History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v2.c23.65

v2.c23.65

Aurangzib was ready with his plea for declining these terms: “Dara,” he said, “is an infidel to Islam and a friend of the Hindus. He must be extirpated for the sake of the true faith and the peace of the realm. I cannot visit the Emperor before concluding this business.”* But after long discussion and entreaty, he was once more induced to promise to visit Shah Jahan, and next day marched in a splendid procession from the garden to the city,—the streets being lined with dense crowds of sight-seers who cheered and blessed him. But on the way Shaista Khan and Shaikh Mir galloped up to him and dissuaded him from making the visit, as a needless running into danger. They told him that Shah Jahan had laid a plan to get him murdered by his fierce Tartar slave-women, as soon as he would step into the harem of the Fort. Aurangzíb's purpose was shaken; he stopped his elephant, hesitating what to do. Just then a slave named Nahir-dil arrived from the Fort and betrayed into Aurangzíb's hands a secret letter which the Emperor had ordered him to smuggle out to Dara. It ran thus: