History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c66.s4.3

v4.c66.s4.3

But like Wajid Ali Shah, the last Nawab of Oudh, of whom Dalhousie wrote that he “would not offend or quarrel with us (the English) and took any amount of kicking without being rebellious,"—the last Sultan of Golkonda refused to be hustled into a war by his enemy's ambassador. His ignoble clinging to a throne that gave him ease at the expense of honour, was redeemed only by an inborn courtesy and readiness of speech which often gave him the best of any wrangle with the Mughal envoy. One day Abul Hasan mildly protested against the habitual insolence of Mirza Muhammad's address to him, saying "I too am called Emperor in my own country." The haughty envoy retorted, "It does not become you to assume the title of Emperor. If Aurangzib hears of it, he will become more angry." Abul Hasan promptly replied, "You chide me by mistake. If we are not to be called Padishahs, how can Aurangzib be styled the Padishah of Padishahs?" And the Mughal envoy had to admit to his friends that the repartee totally silenced him. (K.K. ii. 295.)