrifice.' " As the numerical value of the letters in these words accords with the year of Zulfiqar's death, the coincidence, if the words came spontaneously into his mind, was very wonderful. If not, this excogitating of a numerical puzzle was a curious use of the first moments following the news of an eldest son's violent death. As there was no member of the family left to support its name and fame, and Asad Khan now disappears from our history, it will be sufficient to note that he survived until the 25th Jamadi II. 1128 H. (15th June, 1716), when he passed away at the great age of eighty-eight lunar years.*