[9] As a general rule, all Muhammadan books begin with a few sentences devoted to the praise of God and the eulogy of the prophet Muhammad; to which some add a blessing on the twelve Imams.
[10] The twelve Imams are the descendants of the prophet, by his daughter Fatima, who was married to her cousin-german 'Ali, who is considered as the first Imam; the other eleven were the following, viz., Hasan, the son of 'Ali; Husain, the son of 'Ali; 'Ali, surnamed Zainu-l-'Abidin, son of Husain; Muhammad, son of the last mentioned; Ja'far Sadik, son of Muhammad; Musa-l-Kazim, son of Ja'far; 'Al-i Raza, son of Musa; Muhammad, son of 'Ali Raza; 'Ali 'Askari, son of Muhammad; Hasan 'Askari: and lastly Muhammad Mahdi. With regard to this last and twelfth Imam, some say, very erroneously, that he is yet to appear. Now the fact is, the twelfth Imam has appeared. He lived and died like the rest of the sainthood; otherwise what would be the use of praying for him? The Muhammadans offer up prayers for the dead, but I never heard of their praying for the unborn.
[11]
[12] Much nonsense has been written about this Fasli aera. We are told that "it dates from the Christian year 592 3/4"! but the fact is that it was established no further back than the reign of Akbar. It was engrafted on the Hijri aera in the first year of that monarch's reign, with this proviso, that the Fasli years should thenceforth go on increasing by solar calculation, and not by lunar; hence, every century the Hijri aera gains three years on the Fasli, and in Mir Amman's time the difference had amounted to nearly eight years.
[13] A ghat is a long flight of steps, of stone or brick, leading to a river for the purpose of bathing, drawing water, embarking or disembarking. It is a high object of ambition in India, among the wealthier classes of natives, to construct these ghats, and this species of useful ostentation has produced some magnificent structures of the kind on the rivers Ganges, and Jumna, which are of great public utility.
[14] The reader will do well in the first place to pass over this very clumsy parenthesis in the original; and return to it after he has finished the rest of the paragraph.
[15] The Honourable Company's European servants, civil, military, and medical.
[16] A celebrated Persian poet of Dilli; his odes are very elegant, and have great poetical genius; he was, as a Persian poet, inferior to none: he is the original author of this "Tale of the Four Darwesh."
[17] The author seems to use Dilli or Dihli indifferently for the northern metropolis of India, vulgarly called Delhi.
[18] Zari Zar-bakhsh means the bestower of gold; Nizamu-d-Din Auliya was a famous holy personage of Upper India, and holds the first rank in the list of the saints of Hindustan. His shrine is at Dilli, and resorted to by thousands of devotees, and many tales are told of his inspired wisdom, his superior beneficence, his contempt of the good things of this world, and his uncommon philanthropy.