Note 16 — The Ninth New Year’s Feast after my auspicious Accession.

In the beginning of the month of Day, merchants came from Persia and brought pomegranates of Yazd and melons from Kārīz, which are the best of Khurasan melons, so many that all the servants of the Court and the Amirs of the frontiers obtained a portion of them and were very grateful to the True Giver (God) for them. I had never had such melons and pomegranates. It seemed as if I had never had a pomegranate or a melon before. Every year I had had melons from Badakhshan and pomegranates from Kabul, but they bore no comparison with the Yazd pomegranates and the Kārīz melons. As my revered father (may God’s light be his witness!) had a great liking for fruit, I was very grieved that such fruits had not come to Hindustan from Persia in his victorious time, that he might have enjoyed and profited by them. I have the same regret for the Jahāngīrī ʿit̤r (so-called otto of roses), that his nostrils were not gratified with such essences. This ʿit̤r is a discovery which was made during my reign through the efforts of the mother of Nūr-Jahān Begam. When she was making rose-water a scum formed on the surface of the dishes into which the hot rose-water was poured from the jugs. She collected this scum little by little; when much rose-water was obtained a sensible portion of the scum was collected. It is of such strength in perfume that if one drop be rubbed on the palm of the hand it scents a whole assembly, and it appears as if many red rosebuds had bloomed at once. There is no other scent of equal excellence to it. It restores hearts that have gone and brings back withered souls. In reward for that invention I presented a string of pearls to the inventress. Salīma16 Sult̤ān Begam (may the lights of God be on her tomb) was present, and she gave this oil the name of ‘ʿit̤r-i-Jahāngīrī.’