The Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, Volume 1 of 2

The Seventh New Year’s Festival after the auspicious Accession.

Alexander Rogers translation

“I make my eyes red and throw patience to the wilds,

And in such a case throw my heart into the sea.

I’m wounded by the shaft of heaven:

Give wine, so that intoxicated I may cast a knot in the girdle of the Twins.”

As this couplet was very appropriate to the occasion, I drew an omen from it. After some days news came again that the arrow of Fate, or rather of God, had struck ʿUs̤mān, for however much they enquired for him, he who fired the shot was not made manifest. This has been recorded on account of its strange nature.

In order to lay the foundation of a palace at Lahore, I sent there K͟hwāja Jahān K͟hwāja Dūst Muḥammad, who is well skilled in this kind of business.

“One cannot strive against destiny.”

Islām K͟hān had sent 160 male and female elephants from Bengal; they were brought before me and placed in my private elephant stables. Rāja Tekchand, the Raja of Kumaon, asked for leave to depart. As in the time of my father there had been given to his father 100 horses, I gave him the same number as well as an elephant, and while he was at Court bestowed on him dresses of honour and a jewelled dagger. Also to his brothers I gave dresses of honour and horses. I presented him with his territory according to previous arrangements, and he went back to his home happy and successful.

It happened incidentally that this verse of the Amīru-l-umarā was quoted:—

“Pass, O Messiah, o’er the heads of us slain by love;

As I have a poetical disposition I sometimes intentionally and sometimes involuntarily compose couplets and quatrains. So the following couplet came into my head:—

“Turn not thy cheek, without thee I cannot live a moment;

For thee to break one heart is equal a hundred murders.”

“O Censor, fear the weeping of the old vintner;

Thy breaking one jar is equal to a hundred murders.”

Notes in this chapter

Note 1 · Qūruqchī in I.O. MS. and in Iqbāl-nāma, p. 60. Steingass gives it as meaning one who looks after the king’s game, and as a sentinel. ↑Note 2 · Text has pūsthā, skins, but I.O. MS. has pūstīnhā. ↑Note 3 · Copied from Āyīn. See Jarrett, ii, 115. See also Elliot, vi, 326. ↑Note 4 · This is equal to one krore, fifty lakhs of rupees. The Sarkar of Orissa was included in Bengal, and its revenue is included in this. (Note o Note 5 · Also called S͟haik͟h Kabīr Chis͟htī (Blochmann, p. 519; Maʾās̤iru-l-umarā, ii, 630). ↑Note 6 · Perhaps this is only rhetoric, but Abū-l-faẓl describes how lots were cast between him and Rāja Bīrbal as to who should go on the Yūsufzai e Note 7 · Ichī means a hawk, but the meaning may be a S͟haik͟h of Uch. Acha is given in Zenker as meaning a father in Turki. The Iqbāl-nāma has Ajha. Note 8 · Text wrongly has Aʿz̤am. See Blochmann, p. 521, note. ↑Note 9 · Kis͟hwar was the son of Jahāngīr’s foster-brother Qut̤bu-d-dīn, who was killed by Shīr-afgan. ↑Note 10 · The Iqbāl-nāma and the B.M. MSS. call it Bak͟hla. ↑Note 11 · These last words seem to be part of S͟hajāʿat’s speech, but see Iqbāl-nāma, p. 63. See also Elliot, vi, 329, and the translation of the Iqbā Note 12 · The text has dar adhār u t̤arf kih dar taṣarruf-i-ān tīra-rūzgār būd. I do not know if adhār is the name of a place or what its meaning is. Note 13 · The lines occur in Ḥāfiz̤ʾ divān, under the letter M, Brockhaus’ ed., No. 396, but Jahāngīr has missed out two lines in his quotation. An In Note 14 · Elliot, vi, 331. ↑Note 15 · They call this in the English language a turkey, and the people of India call it pīrū; Persian-knowing Indians call it in Persian fīlmurg͟h.Note 16 · Akbar-nāma, iii, 533. It was in the 33rd year. ↑Note 17 · He asked Ṭoḍar Mal’s protection, but the son was sent (Akbar-nāma, iii, 533). ↑Note 18 · This name is not in all the MSS. It is another name for Iʿtiqād, son of Iʿtimādu-d-daulah. ↑Note 19 · Blochmann, p. 508. ↑Note 20 · Elliot, vi, 333. ↑Note 21 · Raja of Baglāna. ↑Note 22 · A periphrasis for Jahāngīr himself. ↑Note 23 · The history of Nūr, i.e. the history of Nūru-d-dīn Jahāngīr. ↑Note 24 · Should be Abū-n-nabī. See infra. ↑Note 25 · This was Arjumand Bānū or Mumtāz-maḥall, the favourite wife of S͟hāh Jahān and the mother of fourteen of his children. She was the niece of Note 26 · Tūrhā. The corresponding passage in the Iqbāl-nāma, p. 67, last line, shows that jewels are meant. The text omits the preposition ba before Note 27 · K͟hūn-pāra, ‘congestion of blood’; pāra or bāra is used to mean a collection or gathering. See Maʾās̤iru-l-umarā, ii, 221, where we have bār Note 28 · Ās̤ār, which, according to Forbes, is a sir weight. ↑Note 29 · Perhaps it was only what is called a chār-jāma and not an enclosed howdah. ↑Note 30 · The reference is to the Messiah as the restorer to life by His breath. For baguẕar, ‘pass by,’ Erskine had in his MS. maguẕar, ‘pass not.’ A Note 31 · ʿAlī Aḥmad died suddenly two years before this, unless indeed the passage at p. 169 refers to the mimic and not to ʿAlī Aḥmad. Probably the Note 32 · This is the Dakhanī chief mentioned previously at p. 192. ↑Note 33 · Blochmann, p. 485. He acted in Kashmir for his brother Hās͟him. ↑Note 34 · The kaṭāra was a long, narrow dagger. See Blochmann’s Āyīn, pl. xli, fig. 9. But the word phūl (flower) is obscure. Perhaps it means the kno Note 35 · He must have remained more than four days, for he got the news of Salīma’s death while in the garden. See infra. Perhaps the date 10th refer Note 36 · This statement is wrong. Salīma was 76 when she died, she having been born on 4th S͟hawwāl, 945, or 23rd February, 1539. She died on or abou Note 37 · The real name appears to be Abū-n-nabī. He had the title of Bahādur K͟hān. See Maʾās̤iru-l-umarā, i, 400. In the Akbar-nāma, iii, 820 and 83 Note 38 · This must refer to the 2 months and 20 days of hunting. ↑Note 39 · On the 16th Farwardīn, Muqarrab K͟hān, who is one of my chief retainers and the old confidants of the Jahangiri service, who had attained th Note 40 · In these days I increased the mansab of Mahābat K͟hān by 1,000 personal and 500 horse, which thus became 4,000 personal and 3,500 horse. The Note 41 · As the affairs of the Deccan, in consequence of the disagreements among the Sardars and the carelessness of K͟hān Aʿz̤am, did not look well,Note 42 · For a long time past news had come of the illness of Āṣaf K͟hān; sometimes the disease was got under and sometimes recurred, until he died a Note 43 · After a short space of time, on the 25th of the same month of Urdībihis͟ht, the news of Mīrzā G͟hāzī’s death arrived. The said Mīrzā was of Note 44 · I sent ʿAbdu-r-Razzāq, the bakhshi of the palace (dark͟hāna), to settle the country of Thatta (Sind) until a Sardar should be appointed who Note 45 · The tale of the death of S͟hajāʿat K͟hān is a very strange affair. After he had performed such services and Islām K͟hān had given him leave Note 46 · Thy restoring one life is worth a hundred murders.”30 Note 47 · When I had recited this, everyone who had a poetical vein composed a couplet in the same mode. Mullā ʿAlī Aḥmad,31 the seal-engraver, of who Note 48 · Abū-l-fatḥ Dakhanī,32 who was one of the most considerable of ʿĀdil K͟hān’s Amirs, and had two years previously taken to being loyal and had Note 49 · On Thursday, the 22nd S͟hahrīwar, corresponding with 17th Rajab, 1021, the feast of my solar weighing took place in the house of Maryam-zamā