[161] Text, Ūymāq pūrī (?). MS. 181 has būrī, and 305 seems to have the same. Can it mean ‘red cavalry’? As Blochmann has pointed out, 371, n. 2, the word Ūymāq does not always mean the tribe, but was used to denote a superior kind of cavalry. [↑]
[162] The qamargāh or ring-hunt produced 265 head of game; the rest were shot at other times; the total of the list should be apparently 576. [↑]
Feast of the Second New Year.
On Wednesday the 22nd Ẕī-l-qaʿda, 1015 (10th March, 1607), when 3½ gharis of the day had passed, the sun rose to his House of Honour. They decorated the palace after the usual fashion: a great entertainment was prepared, and having seated myself at an auspicious hour on the throne of accession I exalted the nobles and courtiers with kindness and favour. On this same auspicious day it was learned from the reports sent from Qandahar that the army sent under Mīrzā G͟hāzī, son of Mīrzā Jānī, to succour (which had been appointed to assist) S͟hāh Beg K͟hān, had entered the city of Qandahar on the 12th of Shawwāl. When the Persians heard of the arrival of the victorious army at the last stage before the aforesaid city,[1] they became surprised and wretched and repentant, and did not draw rein until they had reached the Helmand, fifty or sixty kos distant.
In the second place it became known that the governor of Farāh and a number of the officers of that neighbourhood had taken it into their heads, after the death of the late king, that in this confusion Qandahar might easily fall into their hands, and without waiting for an order from S͟hāh ʿAbbās had collected together and won over the Chief of Sewistān (Sīstān). Sending someone to Ḥusain K͟hān, the governor of Herat they asked for support from him. He also sent a force. After that they turned to attack Qandahar. S͟hāh Beg K͟hān, the governor of that place, seeing that battle has two heads, and that if (which God forbid!) he should be defeated he would lose possession of Qandahar, thought that to confine himself in a fort would be better than to fight. He therefore determined to hold the fort, and sent quick messengers to the Court. It happened that at this time the royal standards had started from Agra in pursuit of K͟husrau, and had arrived at Lahore. Immediately on hearing this news (from S͟hāh Beg K͟hān), a large force was sent off of amirs and mansabdars under Mīrzā G͟hāzī. Before the Mīrzā reached Qandahar the news had been carried to the S͟hāh (of Persia) that the governor of Farāh, with some of the jagirdars of that neighbourhood, had proceeded towards the province of Qandahar. Considering this an improper proceeding, he sent Ḥusain Beg, a well-known man and one of his own intimates to make enquiries. He also sent a farman in their names that they should move away from the vicinity of Qandahar and go to their own places and abodes, because the friendship and amity of his ancestors with the dignified family of Jahāngīr Pāds͟hāh were of old standing. That body, before the arrival of Ḥusain Beg and the King’s order, not being able to oppose the royal army, considered the opportunity of returning a favourable one. The said Ḥusain Beg censured the men and started off to wait on me, which he had the honour to do at Lahore. He explained that the ill-fated army which had attacked Qandahar had acted without the order of S͟hāh ʿAbbās. God forbid (he said) that in consequence of this any unpleasantness should remain in my mind. In short, after the victorious troops reached Qandahar, they, according to orders, delivered the fort over to Sardār K͟hān, and S͟hāh Beg K͟hān returned to Court with the relieving force.
On the 27th Ẕī-l-qaʿda, ʿAbdu-llah K͟hān, having brought Rām Chand Bandīlah into captivity and chains, brought him before me. I ordered them to take the fetters from his legs, and bestowed on him a robe of honour, and handed him over to Rāja Bāso that he might take security and release him and a number of his relations who had been captured with him. This through my clemency and kindness came to pass. He had never imagined such clemency and kindness as I showed to him.
On the 2nd Ẕī-l-ḥijja I gave my son K͟hurram a tūmān u tūg͟h, a flag and drums, and bestowed on him the rank of 8,000 personal and 5,000 horse, and gave an order for a jagir. On the same day, having exalted Pīr K͟hān,[2] son of Daulat K͟hān Lodī, who had come from K͟handesh with the children of Dāniyāl, with the title of Ṣalābat K͟hān and honoured him with the rank of 3,000 personal and 1,500 horse, and presented him with a standard and drums, I promoted him to the distinction of sonship (farzandī) beyond his fellows and equals. The ancestors and uncles of Ṣalābat K͟hān’s grandfather had been great and honourable among the tribe of Lodī. An earlier Daulat K͟hān, uncle of Ṣalābat K͟hān’s grandfather, when Ibrāhīm after his father Sikandar’s death, began to behave ill to his father’s amirs and destroyed many, became apprehensive, and sent his younger son, Dilāwar K͟hān, to wait upon H.M. Bābar in Kabul, and suggested to him the acquisition of Hindustan. As Bābar also had this enterprise in mind, he at once proceeded in that direction, and did not turn his rein till he reached the neighbourhood of Lahore. Daulat K͟hān with his followers obtained the good fortune to wait upon him, and performed loyal service. As he was an old man, adorned with inward and outward excellencies, he did much good service. He (Bābar) generally called him “father,” and entrusting to him as before[3] the government of the Panjab placed its amirs and jagirdars under his jurisdiction. Taking Dilāwar K͟hān with him he (Bābar) returned to Kabul. When he (Bābar) came a second time into the Panjab with intent to invade Hindustan, Daulat K͟hān waited on him, and about the same time died. Dilāwar K͟hān was honoured with the title of K͟hānk͟hānān and was with Bābar in the battle he had with Ibrāhīm. In the same way he was permanently in waiting on the late king Humāyūn. In the thānā of Mungir, at the time of his (Humāyūn’s) return from Bengal, he fought bravely against S͟hīr K͟hān Afg͟hān, and was made prisoner on the field of battle. Although S͟hīr K͟hān urged him to take service with him, he refused and said, “Thy ancestors were always the servants of mine: how, then, could I do this?” S͟hīr K͟hān was enraged, and ordered him to be shut up in a wall.[4]
ʿUmar K͟hān, the grandfather of Salābat K͟hān Farzand, who was cousin of Dilāwar K͟hān, had been treated with respect in the time of Salīm K͟hān. After Salīm K͟hān’s death and the slaughter of Fīrūz, his son, at the hand of Muḥammad K͟hān, ʿUmar K͟hān and his brethren became suspicious of Muḥammad K͟hān and went to Gujarat, where ʿUmar K͟hān died. Daulat K͟hān, his son, who was a brave young man of pleasant appearance, and good at all things, chose the companionship of ʿAbdu-r-Raḥīm, son of Bairām K͟hān, who had been dignified with the title of K͟hānk͟hānān in the reign of Akbar, and performed excellent service. The K͟hānk͟hānān regarded him as his own brother, or even a thousand times better than his brother, and dearer. Most of the K͟hānk͟hānān’s victories were gained through Daulat K͟hān’s valour and manliness.[5] When my revered father, having taken the province of Khandesh and the fort of Āsīr, returned to Agra, he left Dāniyāl in charge of that province and of all the provinces acquired from the rulers of the Deccan. At this time Dāniyāl had separated Daulat K͟hān from the K͟hānk͟hānān, and was keeping him in attendance on himself and handing over to him for disposal all the business of the State. He showed him much favour and perfect affection until he died in his service. He left two sons, one Muḥammad K͟hān, and the other Pīr K͟hān; Muḥammad K͟hān, who was the elder, died a short time after his father. Dāniyāl, too, wore himself out with drinking. After my accession I summoned Pīr K͟hān to Court. As I discovered in him a good disposition and natural abilities, I raised the pedestal of regard for him to the point that has been described. To-day there is not in my government any person of greater influence than he, so much so that on his representation I pass over faults which are not pardoned at the intercession of any of the other servants of the Court. In short, he is a young man of good disposition, brave, and worthy of favour, and what I have done for him has been done rightly, and he will be exalted by further favours.[6]
As I had made up my exalted mind to the conquest of Māwarāʾa-n-nahr (Transoxiana), which was the hereditary kingdom of my ancestors, I desired to free the face of Hindustan from the rubbish of the factious and rebellious, and leaving one of my sons in that country, to go myself with a valiant army in due array, with elephants of mountainous dignity and of lightning speed, and taking ample treasure with me, to undertake the conquest of my ancestral dominions. In accordance with this idea, I despatched Parwīz to drive back the Rānā, and intended to go myself to the Deccan, when just at that moment the improper action of K͟husrau took place, and it became necessary to pursue him and put an end to that disturbance. For the same reason, the undertaking of Parwīz did not assume a promising appearance, and regarding the exigency of the time he gave a respite to the Rānā. Bringing with him one of the Rānā’s sons, he came to wait on me, and had the bliss of attending me in Lahore. When I was at ease about K͟husrau’s disturbance, and the repulse of the Qizilbāshes, who had invested Qandahar, had been brought about in a facile way, it came into my mind to make a hunting tour to Kabul, which is like my native land. After that I would return to Hindustan, when the purposes of my mind would pass from design to action. In pursuance of these steps, on the 7th Ẕī-l-ḥijja, at an auspicious hour, I left the fort of Lahore and took up my quarters in the Dil-āmīz Garden, which is on the other side of the Ravi, and stayed there four days. Sunday, the 19th Farwardīn, which is the culmination of His Majesty the Sun, I passed in the garden, and some of the servants of the Court were favourably and kindly honoured with increased rank. Ten thousand rupees were bestowed on Hasan Beg, the envoy of the ruler of Persia (S͟hāh ʿAbbās). Leaving Qilīj K͟hān, Mīrān Ṣadr Jahān, and Mīr S͟harīf Āmulī in Lahore, I ordered them to settle in consultation any matters that might present themselves. On Monday I marched from the garden mentioned, and encamped at the village of Harhar, 3½ kos distant from the city. On Tuesday the royal standards alighted at Jahāngīrpūr, which is one of my fixed hunting-places. In this neighbourhood had been erected by my order a manār at the head of the grave of an antelope called Mansarāj,[7] which was without equal in fights with tame antelopes and in hunting wild ones. On a stone of that manar was carved this prose composition, written by Mullā Muḥammad Ḥusain of Kashmir, who was the chief of the elegant writers of the day: “In this enchanting place an antelope came into the world-holding (jahān-gīrī) net of the God-knowing ruler Nūru-d-dīn Jahāngīr Pāds͟hāh. In the space of one month, having overcome his desert fierceness, he became the head of the special antelopes.” On account of the rare quality of this antelope, I commanded that no person should hunt the deer of this plain, and that their flesh should be to Hindus and Muhammadans as is the flesh of cows and pigs. They made the gravestone in the shape of an antelope. I ordered Sikandar Muʿīn, the jagirdar of the aforesaid pargana, to build a strong fort in the village of Jahangirpur.