[89] Ba-qit̤aʿ-i-mat̤būʿa-i-muk͟htaṣar. Mat̤būʿa is used in modern times to mean “printed,” but here, I think, it means “elegant.” It is so used in the annals of the 12th year, p. 208, line 18, where it is applied to a building. Qit̤aʿ probably refers to the shape of the volume, and muk͟htaṣar to its small size, or to the minuteness of the writing. [↑]
[90] Sayyid Muḥammad, the Mīr referred to by Jahāngīr, lived into S͟hāh-Jahān’s reign, not dying till 1045 (1635–36). See Pāds͟hāh-nāma, I., Part II., p. 329. But we do not hear anything more of his translation. Perhaps his ill-health prevented him. It is also the fact that orthodox Muhammadans object to translations of the Qoran, regarding it as an impossible task. The Mīr’s son became chief ecclesiastical officer (Ṣadr) under S͟hāh-Jahān. See Maʾās̤iru-l-Umarā, III. 447, and Pāds͟hāh-nāma, I., Part II., p. 328. [↑]
[92] There were twelve mās͟has in a tola; the six cups, then, of 6 tolas and a quarter came to 37½ tolas. [↑]
[93] Jahāngīr visited his father’s tomb in the following year (the 14th). The passage describing the renunciation of shooting (not of hunting) is translated in Elliot, VI. 362. [↑]
[94] The version of the last two lines is by Sir William Jones, and is given by him in his Tenth Anniversary Discourse, delivered on February 28, 1793. As my friend Mr Whinfield has pointed out to me, the quotation comes from the story of S͟hiblī and the ant in the second chapter of the Būstān. It occurs in the sixth story of the second book and p. 161 of Graf’s edition. Sir William Jones’s remark is: “Nor shall I ever forget the couplet of Firdausi, for which Sadi, who cites it with applause, pours blessings on his departed spirit.” The quotation from Firdūsī occurs on p. 67 of Vol. I. in Macan’s edition of the S͟hāh-nāma. [↑]
[95] Ūrvasī is the name of a celestial nymph. It is also stated by Forbes to be the name of an ornament worn on the breast. [↑]
[96] Text bā naqs͟h by mistake for banafs͟ha. [↑]
[97] I.O. MS. 181 has “thirty surk͟h.” [↑]
[98] Perhaps the Moondah of Bayley’s map, east of Maḥmūdābād. [↑]