History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c39.s2.1

v3.c39.s2.1

Among the chiefs of Islam, the Sharif of Mecca held a position of peculiar honour and importance. He had control over the holy places, and through him alone could alms from outside reach the pious men and mendicants who lived in that sacred soil to which the heart of the entire Muslim world turns in prayer five times a day. After the War of Succession, Aurangzib planned to drown in a shower of gold any scruples which the headmen and theologians of the Holy City might have felt in acknowledging as lawful sovereign the usurper of a loving father's throne.* In November, 1659, shortly after his grand coronation, he despatched Mir Ibrahim, a pious Sayyid, with six lakhs and sixty thousand Rupees for distribution among the Sayyids, recluses, servitors of the mosques and shrines, and devotees at Mecca and Medina. The chief of the mission died in Arabia about June 1661 and the charge of the party was transferred to Haji Ahmad Said, who carried his pious task out, and returned to Court in March 1665, bringing with himself Sayyid Yahiya, the bearer of a friendly letter and some relics from the Sharif of Mecca. This envoy received Rs. 13,000 in return.