فاني پارکس
In 1570, Akbar founded Fathīpoor Sicri, the City of Victory. Colonel Sleeman mentions, “The quadrangle which contains the mosque on the west side, and the tomb of the old hermit in the centre, was completed in the year 1578, six years before his death; and is, perhaps, one of the finest in the world. It is five hundred and seventy-five feet square, and surrounded by a high wall, with a magnificent cloister all around within. On the outside is a magnificent gateway, at the top of a noble flight of steps, twenty-four feet high. The whole gateway is one hundred and twenty feet in height, and the same in breadth, and presents beyond the wall five sides of an octagon, of which the front face is eighty feet wide: the arch in the centre of this space is sixty feet high by forty wide. On the right side of the entrance is engraven on stone, in large letters, standing out in bas relief, the following passage in Arabic: ‘Jesus, on whom be peace, has said, The world is merely a bridge; you are to pass over it, and not to build your dwellings upon it.’
“Where this saying of Christ is to be found, I know not, nor has any Muhammadan yet been able to tell me; but the quoting of such a passage in such a place is a proof of the absence of all bigotry on the part of Akbar.”
The mosque within the quadrangle was finished in 1576, and Akbar’s three sons were born in the houses of the saint.
A very intelligent person, by name Bisharut Ali, who acted as cicerone, was much pleased to show off the place, and relate his wonderful stories. Amongst other traditions, he told me that, “in former times, Fathīpoor Sicri was infested with wild beasts, and the people who came to see the saint marvelled he was not afraid to live in such a wilderness; the next day, they found a lion and a wolf at the holy man’s door; the lion walking up and down and keeping guard, and the wolf brushing away the dust and dirt before the habitation of the saint”—with his tail, I suppose, for they say nothing of a broom. This Bisharut Ali is a pensioner on three rupees eight ānās a month; his profile, and that of Mulka Begam’s, who is a descendant of Akbar’s, were so much alike, that I could not help asking him if he were of Selīm Cheestie’s family? He replied, “No; my ancestor was the teacher (oostād) of the saint!”
There is much to visit at this place: the mosque, the numerous tombs, and also a very curious building, in which the council of the nation was held.
The place that most interested my imagination was the Temple of Magic, in which Akbar used to study. How much the Emperor, who was greatly addicted to the art, must have been interested in casting the nativity of the sons of his pilgrimage, and in the important task of selecting fortunate names!
On the birth of the heir, the City of Victory must have resounded with the roar of cannon, in honour of the happy event; even the poorest Musulmān testifies his rejoicing on such an occasion by firing off a matchlock; but should the offspring be a girl, the cannon is silent, and no matchlocks are in requisition. There are five different modes of naming children, two of which are as follow:—
Sometimes the infant obtains the name of some one of the family, as that of the parent’s father, (it is not customary among Musulmāns to give their own names to their children,) the grandfather, great-grandfather, or the tutelary saint venerated in the family; hence the name of Selīm was given to the first-born of the Emperor.