Note 33 — The Eighteenth New Year’s Feast after the Auspicious Accession
Alexander Rogers translation
And now, for the sake of enlivening my narrative, a few words must be said about Āsīr. The said fort, in its great height and strength, is not in want of my praise. Before Bī-daulat went to the Deccan it was in the charge of K͟hwāja Naṣru-llah, s. K͟hwāja Fatḥu-llah, who was one of the household slaves and ancient servants. Afterwards, at the request of Bī-daulat, it was handed over to Mīr Ḥusāmu-d-dīn, s. Mīr Jamālu-d-dīn Ḥusain.33 As the daughter of Nūr Jahān Begam’s maternal uncle (taghāʾī) was married34 to him, when Bī-daulat, having been defeated in the neighbourhood of Delhi, turned his rein towards Malwa and Māndū, Nūr Jahān Begam wrote to him and strictly urged him, saying: “Beware, a thousand times beware, not to allow Bī-daulat and his men to come near the fort, but strengthen the towers and gates, and do your duty, and do not act in such a manner that the stain of a curse and ingratitude for favours should fall on the honour or the forehead of a Sayyid.” In truth, he strengthened it well, and the arrangements of the fort were not of such a sort that Bī-daulat’s bird of thought could fly up to its border, or the conquest of it be quickly accomplished. In brief, when Bī-daulat sent one of his attendants, of the name of S͟harīfā, to the above-mentioned, he (S͟harīfā) seduced him by means of promises and threats, and it was settled (between S͟hāh Jahān and S͟harīfā) that when Ḥusāmu-d-dīn should come down to take the letter and dress of honour which had been sent, he should not be allowed to go up again. That wretch, immediately S͟harīfā arrived, put away on the shelf of forgetfulness what he owed on account of his bringing up and the favours conferred on him, and without opposition or effort handed over the fort to S͟harīfā, and with his wife35 and child went to Bī-daulat, who made him accursed of the Faith and in the world by bestowing on him the mansab of 4,000 personal, and a standard and drums, and the title of Murtaẓā K.—a disgraceful name to all eternity.