History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c39.s3.4

v3.c39.s3.4

The news that a Persian mission was coming caused a flutter in the Mughal Court. Every one from the Emperor down to the meanest guardsman felt that he and his country were on their trial. His manners and conduct would be judged by the masters of social decorum in all Asia, and if he was found wanting in correctness of taste and proper dignity in the least particular, he would be made the laughing-stock of the entire Muslim world. This natural anxiety was aggravated by the large number of Persian refugees serving in India who gave highly coloured pictures of the power and civilization of the Court of Iran and sneered at the Indo-Musalmans as half-polished barbarians. There was the greatest fear that the Persian envoy would not observe the Indian Court etiquette at his presentation, but cleverly put some mark of inferiority or some slight on the Mughal Emperor, who had a hereditary rivalry with the royal house of Persia for social predominance.