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THE MOGUL EMPERORS 
 
«J%«f &/ 
 
 
THE 
 
 MOGUL EMPERORS OF 
 HINDUSTAN 
 
 A.D. I398-A.D. 1707 
 
 ,BY 
 
 EDWARD S.^HOLDEN, LL.D. 
 
 Often an action of small note, a short saying or a j'cst^ 
 shall distinguish a person's real character more than 
 the greatest sieges. — Plutarch. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 y-a^f 
 
 A~ li/ASVi\«^'^3^ 
 
COPYKIGHT, 1895, BY 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 >^ 
 
 >V-" 
 
 Press of J. J. Little & Co. 
 Astor Place, New York 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE 
 
 A COLLECTION of miniatures of the Mogul 
 emperors, some of which are copied in this 
 book, came into my hands many months ago. 
 The accounts of these unfamiHar personages 
 which are given in the ordinary books of 
 reference I found to be inadequate and fre- 
 quently incorrect. Accordingly, I devoted 
 the spare hours of a long and harassing win- 
 ter to reading the original memoirs of the 
 native historians of India and the accounts 
 of early ambassadors and travellers to the 
 court of the Great Moguls. A few of these 
 I wrote out in brief, and they were printed 
 in various periodicals. I have been asked to 
 reprint them in a more complete form, which 
 I am very glad to do, as I know of no one 
 volume which contains the information here 
 collected. 
 
 To those who have lived or travelled in 
 India, the subject of this book will be more 
 
vi Introductory Note 
 
 or less familiar, since the jurisprudence, cus- 
 toms, and architecture of the Mogul em- 
 perors have left remains which still serve to 
 recall their authors. Yet I think that even 
 this class of readers may find it convenient 
 to have many scattered fragments of biog- 
 raphy and history brought together in one 
 place. To the majority of persons, however, 
 the Mogul period is a closed one ; it is hardly 
 more than a name ; its impulses are alien, 
 its note is foreign, and its history seems 
 remote. But even to us, who are so far re- 
 moved in time and in temper, it is not with- 
 out interest to study the characters of the 
 kings who ruled India for three eventful 
 centuries ; and it is chiefly to the latter class 
 of readers that this book is addressed. 
 
 I wish to emphasize the fact that its chap- 
 ters are not intended to give the history of the 
 reigns in question, but rather to present such 
 views of the chief personages involved as an 
 intelligent reader of the histories themselves 
 might wish to carry away. The materials 
 which I have used are to be found in all 
 great libraries, although they are dispersed in 
 
IntrodtLctory Note vll 
 
 very many different volumes. Moreover, the 
 writings of Oriental biographers require to 
 be worked over into a new shape before 
 they are acceptable to Western readers. 
 
 I have not encumbered these pages with 
 the host of foot-notes which would be neces- 
 sary had I referred by work, volume, and 
 page to their sources. It may suffice to say 
 that the chief authorities consulted have 
 been the Memoirs of the emperors them- 
 selves ; the standard histories of Persia, 
 India, and Tartary, by Elphinstone, Malcolm, 
 Erskine, Price, Hunter, Howorth, and others; 
 the records of early missions and voyages ; 
 and, more especially, the invaluable transla- 
 tions of the native historians, by Sir Henry 
 Elliot, Professor Dowson, and Professor 
 Blochmann ; in short, all the works that I 
 was able to find which treat of the subject 
 in hand. 
 
 The very interesting lives of Akbar, by 
 Colonel Malleson and Comte F. A. de 
 Noer, and of Aurangzeb, by Mr. Stanley 
 Lane- Poole, came into my hands after this 
 book was finished. I have carefully com- 
 
vill Introductory Note 
 
 pared Chapters IV and VII with these, the 
 latest authorities, but I have seen nothing 
 to change. As a matter of fact, all histories 
 of the Moguls must depend upon the same 
 originals. The interpretation of these origi- 
 nals rests with the reader. I have attempted 
 to present them so fully as to make the 
 interpretation easy. Whenever it was pos- 
 sible, I have used the very words of the 
 various chronicles ; and this must be my 
 excuse for some inconsistencies in spelling, 
 etc. I have also chosen to retain the spell- 
 ing of the word Mogul, which a usage of 
 more than two centuries has made familiar 
 to English readers, rather than to introduce 
 the more correct form, Mughal. 
 
 I count myself particularly fortunate in 
 that I have the permission of Sir William 
 Hunter to reprint (in Chapter VIII) his 
 masterly picture of the downfall of the last 
 of the great Mogul emperors. 
 
 I have been able to find nearly all the 
 original authorities for this book in the 
 libraries of the Pacific Coast, which seems 
 to be not a little remarkable when it is 
 
Introductory Note ix 
 
 considered how far removed our American 
 interests, literary and otherwise, are from 
 those of India, especially of mediaeval In- 
 dia. Other works I have consulted by the 
 courtesy of Dr. Justin Winsor, Librarian of 
 Harvard University. 
 
 There was every reason to expect that no 
 complete series of entirely authentic por- 
 traits of the Mogul emperors could be 
 obtained. So far as I have been able to 
 discover, there is no such series in America. 
 By the liberal action of the authorities of 
 the British Museum, and through the very 
 kind offices of Dr. Richard Garnett, keeper 
 of its printed books, and of Professor 
 Robert K. Douglas, keeper of Oriental 
 Mss., I received permission to copy the 
 portraits of the Mogul kings from a col- 
 lection of rare and exquisite Indian draw- 
 ings by contemporary artists, which consti- 
 tutes one of its many treasures. The group 
 of four emperors — Babar, Humayun, Akbar, 
 Jal angir — which is given at the beginning 
 of Chapter II, is reproduced from a Ms. 
 of the Shah-Jaha7i-Nameh (British Museum 
 
X Introductory Note 
 
 Add., 20,734), which was formerly in the 
 possession of Akbar III, King of Delhi. 
 The portrait of Shah Jahan as an old man 
 (page 270), and of Aurangzeb (page 309), 
 are from Ms. Add., 18,801. 
 
 These plates were kindly selected for me 
 by Mr. H. Arthur Doubleday of London, 
 publisher to the India Office, who also was 
 good enough to superintend their photo- 
 graphic reproduction from the original Mss. 
 The portraits are entirely authentic ; with 
 one exception they have never before been 
 printed ; indeed, their existence was only 
 known to a few Oriental scholars ; and they 
 have the additional advantage of exhibiting 
 Indian portraiture at its best, in everything 
 but color. 
 
 The frontispiece of this book, from an 
 exquisite miniature on ivory, is a copy of 
 a picture given to my son by Sir Edwin 
 Arnold. The plate of Akbar, Nur-Mahal, 
 and Shah Jahan (as a young man) is repro- 
 duced from other miniatures in my collec- 
 tion. They purport to be copies of original 
 portraits. How faithfully, even slavishly, 
 
Introductory Note xi. 
 
 such originals are copied and recopied I have 
 learned by comparing two photographs of 
 Nur-Mahal in my possession. One of these 
 is after a miniature now in London, the other 
 after a miniature now in Delhi. The two 
 miniatures were copied from the same orig- 
 inal. The closest scrutiny fails to detect 
 any difference whatever in any part of the 
 two photographs. The very pattern of a 
 rug is absolutely identical in the two copies 
 of copies. Hence it is that one comes to 
 have confidence in such reproductions by 
 Indian artists. The spirited design of two 
 Asiatic warriors used as a stamp on the 
 cover, is after a Persian painting of the time 
 of Marco Polo, circa a.d. 1300, and it is 
 reproduced from Colonel Yule's remarkable 
 life of the great traveller. 
 
 The portrait of Nur-Mahal (Nur-Jahan) 
 at the beginning of Chapter VI, is copied 
 from an engrav'ng which bears the title 
 " Noor Jehan, or the Light of the World, 
 after an original drawing from the library 
 of the Great Mogul, and now in the pos- 
 session of the Publishers," which is further 
 
xii Introductory Note 
 
 marked "P. 185." I do not know to what 
 work this belongs, but this rare portrait is 
 evidently a faithful copy of some Indian 
 original, and is extremely interesting. 
 
 The view of the tomb of Tamerlane, in 
 Samarkand, is redrawn from a photograph 
 which I owe to the kindness of Professor 
 D. Gedeonof, Director of the Observatory of 
 Tashkend. From Rousselet's India and its 
 Native Princes the following cuts are taken 
 (by permission of the publishers) : The 
 Tomb of Humayun, the Mosque of Aurang- 
 zeb at Benares. The view of the Taj-Mahal 
 is made from a negative by Mr. Frederick 
 DIodati Thompson of New York, and first 
 appeared in his book, In the Track of the 
 Sun. It is printed by permission of Messrs. 
 D. Appleton & Co. These characteristic 
 views of famous buildings illustrate the prog- 
 ress (and decay) of Mogul architecture from 
 the time of Tamerlane (1400) to the reign of 
 Aurangzeb (1700). Finally, the drawing of 
 the lotus (page 365) is reduced from a native 
 Indian picture, in colors, in the collection of 
 Miss Olive Risley-Seward of Washington. 
 
Introductory Note xiii 
 
 Professor Gedeonof, Director of the Imperial 
 Observatory of Tashkend, Professor C. Michie 
 Smith, Director of the Observatory of Madras, 
 Mr. Thomas G. Allen of New Jersey, and, 
 especially, Mr. H. Arthur Doubleday of Lon- 
 don, have been most kind in procuring for 
 me miniatures and photographic copies of 
 portraits and views. I have to express my 
 grateful thanks to Miss Agnes Gierke for 
 researches made in the collections of the 
 British Museum, and to Miss Sara Garr 
 Upton for similar researches made in the 
 Library of Gongress and elsewhere. 
 
 Through the thoughtful kindness of many 
 friends in many parts of the world it has 
 thus been possible to collect in this one 
 volume illustrations of the personages and 
 of the architecture of the India of long ago. 
 I beg to express my sincere obligations to 
 them all ; and also to .ny publishers for the 
 pains they have taken to present the illustra- 
 tions in a fitting and artistic manner. 
 
 A mere chance originally drew my atten- 
 tion to the subject of this book ; the leisure 
 hours of a long winter were given to the 
 
xiv Introdtidory Note 
 
 study of the writings and characters of great 
 rulers and great men like Babar and Akbar. 
 If I have succeeded in conveying the impres- 
 sions which I received, I shall be more than 
 gratified. 
 
 E. S. H. 
 The Lick Observatory, 
 
 Mount Hamilton, April, 1893. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Tamerlane the Great (born a.d. 1336, died 
 
 A.D. 1405), .1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Zehir-ed-din Muhammad Babar, the Con- 
 queror (born a.d. 1482, died 1530), . 56 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 HuMAYUN, Emperor of Hindustan (a.d. 1530- 
 1556) ; THE Adventures of Four Broth- 
 ers, . '• 97 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Shah Akbar the Great, the Organizer, 
 Emperor of Hindustan (a.d, 1556- 
 1605), 128 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Emperor Jahangir (a.d. 1605-1627). A 
 Contribution towards a Natural His- 
 tory OF Tyrants, ..... 207 
 
xvi Table of Contents 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Nur-Mahal (The Light of the Palace), 
 
 Empress of Hindustan (a.d. 1611-1627), 236 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb, Emperors of 
 Hindustan (a.d. 162-8-1658 and a.d. 
 1658-1707), 270 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Ruin of Aurangzeb ; or, the History 
 
 of a Reaction. By Sir W. W. Hunter, 309 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Appendix. The Conquests of India (b.c. 327- 
 A.D. 1526). Brief Chronological and 
 Genealogical Tables, (a.d. 1398-1707), 357 
 
CORRIGENDA 
 
 Frontispiece; for 1631 read 1630. 
 
 Page X., line 2 ; for Akbar III. read Akbar II. 
 
 Page xii., line 3 ; for page 365 read page 356. 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 The Emperor Babar, 
 The Emperor Humayun, 
 The Emperor Akbar, 
 The Emperor Jahangir, 
 The Empress Nur-Mahal, 
 
 BORN DIED 
 (1482-I530) 
 
 (1508-I556) 
 
 (1542-I605) 
 
 (1569-I627) 
 
 (1585-I645) 
 
 FACING 
 PAGE 
 
 56 
 56 
 
 128 
 
 56 
 
 128 
 236 
 
 The Empress Mumtaz-i-Mahal, (1590-1630) 
 
 Frontispiece 
 
 The Emperor Shah Jahan, . (1591-1666) 
 
 The Emperor Aurangzeb, . (1618-1707) 
 
 The Tomb of Timur at Samarkand, .' 
 
 The Tomb of Humayun, 
 
 The Taj-Mahal, at Agra, 
 
 The Mosque of Aurangzeb, at Benares, 
 
 The Lotus, 
 
 128 
 270 
 
 309 
 
 10 
 
 97 
 
 289 
 
 302 
 
 Tailpiece 
 
THE MOGUL EMPERORS 
 OF HINDUSTAN 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 TAMERLANE THE GREAT 
 (born A.D. 1336, DIED 1405) 
 
 The Inhabitants of a small Italian city 
 became the rulers of the world from the 
 Euphrates to the cliffs of Albion. We are 
 the inheritors of their civilization, and their 
 history is taught to our little children. Their 
 language and literature are as familiar as 
 our own. The lives of their rulers and 
 great men are part of the common stock 
 of knowledge. We understand their char- 
 acters, their aspirations, their most secret 
 motives. 
 
 Centuries after Rome was famous the 
 
2 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 hordes of Tartar and Mongol tribes in the 
 far East gathered strength under great com- 
 manders, and overran what they also called 
 " the inhabitable world," from Poland to the 
 Persian Gulf and Hindustan ; from Constan- 
 tinople to the China Sea ; from Corea to the 
 J Ganges. . Their descendants founded a stable 
 
 ^ empire in India, which lasted until our own 
 
 day. What living idea can we form of such 
 alien personalities as those of Chengiz-Khan, 
 of Tamerlane, or of their great successors, 
 Babar and Akbar ? Shakspeare's play of 
 Julius CcBsar might serve as a first text-book 
 of Roman history in our schools to-day. 
 Marlowe's scarcely less famous TmnburlaiJie 
 is ludicrously inadequate as a picture of the 
 Grand Khan of Tartary. 
 
 These people have never yet touched our 
 national or our racial life. They are utter 
 foreigners. We can understand the Moors 
 in Spain ; and the chivalric Saladin is hardly 
 stranger to us than Richard the Lion-Heart, 
 or Saint Louis of France. But our interest 
 in the Mongols is a mere intellectual inquisi- 
 tiveness. If one seeks to satisfy this curios- 
 
Tamerlajie the Great 3 
 
 ity, one meets with singular difficulties. Not 
 only are the character and motives of particu- 
 lar individuals quite alien to our own, but 
 their very histories are given in foreign forms 
 which perplex and confuse. It is perfectly 
 simple to understand that Ulugh Beg, the 
 grandson of Tamerlane, built in 1437, at 
 Samarkand, the greatest astronomical observ- 
 atory of the world, one hundred and forty 
 years before Tycho Brahe erected Urani- 
 bourg in Denmark. But it is almost im- 
 possible to comprehend the intrigues and 
 violence which deposed this good prince, and 
 led to his death at the hands of his own son. 
 As in this case, so in others. A consecutive 
 history, by a native writer, of the reigns of 
 Chengiz or of Timur (Tamerlane, '* the lame 
 prince "), seems totally unconnected and illog- 
 ical. Its sanguinary pages record a hell 
 which seems to be purposeless — without an 
 object. 
 
 If we wish to satisfy the curiosity to know 
 something, at least, of the character and mo- 
 tives of a sovereign like Timur, the simplest 
 process is to collect the narratives of men of 
 
4 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 our own world who were eye-witnesses of his 
 actions. These recitals give us the perspec- 
 tive outlines, which are intelligible even if 
 they are not complete. The details of the 
 sketch must be filled up by extracts from the 
 native writers, and we have to choose such as 
 seem to us significant. Finally, it may be 
 possible, though difficult, to fit this picture 
 into its place in the view of the world which 
 we have inherited from our Roman ances- 
 tors and adopted for ourselves ; and it is of 
 the first importance to recollect that Rome 
 was nearly two thousand years old when 
 Mongol history begins. 
 
 An Embassy to the Grand Khan of Tar tar y 
 (a.d. 1254) 
 
 In the year 1248 Saint Louis of France 
 embarked for the Holy Land. While he was 
 yet at Cyprus he received ambassadors from 
 the Grand Khan of Tartary, and understood, 
 quite erroneously, that the Khan had been 
 converted to Christianity. It seems to be 
 
Tamerlane the Great 5 
 
 true that he desired to attack the Saracens 
 from one side, while the Crusaders advanced 
 from the other. From Syria the King sent 
 one Wilham de Rubruquis, a monk of the 
 order of the Friars Minors, as a sort of 
 ambassador to Tartary. His real mission 
 was to spy out the land, and to make such 
 converts as he could. De Rubruquis was 
 " a person of admirable parts, great dili- 
 gence, unaffected piety and probity." His 
 letter to the King, giving an account of his 
 extraordinary journey, fully bears out this 
 praise and deserves to be read in full. De 
 Rubruquis left Constantinople for Tartary 
 in May, 1253, and arrived at the court of 
 Batu, the grandson of Chengiz-Khan (born 
 1162, died 1227), after months of perilous 
 travel. 
 
 The subjects of Tamerlane were very like 
 those of Chengiz-Khan. The acceptance of 
 Islam was the only marked change, and the 
 new religion was held but lightly. There is 
 no better way to obtain a view of them than 
 to copy a few paragraphs from the journal of 
 the good monk : 
 
6 TJic Mog7il Emperors 
 
 " And after we departed out of those pre- 
 cincts we found the Tartars, amongst whom 
 beine entered, methouoht I was come into a 
 new world, whose life and manners I will 
 describe unto your Highness as well as I can. 
 They have no settled habitation ; neither 
 know they to-day where they shall lodge 
 to-morrow. They have all Scythia to them- 
 selves, which stretcheth from the river Dan- 
 ube to the utmost extent of the East. Each 
 of their Captains, according to the number 
 of his people, knows the bounds of his pas- 
 tures, and where he ought to feed his cattle, 
 winter and summer, spring and autumn. 
 Their houses they raise upon a round founda- 
 tion of wickers, artificially wrought and com- 
 pacted together ; the roof, consisting of 
 wickers also, meeting above in one little 
 roundell, which they cover with white (or 
 black) felt. This cupola they adorn with 
 variety of pictures." 
 
 The houses were moved from place to 
 place on immense wagons twenty feet wide, 
 drawn by two-and-twenty oxen in two rows, 
 eleven in a row. " The axle-tree of the cart 
 
Tamerlane the Great 7 
 
 was of a huge bigness, like the mast of a 
 ship. Batu (grandson of Chengiz-Khan) 
 hath sixteen wives, every one of whom hath 
 a great house. Hence it is that the court 
 of a rich Tartar will appear like a very large 
 village." 
 
 At the camps the houses were dismounted 
 from the carts and ranged in order. The 
 beds and furniture had particular and un- 
 varying situations within the house. " There 
 is a little lean idol which is, as it were, the 
 guardian of the whole house. One piece of 
 ceremony is constant in all houses ; namely, 
 a bench, on which stands a vessel of milk 
 and cups for drinking it. In the summer- 
 time they care not for any drink but cosmos/' 
 
 "In respect to their food, give me leave 
 to inform your Highness that, without differ- 
 ence or distinction, they eat all their beasts 
 that die of age or sickness." 
 
 The customs and the laws of the Tartars 
 are described at great length. The chie-f 
 punishments are flogging and death. 
 
 " On my arrival among these barbarous 
 
 * Mares' milk — koumiss. 
 
8 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 people I thought, as I before observed, that 
 I was come into a new world. The first 
 question they asked was whether we had 
 ever been with them heretofore or not ; and 
 made us wait a long while, begging our 
 bread from us, wondering at all things they 
 saw, and desiring to have them. It is true 
 they took nothing by force from me, but 
 they will beg all they see, very importunately ; 
 and if a man bestows anything upon them it 
 is but lost, for they are thankless wretches. 
 So we departed from them ; and indeed it 
 seemed to me that we escaped out of the 
 hands of devils." 
 
 On his journey he was presented to Zaga- 
 tai, another grandson of Chengiz-Khan, and 
 entered into his presence "with fear and 
 bashfulness." The reception was not unfa- 
 vorable, though the monk's gifts were few. 
 
 " I expounded to him the Apostles' Creed, 
 which, after he had heard, he shook his head." 
 The interpreter, however, was " a sorry one." 
 
 They still " went towards the eastward, see- 
 ing naught but the sky and the earth," till 
 they reached their journey's end. At the 
 
Tamerlane the Great 9 
 
 court of the Khan they found a kind of com- 
 fort ; even luxury of a sort. What is most 
 surprising, they met with Nestorian and Jac- 
 obite priests in numbers ; with fugitive Rus- 
 sians, Greeks, Hungarians, Muhammadans, 
 in plenty ; a Knight Templar, a French gold- 
 smith, William Bouchier of Paris, and his 
 wife, "■ a woman from Metz in Lorraine," and 
 even with a strayed Englishman. This was 
 more than a hundred years before the time 
 of Timur, and it affords an explanation of the 
 variety of arts known in Samarkand in his 
 reign. The Tartar and Mongol tribesmen 
 were still the same in his time, except for a 
 nominal conformity to Islam. Christianity 
 had been brought to Khorassan in the fourth 
 century by the Nestorians. There was a 
 Nestorian bishop in Merv in a.d. 334, and in 
 Herat and Samarkand in a.d. 500. The 
 Kerait Turkomans accepted Christianity 
 about A.D. 1000, as a tribe. Buddhism came 
 through China into Transoxania ; and Islam 
 crossed the Persian frontiers not long after 
 the death of the Prophet. All these creeds 
 were tolerated by Chengiz Khan. 
 
lO The Mogul Emperors 
 
 The tolerance of Chengiz and his sons had 
 ceased under Timur, and the M^sHm mollahs 
 ruled in all religious matters. (But the arts 
 of the architect, the goldsmith, the armorer, 
 the weaver, had already been transplanted 
 to these wilds from Europe, from China, 
 from Africa, from Arabia, from Persia. As- 
 tronomy, mathematics, poetry, learning of a 
 sort were cultivated, and the held was pre- 
 pared for that remarkable advance in some 
 of the arts (notably in architecture), which 
 marks the period of Timur and his imme- 
 diate successors.'^ 
 
 An Embassy to Tamerlane the Great 
 (a.d. 1403) 
 
 King Henry III. of Castile (a.d. 1376- 
 1407) despatched embassies to many princes 
 of Europe and Asia. Tamerlane sent in re- 
 turn an envoy, Muhammad-al-Cazi, with pres- 
 ents and a letter. When the Mogul envoy 
 
 *For a very interesting description of the fine monuments of 
 Samarkand in Timur's lifetime, see an article by M. Edouard 
 Blanc in the Revue des Deux Mondes for February 15, 1893. 
 
THE TOMB OF TIMUR 
 
Tameidane the Great 1 1 
 
 was to return, the King of Castile sent with 
 him an embassy to the court of Timur Beg. 
 Ruy Gonzales de Clavijo, one of the envoys, 
 has left us an account of his perilous mission, 
 which set out from Seville in May, 1403, and 
 arrived at Samarkand in August, 1404, after 
 traversing the Mediterranean and Euxine seas 
 to Trebizond, and passing by land through 
 Erzeroum, Teheran, near Merv, and across the 
 Oxus to Samarkand — over seventy degrees of 
 longitude. 
 
 In October, 1403, the ambassadors were 
 received in audience by Manuel, the Emperor 
 of Constantinople ; and as they much desired 
 to have a sight of the various Christian relics 
 for which the churches of the city * were 
 famous, special privileges were granted to 
 them. The son-in-law of the Emperor acted 
 as their guide in their pious visits. The 
 Emperor himself was the custodian of the 
 keys to the reliquaries. In the church of 
 St. John the Baptist they saw the " left arm 
 of St. John. This arm was withered so that 
 the skin and bone alone remained, and the 
 
 * There were three thousand churches. 
 
12 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 joints of the elbow and the hand were 
 adorned with jewels." In another church 
 they saw the saint's right arm, '* and this was 
 fresh and healthy." " And though they say 
 that the whole body of the blessed St. John 
 was destroyed except one finger, with which 
 he pointed when he said, ' Ecce Agnus Dei T 
 yet certainly the whole of this arm was in 
 good preservation." "^ In various shrines they 
 saw pieces of the true cross, made from the 
 cross which the blessed St. Helena brought 
 (entire) from the Holy Land; "the grid- 
 iron on which the blessed St. Lawrence was 
 roasted ; " the very '' bread which our Lord 
 Jesus Christ gave to Judas ; " some of "the 
 blood of Christ ; " some hairs of the Saviour's 
 beard ; the iron of the lance with which Lon- 
 ginus pierced his side, " and the blood on it 
 was as fresh as if the deed had just been 
 committed ; " "a piece of the sponge with 
 which Jesus Christ, our God, was given gall 
 and vinegar when he was on the cross," and 
 his garments for which the soldiers cast lots, 
 
 * Notre Dame d'Amiens claims to possess the face bones of the 
 Saint to this day. 
 
Tamerlane the Great 13 
 
 besides relics of saints beyond count. On 
 a stone of many colors were the " tears of 
 the three Marys and of St. John, and these 
 tears looked fresh, as if they had just fallen." 
 At Trebizond, on the Black Sea, they had 
 already touched on the confines of Timur's 
 dominions, for the prince of that place paid 
 tribute to the Emperor. " The arms which 
 Timur Beg bears," says Clavijo, "are three 
 circles like O's, drawn in this manner, *o°, and 
 this is to signify that he is lord of the three 
 parts of the world. He ordered this device 
 to be stamped on his coins, and that those 
 who are tributary to him shall have it stamped 
 on the coins of their countries." It was of 
 the greatest benefit to the Spanish envoys to 
 travel in the company of Timur's own ambas- 
 sador. After many adventures they reached 
 Teheran, and from here to Samarkand they 
 were forwarded by post-horses, which were 
 maintained by the Emperor on all the prin- 
 cipal routes ; and they were entertained and 
 cared for by the governors of towns and 
 villages. Their journey through Persia was 
 in the heats of July, and many of the party 
 
14 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 succumbed and died, what with the heat, the 
 dust, the lack of water, and the great pace at 
 which their post-horses travelled ; for Timur 
 " is better pleased with him who travels a day 
 and a night for fifty leagues, and kills two 
 horses, than with him who does the distance 
 in three days." 
 
 " Timur, considering that the leagues 
 were very long in his empire of Samarkand, 
 divided each league into two, and placed 
 small pillars on the road to mark each 
 league, ordering all his followers to march 
 at least ten of these leagues on each day's 
 journey ; and each of these leagues was 
 equal to two leagues of Castile. . . . 
 And they do not only travel the distance 
 which the lord has ordered, but sometimes 
 fifteen or twenty leagues in a day and night." 
 
 Fancy a whole kingdom in which each 
 official is forced to travel at least sixty miles 
 per day, whether he likes or not ! 
 
 " When we arrived at any city or village, 
 the first thing was to ask for the chief of the 
 place ; and they took the first man they met 
 in the street, and with many blows forced 
 
Tamerlane the Great 15 
 
 him to show the house of the chief. The 
 people who saw them coming, and knew they 
 were the troops of Timur Beg, ran away as 
 if the devil was after them ; and those who 
 were behind their shops shut them up and 
 fled, crying ' Elchee / ' which means ambassa- 
 dor ; and saying that with the ambassadors 
 there would come a black day for them." 
 
 And, in fact, the villagers had to furnish 
 all that the travellers required, and if anyone 
 failed he was killed, or, at the least, beaten ; 
 "and thus it was that the people were in 
 marvellous terror of the lord and of his 
 servants." 
 
 " With these people Timur has performed 
 many deeds and conquered in many battles ; 
 for they are a people of great valor, excel- 
 lent horsemen, expert with the bow, and 
 enured to hardships. If they have food, 
 they eat ; and if not, they suffer cold and 
 heat, hunger and thirst, better than any peo- 
 ple in the world. . . . They do not 
 leave their women, children, and flocks be- 
 hind when they go to the wars, but take 
 all with them." 
 
1 6 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 They are, says a writer quoted by Vam- 
 bery, " a people who weep at their feasts, but 
 laugh in their battles, who follow their leader 
 blindly, are content with cold and hunger, do 
 not know rest or pleasure, have not even 
 words to express them in their language. 
 They prepare and carry their own arms, are 
 animated by one soul and one spirit, not 
 dainty in food or clothes, unpitying, ready to 
 tear the unborn child from its mother." 
 
 They despised the life of towns, and held 
 agriculture fit for slaves. They were not 
 willing to subsist on " the top of a weed," as 
 they called wheat. Since the time of Chen- 
 giz-Khan, every soldier had his appointed 
 place in war — in the right wing, the left wing, 
 or the centre ; and these places were handed 
 down from father to son. 
 
 " We met many of them, and they were 
 so burned by the sun that they looked as if 
 they had come out of hell." 
 
 On the 31st of August, 1404, the ambassa- 
 dors reached the neighborhood of Samar- 
 kand. They were kept waiting for eight 
 days before they had audience ; " for it is the 
 
Tamerlajie the Great 17 
 
 custom not to see any ambassador until five 
 or six days are passed, and the more impor- 
 tant the ambassador may be, the longer he has 
 to wait." Finally they were presented. 
 
 '' Timur Beg was seated in a portal, at 
 the entrance to a beautiful palace, and he 
 was sitting on the ground. Before him there 
 was a fountain, which threw up the water 
 very high, and in it were some red apples. 
 The lord was seated cross-legged, on silken 
 embroidered carpets, amongst round pillows. 
 He was dressed in a robe of silk, with a high 
 white hat on his head, on the top of which 
 was a ruby, with pearls and precious stones 
 about it." 
 
 They were very well received, and given 
 an honorable place above the ambassador 
 from China. Timur asked after the King 
 of Spain. "How is my son, the King? 
 These Franks are truly a great people, and 
 I will give my benediction to the King of 
 Spain, my son, who lives at the end of the 
 world." Here, then, at the court of Timur, 
 were met ambassadors from the two extremi- 
 ties of the habitable globe — China and Spain. 
 
1 8 The Mogul E?nperors 
 
 Banquets followed, with profusion of 
 meats, boiled and roasted, and with fruits 
 of all kinds, and drink out of golden jugs ; 
 and later on drinking-bouts at which the 
 Emperor's wives were present, unveiled. 
 These took place under magnificent tents of 
 silk, embroidered with gold and gems. 
 
 " There were gold tables, each standing 
 on four legs, and the tables and legs were all 
 in one. And seven golden vials stood upon 
 them, two of which were set with large 
 pearls, emeralds, and turquoises, and each 
 one had a ruby near the mouth. There 
 were also six round golden cups — one set 
 with large pearls inside, and in the centre of 
 it was a ruby two fingers broad, and of a 
 brilliant hue." 
 
 Their interpreter was late in bringing 
 them to this feast, and Timur was very 
 angry. 
 
 " How is it that you have caused me to be 
 enraged and put out ? Why were you not 
 with the Frank Ambassador ? I order that 
 a hole be bored through your nose ; that a 
 rope be passed through it, and that you be 
 
Tamerlane the Great 19 
 
 dragged through the army, as a punish- 
 ment." 
 
 " He had scarcely finished speaking, when 
 men took the interpreter by the nose to bore 
 a hole in it." 
 
 It is satisfactory to know that the wretch 
 escaped by the intercession of the officer 
 who attended on the Spanish envoys. As 
 they had not eaten freely, the Emperor 
 sent to their lodgings "ten sheep and a 
 horse to eat, and also a load of wine, and 
 dressed the ambassadors in robes, and gave 
 them shirts and hats." 
 
 There was great feasting, for some of 
 Timur's grandsons were to be married ; and 
 another grandson, Pir Muhammad, ruler of 
 India, was present. The profusion and 
 magnificence of these feasts impressed the 
 ambassadors, and they seem to have been 
 chiefly struck with the splendid tents and 
 pavilions of silk, built like castles, each with 
 a multitude of rooms. 
 
 /Timur's chief wife was present in " a robe 
 oifed silk, trimmed with gold lace, long and 
 flowing. It had no waist, and fifteen ladies 
 
20 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 held up the skirts of it to enable her to 
 walk. She wore a crested headdress of red 
 cloth, very high, covered with large pearls, 
 rubies, emeralds, and other precious stones, 
 and embroidered with gold lace. On the top 
 of all there was a little castle, on which were 
 three very large and brilliant rubies, sur- 
 mounted by a tall plume of feathers. . . . 
 Her hair, which was very black, hung down 
 over her shoulders ; and they value black hair 
 much more than any other color. She was 
 accompanied by three hundred ladies," and 
 when she sat down " three ladies held her 
 headdress with their hands, that it might not 
 fall on one side." The other wives were 
 no less gorgeously arrayed. ) 
 
 " On this day they had much enter- 
 tainment with the [fourteen] elephants, 
 making them run with horses and with the 
 people, which was very diverting ; and when 
 they all ran together it seemed as if the 
 earth trembled. ... In this horde which 
 the lord had assembled there were as many 
 as fourteen or fifteen thousand tents, which 
 was a beautiful thing to see." 
 
Tamerlane the Great 21 
 
 So with {castings every day the mission 
 was entertained, and was finally dismissed 
 with honorable presents. The ambassadors 
 returned over nearly the same route by 
 which they had come, and arrived at the 
 Spanish court on the 24th day of March, 
 1406, after an absence of about three years. 
 
 Their narrative is valuable, in that it gives 
 a truthful though a dull picture of the court 
 of the great warrior King. It is at the same 
 time most' disappointing, in that we fail to 
 gain that vivid, life-like impression of his 
 personality which they might have given. 
 Perhaps the most striking idea to be ob- 
 tained from it is that the intellectual superi- 
 ority of the envoys to the Moguls (which 
 we unthinkingly and at once assume) is 
 less marked than one might have expected. 
 Timur's officers do not seem especially rude 
 and ignorant as compared with the Spanish 
 gentlemen. Timur's court was not a mere 
 assembly of his officials. It was organized 
 in a fashion as orderly as that of the Spanish 
 King. Special ranks had special privileges. 
 A Tarkhan, for example, had les grandes 
 
2 2 The Mogul Binpei'ors 
 
 entrees; the mace-bearers could not stop 
 him. A more extraordinary accompaniment 
 of this rank was that neither he nor his chil- 
 dren could be called to account till their 
 crimes exceeded nine in number; and the 
 title was hereditary. Timur himself was a 
 far more important figure than any of his 
 Western contemporaries. To complete our 
 view of him, it is necessary to consult the 
 narratives of the native historians of India 
 and his own Memoirs. And in these native 
 histories we may leave out of consideration 
 any consecutive account of the mere events 
 of his reign. These events were a long suc- 
 cession of bloody razzias on a large scale, all 
 alike in the main. When one is understood, 
 all are. 
 
 The Life of Timttr, as Told by the Native 
 Historians 
 
 The native historians and poets have 
 handed down to us some accounts of the 
 actions and sayings of Chengiz-Khan which 
 accurately describe the military life of Timur. 
 Of Chengiz it is said in verse : 
 
Tamerlane the Great 23 
 
 In every direction that he urged his steed 
 He raised dust commingled with blood. 
 
 Here is Chengiz's letter demanding the 
 treasure of Bokhara. It might have been 
 written by Timur to the chief men of any 
 one of his conquered cities, just at that fear- 
 ful moment when his soldiery were driving 
 the inhabitants like sheep into the surround- 
 ing plains till the walls were emptied, and 
 just before the sacking of the town began. 
 The letter concludes thus : " O men of 
 Bokhara ! You have been guilty of enor- 
 mous crimes ; hence the wrath of God, of 
 whose vengeance I am the instrument, hath 
 employed me against you. Of all the prop- 
 erty in this city which is visible, it would 
 be needless to require an account. What 
 I demand is the immediate surrender of all 
 that is concealed." 
 
 The trembling chiefs reveal the sites of 
 the hidden treasures ; the soldiers loot and 
 plunder ; the wretched populace is herded 
 in the fields ; in a few days the number of 
 prisoners becomes troublesome ; the artisans 
 and the men of learning are segregated from 
 
24 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 the rest, and are despatched to people some 
 one of the conqueror's cities — to Kesh or 
 Samarkand; the despairing remnant is divided 
 into tens or twenties, and a Mogul warrior is 
 told off to slaughter them, and to produce at 
 nightfall ten or twenty heads to go towards 
 the building of a horrid monument to com- 
 memorate the butchery. After the conquest 
 of Bagdad, one hundred and twenty such 
 pyramids of heads were built. Sometimes 
 they were made by Timur's " engineers," by 
 building the whole body of the victims into 
 the structure with brick and clay and mor- 
 tar. Two thousand prisoners, not all dead, 
 were the materials of one such monu- 
 ment. 
 
 When a city was sacked, the walls were 
 usually levelled to the ground and grain was 
 sowed on the site. The tombs of the saints 
 were spared, and were often embellished and 
 enlarged. The infidels who denied the unity 
 of God and the legation of his prophet were 
 almost invariably slain unless they were 
 artisans. " Half of the garrison had their 
 throats cut ; the other half were hurled head- 
 
Tamerlane the Great 25 
 
 long from the battlements," is one entry of 
 Timur's diary. 
 
 After Chengiz-Khan had captured Bokhara 
 the history of his conquest was given in a 
 line by one of the sufferers : " The Mongols 
 came, destroyed, burnt, slaughtered, plun- 
 dered, and departed." The history of Timur's 
 raids is written in that one sentence. They 
 were all alike. 
 
 Here is Timur's own account of a massacre 
 in 1387, which was commemorated by the 
 building of ']0,(j00 human heads into a pyra- 
 mid plastered with mud : 
 
 " I conquered the city of Isfahan, and I 
 trusted in the people of Isfahan, and I deliv- 
 ered the castle into their hands. And they 
 rebelled, and they slew three thousand of the 
 soldiers. And I also commanded a general 
 slaughter of the people of Isfahan." 
 
 The condition of an invaded province is 
 described by an earlier writer : " There were 
 many who withered with fear, and a mutter- 
 ing arose, as of a drum beaten under a 
 blanket." 
 
 Timur's expedition to India was undoubt- 
 
26 The Mogtil Emperors 
 
 edly inspired by the hope of plunder. But 
 his Memoirs ('* his lying Memoirs," as an 
 English commentator calls them) declare that 
 he was impelled to this invasion in order 
 to obtain the title ghazi, victor of infidels 
 and polytheists. He sought counsel of his 
 princes and nobles in the matter. Some 
 urged the invasion for one reason, some for 
 another. Prince Muhammad Sultan favored 
 it on account of the "seventeen" mines 
 situated in India. One of these was a mine 
 of gold, another of iron, and the last " a 
 mine of steel." 
 
 Timur's conquest of India laid the founda- 
 tions of the Mogul Empire, and it is impor- 
 tant for that reason chiefly. In its incidents 
 it was a mere raid on an immense scale, like so 
 many of his other campaigns. He passed 
 the Hindu Kush Mountains in the spring of 
 A.D. 1398, and in December he was pro- 
 claimed Emperor of Delhi. His path was 
 marked by slaughter and ravage, and for five 
 days Delhi itself was given over to pillage. 
 Fifteen days he remained within its walls, 
 and by March, 1399, he had crossed the bor- 
 
Tamerlane the Great 27 
 
 ders of India once more, on his way to sub- 
 due the Sultan of Turkey, Bajazet, who died 
 a captive in his camp. 
 
 While Timur lived the official prayers at 
 Delhi were recited in his name, and at his 
 death in the name of his son. 
 
 Durinof Timur's march into India more 
 than one hundred thousand Hindu prisoners 
 had fallen into his hands, and it was feared 
 that they might turn against their captors, 
 to whom they were, at any rate, a serious 
 embarrassment. Timur was advised to put 
 the prisoners to death. "He listened to this 
 considerate and wise advice, and gave orders " 
 to that effect. And accordingly they were 
 all slain "■ with the sword of holy war." The 
 butchers must have been weary of the slaugh- 
 ter, for it is related that even " one of the 
 chief ecclesiastics, who in all his life had 
 never even slaughtered a sheep, put fifteen 
 Hindus to the sword." 
 
 These terrible and immense misfortunes 
 produced in the afflicted nations a universal 
 belief that this was the scourge of God. The 
 fatalistic side of Islam exactly expresses this 
 
28 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 state of acquiescence in overwhelming mis- 
 fortune. The passage following might have 
 been written of Timur, though, in fact, it 
 refers to another : 
 
 "At the time when the page of creation 
 was blank, and nothing had yet taken form 
 or shape, the Supreme Wisdom, with a view 
 to preserve regularity and order in the world, 
 fixed the destiny of each man, and deposited 
 the key for unravelling each difficulty in the 
 hands of an individual endowed with suitable 
 talents. A time was fixed for everything, 
 and when that time comes all obstacles are 
 removed [from his career]." 
 
 Though Timur has left Memoirs which are 
 written as if by himself, they are probably 
 the work of his officers, revised by the Em- 
 peror. It is said that his secretaries recorded 
 every important event, as is usual in the 
 East, and that he caused their records to 
 be read over to him, correcting them from 
 moment to moment, either by his own recol- 
 lections, or by the evidence of eye-witnesses 
 to the scenes described. The Moguls of 
 Timur's day used the alphabet introduced 
 
Tamerlane the Great 29 
 
 by Nestorian missionaries. A century later 
 the Emperor Babar invented a special char- 
 acter for the Turki language. 
 
 Timur traces his lineage to Abu-al-Atrak, 
 — the " Father of the Turks," — the son of 
 Japhet. The great-great-grandfather of 
 Timur was the prime-minister (so to say) 
 of Zagatai, son of Chengiz-Khan. The 
 immaculate conception of Alan Koua, the 
 common ancestress of Chengiz and of Timur, 
 was an article of faith in his court. 
 
 His father, Turghai, was the chief of the 
 tribe of Berlas, and the ruler of the city of 
 Kesh, where Timur was born. While he 
 was still a young man, during his father's 
 lifetime, he was a successful commander of 
 1,000 men. After the death of his father 
 and of his patron, Amir Kazghan of Trans- 
 oxania, his fortunes were at a low ebb. He 
 was obliged to fly to the desert for safety. 
 He tells us that frequently he could com- 
 mand no more than 100 followers, and very 
 often he had but one or two. Still, he was 
 always the chief of his tribe and there- 
 fore important ; his adherents were brave, 
 
30 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 of good birth, and enterprising. His own 
 account of the rise in his fortunes gives a 
 picture worth recording. 
 
 " I had not yet rested from my devotions 
 when a number of people appeared afar off ; 
 and they were passing along in a line with 
 the hill.''' I mounted my horse and came 
 behind them, that I might know their condi- 
 tion, and what men they were. They were in 
 all seventy horsemen ; and I asked of them, 
 saying, ' Warriors, who are ye ? ' and they 
 answered unto me, ' We are the servants of 
 Amir Timur, and we wander in search of 
 him, and lo ! we find him not.' And I said, 
 ' I also am one of his servants. How say ye 
 if I bring you where he is ? ' And one of 
 them put his horse to speed, and carried 
 news to the three leaders saying, ' We have 
 found a guide who can lead us to Amir 
 Timur.' The leaders gave orders [to bring 
 the guide]. When their eyes fell upon me, 
 they were overwhelnied with joy, and they 
 alighted and they came, and they kneeled, 
 
 * Note how he recollects the topography as if it were a real 
 part of the incident, — just as the red Indians would do. 
 
Tamerlane the Great 31 
 
 and they kissed my stirrup. I also alighted 
 and took them in my arms. And I put my 
 turban on the head of [one] ; and my girdle 
 on [another] ; and I clothed [another] with 
 my cloak. And they wept, and I wept also. 
 When the hour of prayer was arrived, we 
 prayed together; and I made a feast." 
 
 This is very like the Iroquois. It might 
 be Uncas and Chingacook. And after the 
 feast they were all ready to harry, slay, burn, 
 torture, to steal cattle, and to fight or run 
 away, as served best. Such was his early 
 fortune. 
 
 " He was of good stature, fair complexion, 
 an open countenance, and he had a shrill 
 voice." His descendant, the Emperor Jahan- 
 gir, tells us that there was no authentic por- 
 trait of him in his time. A famous etching 
 of Rembrandt's (No. 270) seems to me to 
 express his character — force, patience, craft 
 — exactly ; just as another of Rembrandt's 
 etchings (No. 289) might serve for a portrait 
 of Chengiz-Khan. It is almost certain that 
 he was illiterate, and that his Memoirs are 
 not written by his own hand, though undoubt- 
 
32 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 edly they are often in his very words. One 
 of his firmans was signed with the imprint of 
 his hand in red ink. All of them might have 
 been signed in blood. The famous anecdote 
 of the ant does duty in a Persian life of 
 Timur. " I was once forced," he says, " to 
 take shelter from my enemies in a ruined 
 building. To divert my mind from my hope- 
 less condition, I fixed my eyes on an ant, 
 which was carrying a grain of wheat up a 
 high wall. Sixty-nine times it fell to the 
 ground, but the insect persevered, and the 
 seventieth time it reached the top. The 
 sight gave me courage at the moment, and I 
 never forgot the lesson." 
 
 Early in his career (in 1370) Timur admit- 
 ted Amir Seiyid Berrekah, the most distin- 
 guished of the Prophet's descendants (Ali was 
 his ancestor) into his camp, and restored to 
 him the revenues devoted to the shrines and 
 to religious uses. A friendship, which seems 
 to have been warm and sincere, sprang up 
 between the holy man and the warrior and 
 endured till the death of the Seiyid. The 
 cautious policy of Timur's earlier years may 
 
Tamerlane the Great 33 
 
 have resulted from this companionship. His 
 profuse professions of devotion to Islam are 
 no doubt due to it. Timur was of the sect 
 of Ali — a Shia. I have not been able to 
 trace when his descendants assumed the 
 Sunni faith; but Babar (1500) declares that 
 in his time the inhabitants of Samarkand 
 were all orthodox Sunnis. 
 
 Timur s Maxims of Government 
 
 Timur laid down twelve maxims of gov- 
 ernment, and the following paragraphs are 
 selected from this part of his institutes. No 
 doubt these are also his very words in many 
 cases. 
 
 " Persons of wisdom and deliberation and 
 vigilance and circumspection, and aged men 
 endowed with knowledge and foresight, I ad- 
 mitted to my private councils ; and I associ- 
 ated with them, and I reaped benefit and 
 acquired experience from their conversation. 
 The soldier and the [civilian] subject I re- 
 garded with the same eye. And such was 
 the discipline among my troops and my 
 3 
 
34 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 subjects that the one was never injured or 
 oppressed by the other." 
 
 " From among the wise and prudent who 
 merited trust and confidence, who were 
 worthy of being consulted on the affairs of 
 government, and to whose care I might sub- 
 mit the secret concerns of my empire, I 
 selected a certain number whom I consti- 
 tuted the repositories of my secrets ; and my 
 weighty and hidden transactions, and my 
 secret thoughts and intentions I delivered 
 over to them." 
 
 " By the wazirs, and the secretaries, and 
 the scribes, I gave order and regularity to 
 my public councils ; I made them the keepers 
 of the mirror of my government, in which 
 they showed unto me the affairs of my 
 empire and the concerns of my armies and 
 my people ; and they kept rich my treasury ; 
 and they secured plenty and prosperity to 
 my soldiers and to my subjects ; and by 
 proper and skilful measures they repaired 
 the disorders incident to empire ; and they 
 kept in order the revenues and the expenses 
 of government ; and they exerted themselves 
 
Tamerlane the Great 35 
 
 in promoting plenty and population through- 
 out my dominions." 
 
 " Men learned in medicine and skilled in 
 the art of healing, and astrologers, and geo- 
 metricians, who are essential to the dignity of 
 empire, I drew around me ; and by the aid of 
 physicians and surgeons I gave health to the 
 sick ; and with the assistance of astrologers I 
 ascertained the benign or malevolent aspect of 
 the stars, their motions, and the revolution of 
 the heavens ; and with the aid of geometricians 
 and architects I laid out gardens, and planned 
 and constructed magnificent buildings." 
 
 " Historians and such as were possessed of 
 information and intelligence I admitted to 
 my presence ; and from these men I heard 
 the lives of the prophets and patriarchs, and 
 the histories of ancient princes, and the 
 events by which they arrived at the dignity 
 of empire, and the causes of the declension 
 of their fortunes ; and from the narratives 
 and the histories of those princes, and from 
 the manners and conduct of each of them I 
 acquired experience and knowledge ; and 
 from those men I heard the descriptions and 
 
36 The Mogul E^npei^ors 
 
 the traditions of the various regions of the 
 globe, and acquired knowledge of the situa- 
 tions of the kingdoms of the earth." 
 
 ** To travellers and to voyagers of every 
 country I gave encouragement, that they 
 might communicate unto me the intelli- 
 gence and transactions of the surrounding 
 nations ; and I appointed merchants and 
 chiefs of caravans to travel to every king- 
 dom and to every country that they might 
 bring- unto me all sorts of valuable merchan- 
 dise and rare curiosities from . . . Hindustan 
 and from the cities of Arabia . . . and 
 from the islands of the Christians, that they 
 might give me information of the situation 
 and of the manners and of the customs of 
 the natives and inhabitants of those regions, 
 and that they might observe and communi- 
 cate unto me the conduct of the princes of 
 every kingdom and every country towards 
 their subjects." 
 
 Timur's instructions for collecting the 
 revenue are very full. The paragraphs fol- 
 lowing will give an idea of their form. 
 
 " And I commanded that the Amirs 
 
Tamerlane the Great 37 
 
 . . . should not, on any account, demand 
 more than the taxes and duties established. 
 And to every province ... I ordained 
 that two supervisors should be appointed; 
 that one of them should inspect the collec- 
 tions and watch Qver the concerns of the 
 inhabitants, that they might not be impover- 
 ished, and that the \over-lord^ might not ill- 
 use or oppress them, . „ . and that the 
 other supervisor should keep a register of 
 the public expenses, and distribute the reve- 
 nues among the soldiers." 
 
 "■ And I ordained that the collection of the 
 taxes from the subject might, when neces- 
 sary, be enforced by menaces and by threats, 
 but never by whips and by scourges. The 
 governor whose authority is inferior to the 
 power of the scourge is unworthy to govern. 
 I ordained that the revenue and taxes should 
 be collected in such a manner as might not 
 be productive of ruin to the subject or of 
 depopulation to the country." * 
 
 * One-third of the gross produce of the cultivated land was 
 the share of the government, and so remained under his descend- 
 ants in India. 
 
^S The Mogul E?7tperors 
 
 "And I ordained that if the rich and the 
 powerful should oppress the poorer subject 
 and injure or destroy his property, an equiva- 
 lent for damage sustained should be levied 
 upon the rich oppressor and be delivered to 
 the injured person, that he might [thus] be 
 restored to his former estate." 
 
 " I appointed a Suddtir, a man of holiness 
 and of illustrious dignity, to watch over the 
 conduct of the Faithful ; that he might regu- 
 late the manners of the times ; and appoint 
 superiors in holy offices ; and establish in 
 every city and in every town, a judge of 
 penetration, and a doctor learned in the law, 
 and a supervisor of the markets, of the 
 weights and the measures." 
 
 " And I established a judge for the army, 
 and a judge for the subjects ; and I sent into 
 every province and kingdom an instructor in 
 the law, to deter the Faithful from those 
 things which are forbidden and to lead them 
 in the truth." 
 
 " And I ordained that in every town and 
 in every city there should be founded a 
 mosque, and a school, and a monastery, and 
 
Tamer lajie the Great 39 
 
 an alms-house for the poor and indigent, and 
 a hospital for the sick and infirm, and that a 
 physician should be appointed to attend the 
 hospital ; and that in every city a govern- 
 ment-house and a court for the administration 
 of justice should be built ; and that superin- 
 tendents should be appointed to watch over 
 the cultivated lands, and over the husband- 
 men." 
 
 " And I commanded that they should build 
 places of worship and monasteries in every 
 city ; and that they should erect structures 
 for the reception of travelers on the high 
 roads and that they should make bridges 
 across the rivers." 
 
 " And I commanded that the ruined 
 bridges should be repaired ; and that bridges 
 should be constructed over the rivulets and 
 over the rivers ; and that on the roads, at 
 the distance of one stage from each other, 
 caravansaries should be erected ; and that 
 guards and watchmen should be stationed on 
 the road, and that in every caravansary people 
 should be appointed to reside ; and that the 
 watching and guarding of the roads should 
 
40 The Mogtd Emperors 
 
 appertain unto them ; and that those guards 
 should be answerable for whatever should be 
 stolen on the roads from the unwary traveller." 
 
 "■ And I ordered that the Suddur and the 
 judge should, from time to time, lay before 
 me the ecclesiastical affairs of my empire ; 
 and I appointed a judge in equity, that he 
 might transmit unto me all civil matters of 
 litigation that came to pass among my 
 troops and my subjects." 
 
 In these maxims and regulations we 
 have a picture which, if it stood by itself, 
 would portray an enlightened monarch, 
 severe, perhaps, but not without benevolence. 
 There is nothing in these paragraphs that 
 might not have been written by Louis XIV. 
 of France, for example, as a guide to his 
 governors of Dauphine or of Languedoc. 
 Hard as was the fate of the French peasant 
 of that time under the semi-feudal rule of 
 his various overlords, we know that it was 
 freedom itself compared to the condition of 
 Timur's subjects. How then are we to 
 reconcile these liberal-minded maxims with 
 the known facts ? 
 
Tamerlane the Great 41 
 
 In the first place, we must remember that 
 the Memoirs of Timur were written late in 
 his life, when he desired to leave a memorial 
 of himself which might serve to equal him to 
 the most intelligent of the kings and sultans 
 whom he had overthrown. Bagdad and 
 Damascus were seats of learning and mag- 
 nificence when he destroyed them. The 
 mosques and colleges which he erected in 
 Samarkand were no unworthy rivals of the 
 edifices of those great cities. The ruler of 
 Samarkand desired to be remembered along 
 with the great Caliphs as a wise King and a 
 patron of learning. This desire led him to 
 throw a certain glamour over all his actions. 
 Moreover, he had a high reverence for the 
 laws of Chengiz-Khan, and he desired to 
 leave behind him a code of the same sort, 
 which should be reverenced by his own suc- 
 cessors. 
 
 He is even accused, by one of the his- 
 torians, with valuing the laws of Chengiz 
 above the Kuran, and in many ways his 
 practice proves that the charge was true. 
 The political ideal of Chengiz-Khan was the 
 
42 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 formation of a military state, whose power 
 should be centralized in the King. He lived 
 long enough to realize this, in great measure, 
 and to show his successors that it was possi- 
 ble to weld scores of individual tribes into 
 something like a nation. In Timur's day 
 the theoretic basis of the State was the law 
 of the Kuran. Timur's professions of Islam 
 were loud ; he was a zealous builder of 
 mosques, and a prompt paymaster of relig- 
 ious tithes. But in all matters of State he 
 was guided by the laws of Chengiz, not by 
 those of Muhammad. The Muhammadan 
 maxim, All Muslhns are brethren, makes 
 nationality unimportant, or even impossible, 
 as has often been pointed out. Timur never 
 permitted a theory like this to interfere with 
 immemorial usage, which was the basis of the 
 laws of Chengiz-Khan. I suppose that the 
 mass of his followers thought very little 
 about religion of any kind, and were loyal 
 to the King from fear of punishment and 
 from hope of plunder. 
 
 In the second place Timur was, in his own 
 way and in his own day, a supremely wise 
 
Tamerlane the Great 43 
 
 King. He had been one of the greatest 
 of military commanders, but he had also 
 " learned the incalculable advantage which 
 wisdom has over force," and experience had 
 taught him that the civilian subject must not 
 be pressed more than so much, and that so 
 much was enough to provide for the wants 
 of his armies, and for the splendor of his 
 government. It is impossible to believe that 
 he was inspired by a sincere desire for the 
 good of the husbandman, like one of his 
 descendants ; but it is beyond a doubt that 
 a long experience in governing had demon- 
 strated to him that the subject must have 
 something like fixity of tenure in his prop- 
 erty, if the taxes were to comie in with 
 regularity. His administration was modelled 
 on what he had observed in Persia, in Syria, 
 in Turkey. His maxims are very nearly 
 such as would have been written by any 
 good Muslim like his friend the Seiyid Ber- 
 rekah. They are by no means the outcome 
 of original thinking. They show, rather, 
 how much of the practical wisdom of his 
 predecessors in the ancient monarchies of 
 
44 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 the East could be appreciated, at least theo- 
 retically, by the descendant of Turki shep- 
 herds. Appreciated, these maxims were, 
 since they are set down in the Memoirs. 
 Appropriated, as a practical code of laws 
 for all his dominions, they were not. 
 
 Again, we must recollect that the enlight- 
 enme-nt of his empire was confined to a very 
 few cities, and the learning to a very small 
 number of doctors of the law and men of 
 science. The military chiefs were profoundly 
 illiterate and rude,* though they were very 
 
 * The culture of the Arabs had, however, begun to penetrate the 
 higher ranks, and the following anecdote is very interesting in 
 showing how the old and the new ideals of conduct were blended : 
 In the pursuit of the Sultan of Bagdad (Ahmed Khan, A.D. 1403), 
 two of Timur's officers were perishing from thirst. They could 
 only find two small pots of water. Aibaj Oghlan drank one, and 
 declared to his companion, Jelalhamid, that he should die if he 
 did not have the other also. Jelal recalled a tale of a Persian 
 similarly circumstanced who had said to his Arab companion .• 
 " The generosity of the Arabs is so famous that it has become pro- 
 verbial everywhere. It would be a great proof of this truth if, to 
 save me from certain death, you should give me your water also." 
 To maintain the reputation of his race the Arab gave up his share 
 of the water. Jelal went on to say : "I wish to imitate the Arab, 
 and I will give you the water on condition that you will make 
 known to the princes of your house this sacrifice ; so that the 
 
Tamerlane the Great 45 
 
 much above the tribesmen. The tribesmen 
 do not seem to have been superior to the 
 Huron Indians, as we know them by the 
 Jesuit Relations, for example. The cultivated 
 land was of relatively small extent. The 
 vast majority of the people were shepherds, 
 and they have changed but little to this day 
 wherever they have been left to themselves. 
 It is only when they have come under the 
 influence of superior races, as in China or 
 in Hindustan, that they have taken on even 
 a shade of culture. 
 
 Timur's regulations referred theoretically, 
 perhaps, to vast areas of his empire. It 
 is certain, however, that they were nowhere 
 enforced in the enlightened way suggested 
 in these Memoii^s (" these lying Memoirs"), 
 
 memory of this deed may always redound to the credit of the 
 descendants of Jagatai Khan and be cited as a proof of my courage 
 to all our descendants." Whereupon Jelal gave up his share. It 
 is a pleasure to record that he did not die. 
 
 The tales of Boccaccio (1350) show that the Italians of that day 
 held the Arabs to be their teachers in chivalry, and at least their 
 equals in art, in science, in civilization. The essence of this story, 
 so it seems to me, is that Arab chivalry had also become the highest 
 ideal of the Mogul chiefs of 1403 — of the rude and violent descend- 
 ants of Jagatai. 
 
46 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 and that they were in practical effect only 
 along the main roads and in the immediate 
 vicinity of the larger towns and cities. The 
 Spanish ambassadors testify that the people 
 were in " marvellous terror " of Timur and 
 his servants. 
 
 If we understand the Memoirs in this light 
 they are of great importance. It is of 
 immense interest to know that this absolute 
 ruler even cared to appear to posterity as an 
 enlightened King. It is clear that Timur 
 had reflected profoundly on what he had 
 been told by the wise men of his court and 
 on what he had himself observed in foreign 
 lands which were far beyond his own in 
 culture. Great as was his genius and success 
 as a Captain, we are forced to give an equal 
 admiration to his intelligence as a Ruler. 
 The maxims of his government were house- 
 hold words in the courts of the Emperors, 
 his descendants ; but their methods, though 
 peremptory enough, were gentle compared 
 to his. 
 
 One of them — Akbar — two hundred years 
 later actually carried out these regulations in 
 
Tamerlane the Great 47 
 
 practical form, and Akbar's fame as a great 
 King is forever secure for this reason alone. 
 
 Timur's family affections were ardent and 
 devoted. On his campaigns he was accom- 
 panied by his wives and children to long 
 distances from Samarkand. In 1382 his 
 favorite daughter died, and he sank into a 
 melancholy so deep and persistent as to 
 threaten serious danger to the State, whose 
 affairs he totally neglected. The death of 
 his eldest sister and of a favorite wife in 
 1383 affected him profoundly. He gave 
 himself up to grief, and neglected all busi- 
 ness till his attention was imperatively called 
 for. He was fond of his sons and proud of 
 them ; yet he ruled them with an iron rule. 
 It is recorded that on occasions the princes, 
 grown men and sturdy warriors, were sub- 
 jected to the bastinado like the meanest of 
 his slaves. 
 
 The Persian poet Hafiz was a contem- 
 porary of Timur's, and there is an anecdote of 
 their meeting.'^ One of the ghazels declares 
 that if this Turk would accept his homage, 
 
 * Hafiz died, however, four years before the capture of Shiraz. 
 
48 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 — For the black mole on his cheek 
 I would give the cities of Samarkand and Bokhara. 
 
 Timur upbraided him for this verse, and 
 said : '* By the blows of my well-tempered 
 sword I have conquered the greater part of 
 the world in order to enlarge Samarkand and 
 Bokhara, my capitals and residences ; and 
 you, pitiful creature, would exchange these 
 two cities for a mole." " O Sovereign of the 
 world," said Hafiz, " it is by similar acts of 
 generosity that I have been reduced, as you 
 see, to my present state of poverty." It is 
 reported that the monarch was appeased by 
 the witty answer, and that the poet departed 
 with magnificent gifts. 
 
 A less likely tale is told of a jest of the 
 poet Kermani, who, with other wits, was in 
 the bath with Timur. The King asked the 
 poet, "■ What price wouldst thou put on me if 
 I were for sale?" "About five-and-twenty 
 aspers'' said Kermani. " Why, that is about 
 the price of the sheet I have on," rejoined 
 Timur. " Well, of course I meant the sheet, 
 for thou alone art not worth a farthing." 
 
 Timur's Memoirs recite a few cases in 
 
Tamerlane the Great 49 
 
 which he was merciful to the rulers or to 
 the inhabitants of a city ; these are usually in 
 the early portions of his career, before his 
 power was consolidated, and it is never cer- 
 tain that his mercy was not policy. He is 
 always proud of the valor of his own troops, 
 but it is not recorded that he was in the 
 least tender or careful of them, except upon 
 one occasion. He was returning from India 
 with his spoils. " There was a river in the 
 way, over which I crossed and encamped. 
 Some of the sick men were drowned in cross- 
 ing the river, so I directed that all my own 
 horses and camels should be used for trans- 
 porting the sick and feeble. On that day all 
 my camp crossed the river." He was always 
 profuse in his rewards to the survivors. He 
 does not lament the dead in his own army, 
 and, indeed, there is no reason why a good 
 Muslim should do so. 
 
 Early in his career Timur discovered, he 
 says, " the incalculable advantage which wis- 
 dom has over force, and with what small 
 means the greatest designs may be accom- 
 plished." He never forgot the lesson. He 
 4 
 
50 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 was no braver leader, hardly more skilled, 
 than his Amirs ; but he was more crafty, 
 more patient, more constant, and of abso- 
 lutely indomitable will. 
 
 His relation to his chiefs is well shown in 
 the following extract from the Memoirs : 
 
 " Timur Instructs the Princes and Amirs 
 about the Conduct of the War 
 
 " I now held a Court ; I issued a sum- 
 mons to the princes, amirs, commanders of 
 thousands, of hundreds, and to the braves of 
 the advance-guard. They all came to my 
 tent. All my soldiers v/ere brave veterans, 
 and had used their swords manfully under 
 my own eyes. But there were none who 
 had seen so many fights and battles as I had 
 seen, and no one who could compare with 
 me in the amount of fighting I had gone 
 through, and the experience I had gained.* 
 I therefore gave them instructions as to the 
 mode of carrying on war ; on making and 
 
 * This refers to the year 1398 in India. Timur was then sixty- 
 two years old. 
 
Tamerlane the Great 51 
 
 meeting attacks ; on arraying their men ; on 
 giving support to each other; and on all the 
 precautions to be observed in war. . . . 
 When I had finished [they] testified their 
 approbation, and carefully treasuring up my 
 counsel, they departed, expressing their 
 blessings and thanks." 
 
 Before setting out on an important cam- 
 paign, Timur personally attended to the 
 equipment and provisioning of his army. 
 Supplies and forage were collected and 
 stored. Each soldier was directed to furnish 
 himself with a bow, thirty arrows, and a 
 water-bag. Every ten men had, in common, 
 a tent, two mattocks, a spade, a shovel, a 
 sickle, a saw, a hatchet, a rope, a cooking- 
 kettle, one hundred needles, an awl, besides 
 the necessary riding and baggage animals. 
 The equipment seems to be modest, except 
 as to the supply of needles ; but the enumer- 
 ation (from Price's Muhammadan History) 
 omits the sword and buckler, the mace, the 
 spear, the javelin, with which many soldiers 
 were certainly provided ; and says nothing of 
 the leather jerkins lined with iron, of the 
 
52 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 helmets, or of the quilted cuirass for man and 
 horse. The representation of two warriors 
 fighting, used on the cover of this book, is 
 copied from a Persian miniature of about 
 Timur's day. 
 
 The armies themselves were immense. 
 Two hundred thousand skilled warriors were 
 assembled for the conquest of China. At a 
 review of his troops in Persia the front of the 
 army covered more than seventeen miles. 
 Irregular troops flocked to his standards in 
 the hope of plunder. Thousands and thou- 
 sands of camp-followers and prisoners were 
 charged with the transportation and the col- 
 lection of forage. His Mogul warriors were 
 like the Afghans of Sultan Bahlol, "they 
 knew only to eat and how to die." Their 
 savagery is exactly that of the red Indian. 
 To defile a Hindu sanctuary they filled their 
 boots with the blood of the sacred cows and 
 poured it over the idol. " Vanquished they ask 
 no favor ; vanquishing they show no mercy," 
 
 " My principal object in coming to Hindu- 
 stan [says Timur] and in undergoing all this 
 toil and hardship was to accomplish two 
 
Tamerlane the Great 53 
 
 things. The first was to war with infidels, 
 the enemies of the Muhammadan reHgion ; 
 and by this religious warfare to acquire some 
 claim to reward in the life to come. The 
 other was a worldly object, that the army of 
 Islam might gain something by plundering 
 the wealth of the infidels : plunder in war is 
 as lawful as their mothers' milk to Musul- 
 mans who fight for their faith, and the con- 
 suming of that which is lawful is a means of 
 grace." 
 
 This definition of the means of grace 
 sounds like a distorted reminiscence of his 
 friendship with the Seiyid Berrekah. 
 
 " I have not been able [he said] to effect 
 my vast conquests without some violence 
 and the destruction of a great number of 
 true believers ; but I am now resolved to 
 perform a good and great action, which shall 
 be an expiation of all my sins. I mean to 
 exterminate the idolaters of China. And 
 you, my dear companions, who have been 
 the instruments of many of my crimes, shall 
 share in the merit of this great work of 
 repentance." Fortunately for the infidels of 
 
54 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 China, he died at the very beginning of this 
 enterprise. 
 
 In nearly two-score campaigns Timur over- 
 ran many kingdoms and tribes. " He anni- 
 hilated empires as one tears up grass." He 
 penetrated Siberia till his camps were nearly 
 fifteen hundred miles distant from Samar- 
 kand. His forces ravaged southeastern and 
 southern Russia to the Don and the Sea of 
 Azof. His invasions of India carried him to 
 Delhi and beyond. Georgia, Anatolia, Ar- 
 menia and Syria were conquered, and the 
 great cities of Smyrna, Aleppo, Bagdad, and 
 Damascus were destroyed. He was just 
 beginning a campaign against China when 
 he died, three hundred miles east of Samar- 
 kand (a. d. 1405). 
 
 Such amazing military successes imply 
 genius of the first order, and of themselves 
 justify his title — " the great." 
 
 It cannot be said that he ruled the vast 
 extent of conquered country ; but he ravaged 
 all of it, and continued to receive tribute 
 from a great part ; from the Persian Gulf to 
 the Caspian, and from the Euxine to the 
 
Tamer la7ie the Great 55 
 
 Ganges, the coins bore his device of over- 
 lordship, and tribute and presents enriched 
 his treasury. 
 
 Timur had instructed his scribes to record 
 whatever he should say, " even to the last 
 moment of my existence." The injunction 
 was carried out to the letter, for one manu- 
 script of his Memoirs ends thus : " At night 
 [March 19, a. d. 1405] calling upon the name 
 of Allah, I lost my senses and resigned my 
 pure soul to the Creator." His pure soul ! 
 
 Thoroughly to realize the gulf which 
 then separated the East and the West, we 
 have but to recall a single date — our English 
 Chaucer was buried in Westminster Abbey 
 in October, a. d. 1400, 
 
56 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 ZEHIR-ED-DIN MUHAMMAD BABAR, THE CON- 
 QUEROR, EMPEROR OF HINDUSTAN (bORN 
 A.D. 1482, DIED 1530) 
 
 The Memoirs of Babar begin with these 
 words: **In the month of Ramazan and in 
 the twelfth year of my age I became King of 
 Ferghana. The country of Ferghana is 
 situated in the fifth cHmate, on the extreme 
 boundary of the habitable world. On the 
 east it has Kashgar and on the west Samar- 
 kand. The revenues of Ferghana may 
 suffice, without oppressing the country, to 
 maintain three or four thousand troops. 
 It is a country of small extent, abound- 
 ing in grain and fruits" — and of these 
 fruits the melon is the favorite and the chief. 
 To his dying day Babar remembered the 
 melons of his native country. Ferghana was 
 famous for its learned doctors of the law and 
 
HUMAYUN 
 JAHANGIR 
 
 BABAR 
 AKBAR 
 
Zehir-ed-din Muhammad Babar 57 
 
 for its poets, too, as we shall see. It was 
 one of the innumerable small states into 
 which Timur's possessions had been divided 
 after his death. This state had fallen to the 
 share of Babar's father, "a prince of high 
 ambitions," a strict Muhammadan, a patron of 
 learning, a poet, and a friend of poets. His 
 favorite poem was the famous Shah-na^neh of 
 Firdausi, that chronicle of knightly deeds. 
 
 He was renowned for his justice ; and 
 Babar gives a striking Instance of it. A 
 caravan from Northern China had perished in 
 the snow near his capital, at a time when he 
 was In real want. In spite of his necessities 
 the merchandise was sacredly preserved till, 
 after one or two years, the heirs of the 
 merchants came to his city and received it, 
 untouched, from his hands. " His generosity 
 was large," says Babar, "and so was his whole 
 soul ; he was of an excellent temper, affable 
 and sweet in his conversation, yet brave, 
 withal, and manly„" 
 
 On his sudden death, Babar, his eldest son, 
 sixth in descent from Timur, succeeded to the 
 sovereignty, which he was, however, obliged 
 
58 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 to dispute with his rival brothers and to pro- 
 tect from external foes. Babar's mother was 
 the daughter of Yunis-Khan, a direct de- 
 scendant of Chengiz-Khan, thirteenth in the 
 male line. " She accompanied me in most 
 of my wars and expeditions." His maternal 
 grandmother was a woman of extraordinary 
 force and wise in counsel. " There were few 
 of her sex who excelled her in sense and 
 sagacity." These women were Babar's guides 
 and counsellors in the small wars with which 
 his early years were occupied. His Memoirs 
 are a recital of hundreds of petty com- 
 bats, sieges, and stratagems, " excursions and 
 alarums," successes and defeats, in the struggle 
 to retain Ferghana or to capture Samarkand. 
 Babar succeeded to the throne about two 
 years before the discovery of America by 
 Columbus, and four years before Vasco da 
 Gama reached India. Ferdinand and Isa- 
 bella in Spain, Henry VII and Henry VIII 
 in England, were his contemporaries. 
 
 Babar's Memoirs were written with his 
 own hand in the Turki language, and have 
 come down to us practically unchanged. 
 
Zehir-ed-din Muhammad Babar 59 
 
 They cover nearly all of his history to within 
 a year of his death. All of this history is 
 recounted in the most straightforward, simple, 
 engaging, manly way. " I have no inten- 
 tion," he says, '' in what I have written, to 
 reflect on any one. All that I have said is 
 only the plain truth. And I have not men- 
 tioned it with the least design to praise 
 myself. I have in every word most scrupu- 
 lously followed the truth. Let the reader, 
 therefore, excuse me." 
 
 Babar's father had cherished an overpow- 
 ering ambition to capture Samarkand, the 
 ancient capital of Timor's kingdom, and 
 Babar succeeded to the desire. During 
 Timur's lifetime the government of the capi- 
 tal had been conferred on one of his sons, 
 and on a grandson. At Timur's death, his 
 youngest son Shahrokh Mirza, the ruler of 
 Khorassan, had seized the city, and had 
 given it over to be ruled by his son Ulugh 
 Beg Mirza, the famous astronomer ; " from 
 whom it was taken," says Babar, " by his son 
 Abdul-latif Mirza, who, for the sake of the 
 enjoyments of this fleeting world, murdered 
 
6o The Mogul Efnperors 
 
 his own father, an old man so illustrious 
 for his knowledge. 
 
 Ulugh Beg, the ocean of learning and science. 
 Who was the protector of this lower world. 
 Drank from Abbas the honey of martyrdom. 
 
 Yet his son did not retain the diadem 
 above five or six months ; 
 
 — /// does sovereignty become a parricide ; 
 But should he gain it, let six months be the limit of his reign. 
 
 The verses are Babar's own, 
 
 "After Abdul-latif Mirza,* Abdullah 
 Mirza mounted the throne, and reigned 
 nearly two years. After him the govern- 
 ment was seized by Sultan Abusaid Mirza, 
 who conferred it upon his eldest son Sultan 
 Ahmed Mirza. On his death (1494) Sultan 
 Mahmud Mirza ascended the throne, and 
 after him, Baiesanghar Mirza. I took it 
 from Baiesanghar Mirza. The events that 
 followed will be mentioned in the course of 
 these Memoir sy 
 
 * There is a legend that Ulugh Beg, finding that the stars fore- 
 told his assassination at the hands of his son, drove the latter into 
 rebellion by unmerited ill-treatment. But Babar's view of the case 
 is plainly different ; and it M^ould seem that Babar should know. 
 See also Vambery's History of Bokhara, Chapter XII. 
 
Zehir-ed-din Muhammad Babar 6i 
 
 The succession of rulers presents a vivid 
 idea of the unsettled period in which Babar 
 lived. Another striking instance may be 
 given. He had five sisters; and two of the 
 five were captured in war and found places in 
 the harems of his enemies. These were the 
 daughters and sisters of kings. 
 
 The Memoirs go on to give the names and 
 the characters of the Turki chiefs by whom 
 Babar's cause was supported ; and his out- 
 spoken judgments allow us to know his own 
 character as well as theirs. One was " a 
 good-humored man, of plain, simple manners, 
 who excelled in singing at drinking parties." 
 Another was *' a pious, religious, faithful 
 Muslim, whose judgment and talents were 
 uncommonly good. He was of a facetious 
 turn, and though he could neither read nor 
 write, he had an ingenious and elegant vein 
 of wit." "■ Another was Mir Ali Dost, who 
 was related to my maternal grandmother. I 
 showed him great favor. I was told that he 
 would be a useful man ; but during all the 
 years that he was with me, I cannot tell 
 what service he ever did." "Another was 
 
62 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 Amir Omar-Beg. He was a brave, plain, 
 honest man. A son of his is still with me ; 
 he is a lazy, idle, good-for-nothing fellow. 
 Such a father to have such a son ! " 
 
 In this manner Babar runs over the cata- 
 logue of his officers and companions, and 
 weighs their qualities, just as the Emperor 
 Marcus Aurelius sums up the character of his 
 associates. Let these further instances suf- 
 fice. 
 
 "Indeed, Ali Shir Beg was an incompar- 
 able person. From the time that poetry was 
 first written in our language no man has 
 written so much and so well. He also left 
 excellent pieces of music ; excellent both as 
 to the airs themselves and as to the preludes. 
 There is not upon record in our history any 
 man who was a greater patron of men of 
 ingenuity and talent than he." Musicians, 
 painters, and poets alike came under his pro- 
 tection ; and he was singular in this, that he 
 had neither wife nor child. " He passed 
 through the world unencumbered." He de- 
 clined the cares of government, and spent his 
 time in study and composition. The follow- 
 
Zehir-ed-din Muhammad Babar 63 
 
 ing is his : " Oh, you who say, 'Do not curse 
 Yazid, for possibly the Almighty may have 
 mercy on him^ I say, if the Lord pardoneth 
 all the evil which Yazid did to the descendants 
 of the Prophet, he will also pardo7i you who 
 may have cursed him^ 
 
 " Another was Sheikhem Beg. He com- 
 posed a manner of verses in which both the 
 words and sense are terrifying and corres- 
 pond with each other. The following is his : 
 
 During my sorrows of the night the tvhirlpool of iny^ sighs bears 
 
 the firmament from its place ; 
 The dragons of the inutidations of my tears bear down the four 
 
 quarters of the habitable world. ^'' 
 
 When he repeated these verses, the Mulla 
 said to him : " Are you repeating poetry, or 
 are you frightening folks ? " * 
 
 * I cannot resist quoting a short poem by Abd-er-Razzak to 
 illustrate a different kind of Oriental exaggeration. He was on the 
 shores of the Persian Gulf in May, 1442, and thus describes the 
 intense heat : 
 
 Soon as the sun shone forth frotn the height of heaven^ 
 The heart of stone grew hot beneath its orb; 
 The horizon was so much scorched-up by its rays. 
 That the heart of stone became soft like wax ; 
 The bodies of the fishes, at the bottovis of the fish-ponds. 
 Burned like the silk which is exposed to the fire : 
 Both the water and the air gave out so bursting a heat 
 That the fish went away to seek refuge in the fire : 
 In the plains, hunting became a matter of perfect ease. 
 For the desert was filled with roasted gazelles. 
 
64 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 The chief doctor of the canon law in Fer- 
 ghana was executed by his enemy. Of him 
 Babar, himself the bravest of men, says : " I 
 have no doubt that he was a saint. What 
 better proof of it than that all his enemies 
 perished in a short while? He was also a 
 very bold man, which is also no mean proof 
 of sanctity. All mankind, however brave 
 they be, have some little anxiety or trepida- 
 tion about them. He had not a particle of 
 either." 
 
 Khosrou Shah was thoroughly hated by 
 Babar, who says that, " For the sake of this 
 fleeting and faithless world, which never was 
 and never will be true to anyone, this thank- 
 less and ungrateful man seized the Sultan, 
 a prince whom he himself had reared from 
 infancy to manhood, and whose tutor he had 
 been, and blinded him by lancing his eyes. 
 Every day till the day of judgment may a 
 hundred thousand curses light on the head 
 of that man who is guilty of such black 
 treachery ; let every man who hears of this 
 action of Khosrou Shah pour out impreca- 
 tions upon him ; for he who hears of such 
 
Zehir-ed-din Muhammad Babar 65 
 
 a deed and does not curse him, is himself 
 worthy to be cursed." Ali Shir's verses may 
 have suggested the form of this passage. 
 
 Such were the chiefs by whom Babar was 
 surrounded, and through whom and against 
 whom he had to act. Their followers were 
 brave, but inconstant. Their cities alter- 
 nately welcomed the straggling army of 
 Babar (which was sometimes no more than 
 two hundred warriors) and rejected it. 
 
 Babar learned the art of war in a rough 
 school, and he learned it thoroughly. On one 
 occasion, much plunder was unjustly taken 
 by his men, which he made them give up. 
 " Such was the discipline of my army that 
 the whole was restored without reserve, and 
 before the first watch of the next day was 
 over, there was not a bit of thread or a 
 broken needle that was not restored to its 
 owner." He was one of the first to intro- 
 duce concerted action of divisions of his 
 army in the place of mad rushes of sepa- 
 rate hordes and tribes. 
 
 Samarkand, the city of Babar's affections, 
 
 was thrice taken and lost. He is never 
 5 
 
66 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 tired of dwelling on the perfection of its 
 buildings. "In the whole habitable world 
 there are few cities so pleasantly situated." 
 Its walls were paced out by Babar's order, 
 and found to be five English miles in 
 circuit. " It is, he says, in latitude 39° ^j', 
 longitude 99° 16'." This is the calculation 
 from Ulugh Beg's " tables," the longitude 
 being counted from Ferro. Ulugh Beg 
 (i 393-1449) was far better fitted to shine 
 as a man of science than as a king. His 
 short reign of three years was a succession 
 of misfortunes, but his fame as a mathema- 
 tician and as an astronomer is permanent. 
 
 Since the time of the Greek schools of 
 Alexandria, the home of the exact sciences 
 had been, successively, Bagdad, Cordova and 
 Seville, Tangiers and Samarkand ; * and it 
 was not until the time of Tycho (1576) 
 that such learning was born in the western 
 peoples. Ulugh Beg was the last of the 
 
 * It is interesting to know that the new masters of Turkistan — 
 the Russians — have lately established an observatory at Tashkend, 
 four centuries and a half after the establishment of that at 
 Samarkand. 
 
Zehir-ed-din Muhammad Babar • 67 
 
 Arabian school. A century and a half 
 before Tycho, he constructed mighty instru- 
 ments for astronomical observation, and, with 
 the aid of a hundred observers and calcu- 
 lators, he prepared his famous tables of the 
 motions of the planets and his catalogues 
 of stars. 
 
 " Ulugh Beg's observatory," says Babar, 
 "was erected on the skirts of the hill of 
 Kolik, and was three stories in height. Not 
 more than seven or eight observatories have 
 been constructed in the world. Among 
 these, one was erected by the Caliph Mamun, 
 another was built by Ptolemy at Alexandria." 
 The college, the baths, the mosques, all call 
 for exceeding praise ; even "the bakers' shops 
 are excellent, and the cooks are skilful." The 
 streets of Samarkand were paved, and run- 
 ning water was distributed in pipes. Once 
 more we hear of its excellent melons, and 
 of the wine of Bokhara, one of Its depend- 
 encies. " When I drank wine at Samar- 
 kand, in the days when I had my drinking 
 bouts, I used that wine." It was a learned 
 city, too, and hospitable to poets ; and here 
 
68 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 Babar acquired and practised the poetic art 
 himself, with no mean skill. 
 
 The city was full of noble buildings, 
 mosques, colleges, palaces, built by artisans 
 impressed by Timur, and decorated with 
 mosaics, gilding, and pictures.* 
 
 The colleges were full of learned men and 
 students ; the court of the kings, with poets 
 and painters. This was the heyday of Turki 
 learning, which blossomed in the midst of 
 ignorance. Not all of the chief men could 
 read and write, however, and the memory 
 was therefore highly cultivated. As one of 
 them said : " When a man has once heard 
 anything, how can he forget it?" "Hilali, 
 the poet, had so retentive a memory that he 
 could recall from thirty to forty thousand 
 
 * This was not orthodox for good Muslims. Muhammad says, 
 " The angels do not enter a house in which is a dog, nor that 
 house in which there are pictures ; " and in another place, more 
 briefly, "every painter is in hell-fire." The Muslims, like the 
 Jews, were no friends to painting and sculpture ; but noble archi- 
 tecture early became a passion with them. After Babar's time the 
 arts and learning rapidly declined in Samarkand, and by the seven- 
 teenth century the city was stagnant. On May 14, 1868, the Rus- 
 sians took possession, and the twentieth century may witness a 
 revival of learning in the colleges of Turkistan. 
 
Zehir-ed-din Muhammad Babar 69 
 
 couplets." Such mnemonic feats seem in- 
 credible to us moderns, who are used to 
 depend upon the eye and not upon the ear. 
 Yet they are doubtless correctly reported. 
 The Rig-Vcda contains more than ten 
 thousand verses, and for over two thousand 
 years it was preserved solely by oral tra- 
 ditions, and not one, but thousands of 
 Brahmins could recite it word for word. 
 
 An alphabet introduced by Nestorian 
 priests had been employed up to Babar's 
 time, as I have said ; but he invented and 
 introduced a new manner of writing — the 
 Babari character — and his presents to great 
 nobles were often copies of his poems, 
 written out by his transcribers. He himself 
 was a great stickler for propriety in com- 
 position ; and on one occasion he soundly 
 rates his eldest son, Humayun, then the 
 reigning monarch in Kabul, for various 
 literary errors. "In consequence of the 
 far-fetched words you have employed, your 
 meaning is by no means very intelligible. 
 Your spelling is not bad, yet not quite 
 correct. You certainly do not excel in 
 
7© The Mogul Emperors 
 
 letter-writing. In the future you should 
 write unaffectedly, with clearness, using 
 plain words, which cost less trouble to 
 both writer and reader." 
 
 Here is one of Babar's early couplets, 
 written when he was in great distress : 
 
 Do thou resign to Fate him who injures thee. 
 
 For Fate is a servant that will not leave thee unavenged. 
 
 And again : 
 
 Let the sword of the world be brandished as it may. 
 
 It cannot cut one vein without the permissioii of Allah ! 
 
 I have found no faithful friend in the world but my soul ; 
 Except my own heart, I have no trusty confidant. 
 
 The period to which this refers was a 
 dark one in Babar's fortunes. He had lost 
 Ferghana, and Samarkand was no longer his. 
 
 "For nearly one hundred and forty years 
 Samarkand had been the capital of my 
 family. A foreign robber,* one knew not 
 
 * This "foreign robber " was a direct descendant of Chengiz- 
 Khan, and, therefore, a relative of Babar himself, who, however, 
 was no friend to the Mogul tribesmen, but counted himself a Turki. 
 Babar is unjust to this rival Sheibani in his Memoirs, as also to 
 another rival, Khosrou Shah. Sheibani Khan was an enterprising 
 and successful soldier, a poet, a scholar in Arabic, Turki, and 
 Persian, a builder of colleges and mosques, and a notable patron of 
 learned men. 
 
Zehir-ed-din Muhammad Babar 71 
 
 whence he came, had seized the kingdom, 
 which dropped from our hands. Almighty 
 Allah now gave me back my plundered and 
 pillaged country." It was lost to him, how- 
 ever, by the issue of a pitched battle. " Such 
 was our situation when I precipitated matters 
 and hurried on the battle ; 
 
 He who with impatient haste lays his hand on his sword, 
 Will afterward gnaw that hand with his teeth from regret, 
 
 " The cause of my eagerness to engage 
 was, that the stars called the 'eight stars' 
 were on that day exactly between the two 
 armies ; and if I had suffered that day to 
 elapse, they would have been favorable to 
 the enemy," And he goes on to say, with 
 the experience of his later years : " These 
 observances were all nonsense, and my pre- 
 cipitation was without the least solid excuse." 
 
 This battle lost him his kingdom once 
 more ; but he never quite recovered from 
 superstition. Witness the following involved 
 account of his reasons for refusing a battle 
 in India toward the end of his life : " If on 
 that same Saturday I had fought, it is prob- 
 
72 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 able that I should have won. But It came 
 into my head that last year I had set out 
 on a New Year's Day, which fell on a Tues- 
 day, and had overthrown my enemy on a 
 Saturday. This year we commenced our 
 march on New Year's Day, which fell on a 
 Wednesday, and if we beat them on a Sun- 
 day it would be a (too) remarkable coin- 
 cidence. On that account I did not march 
 my troops " ! 
 
 I have now to recount what Is, and will 
 doubtless remain, one of the standing puz- 
 zles of Babar's history. We shall see that 
 Babar was the soul of outspoken boldness, 
 and that he was not afraid to confess himself 
 in the wrong, nor unwilling to amend. He 
 was skilled in the devices of poetic art, but 
 the very essence of the dramatic power of 
 his Memoirs Is their flowing naturalness and 
 simplicity. The Memoirs continue to about 
 the year 1529, a year before his death. 
 Remembering all this. It Is more than strange 
 to find In them two sudden gaps, where the 
 narrative breaks off abruptly, and leaves the 
 hero in the midst of the extremest perils. 
 
Zehir-ed-din Muhammad Babar 73 
 
 The first of these gaps occurs at the end 
 of the year 1502, and the narrative is not 
 resumed until 1504. 
 
 Babar is defending a fortress with scarcely 
 more than a hundred men. His enemies 
 arrive, and after a severe fight he is forced to 
 cut his way to the nearest gateway and to fly. 
 Every detail of a most exciting hand-to-hand 
 fight is given, even to the number of arrows 
 that Babar discharged. " A man on horse- 
 back passed close to me, fleeing up the nar- 
 row lane (of the city). I struck him such a 
 blow on the temples with the point of my 
 sword that he bent over as if ready to fall 
 from his horse, but, supporting himself on the 
 wall of the lane, he did not lose his seat, and 
 escaped with the utmost hazard." Through 
 hand-to-hand fighting like this, Babar escapes, 
 and gains the open country, warmly pursued. 
 His adherents are soon reduced to eight, and 
 presently Babar is fleeing alone. At last 
 only two of the enemy were close to him. 
 
 " They gained upon me ; my horse began 
 to flag. What was to be done ? I had about 
 twenty arrows left. The pursuers did not 
 
74 The Mogtil Emperors 
 
 come nearer than a bowshot, but kept on 
 trackingr me." The fliofht had beg^un before 
 afternoon prayers, and it was now sunset. 
 His enemies called to him, but he pushed on 
 till about bedtime prayers, when he reached 
 a place where his horse could go no farther. 
 His pursuers swore to him by the Kuran 
 that they wished to do him no harm. He 
 forced them to proceed in front of him out 
 of the glen where they were, towards the 
 road, and they continued marching till the 
 dawn. The next day they lay concealed, with 
 but little food, and only a moment for sleep. 
 After midnight another enemy arrived with 
 the information that Babar's chief rival knew 
 their place of concealment. He had been 
 betrayed by his companions. " I was thrown 
 into a dreadful state of agitation. There is 
 nothing which affects a man with more pain- 
 ful feelings than the near prospect of death. 
 * Tell me the truth,' I exclaimed, * if indeed 
 things are about to go with me contrary to 
 my wishes, that I may at least perform my 
 last ablutions.' I felt my strength gone. 
 I rose and went to a corner of the garden. I 
 
Zehir-ed-din Muhammad Babar 75 
 
 meditated with myself and said : * Should a 
 man live a hundred, nay a thousand years, 
 
 yet at last he ' " So the narrative breaks 
 
 off. 
 
 It is not resumed for two years, when 
 Babar's fortunes had improved vastly. Is it 
 a piece of literary art ? Is it to spare him 
 the recital of the successful intrigues by 
 which he drove Khosrou Shah from his king- 
 dom and took his place ? Is he ashamed of 
 these intrigues, and is this the reason why he 
 blackens the character of Khosrou, of whom 
 others speak so well ? There is no solution. 
 
 The first break in the narrative might be 
 taken as an accident if it were not for a sec- 
 ond occurrence of the same kind in the year 
 1 5o8, when Babar was deserted by the very 
 Moguls whom he had seduced from their 
 allegiance to Khosrou Shah, and by all his 
 followers of every rank and description. 
 From this second misfortune Babar rescued 
 himself by desperate fighting and reckless 
 personal valor, as we learn from other 
 sources. The fickle tribesmen deserted their 
 former rulers and attached themselves to 
 
76 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 his fortunes. The Persians became his allies. 
 The cities opened their gates, and he became 
 the master of Kabul, and Kabul was the 
 stepping-stone to India. 
 
 Sheibani, the ancient enemy of Babar, who 
 had usurped his kingdom of Samarkand, 
 came to a violent end. His body was dis- 
 membered, and his limbs were sent to differ- 
 ent kingdoms. His head was stuffed with 
 hay and sent to the Turkish emperor at 
 Constantinople. His skull, set in gold, was 
 used by the Persian king as a drinking-cup. 
 Babar's allies, the Persians, put fifteen thou- 
 sand prisoners to the sword. Many of these 
 were of Babar's own race, and this alliance 
 with the Persians did not help him to re- 
 cover his kingdom, though his worst enemies 
 were overcome by their assistance, and he 
 was thus left free to execute his conquest 
 of Hindustan. Taking aid from the hated 
 Shias of Persia could never be approved 
 by the orthodox Turki Sunnis of Trans- 
 oxania. 
 
 Herat, too, had fallen into the hands of 
 his allies and relatives, and he made a long 
 
Zehir-ed-din Muhammad Babar "]*] 
 
 stay at their court. At a great feast in 
 Herat, Babar had another occasion to show 
 his simple manners. He records the event 
 thus : "In the course of the feast a roast 
 goose was put down in front of me. As I 
 was ignorant of the mode of carving it, I let 
 it alone. Badia-ez-Zeman Mirza (the head 
 of Babar's family) asked me if I did not like 
 it ; I told him frankly that I did not know 
 how to carve it." The court was refined and 
 luxurious, and this was a great feast of 
 Babar's relatives to him as a young man. 
 It cost him a little to confess his ignorance 
 of so simple a thing. But he did not 
 shrink. 
 
 The fortunes of this city of Herat — Heri 
 — the Aria of the Greek chronicles of Alex- 
 ander — deserve a chapter, not a brief para- 
 graph. In the time of Chengiz-Khan it was 
 a crowded city, having, with its surrounding 
 country, a population of several hundreds of 
 thousands. After its first siege of a.d. 
 1 222-1 223 its inhabitants were spared. A 
 revolt on their part led to the second siege 
 of seven months, and to its capture. For 
 
"jd) The Mogul Emperors 
 
 seven days and nights it was devoted to 
 plunder and massacre, and the native his- 
 torians aver that more than a milHon persons 
 perished. Whatever the exact number may 
 have been, the Mogul troops did not leave 
 until it was supposed no single inhabitant 
 remained alive. After their departure some 
 three thousand wretched beings assembled 
 amid the ruins. In a few hours a band of 
 two thousand Moguls returned and completed 
 the slaughter, and the remnant perished to a 
 man, save for sixteen miserable creatures 
 who had hidden themselves in sewers, in 
 water-courses, in the dome of the mosque. 
 These finally crept fearfully forth amid the 
 smoking ruins of the great and beautiful 
 city. They were joined by other four and 
 twenty from the surrounding country, and 
 for fifteen years these forty individuals were 
 the only inhabitants of the proudest city of 
 the East, which had counted her children by 
 hundreds of thousands. Herat was rebuilt 
 by Octal Khan about a.d. 1235, and it soon 
 recovered its splendor. In the time of Babar 
 it was the most polite city of the East. 
 
Zehir-ed-din Mtihammad Baba'} 79 
 
 Herat is the soul, of which this world is but 
 the body ; and if Khorassan be the bosom of 
 the world, Herat is allowed to be the heart. 
 
 This is Babar's account of it : 
 
 " The city of Herat abounded with emi- 
 nent men of unrivalled acquirements, each of 
 whom made it his aim and ambition to carry 
 to the highest perfection the art to which 
 he devoted himself. Among these was the 
 Moulana Abdul-rahman Jami, to whom no 
 person of the period could be compared, 
 whether in respect to sacred or to profane 
 science. His poems are well known. His 
 merits are of too exalted a nature to admit 
 of being described by me ; but I have been 
 anxious to bring the mention of his name 
 and an allusion to his excellences into these 
 humble pages for a good omen and a bless- 
 ing." The following quatrain of Babar's is 
 not out of place here : 
 
 Though I am not related to Dervishes, 
 
 Yet I am devoted to them heart and soul. 
 
 Say not that the state of a Prince is remote from that of a Dervish ; 
 
 Though a King, I am the Dervish's slave. 
 
 Babar enumerates the many wise men, 
 
8o The Mogul Emperors 
 
 poets, and musicians who were living in 
 Herat in his youth, Jami was the chief of 
 the poets, but he finds space for short biog- 
 raphies of a dozen others, and for some 
 account of the skilled painters and musi- 
 cians of the court. Professor Vambery, who 
 should be an authority on such matters, 
 declares : * 
 
 " Every notion a Muhammadan in Asia 
 or elsewhere possesses (at this day) of 
 culture, refinement, high civilization — in 
 short, of all those qualities now only known 
 to him by name — is derived from the con- 
 ditions which then (in the times from Timur 
 to Babar) flourished at the courts of Herat 
 and Samarkand." By diligently reading the 
 annals of these alien people, they come to 
 seem almost familiar to us, because we 
 distinguish the underlying note of a common 
 human nature, and almost lose the superficial 
 sense of foreignness. Everything appears so 
 modern that we need to force ourselves to 
 return abruptly to our accustomed standards 
 in order to preserve a right perspective. 
 
 '^History of Bokhara, page 241. 
 
Zehir-ed-din Muhammad Babar 8i 
 
 The poets and artists of Herat in 1507 form 
 a group that is almost friendly. To acquire 
 a due perception of their separateness, we 
 must seek for a sharp antithesis. The 
 poems of Ali Shir Beg touch us to-day, but 
 we are forced to recognize that Schubert's 
 B-minor symphony would be mere discord 
 to him. 
 
 The incident which follows, shows Babar's 
 estimate of the value of poetry, and exhibits 
 his straightforward simplicity of mind. He 
 says : " During a drinking party the fol- 
 lowing verse was repeated : 
 
 What can one do to regulate his thoughts, with a mistress 
 
 possessed of every blandishment? 
 Where you are, how is it possible for our thoughts to wander 
 
 to another? 
 
 " It was agreed that everyone should make 
 an extempore couplet to the same rhyme, 
 and I said : 
 
 What can be done with a drunken sot like you ? 
 What can be done with one foolish as a she-ass? 
 
 " Before this I had always committed my 
 verse to writing. Now, when I had com- 
 posed these lines, my mind led me to reflec- 
 
82 The Mogul Einpero7''s 
 
 tions, and my heart was struck with regret 
 that a tongue which could repeat the sublim- 
 est productions should bestow any trouble 
 on such unworthy verses ; that it was melan- 
 choly that a heart, elevated to nobler con- 
 ceptions, should submit to occupy itself with 
 these despicable fancies. From this time 
 forward I religiously abstained from satir- 
 ical or vituperative verses. At the time I 
 had not considered how objectionable the 
 practice was." Later on, we find him trans- 
 lating a religious tract into verse. " I com- 
 posed every day, on an average, fifty-two 
 couplets." 
 
 In a winter's journey to Kabul the army 
 was deeply distressed by snows and storms. 
 Finally they halted at a cave. Babar dug 
 for himself a hole in the snow " as deep as 
 my breast and the size of a prayer-carpet," 
 and sat down in it. " Some desired me to 
 go into the cavern, but I would not go. I 
 felt that for me to be in a warm dwelling and 
 in comfort, while my men were in the midst 
 of snow and drift ; for me to be enjoying 
 sleep and ease, while they were in distress ; 
 
Zehir-ed-din Mtihammad Babar '^'^ 
 
 would be a deviation from that society in 
 suffering which was their due. I continued, 
 therefore, to sit in the drift." 
 
 On another of his night marches against 
 the enemy, he ascended a high pass. "Till 
 this time I had never seen the star Soheil — 
 Canopus (which is, indeed, not visible in 
 northern latitudes), but on reaching the top, 
 Soheil appeared below, bright, to the south. 
 I said, * This cannot be Soheil. ' They 
 answered, * It is, indeed, Soheil.'" The 
 descendant of Ulugh Beg came justly by 
 his knowledge of the stars — even of the 
 stars which he had never seen. How many 
 of our soldiers of to-day would recognize 
 Canopus if they saw it ? 
 
 In his early youth Babar was shamefaced 
 and modest, and for a long time he used 
 no wine. In later years he caroused with a 
 kind of fierce regularity, and he duly chroni- 
 cles each of his drinkingf-bouts. After the 
 battle which gave him India, he made, as he 
 says, "an effectual repentance," which was 
 sincere. He broke all his jewelled golden 
 drinking-cups and gave them to dervishes 
 
84 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 and the poor, made his store of wine into 
 vinegar, and finally issued a proclamation of 
 his change of life, and humbled himself before 
 Allah. 
 
 Let us see how a tyrant dreams. Once 
 when Babar had taken a potion of bhang, 
 he fell asleep and has recorded his dream : 
 *' While under its influence I visited some 
 beautiful gardens. In different beds the 
 ground was covered with flowers. On the 
 one hand were beds of yellow flowers in 
 bloom ; on the other hand, red flowers were 
 in blossom. In many places they sprung up 
 in the same bed, mingled together, as if they 
 had been flung and scattered abroad. I took 
 my seat on a rising ground to enjoy the view 
 of all the flower-plots. As far as the eye 
 could reach, there were flower-gardens of a 
 similar kind." Recollect that this history 
 was written years after the dream. And 
 then he adds : " In the neighborhood of 
 Peshawer, during the spring, the flower-plots 
 are exquisitely beautiful." Wherever this 
 stern warrior went, he planted flower-gardens 
 and orchards and built places of delight. 
 
Zehir-ed-din Muhammad Babar 85 
 
 A little distance from Kabul, Babar con- 
 structed a small cistern of red granite on a 
 site overlooking the city, and engraved on its 
 sides these verses : 
 
 Sweet is the return of the new year ; 
 
 Sweet is the smiling spring ; 
 
 Sweet is the juice of the mellow grape ; 
 
 Sweeter far the voice of love. 
 
 Strive, oh Babar ! to sectire the joys of life. 
 
 Which, alas! once departed, never more return. 
 
 "I directed this fountain to be built 
 around with stone. On the four sides of 
 the fountain a fine platform for resting was 
 constructed on a very neat plan. At the 
 time when the Ai^ghwan flowers begin to 
 blow, I do not know that any place in the 
 world is to be compared with it." 
 
 From Kabul he made several incursions 
 into India, which were mere raids, and finally 
 he set out on his expedition of conquest, 
 aided by the disaffected nobles of the Penjab. 
 There is no space to relate the complex wars 
 and negotiations, nor to describe the final 
 great battle which gave him Agra, the capi- 
 tal. His armies were the Turki hordes with 
 Indian allies ; 
 
86 The Mogtil Emperors 
 
 — In whose stern faces shined the quenchless fire 
 That after burnt the pride of Asia, 
 
 His success was largely due to the disci- 
 pline which he was one of the first to 
 introduce. The men were armed with bows 
 and arrows, spears, cimeters, and maces, and 
 a few matchlocks. The siege artillery of 
 that day was clumsy and ponderous. 
 " While the bridge of the Ganges was con- 
 structing, Ustad AH Kuli played his gun 
 remarkably well. The first day he dis- 
 charged it eight times ; the second, sixteen 
 times ; and for three or four days he contin- 
 ued firing in the same way. It was called 
 the Victorious Gun, and Ustad Khan was 
 rewarded for his success." 
 
 After the capture of Agra, in i526, the 
 treasure was distributed. Humayun, Babar's 
 eldest son and successor, obtained eighty- 
 seven thousand dollars, besides a palace. 
 His other sons and the emirs received all 
 the way from twenty thousand to seventy- 
 five hundred dollars. " Every merchant, 
 every man of letters, everyone in the 
 army, all my relatives and friends, great and 
 
Zehir-ed-din Muhammad Babar 87 
 
 small, had presents In silver and gold, in 
 cloth, in jewels, and in captive slaves." 
 Every man, woman, and child, slave or free, 
 in the country of Kabul, received a silver 
 coin of the value of an English shilling. 
 Babar's lavishness became a proverb. 
 
 At the same time the famous diamond was 
 captured. " It is so valuable," says Babar, 
 " that it is valued at half the daily expense 
 of the whole world." * 
 
 Babar was thus settled on the throne of 
 India, and had become the founder of an 
 empire. Let us see what the conqueror 
 thought of his conquest. 
 
 " Hindustan is a country that has few 
 pleasures to recommend it. The people are 
 not handsome. They have no idea of friendly 
 society. They have no genius, no compre- 
 hension of mind, no politeness of manner, 
 no kindness or fellow-feeling, no ingenuity or 
 mechanical invention in planning or executing 
 their handicraft works ; no skill or knowledge 
 
 * This may have been the stone, The Ocean of Lustre, now in 
 the treasury of the Shah of Persia. It was not ihe Kohimir, accord- 
 ing to the latest authorities. 
 
88 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 in design or architecture ; they have no good 
 horses, no good flesh, no grapes or musk- 
 melons, no ice or cold water, no good food 
 or bread, no (public) baths or colleges, no 
 candles, no torches, not a candle-stick even." 
 " The chief excellency of Hindustan is that it 
 is a large country, and has abundance of gold 
 and silver," and many skilled artisans. In 
 Agra alone, he daily employed 680 mechan- 
 ics, and he kept 149 1 stone-masons busy with 
 his various buildings. In another place he 
 says : " The people of Hindustan, and particu- 
 larly the Afghans, are a strangely foolish and 
 senseless race, possessed of little reflection 
 and less foresight. They can neither persist 
 in and manfully support a war, nor can they 
 continue in amity and friendship." 
 
 His life had been one of incessant activity 
 and strife up to this time. "■ From the 
 eleventh year of my age onward I have 
 never spent two festivals of the Ramazan in 
 the same place." When he was fourteen 
 years of age he was present at a siege, and 
 complains : " For two months there was 
 nothing but siege operations, and no fine 
 
Zehir-ed-dm Muhammad Babar 89 
 
 fighting." All his active life he spent in fine 
 fighting or in marching to the fray. 
 
 " This day I swam across the River Ganges 
 for amusement. I had previously crossed, 
 by swimming, every river that I had met 
 with, the Ganges alone excepted." 
 
 In India he had to contend with secret 
 enemies, as well as with armies in the 
 field. 
 
 In Agra, Babar was poisoned through the 
 treachery of his cooks and the carelessness of 
 the taster. '' The taster was ordered to be 
 cut to pieces. I commanded the cook to 
 be flayed alive. One of the women was 
 trampled to death by an elephant, the other 
 was shot by a matchlock." Babar recovered. 
 " Thanks be to Allah ! I did not fully compre- 
 hend before that life was so sweet a thing. 
 The poet says : 
 
 Whoever conies to the gates of Death, 
 Knows the value of Life. 
 
 Whenever these awful occurrences pass before 
 my memory, I feel myself involuntarily turn 
 faint. The mercy of Allah has bestowed a 
 
90 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 new life upon me, and how can my tongue 
 express my gratitude ? " 
 
 By a singular good fortune, we have two 
 of Babar's letters. One is written to his sons 
 in warning and reproof. The other is to 
 an. old and trusted friend in Kabul. The 
 first letter shows that he was disappointed 
 and hurt by the conduct of his children ; and 
 the last is an outpouring of the griefs of his 
 inmost heart to his friend. He says : " My 
 solicitude to visit my western dominions 
 (Kabul) is boundless and great beyond 
 expression. I trust in Almighty Allah that 
 the time is near at hand when everything 
 will be completely settled in this country. 
 As soon as matters are brought to that state, 
 I shall, with the permission of Allah, set out 
 for your quarters without a moment's delay. 
 How is it possible that the delights of those 
 lands should ever be erased from the heart ? 
 How is it possible to forget the delicious 
 melons and grapes of that pleasant region ? 
 They very recently brought me a single 
 musk-melon from Kabul. While cutting it 
 up, I felt myself affected with a strong 
 
Zehir-ed-din Muhammad Babar 91 
 
 feeling of loneliness and a sense of my exile 
 from my native country, and I could not help 
 shedding tears." He gives long instructions 
 on the military and political matters to be 
 attended to, and continues without a break : 
 **At the southwest of Besteh, I formed a 
 plantation of trees ; and as the prospect from 
 it was very fine, I called it Nazergah (the 
 view). You must there also plant some 
 beautiful trees, and all around sow beautiful 
 and sweet-smelling flowers and shrubs." And 
 he goes straight on : " Syed Kasim will 
 accompany the artillery." After more 
 details of the government, he quotes fondly 
 a little, trivial incident of former days and 
 friends, and says: "Do not think amiss of 
 me for deviating into these fooleries." " I 
 conclude with every good wish." 
 
 Towards the end of 1529 Babar's health 
 failed rapidly, and his son Humayun also 
 fell ill. The latter was conveyed to Agra 
 and tenderly cared for, but his life was 
 despaired of. One of Babar's high officers, 
 distinguished for his piety, said to Babar 
 that Almighty Allah might vouchsafe to 
 
92 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 spare Humayun's life in return for the sac- 
 rifice of Babar's most precious possession, 
 and suggested that the great diamond cap- 
 tured at Agra be the offering. " No," said 
 Babar, " my own life is the most precious 
 of my possessions, and I devote it to this 
 end." He three times walked about the 
 dying prince and retired to pray. Returning 
 he exclaimed, '' I have borne it away ; " and 
 in fact, from that time Babar declined and 
 his beloved son waxed stronger. With his 
 unvarying affection for his family, he be- 
 sought Humayun to be kind and forgiving 
 to his brothers, and, what is rare in such 
 cases, the admonition was faithfully respected 
 during many trying years. In a short time 
 Death, the sunderer of societies, the garnerer 
 of graveyards, the plunderer of palaces, bore 
 him away to the mercy of Allah, the com- 
 passionating, the compassionate, and his son 
 reigned in his stead. 
 
 " The grave of Babar is marked by two 
 erect slabs of white marble, and, as is common 
 in the East, the different letters of a part of 
 the inscription indicate the number of the 
 
Zehir-ed-din Muhammad Babar 93 
 
 year of the Hegira in which the Emperor 
 died. The device, in the present instance, 
 seems to me happy : 
 
 When in heaven Roozvan asked the date of his death, 
 
 I told him that heaven is the eternal abode of Babar Padishah. 
 
 " Near the Emperor his wives and chil- 
 dren have been interred, and the garden, 
 which is small, was once surrounded by a 
 wall of marble. A running and clear spring 
 yet waters the fragrant flowers of this ceme- 
 tery, which is the great holiday resort of the 
 people of Kabul. In front of the grave there 
 is a small but chaste mosque of marble, and 
 an inscription upon it sets forth that it was 
 built in the year 1640, by order of the Em- 
 peror Shah Jahan, that poor Muhammadans 
 might here offer up their prayers." * 
 
 From the hill which overlooks Babar's 
 tomb there is a noble prospect, and the 
 gardens of the city are in full blossom 
 beneath it. In Babar's own words, "the 
 verdure and flowers render Kabul, in the 
 spring, a very heaven." 
 
 * Burnes' Travels into Bokhara, quoted by Erskine. 
 
94 T^^^ Mogul Emperors 
 
 Babar has portrayed his own character in 
 words which every generous heart will 
 understand. He was a gentleman and a 
 soldier — throughbred. He had prudence, 
 knowledge, energy, ambition, and generosity, 
 and "all the qualities from which nobility 
 derives its name." " Exaltation was written 
 on his forehead." Mr. Erskine, the trans- 
 lator of his Afemotrs, has summed it up 
 judiciously: "A striking feature in Babar s 
 character is his unlikeness to other Asiatic 
 princes. Instead of the stately, systematic, 
 artificial character that seems to belong to 
 the throne in Asia, we find him natural, 
 lively, affectionate, simple, retaining on the 
 throne all the best feelings and affections of 
 common life. We shall find few princes who 
 are entitled to rank higher than Babar in 
 genius and accomplishment. His grandson 
 Akbar may perhaps be placed above him 
 for profound and benevolent policy. The 
 crooked artifice of Aurangzeb is not enti- 
 tled to the same distinction. The merit of 
 Chengiz-Khan and of Tamerlane terminates 
 in their splendid conquests, which far excelled 
 
Zchir-ed-din Muhmnmad Babar 95 
 
 the achievements of Babar. But in activity 
 of mind, in the gay equanimity and unbroken 
 spirit with which he bore the extremes of 
 good and bad fortune, in the possession of 
 the manly and social virtues, so seldom the 
 portion of princes, in his love of letters, and 
 his success in the cultivation of them, we 
 shall find no other Asiatic prince who can 
 justly be placed beside him." 
 
 Two sayings of Babar's, placed side by 
 side, give the key to all his public actions. 
 " Inspired as I was with an ambition for 
 conquest and for extensive dominion, I would 
 not, on account of one or two defeats, sit 
 down and look idly around me ; " and again, 
 " How can any man of understanding pursue 
 such a line of conduct as, after his death, 
 must stain his fair fame ? The wise have 
 well called Fame a second existence." 
 
 The circumstances of Oriental and of 
 Western life are totally dissimilar. " Between 
 us and them crawls the nine-times-twisted 
 stream of Death." If we can make the 
 needed allowances for these differences of 
 time and circumstance, Babar will appear not 
 
96 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 unworthy to be classed with the great Csesar 
 as a general, as an administrator, as a man of 
 letters. His character is more lovable than 
 Caesar's, and reminds us of Henry IV of 
 France and Navarre. He conquered India 
 and founded a mighty empire. Take him 
 for all in all, he was the most admirable of 
 the Mogul kings. 
 
Humaymiy Emperor of Hindustan 97 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 HUMAYUN, EMPEROR OF HINDUSTAN (a. D. 
 
 I 530-1 5 56) THE ADVENTURES OF FOUR 
 
 BROTHERS 
 
 " When Fortune's adverse, minds are perverse." — Persian 
 
 SAYING. 
 
 The intelligent Bernier, in his recital of 
 the events of a later reign, explains in a 
 sentence the fatal defect in the policy of 
 the Mogul Empire. " I desire," he says, 
 "that reflection be made on the unhappy 
 custom of this state, which, leaving the pos- 
 session of the crown undecided, exposeth it 
 to the conquest of the strongest." At the 
 death of every emperor a struggle took place 
 between the adherents of his various sons, 
 or even grandsons or nephews. The strong- 
 est won ; and then proceeded to assure a 
 lasting peace by doing away with his rivals. 
 They were either put to death at once, 
 or their eyes were blinded, or they were 
 
98 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 imprisoned in the hill-fort of Gwalior, or 
 stupefied with opium, or they fled into Persia, 
 or they were forced to make the pilgrimage 
 to Mecca. If the new emperor was not 
 strong or cruel enough to impose the severer 
 punishments, his rivals were sent to govern 
 distant portions of the realm, whence they 
 often returned to vex his power. What 
 may be called the most "prosperous" reigns 
 in India, have been those in which there 
 were the fewest living heirs to the throne. 
 The later Moguls understood this well, and 
 were cruel or crafty enough to carry out the 
 safe policy to its extreme. 
 
 In Humayun, we have an example of a 
 Mogul prince whose whole life was spent in 
 agitation or in exile, because he was too 
 affectionate, too filial, and too kind to go 
 to such extremities. His blood was Turki, 
 and not yet Hindu. 
 
 Babar, the father of Humayun, fulfilled 
 the highest Turki ideal ; he had, as we 
 have seen, " prudence, knowledge, energy, 
 ambition, and generosity — qualities from 
 which nobility draws its name." 
 
Humayttn, Emperor of Hindustani 99 
 
 A short while before his death, Babar 
 called for his son and heir (Humayun), and 
 charged him that if Allah should grant him 
 the throne and crown, he should not put 
 his brothers to death, but deal kindly with 
 them. Humayun promised obedience, and 
 notwithstanding that his brothers (Kamran, 
 Hindal, Mirza-Askari) were continually 
 opposed to him, and often in open war, he 
 forgot their hostile proceedings as soon as 
 he had vanquished them, for many years, 
 and on many separate occasions. 
 
 His kindness was the source of all his 
 woes ; and, like many a quality which is 
 amiable in a private person, was well-nigh 
 fatal to the state. It was not until his 
 brothers were removed by war or otherwise, 
 towards the last of his reign, that the Empire 
 had any sort of peace. The Hindus man- 
 aged such things better ; as in the example 
 thus related by an ancient historian : 
 
 " In the time of Sultan Mahmud, a Hindu 
 rajah asked his aid against an enemy who 
 aspired to the same sovereignty. He ex- 
 plained the situation to the Sultan thus : 
 
lOO The Mogul Emperors 
 
 ' In my religion the killing of kings is 
 unlawful ; but the custom is, that when one 
 king gets another into his power, he makes 
 a small and dark room underneath his own 
 throne, and, having put his enemy into it, 
 he leaves a hole open. Every day he sends 
 a tray of food into that room, until one or 
 the other of the king^s dies.' " 
 
 Humayun succeeded to the throne in a.d. 
 1530. His brother Kamran was then gov- 
 ernor of Kabul, the capital from whence 
 Babar had set out for his conquest of India. 
 It was clearly Babar's intention that the 
 empire should not be divided, and that 
 Kabul should remain subject to Hindustan. 
 The armies of the emperor were recruited 
 mainly from the- Turki, Mogul, and Afghan 
 tribes of this neighborhood, and while there 
 were vast numbers of Hindu auxiliaries, 
 the latter were even less faithful than the 
 Moguls. The officers of the army, espe- 
 cially, had to be drawn from Persia and 
 the countries outside of India. Humayun 
 yielded to Kamran the kingdom of Kabul, 
 and added to it the countries bordering on 
 
Humayun, Emperor of Hindustan loi 
 
 the Indus, and the Panjab. Prince Hindal 
 was made governor of Sambal, and Mirza- 
 Askarl of Mewat. Humayun was emperor 
 of Hindustan, but had not retained the 
 sources of the military power by which alone 
 it could be firmly held. The army still 
 remained, but there were no sure means 
 of increasing, or even of maintaining, its 
 fighting strength. 
 
 The emperor's wars began with the inva- 
 sion of Guzerat and the suppression of rebel- 
 lions elsewhere. The siege of one of the hill- 
 forts was the occasion of two incidents, each 
 highly characteristic of Humayun. The first 
 stages of the siege had been very unsuccess- 
 ful. All the practicable approaches to the 
 fort were closely guarded. An almost verti- 
 cal precipice bounded one side of the plateau 
 on which the fort was built, and Humayun 
 determined to attack it by night on this side. 
 Accordingly steel spikes were prepared and 
 driven right and left, one by one, into the 
 face of the cliff, in the form of a ladder. The 
 emperor himself accompanied a party of 
 three hundred men to the perilous attack. 
 
I02 The Mogtd Emperors 
 
 which was successful. Humayun was the 
 forty-first in order to ascend. 
 
 It was known that the castle contained 
 much treasure, but a strict search failed 
 to find it. In this juncture Humayun's 
 officers advised that the prisoners be tor- 
 tured till they confessed. The emperor's 
 counsel was to treat them with kindness, 
 rather, and this was followed. The water 
 was drawn off from a vast cistern, and 
 the treasure found in a chamber beneath it, 
 according to information given by one of the 
 prisoners to his generous captor. 
 
 Humayun's great personal bravery and his 
 humanity are well exhibited in these two 
 incidents. 
 
 Mirza-Askari, his youngest brother, who 
 was left in charge of these first conquests, 
 soon began to show his want of subordina- 
 tion. At a convivial party he took too much 
 wine, and began to boast that he, too, was " a 
 king and the shadow of Allah." Just at this 
 time the war with Sher-Shah, the Afghan 
 ruler of Berar, began to be serious. The 
 province of Bengal was overrun by Sher- 
 
Humayun, Emperor of Hindustan 103 
 
 Shah's forces, and Humayun was committed 
 to a campaign in the rainy season. The sol- 
 diers deserted when they could, and Prince 
 Hindal marched off his whole army without 
 permission. Prince Kamran set out with a 
 large force from Kabul, professedly to sup- 
 port the emperor, but in reality to seize the 
 throne if he could do so. 
 
 Humayun was forced to retreat towards 
 Agra, and to fight a battle with Sher-Shah 
 in which he was disastrously defeated (a.d. 
 1539). His queen was captured, and his 
 army totally dispersed. The three brothers 
 met at Agra and were reconciled, and a plan 
 of defence was concerted. It is no part of 
 my intention to recite the events of the next 
 campaign (1540), which ended in the com- 
 plete success of Sher-Shah (who became 
 emperor of India) ; in the capture of Delhi 
 and Agra ; and in the flight of the emperor 
 and princes to Lahore. 
 
 At Lahore another council was held. " It 
 was abundantly manifest to the emperor," 
 says one of the native historians, " that there 
 was no possibility of bringing his brothers 
 
I04 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 and his emirs to any agreement, and he was 
 very despondent." 
 
 Prince Hindal marched away in one direc- 
 tion ; Prince Kamran " proved faithless," and 
 set off for Kabul. " His brothers then began 
 to shoot the arrows of discord at the target 
 of sovereignty," as the native chronicler has 
 it. Humayun now cast about for a place to 
 set up what remained of his state. Sind, the 
 province just south of Kabul, had been part 
 of Timur's conquests, and whatever Timur 
 had overrun belonged to any of his descend- 
 ants who could take and keep it ; so the 
 emperor set out for Sind with the remnants 
 of his army. On his way he stopped at the 
 camp of Prince Hindal, where he became vio- 
 lently and suddenly enamoured of the young 
 daughter of Hindal's instructor. Sheikh AH 
 Akbar Jami. She was but fourteen years 
 old, and had been promised in marriage, 
 though not yet betrothed. The emperor 
 decided to marry her at once. Though she 
 was not of suitable rank, her father was 
 a seiyad, a descendant of the Prophet 
 Muhammad, and the family was distin- 
 
Humayun, Emperor of Hindustan 105 
 
 guished for learning and piety. The mar- 
 riage took place the next day. 
 
 But Prince Hindal's camp was no place for 
 the head of the state. 
 
 " Te7t dervishes can sleep on one rug, but 
 the same climate of the earth cannot contai^i 
 two kings!' 
 
 Accordingly Humayun plunged into the 
 deserts of Sind, relying on the promises of 
 one of his vassals there, which were not 
 redeemed. During this desert march the 
 party was reduced to the greatest straits, 
 living on berries, lacking water, and harassed 
 by enemies. At the solitary castle of Amerkot, 
 in the midst of the desert, the empress gave 
 birth to her son Akbar (October 15, 1542). 
 
 The emperor was encamped some miles 
 distant when the news was brought to him. 
 He had no rich presents to give to the mes- 
 senger and to his little party, as was custom- 
 ary. He opened a single pod of musk, and 
 distributed the contents among his faithful 
 adherents. The child was named Jalalu-d- 
 din Muhammad Akbar — king of kings — and 
 like the odor of the musk his fame spread 
 
io6 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 throughout the habitable world, according to 
 the loyal wishes of the little band of the 
 emperor's followers. 
 
 Kandahar was held by Mirza-Askari as 
 a dependent of Prince Kamran. It was 
 now Humayun's intention to win Askari to 
 his cause, and to find an asylum there. 
 When he was some one hundred and thirty 
 miles from the city, intelligence came that his 
 brother the Mirza was marching: against him 
 with hostile intent, and that he must fly for 
 safety. This he did in such haste that the 
 infant Akbar had to be left in the camp with 
 most of the party. Humayun, with the 
 queen and a band of only forty others, fled 
 to Persia. Akbar and those who were left 
 behind were well treated by the Mirza, and 
 removed to Kandahar, and the child was 
 sent to Kabul. As Mirza-Askari and his 
 troops were returning with the young Akbar, 
 one of the emperor's faithful adherents 
 plotted to steal the child from its captors and 
 to return him to his parents. The project 
 was discussed with the guards, and it was 
 decided that Humayun must have had good 
 
Humayun, Emperor of Hindustan 107 
 
 reasons for leaving his infant son in his 
 brother's hands, and that it would not be 
 right either for the guards to give him up, 
 or for the emperor's immediate followers to 
 interfere with plans not fully understood. 
 Upon this the warrior approached Akbar's 
 litter, and received from the chief in charge 
 of the escort a little fillet, or ribbon, from the 
 child's turban. And with this pledge from 
 one grim warrior to another, he set out to 
 join the fortunes of the flying emperor, and 
 to bring him the last news of the young 
 prince. These are not the savage manners 
 of barbarians. 
 
 For three years the emperor had been in 
 Sind, exposed to every hardship. He now 
 set out for Persia to ask the help of Shah 
 Tahmasp, the hereditary friend of his family. 
 His reception was on a grand scale, and all 
 kinds of promises were made on both sides. 
 Humayun agreed to restore Kandahar to 
 Persia, and was obliged to conform to the 
 observances of the SJiia^ sect of Muhamma- 
 
 * His great ancestor Timur was a Shia; though I do not find 
 that this argument was used to change his beliefs. 
 
io8 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 dans in return for the assistance of a well- 
 equipped army of twelve thousand Persian 
 troops. 
 
 On the envelope of the letter which 
 Humayun despatched to the Shah, he 
 wrote these verses : 
 
 Much hath this aching head endured among the waters, 
 Much among the rocks and mountains , 
 And much atnong the sands of the desert ; 
 But all (these sorrows now) are past. 
 
 Many more sorrows still remained to him, 
 however, before his fortunes were retrieved. 
 His was a life of constant vicissitude ; 
 
 In the morning he dwelt in a house like Paradise or Heaven, 
 In the evening he had no longer a dwelling. 
 As if he had been homeless. 
 
 Prince Kamran was reigning in Kabul. 
 Kandahar had been in his possession ; had 
 been captured from him by his brother 
 Prince Hindal ; had been recaptured ; and 
 was now held by Mirza-Askari. The fourth 
 brother was marching against it at the head 
 of a foreign army. The city was taken after 
 a siege. Askari was pardoned, but he 
 
Humayun, Emperor of Hindustani 109 
 
 escaped, was recaptured, and imprisoned, 
 and Kandahar was delivered over to the 
 Persians. 
 
 As the winter came on, Humayun's troops 
 needed shelter, and as the Persian prince In 
 command opportunely died, the emperor re- 
 captured Kandahar, from the Persians this 
 time, and made it his headquarters. He 
 at once made a winter's march to Kabul. 
 Prince Hindal joined the successful army, 
 and Prince Kamran abandoned his capital 
 and fled ; all his forces coming over to the 
 emperor. The young Prince Akbar (now 
 about three years old) was restored to his 
 father. After a few months Humayun set 
 out on an expedition against Badakshan 
 (another one of Timur's conquests) ; there- 
 upon Kamran returned and again captured 
 Kabul and the young Akbar with it. The 
 forces of Humayun and Hindal immediately 
 returned and closely invested the city. The 
 native writers say : " Kamran, with dastardly 
 feeling, ordered that the prince Akbar should 
 be exposed upon the battlements where the 
 balls and shot of the guns and muskets fell 
 
no The Mogul Emperors 
 
 thickest. But Allah Almighty preserved 
 him." Kamran was obliged to fly once 
 more, and Badakshan now fell into his hands, 
 but was recaptured by the emperor in 1548. 
 On this occasion Kamran became the pris- 
 oner of Humayun and Hindal. 
 
 " The emperor displayed the greatest 
 kindness to Kamran, who again received the 
 emblems of sovereignty." Mirza-Askari was 
 set at liberty at this time, and the four 
 brothers ate bread and salt together in sign 
 of amity. In a few months, however, Kam- 
 ran and Askarl again rebelled, and Kabul was 
 again taken by them, and the prince Akbar 
 (a precious hostage) again fell into their 
 hands. Once more the emperor attacked 
 Kabul, and once more Kamran was obliged 
 to fly. 
 
 These successive raids, sieges, captures, 
 flights, read like the annals of a band of Sioux. 
 They represent to the life the history of the 
 Moguls before they were permanently estab- 
 lished in India. Such " history " is intoler- 
 ably monotonous and dull, and we are apt to 
 dismiss it with the thought that all this was 
 
Hiimayun, Emperor of Hindustan 1 1 1 
 
 four centuries ago, among barbarous tribes of 
 Turkistan. But the wars in Europe at the 
 same epoch, were they materially different ? 
 We forget that modern war began with 
 Napoleon's campaigns. And as to the bar- 
 barous tribes — do we not find almost exact 
 parallels in the cruel revolutions in South 
 American States even to-day ? In Chile ? 
 In the Argentine ? In Brazil ? In Hondu- 
 ras ? There are no prisoners taken. The 
 corpses of the dead are terribly mutilated. 
 The captured cities are looted, and their 
 inhabitants inhumanly outraged. 
 
 It was about this time that Humayun 
 wrote to Kamran to beg him to put an 
 end to their eternal wars. " Oh, my unkind 
 brother," he says, " what are you doing ? 
 For every murder that is committed on either 
 side, you will have to answer at the day of 
 judgment. Come and make peace, that man- 
 kind may be no more oppressed by our quar- 
 rels." 
 
 Kamran's answer was the verse : 
 
 He who would obtain sovereignty for his bride, 
 Must woo her across the edge of the sharp sword. 
 
112 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 And the wars went on. Breaking into 
 rebellion and ravaging provinces " was an old 
 failing in the family of the Emir Timur," 
 says one of the native historians. 
 
 Hindal was sent to capture Kamran, and 
 could have done so, but furthered his escape, 
 and shortly afterwards was himself killed in 
 a battle against the Afghans under Kam- 
 ran's command. Mirza-Askari was ordered 
 into banishment, and afterwards made the 
 pilgrimage to Mecca, and died (1558) when 
 just beyond Damascus. 
 
 It was obvious that no terms could be 
 made with Prince Kamran. He was finally 
 captured, deprived of sight, and he also made 
 the pilgrimage and afterwards died at Mecca, 
 
 (1557). 
 
 Prince Kamran was of a sullen and cruel 
 nature, though bold and enterprising. He 
 inspired no permanent attachment in his 
 officers, or apparently in any one, save his 
 unfortunate wife, who followed him into 
 exile. "You gave me to my husband," said 
 she to her father, "when he was a king and 
 happy, and would take me from him now 
 
Humayun, Emperor of Hindustan 1 1 3 
 
 that he is fallen and blind and miserable ; 
 no, I will attend him faithfully wherever he 
 goes." 
 
 At the siege of Kabul he murdered the 
 three young children of one of Humayun's 
 officers, and threw their mangled bodies 
 over the walls to the besiegers. He gave 
 the wife of the same nobleman to the rabble 
 in the bazaar to be dishonored. These acts 
 were not only atrocious in themselves, but 
 they were totally contrary to the customs of 
 war. 
 
 There is no doubt that the emperor loved 
 him and all his brothers with a sincere affec- 
 tion in spite of treacheries beyond count. 
 
 When Kamran presented himself before 
 the throne to make his submission (one of 
 his submissions), he approached humbly with 
 a whip hung around his neck. "Alas ! alas !" 
 said the emperor, "there is no need of this ; 
 throw it away." 
 
 As soon as the ceremony of prostration 
 was over, the emperor exclaimed : " What is 
 past is past. Thus far we have conformed 
 to ceremony. Let us now meet as brothers ; " 
 
114 '^^^^ Mogul Emperors 
 
 and embracing him with tears, the emperor 
 made him sit by his side in the place of 
 honor. And then, in a moment, addressing 
 him in Turki (as it were the private speech 
 for two descendants of Timiir), he said, " Sit 
 close to me," as if they had been little boys 
 once more. 
 
 When Prince Hindal was slain by the 
 Afghans under Kamran, the emperor's camp 
 was on a hill above Hindal's. After the fight 
 was over, Humayun asked for his brother, 
 but " no one had the courage to tell him " 
 that he had been killed. The emperor 
 stood on the little hill in the darkness, 
 and called aloud for Hindal, and sent two 
 different messengers to find him. When he 
 at last learned his brother's fate, he was 
 overwhelmed with grief, and shut himself up 
 in his tent One of the high nobles found 
 the emperor in tears, and asked the cause. 
 " Have you not heard of the martyrdom of 
 Mirza Hindal?" The chief had the bold- 
 ness and good sense to reply : "You lament 
 your own gain ; you have one enemy the 
 less " — which was true indeed. 
 
Humayun, Emperor of Hindustan 115 
 
 The last rebellion of Prince Kamran, and 
 his atrocious conduct at the siege of Kabul, 
 had made it clear that he deserved no mercy, 
 and that the safety of the state demanded 
 his death. The emperor's councillors were 
 unanimously of this opinion, and they pre- 
 sented a formal written petition and remon- 
 strance, begging that justice be done. 
 
 The emperor would not consent, partly 
 from his affection for his turbulent and 
 treacherous brother, partly from memory of 
 his promise to his dying father. Kamran was 
 placed in strict custody, and the next morn- 
 ing orders were given that his eyes should 
 be lanced to deprive him of sight, though not 
 of life. Only so would he be harmless. This 
 was in 1553, after Kamran had been in re- 
 bellion more or less constantly for twenty- 
 three years. The emperor's orders were 
 received and executed. Some time after- 
 wards Kamran sent to beg for an interview. 
 "At midnight the emperor, lighted by a 
 lantern, and attended by five or six men of 
 distinction, repaired to Kamran's tent." The 
 emperor sat down and sobbed aloud as the 
 
1 1 6 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 blinded Mirza was led In. He called Allah 
 to witness how little affairs had turned out 
 according to his wishes, and how deeply he 
 felt for his brother's sufferings. 
 
 "The Mirza inquired who were in the tent. 
 He was told Mir Tardi Beg, Monaim Beg, 
 Bapus Beg (whose children he had slain), and 
 some others ; on which he addressed them 
 and said : * Be all of you witnesses that what- 
 ever has happened to me has proceeded from 
 my own misconduct and fault.' Humayun, 
 much affected, and wishing to put an end to 
 the scene, his voice interrupted by convulsive 
 sorrow, faltered out : ' Let us now repeat the 
 Fateheh.' * The Mirza, upon this, earnestly 
 recommended his children to the emperor's 
 care, who said : ' Set yourself at ease upon 
 that subject ; they are my own children.' " f 
 
 * The opening of the Kuran — a prayer. It reads as follows : 
 
 Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, 
 The Compassionate, the Merciful, 
 King of the day of Judgment I 
 Thee we worship, and Thee we ask for help. 
 Guide us in the straight •way. 
 The vjay of those to whom Thou art gracious : 
 Not of those upon whom is Thy wrath, nor of the erring.' 
 f Summarized from Erskine's Life of Humayun, Chapter III, 
 Book v. 
 
Humayun, Emperor of Hindustan 117 
 
 For the first time in the emperor s reign it 
 was possible for him to undertake operations 
 in the field without fearing the treachery of his 
 own brothers. His previous failures are attrib- 
 uted by (foreign) historians to the levity and 
 weakness of his character. All accounts seem 
 to me to make it clear that, if he had not obeyed 
 his father's admonitions to be kind to his rival 
 brothers, if he had done as his successors did 
 — if he had promptly put them to death — he 
 would have been called a successful ruler ; 
 cruel to his brothers, perhaps, but kind to all 
 the world besides. He was often more than 
 kind, even magnanimous and great-hearted. 
 
 Saif-Khan had once held his whole army 
 in check for half a day, while his over-lord, 
 Sher-Khan, was making good his escape 
 through a mountain defile. He was finally 
 captured and brought to the emperor, bleed- 
 ing from three wounds, and expecting death. 
 The emperor said: "Such it behooves a soldier 
 to be ; who should lay down his life to advance 
 his master's cause. I set you free ; go wher- 
 ever you choose." Saif answered, " My fam- 
 ily is with Sher-Khan ; I wish to go to him." 
 
1 1 8 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 Now, Sher-Khan was a thorn in the side of 
 the Moguls, but Humayun did not hesitate. 
 " I have given you your Hfe ; do as you will." 
 
 Humayun had a strain of romance in his 
 character, like that of the caliphs who granted 
 favors to poets for their verses, to singers for 
 their songs. " Ask a boon of me." 
 
 The following incident, which occurred dur- 
 ing the reign of his father, is an excellent 
 example of the romantic impulse and respect 
 for learning which are parts of the Oriental 
 character : A town had been captured, and 
 the soldiers sought everywhere for gold 
 and plunder. " A party of three entered my 
 house," says Maulana Sadu-lla, " and seized 
 my father (who, in studying and teaching 
 the sciences for sixty-five years, had, in the 
 evening of his life, lost his sight) and made 
 him prisoner. Others came and bound me, 
 and sent me as a present to the Mirza 
 (Shah Husain). The Wazir was sitting on 
 a platform when I reached his house, and 
 ordered me to be bound with a chain, one 
 end of which was tied to the platform. I 
 did not grieve for myself, but shed tears 
 
Humayun, Emperor of Hindustan 119 
 
 for my father's sad condition." The Wazir 
 asked for writing materials, and mended 
 his pen to write, but was called away, leaving 
 no one in the place but the captive. 
 
 ** I approached the platform, and wrote, on 
 the very paper on which the Wazir intended 
 to write, these verses : 
 
 Do not your eyes see hotv I am weeping, 
 And do you never say, weep no more? 
 And does your heart never suggest to you 
 That you should have pity upon me ? " 
 
 When the Wazir returned he found the 
 writing, released the poet, robed him in a 
 garment of his own, and introduced him to 
 the Mirza himself, who set the father free, 
 and restored their goods to the two prison- 
 ers, dismissing them both with honor. 
 
 Everything was now favorable for the re- 
 conquest of India. In 1555 the emperor 
 set out from Kabul with fifteen thousand 
 horse, invaded the Panjab, captured Lahore 
 from the Afghans, and took possession of 
 Delhi and Agra. Successful battles, in which 
 the Prince Akbar took part, confirmed him 
 in the possession of Hindustan. He died 
 
I20 The Mogul Efitperors 
 
 from the effects of a fall in 1556, half a year 
 after his return to Delhi, and Akbar (then 
 thirteen years old) reigned in his place. 
 
 In this last invasion Humayun made a vow 
 that, if Providence restored the sovereignty 
 of India to him, he would never again make 
 slaves of true believers. He was fighting 
 against Afghans, who were Musulmans, and 
 had no scruple in making a pyramid of 
 their heads, in the fashion of Timur the 
 Tartar, but he did not enslave them. This 
 last pyramid of heads was erected seven- 
 teen years before the Massacre of Saint 
 Bartholomew. 
 
 The success of the first battle for the 
 reconquest of India was splendid ; but it 
 produced no change in the equanimity of 
 Humayun's mind. He had always endeav- 
 ored, he said, to observe three principles of 
 conduct : first of all, integrity of design ; 
 then, energy in action ; and, finally, modera- 
 tion in success ; ascribing all the glory to 
 an overruling Providence, and nothing to the 
 merits of man. 
 
 A very curious chapter might be written 
 
Humayun, Emperor of HindiLstan 121 
 
 concerning the dreams of the emperors, as 
 recounted in their Memoirs. Putting to one 
 side those architecturally elaborate dreams, 
 " I saw an eagle descend from the empy- 
 rean and devour a dove, etc.," which are 
 announced by the emperor at his Durbar, 
 so that the astrologers may expound them 
 to mean that he is the eagle, and his enemy 
 the dove,* — putting these aside, there still 
 remain to us a considerable number of evi- 
 dently genuine dreams. 
 
 We must regard Babar's account of his 
 dream of the flower-gardens as entirely 
 genuine. He recounts it with real pleasure 
 years afterwards. And what a lovely light it 
 throws on his thoughts ! In the Memoirs 
 of Timur there are several cases of dreams 
 meant to be interpreted in public ; but there 
 is one case which seems to me to be entirely 
 real, and to give a glimpse into the monarch's 
 secret mind. He is recounting his " holy 
 war against the infidel Kators" (May, 1398, 
 A.D.). After days of fighting and extreme 
 
 * Such, for example, as the dreams of Olympias, mother of 
 Alexander the Great, just before his birth. 
 
122 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 fatigue in the mountains, Timur sleeps, and 
 dreams — what ? "I dreamed that my sword 
 was bent." When he awakes, this dream, like 
 others, must be expounded. " I interpreted 
 it to be a certain token that Burhan Aghlan 
 had been defeated." As a matter of fact he 
 had been ; but it is clear, I think, that the 
 dream itself was true, and not a fabrication 
 intended to convey the idea that Timur was 
 inspired. Here is a small but genuine psychic 
 event. " I dreamed that my sword was bent." 
 Humayun, too, had dreams de cir Constance 
 — official dreams, meant to be interpreted in 
 his favor. It is related also that he had a 
 supernatural warning of his death in a dream. 
 He himself says : " I lately rose after mid- 
 night to say the stated prayers and retired 
 again to rest ; when just before dawn, as I 
 was lying, my eyes shut, but my heart awake, 
 I heard a supernatural voice clearly repeat 
 these verses : 
 
 Oh, Lordy of Thine infinite goodness tJiake me Thine own ; 
 Oh, call to Thee thy poor lover; Oh, grant nie my release," 
 
 He repeated these verses frequently, with 
 
Htimayun, Emperor of Hindtistan 1 23 
 
 deep emotion ; and it was not long after- 
 wards that he met his death by an accident. 
 
 Nizamu-d-din-Ahmad was the son of a 
 favorite noble of Babar's and Humayun's 
 court. His history is a standard one, and his 
 estimate of the emperor is at least that of 
 an intelligent observer, who had the fullest 
 opportunity for judgment.''^* Omitting a few 
 adjectives of convention, there is no reason 
 to doubt that his writing is sincere. He says : 
 " Humayun reigned for more than twenty- 
 five years, and he was fifty-one years of age 
 when he died. His angelic character was 
 adorned with every manly virtue, and in cour- 
 age he excelled all the princes of the time. 
 All the wealth of Hindustan would not have 
 sufficed to have maintained his generosity. 
 In the sciences of astrology and mathe- 
 matics he was unrivalled. He made good 
 verses, and all the learned and great and 
 good of the time were admitted to his so- 
 
 * He came into high favor with the Emperor Akbar by marching 
 his men twelve hundred miles in twelve days, so as to be present at 
 the celebration of the thirty-fifth anniversary of his coronation at 
 Lahore, 
 
124 ^-^^ Mogul Emperors 
 
 ciety, and passed the night in his company. 
 The Hght of favor shone on men of abiHty 
 and worth during his reign. Such was his 
 clemency that he repeatedly pardoned the 
 rebellions of his brother, Mirza Kamran, when 
 he was taken prisoner and was in his power. 
 He was devout and ceremonious in all re- 
 lip;ious observances." 
 
 His "weary indecision" was manifested 
 chiefly in the early part of his reign, and then 
 only in counsel. He was always prompt and 
 brave in action, as became a descendant of 
 Amir Timur. Of Timur we may say what 
 Saint-Simon says of Peter the Great : " Tout 
 montrait en lui la vaste etendue de ses 
 lumieres, et quelque chose de continuellement 
 consequent." All the descendants of Timur 
 were distinguished for personal valor — the 
 courage of the heart. Some of them in- 
 herited from their great ancestor that cour- 
 age of the mind which made him capable 
 of long, patient, unswerving devotion to a 
 resolution once formed. But Humayun was 
 not one of his heirs in this respect. Valor 
 he had, but he was deficient in resolution. 
 
Hiimayun, Emperor of Hindustan 125 
 
 Erskine, the author of a Life of Humayun, 
 has given another estimate of his character, 
 which I quote : 
 
 •' He was a man of great quickness of parts, 
 but volatile, thoughtless, and unsteady. His 
 disposition was naturally generous, friendly, 
 and affectionate ; his manners polite, frank, 
 and winning. His generosity finally degen- 
 erated into prodigality, his attachments into 
 weakness, and hence to the day of his death 
 he was the prey of flatterers and favorites. 
 He was fond of literature, and delighted in 
 the society of the learned. He was a writer of 
 verses,* and had made, it is said, considerable 
 progress in mathematics and astronomy. At 
 the time of his death he was about to con- 
 struct an observatory, and had already col- 
 lected the necessary instruments." '' He was 
 a good Musulman, rigid in the observance of 
 the stated prayers and of the ceremonial of 
 the law." *'But though he was brave and 
 good-tempered, liberal, and fond of learning, 
 his virtues all bordered on neighboring de- 
 fects, and produced little fruit." 
 
 * As was his brother Hindal also. 
 
126 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 His father, Babar, has also left us a judg- 
 ment of him. For a long time Humayun 
 lived at the court and shared in every detail 
 of government, and was the inseparable asso- 
 ciate of the emperor, who was never tired of 
 repeating that, as a companion, Humayun had 
 not his equal in the whole habitable world. 
 He was the very flower of humanity and 
 courtesy. His affection for his father was 
 genuine and sincere. In the forty-sixth year 
 of his age he transcribed Babar's Memoirs 
 with his own hand, adding a commentary of 
 his own. 
 
 He was uniformly kind and considerate to 
 his dependents, devotedly attached to his son 
 Akbar, to his friends, and to his turbulent 
 brothers. The misfortunes of his reign arose, 
 in great part, from his failure to treat them 
 with rigor. But we are obliged to esteem 
 him for this long-suffering consideration, 
 for it was the faithful fulfilment of his prom- 
 ise to his dying father. 
 
 The very defects of his character, which 
 render him less admirable as a successful ruler 
 of nations, make us more fond of him as a 
 
Humaytm, Emperor of Hindustan 127 
 
 man. His renown has suffered in that his 
 reign came between the brilHant conquests 
 of Babar and the beneficent statesmanship 
 of Akbar ; but he was not unworthy to be 
 the son of the one and the father of the 
 other. 
 
128 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 SHAH AKBAR THE GREAT, EMPEROR OF 
 HINDUSTAN (a.D. I556-1605) 
 
 The book of the Thousand Nights and a 
 Night begins with these words : " Verily the 
 works and words of those gone before us have 
 become instances and examples to men of 
 our modern day, that folk may view what 
 admonishing chances befel other folk, and 
 may therefrom take warning ; and that they 
 may peruse the annals of antique peoples, 
 and all that hath betided them, and be 
 thereby ruled and restrained. Praise there- 
 fore be to Allah who hath made the histories 
 of the Past an admonition unto the Present." 
 The works and words of Akbar are worthy 
 to be instances and examples and even 
 admonitions unto the present. 
 
 By command of the Emperor Akbar his 
 wazir, Abul-fazl, wrote the history of his life, 
 
\. 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 129 
 
 and also a monumental book treating of the 
 government and statistics of the kingdom.* 
 
 It is possible from this work to obtain a 
 lively picture of the Empire of the Moguls 
 at the height of its splendor, and the charac- 
 ter of its enlightened monarch is set forth in 
 the laws and customs which he prescribed. 
 Abul-fazl's style abounds in smooth flattery, 
 which seems offensive to a Western reader 
 chiefly because it is addressed to a king — 
 and kings are out of date. It is no more 
 fulsome, however, than the address of a 
 candidate for Parliament or Congress to the 
 voters, his masters. As reasonable people 
 disregard the latter sort of flattery, so we 
 may also discount the former. I have, there- 
 fore, omitted most of the eulogistic passages 
 in Abul-fazl's book, as they are merely con- 
 ventional, and have but little genuine signifi- 
 cance. 
 
 *This volume, the Ain-i-Akbari, has been twice translated : 
 by Francis Gladwin (1800) and by Professor Blochmann (1873). The 
 edition of 1873 is supplemented by a series of notes, so elaborate, 
 so interesting, so learned, as to give the work of Abul-fazl a 
 double title to be regarded as one of the world's great books. I 
 have quoted from both translations in this chapter. 
 9 
 
130 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 Akbar was the son of Humayun, and came 
 to the throne in 1556. He died in 1605, 
 after a reign of nearly fifty years. The 
 history of his wars and conquests is far less 
 interesting than the picture of his civil 
 ofovernment, 
 
 Abul-fazl's book enables us to trace the 
 finger of the monarch in every detail of 
 the administration of a vast and well-ordered 
 empire which extended from Persia to the 
 Ganges, and from Cashmere to the Deccan. 
 A glance at the table of contents gives 
 the following chapter-headings among many : 
 The Household ; the Royal Treasuries ; the 
 Jewel Office ; the Mint ; the Harem ; the 
 Equipage for Journeys ; Regulations for 
 the Encampment of the Army ; Ensigns of 
 Royalty ; Perfume Office ; Painting Gallery ; 
 Artillery ; Stables for Elephants, Horses, 
 Camels, Oxen ; Regulations for the Public 
 Fights of Animals ; Regulations for Teaching 
 in the Public Schools ; Revenue Department ; 
 Particular Account of Each One of the Fifteen 
 Provinces Governed by Viceroys ; Rent-roll 
 of the Empire; Religious Toleration ; Descrip- 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 131 
 
 tion of Hindustan — its Inhabitants — its Doc- 
 trines — its Customs, etc., etc., etc., and a 
 thousand things besides. 
 
 " It is universally agreed," says Abul-fazl, 
 " that the noblest employments are the 
 reformation of the manners of the people, 
 the advancement of agriculture, the regula- 
 tion of the offices, and the discipline of the 
 army ; and these desirable ends are not to 
 be attained without studying to please the 
 people, joined with good management of 
 the finances and exact economy in the ex- 
 penses of the state ; but when these are kept 
 in view, every class of people enjoys prosperity !' 
 
 What an immense chanee of ideal this 
 paragraph denotes from that of Timur, 
 Akbar's ancestor ! The prosperity of the 
 people ! Compare this with the terrible 
 marches and sieges of Timur, each marked 
 with its pyramids of human heads. The 
 advance of agriculture ! This is the ideal 
 of the descendant of those Turki warriors 
 who jeered at wheat, calling it " the top of 
 a weed." 
 
 The emperor appointed treasurers for 
 
132 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 each department, who kept daily, monthly, 
 quarterly, and yearly accounts. Diamonds 
 and other jewels belonging to the crown 
 were valued and classed; pearls were strung 
 in scores, and at the end of each string the 
 seal was affixed, that they might not be un- 
 sorted or stolen. Each ruby of price bore 
 the inscription, "The magnificent ruby." 
 These jewels cannot all be lost. Are any 
 of Akbar's rubies in European collections 
 to-day ? A mint with fixed regulations and 
 with paid officials was established, and rules 
 for the fineness of the precious metals were 
 laid down.* Light coins were received 
 according to established discounts. " Every 
 money matter will be satisfactorily settled, 
 when the parties express their minds clearly, 
 
 * Among his jewellers was an Englishman, Mr. William Leades. 
 The king "entertained him very well, gave him a house and five 
 slaves, a horse, and every day six shillings in money." Leades' 
 history is curious. He was one of four Englishmen who travelled 
 from Syria and Persia to India in 1583, bearing letters from Queen 
 Elizabeth to the Great Mogul. After many adventures they came 
 to very different ends. One of the company (Storey) became a 
 monk at Goa ; Leades entered Akbar's service ; Newberry died on 
 the journey home ; and Fitch returned to England in 1591, and 
 published an account of his voyages. 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 133 
 
 then take a pen, and write down the state- 
 ment in legible handwriting." As we read 
 these paragraphs we do not seem to be in 
 the middle ages, until, by accident, we see 
 that "metals are formed of vapor and exha- 
 lation, which is to be particularly learned 
 from books of natural philosophy." Akbar 
 brouorht his coins to a fixed standard of 
 purity and improved their shape. They 
 were weighed against standard agate weights. 
 One of them bore for a legend : 
 
 The best coin is that which is etuployed in supplying men with 
 the necessaries of life, and which benefits the companions in the road 
 of God. 
 
 Special coinage alloys were invented by 
 Akbar himself, who experimented in all 
 departments from religion to metallurgy. 
 Minute rules prescribed how the betting 
 on deer-fights should be conducted ; and 
 " the leanness of elephants was divided into 
 thirteen classes,"— to see if their food had 
 been stolen. 
 
 Akbar inherited his desire for classifying 
 and organizing everything from his father 
 
134 ^'^^ Mogttl Emperors 
 
 Humayun, in whom the systematic tendency 
 was strongly developed, but whose vagabond 
 life did not permit him to carry out his ten- 
 dencies to the full. Humayun in the begin- 
 ning of his reign divided all his people into 
 three classes. The royal family, the nobles, 
 the military chiefs, were the first class ; the 
 religious hermits, the descendants of the 
 Prophet, the literati, the law officers, the 
 astronomers, and the poets, "besides other 
 great and respectable men," were the second 
 class ; while those who were young and 
 lovely, the singers and musicians, were the 
 third. The occupations of the days of the 
 week were apportioned to these three classes, 
 two days to each class, etc. The more serious 
 occupation of guarding his kingship, and 
 even his life, soon broke up this artificial and 
 rather silly scheme, of which I have given 
 but a very small part. 
 
 Abul-fazl writes thus (feelingly) of the 
 Harem, or Seraglio: "There is, in general, 
 great inconvenience arising from a number of 
 women ; but his majesty, out of the abun- 
 dance of his wisdom and prudence, has made 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 135 
 
 it subservient to public advantage ; for by 
 contracting marriages with the daughters of 
 the princes of Hindustan and of other coun- 
 tries, he secures himself against insurrections 
 at home, and forms powerful alliances abroad.''^' 
 The harem is an enclosure of such immense 
 extent as to contain a separate room for each 
 one of the women, whose number exceeds 
 five thousand. They are divided into com- 
 panies, and a proper employment is assigned 
 to each individual. Over each of these com- 
 panies a woman is appointed to rule. And 
 one is selected for the care of the whole, in 
 order that the affairs of the harem may be 
 conducted with the same regularity as the 
 other departments of the state." 
 
 The harem was thus a state bureau ; its 
 chief was Maham Anka, who had been Akbar's 
 nurse and faithful attendant during the peril- 
 ous adventures of his childhood, and who was, 
 
 * It is often said that one of Akbar's wives was a Christian prin- 
 cess. It is worth while to give this foot-note to a correction of the 
 error. Of all the royal families of the proud Rajputs, one only, 
 that of Oudipur, steadily rejected all marriages with the house of 
 the Mogul conquerors, and to this day has kept its blood pure, 
 according to the ancient Rajput customs. 
 
136 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 in fact, his prime minister in the early years of 
 his reign. 
 
 " Each one receives a salary equal to her 
 merit. The pen cannot measure the extent 
 of the emperor's largesses ; but here shall be 
 given some account of the monthly stipend of 
 each. The ladies of the first quality receive 
 from 1,610 rupees* down to 1,028 rupees. 
 Some of the principal servants have from 
 fifty-one down to twenty rupees, and others 
 are paid from two rupees up to forty." 
 "Whenever any of this multitude of women 
 want anything, they apply to the treasurer." 
 " The inside of the harem is guarded by 
 women," and there were eunuchs, porters, and 
 military guards at different distances outside, 
 each in a prescribed position. 
 
 The equipages for journeys and encamp- 
 ments were as complex as a town. For it 
 must be remembered that when the emperor 
 moved from a city, the inhabitants moved 
 with him ; merchants, families, servants, and 
 slaves. The camp was simply the city under 
 tents. 
 
 * A rupee may be taken as about fifty-five cents in Akbar's time. 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 137 
 
 Akbar had various seals. One bore his 
 name alone ; another, the name of all of 
 his ancestors up to Timur ; for petitions a 
 seal was used with the inscription : 
 
 Rectitude is the Jtieans of pleasing God. 
 
 I never saw any one lost in the straight road. 
 
 ** His majesty even extends his attentions 
 to the kitchen department, and has made many 
 wise regulations concerning it. He eats but 
 once in the course of twenty-four hours, and 
 he always leaves off with an appetite. But 
 what is required for the harem is going on 
 from morning to night." " Trusty people are 
 appointed to the kitchen department, and his 
 majesty is not unwatchful of their conduct." 
 In Babar's time an awning was spread over 
 the kitchen to insure that poison should not 
 be dropped from above, and all the cooking 
 was done under guard. Moreover, attempts 
 against the emperor's life were provided 
 against by the appointment of tasters, and 
 unmindful tasters were flayed alive ! The 
 same precautions were taken by Akbar, and 
 the dishes were sent from the kitchen in nap- 
 
138 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 kins whose corners were fastened by a seal. 
 " The copper utensils for his majesty's use are 
 tinned twice a month ; those for the princes 
 and the harem only once in that time." 
 Everything was regulated in this kingdom of 
 ordinances. Akbar drank only the waters of 
 the Ganges, cooled with saltpetre. '' Salt- 
 petre, which in the composition of gun-powder 
 supplies heat, has been discovered by his 
 majesty to be also productive of cold." ^' 
 
 All the water for Akbar's use and all the 
 provisions were kept in vessels under seal, 
 and the magazines and gardens were guarded 
 by trusty servants. This was necessary in a 
 realm where treachery abounded, the classic 
 land of poisons.f 
 
 The receipts for thirty dishes are given by 
 the wazir. I shall only quote one, for the 
 benefit of young housekeepers. " Chickee. 
 
 * The philosophy of Abul-fazl is like that of the little girl in 
 Punch, who gazes at a tortoise, and remarks how passing strange it 
 is that the animal which supplies her with her combs should possess 
 so extremely little hair. 
 
 f Ibn Batuta tells us that there was a special seal-bearer under 
 Sultan Mahmud (a.d. 997-1030) whose duty it was to seal the 
 water-jars used by that emperor. 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 139 
 
 Ten pounds of wheat flour made into a paste 
 and washed until it is reduced into two pounds ; 
 one pound of clarified butter, and the same 
 quantity of onions ; saffron, cardamoms, and 
 cloves, each quarter of an ounce ; cinnamon, 
 round pepper, and coriander seed, each half 
 an ounce ; green ginger and salt, each an 
 ounce and a half. Some add lemon juice." 
 
 To the Western palate it seems indifferent 
 whether the lemon were added or not. A 
 hundred dishes was the usual memc for 
 Akbar's dinner. " One day when his majesty 
 was at dinner, it occurred to his mind that 
 probably the eyes of some hungry one had 
 fallen upon the food. How, therefore, could 
 he eat it while the hungry were debarred from 
 it ? He therefore gave orders that every day 
 some hungry persons should be fed with 
 some of the food prepared for himself, and 
 that afterwards he should be fed." " His 
 majesty has a great disinclination for flesh, 
 and he frequently says, ' Providence has 
 provided variety of food for man, but 
 through gluttony and ignorance he destroys 
 living creatures and makes his body a tomb 
 
140 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 for beasts. If I were not a king I would 
 leave off eating flesh at once, and now it 
 is my intention to quit it by degrees.' " 
 And in fact he always abstained from meat 
 on two days in every week. Akbar was ex- 
 ceedingly fond of fruit, and introduced many 
 varieties from Persia and Tartary. The best 
 muskmelons came from Tartary, and cost 
 two and a half rupees each ; apples from 
 Samarkand were ten for a rupee. 
 
 "■ His majesty is exceedingly fond of per- 
 fumes, and the presence-chamber is con- 
 stantly scented with flowers, and fumigated 
 with perfumes burned in gold and silver 
 censers." His faithful minister gives many 
 receipts for compounding scents. A long list 
 is also given of the flowers of the country 
 and of their seasons for blossoming. 
 
 " Of Marriages : His majesty does not 
 approve of every one marrying more than 
 one wife. He censures old women who take 
 young husbands. His majesty maintains that 
 the consent of the bride and bridegroom, and 
 the permission of the parents, are absolutely 
 necessaryy This is almost inconceivably ad- 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 141 
 
 vanced doctrine, when we remember the time 
 and place. A consideration of the juvenile 
 marriages of the Hindus had formed Akbar's 
 opinions on this point. 
 
 " Every day some capable person reads to 
 his majesty, who hears every book from be- 
 ginning to end. He always marks with the 
 date of the month the place where he leaves 
 off. There is hardly a work of science, of 
 genius, or of history, but has been read to his 
 majesty, and he is not tired of hearing them 
 repeated, but always listens with great avid- 
 ity." Many books were translated by his 
 command, and a history of all parts of the 
 world for the last thousand years was pre. 
 pared by his order. Akbar applied to the 
 Pope of Rome for a copy of the Pentateuch, 
 having already in his possession, so he says, 
 the Evangelists and the Psalms in Persian.'^* 
 
 " All civilized nations have schools ; but 
 Hindustan is particularly famous for its semi- 
 naries." As in everything else in the empire, 
 Akbar had improvements to suggest ; and 
 
 * One of the Persian poets declares that the Psalms were origin- 
 ally written by David in the Persian dialect ! (Ross's Saadi.) 
 
142 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 " what used to take up years, is now accom- 
 plished in a few months, to the astonishment 
 of every one." " Every boy should read 
 books on morals, arithmetic, agriculture, 
 mensuration, geometry, astronomy, physiog- 
 nomy, household matters, the rules of govern- 
 ment, (theological, mathematical, and physi- 
 cal) sciences, and history — all of which may 
 be gradually acquired." 
 
 " His majesty takes great delight in the 
 painting-gallery, and having patronized this 
 art from the beginning of his reign, has 
 caused it to arrive at high perfection." 
 Every week pictures were submitted to him 
 and the artists rewarded. A list of the 
 eighteen most eminent painters of his court 
 is given. Books were illuminated also, and 
 one (in twelve volumes) had no less than 
 fourteen hundred illustrations. Portraits of 
 all the chief officers were made, and bound in 
 a volume " wherein the past are kept in lively 
 remembrance, and the present are insured 
 immortality." 
 
 The library of his poet-laureate (the 
 brother of Abul-fazl) contained forty-six 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 143 
 
 hundred manuscripts, and Akbar's was far 
 more complete. In Jahangir's time, the 
 walls of the palace at Lahore were literally- 
 covered with portraits and other pictures. 
 Timur's picture gallery at Samarkand con- 
 tained mural paintings of his battles in 
 Hindustan. " There are many that hate 
 painting," says Akbar, " but such men I dis- 
 like. It appears to me as if a painter had 
 quite peculiar means of recognizing God. 
 For a painter in sketching anything that 
 has life, and in devising its limbs, one after 
 the other, must come to feel that he cannot 
 bestow individuality upon his work, and is 
 thus forced to think of God, the giver of 
 life." 
 
 In the year 1570 Akbar laid the founda- 
 tions of his city Futtehpore-Sikri, near the 
 residence of the Saint Selim Shisti, after 
 whom his eldest son was named (Prince 
 Selim, afterwards Jahangir). The site was 
 not really suitable, and the city was aban- 
 doned in 1584. Its ruins are to-day a 
 wonder to travellers. The great fort at 
 Agra was built by him also. If he had not 
 
144 T^^^ Mogul Emperors 
 
 been succeeded by two kings with a passion 
 for architecture, like Jahangir, and especially 
 Shah Jahan, Akbar would have been famous 
 as a builder also. There is a sober solidity 
 to many of his constructions which renders 
 them to-day at once imposing and character- 
 istic. 
 
 Particular rules were laid down for the 
 manufacture of artillery and of small arms ; 
 and all these pieces were tested by Akbar 
 himself. It appears that with one single 
 musket the emperor had killed nineteen hun- 
 dred separate beasts — for in his hunting, as 
 in everything else, he kept precise accounts. 
 Each one of the emperor's private guns had 
 its appropriate name. 
 
 Abul-fazl's description of the elephants of 
 India is most interesting, but it is far too long 
 for quotation. It may be remarked that he 
 says that the natural life of this beast, " like 
 that of man," is one hundred and twenty years. 
 It is noteworthy, too, that before Akbar's 
 time it was considered unlucky to allow tame 
 elephants to breed ; " but his majesty has sur- 
 mounted this prejudice" — this superstition. 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 145 
 
 " His majesty being very fond of horses, 
 droves are constantly arriving, so that at this 
 day there are in his stables twelve thousand 
 horses." Akbar paid a salary to an official 
 of his stables, whose business it was to burn 
 a kind of mustard-seed to avert the evil eye. 
 The express-service of the empire was done 
 on swift camels, and not by horses. At every 
 six miles on the principal routes a postman 
 was stationed, and besides these "a grreat 
 number of camel-riders are waiting in the 
 palace for the purpose of carrying orders or 
 messages, the instant they are ready to be 
 despatched, to the most distant extent of 
 the realm." 
 
 " Whenever his majesty marches at the 
 head of his army the road is carefully meas- 
 ured, by means of bamboo rods, by persons 
 appointed for that purpose. The units of 
 measure were one gtcz (equal to about thirty- 
 three inches), and one ci^ouh, which equals 
 five thousand guz." The ancient definitions 
 of these standard measures are worth quot- 
 ing, that we may comprehend the necessity 
 for some of the reforms of Akbar. In one 
 
146 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 province the crouh, or standard measure, 
 was " the greatest distance at which may be 
 heard the ordinary lowing of an ox." In an- 
 other, " a man is to pluck a green leaf, and, 
 placing it upon his head, to walk with it until 
 it becomes dry ; this distance, they say, is a 
 crouh.'' I quote part of one of the tables 
 given : 
 
 " 6 hairs of a mule's tail . . . make one barleycorn. 
 
 6 barley corns " one inch. 
 
 24 inches " one guz." 
 
 The ''barleycorn " of our old arithmetics 
 makes its appearance here. 
 
 " His majesty is exceedingly fond of music, 
 and has a perfect knowledge of its principles. 
 This art, which the generality of people use 
 as the means of inducing sleep, serves to 
 amuse him, and to keep him awake." 
 
 The Emperor Babarwas not fond of Hin- 
 dus, nor of Hindustan, as we have seen ; but 
 Abul-fazl says : 
 
 " Summarily the Hindus are religious, affa- 
 ble, courteous to strangers, cheerful, enam- 
 ored of knowledge, lovers of justice, given 
 to retirement, able in business, grateful, 
 
SJiah Akbar the Great 147 
 
 admirers of truth, and of unbounded fidelity 
 in all their dealings. Their soldiers know not 
 what it is to fly from the field of battle. 
 They have great respect for their teachers, 
 and make no account of their lives when 
 they can devote them to the service of God." 
 This unbounded panegyric ought to stand 
 alone. Unfortunately, in another place, Abul- 
 fazl expresses a different opinion ; he says : 
 " In short, some have the disposition of 
 angels, and others are demons. There are 
 some who for the merest trifle will commit 
 the greatest outrages." 
 
 As Abul-fazl's work was to pass under the 
 eye of the king, he improved the opportunity 
 to give little moral lessons to inculcate an 
 even temper, or to strengthen the position of 
 good wazirs. There are many such pas- 
 sages, of which I shall quote but one : 
 
 " A wise prince never suffers himself to 
 be led away by reports, but exercises his 
 circumspection and makes diligent investiga- 
 tion, seeing that truth is scarce and falsehood 
 common ; and it behoveth him to be more 
 especially doubtful of whatever is said to the 
 
148 The Mogul E?nperors 
 
 prejudice of those whom he has distinguished 
 by peculiar marks of his favor, as the world 
 in general bears them enmity even without 
 cause, and the wicked frequently put on the 
 appearance of virtue to compass the destruc- 
 tion of the innocent." But Akbar, though 
 hasty in his temper, was faithful to his 
 friends ; and his wazir, in particular, enjoyed 
 his favor to his last day, and was sincerely 
 mourned after his death. 
 
 " The Maimer in which His Majesty spends 
 His Time. 
 
 " On this depends the welfare and happi- 
 ness of all ranks of people. It is his majesty's 
 constant endeavor to gain and secure the 
 hearts of all men. Amidst a thousand cares, 
 he suffers not his temper to be disturbed, 
 but is always cheerful. He is ever striving 
 to do that which is most acceptable to the 
 Deity, and employs his mind on profound 
 and abstract speculations. He listens to what 
 every one has to say. He never suffers him- 
 self to be led away by wrath. Others employ 
 story-tellers to lull them to sleep, but his 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 149 
 
 majesty, on the contrary, listens to them to 
 keep himself awake. He exercises upon him- 
 self both inward and outward austerities, and 
 pays regard to external forms, in order to 
 avoid cause for reproach. He never laughs 
 at or ridicules any religion or sect ; * he never 
 omits the performance of any duty. He is 
 continually returning thanks unto Providence 
 and scrutinizing his own conduct. He is 
 ever sparing of the lives of offenders, wish- 
 ing to bestow happiness upon all his subjects. 
 His majesty is visible to everybody twice in 
 the course of twenty-four hours. He often 
 appears at an open window, and from thence 
 receives petitions without the interventio7i of 
 any person. He considers an equal distribu- 
 tion of justice and the happiness of his sub- 
 jects as essential to his own felicity." 
 
 Making every allowance for the obsequious- 
 ness and servility of an Oriental official, it is 
 clear that Abul-fazl is here describing some- 
 thing between the ideal which Akbar really 
 set before himself, and the reality which he 
 
 * This is by no means true, as the present chapter will abundantly 
 show. 
 
150 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 attained. The ideal was nearly the highest 
 possible. Perhaps no ruler but Marcus 
 Aurelius has had a higher one. The reality 
 must be judged by the practical success of 
 his plans. I do not know that many West- 
 ern rulers have surpassed him, and certainly 
 no Oriental monarch has come near to this 
 excellence.* 
 
 What, then, in fact, should a benevolent 
 and wise ruler do for his subjects ? The acts 
 of Akbar's government might almost be taken 
 for a model of practice, just as Timur's Insti- 
 tutes are admirable theory. He surveyed the 
 
 * Sher-Shah, the Afghan king who drove Humayun from Hin- 
 dustan, and whose dynasty was in its turn overthrown by Akbar, 
 seems to have originated very many of the administrative reforms 
 which are usually credited to Akbar ; but he was far behind him in 
 religious toleration. Akbar was fortunate in having a great min- 
 ister of finance, Rajah Todar Mai, who had learned his business 
 under Sher-Shah, Abul-fazl says of him, that "for honesty, recti- 
 tude, manliness, knowledge of business, and administrative skill, 
 he was without a rival." Two of Akbar's advisers, then, were men 
 of the very highest ability, and one of them, Abul-fazl, a wonder- 
 fully liberal and elevated statesman. Mr. Horace Hayman Wilson, 
 in Mill's /«^2(Z, declares explicitly: "Whatever merit there may 
 have been in the financial arrangements of Akbar, it belonged to 
 the Hindus " — that is, essentially to Rajah Todar Mai. It required 
 a great king to utilize such ministers. 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 151 
 
 land and divided it into classes. He equalized 
 the taxes. In times of famine and distress 
 he partly or totally remitted them. " His 
 majesty abolished all arbitrary taxes. He 
 fixed standard measures ; after which he ascer- 
 tained the value of the lands, and fixed the 
 revenue accordingly." The duties on manu- 
 factures were reduced one-half (to five per 
 cent.). The complicated and unjust systems 
 of official fees were either totally abolished 
 or much simplified, and the officials were 
 usually paid by the state, instead of extorting 
 for themselves what the peasants could give 
 and yet exist. Full statistics were collected, 
 and the imposts were then fixed for a period 
 of ten years. In a thousand ways the affairs 
 of the state were settled on a definite basis of 
 law, instead of on shifting caprice. There is 
 no space to present the details of these enact- 
 ments. Perhaps the quickest method of 
 exhibiting them will be to give brief extracts 
 from the " instructions for the officers." 
 These were the actual rules by which the 
 empire was administered, at least during the 
 latter part of the reign. 
 
152 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 The Viceroy. — " He must constantly keep 
 in view the happiness of the people ; he shall 
 not take away life until after the most mature 
 deliberation ; those who apply for justice, let 
 them not be afflicted with delay ; let him 
 accept the excuse of the penitent ; let the 
 roads be made safe ; let him consider it his 
 duty to befriend the industrious husbandman." 
 
 The Cazi (judge). — " Divesting himself of 
 partiality and avarice, let him distinguish the 
 oppressor from the oppressed, and act accord- 
 ingly." 
 
 The Cootwal (a kind of provost-marshal). — 
 " His own conduct must be upright and 
 strictly honest ; the idle he shall oblige to 
 learn some trade ; upon coins short of weight 
 he shall take exactly the deficiency (and no 
 more) ; he shall prohibit the drinking of 
 spirituous liquors, but need not take pains to 
 discover what men do in secret ; he shall not 
 allow a widow to be burned contrary to her 
 inclinations." 
 
 The Collector of the Revemies. — " He must 
 consider himself the immediate friend of the 
 husbandman ; he must not require any inter- 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 153 
 
 mediary ; he must assist the needy husband- 
 man with loans of money, and receive payment 
 at distant and convenient periods ; he must 
 reward skilful management ; let him see that 
 his demands do not exceed his agreements ; 
 let him collect the revenue wnth kindness ; 
 vexatious taxes must not be exacted." 
 
 These extracts are but specimens of the 
 formal and elaborate Instructions given to 
 the officials. The originals of some of these 
 documents exist to-day. There is reason to 
 believe that they were obeyed in a great 
 degree. At all events, they certainly repre- 
 sent the ideal towards which this monarch 
 strove. 
 
 His life covered the years a.d. 1542- 
 1605. Caesar Borgia was but just dead. 
 The horrors of the sack of Rome had 
 endured for seven months of the year 1527. 
 Elizabeth of England reigned from 1558 to 
 1603. The very first English book of any 
 scientific value (Robert Recorde's Arith- 
 metic) was printed in 1540. The Massacre 
 of St. Bartholomew was in 1572. The 
 Spanish Armada was defeated in 1588. 
 
154 ^-^^ Mogul Emperors 
 
 Shakespeare's first poem was printed in 
 1593. Jordano Bruno was burned in Rome 
 in 1600. The first treatise on the law of 
 nations, and the Habeas Corpus Act were 
 nearly a century later. Witches were exe- 
 cuted in England until 171 2, and were 
 burned in France till 1718 ; in Spain, till 
 1780. Luther {circa 1530) had personal 
 encounters with the devil. When Blaise 
 Pascal was a year old he was bewitched, and 
 only rescued by the application of a plaster 
 made from herbs plucked before sunrise, by 
 a virgin of seven years, and bruised down 
 with the blood of a cat belonging to the 
 sorceress (1621). Kepler's aunt was burned 
 as a witch, and he had the greatest dif^culty 
 in saving his mother from the same fate 
 (1620) ; Kepler himself, the leading man of 
 science in central Europe, declared that the 
 reality of witchcraft could not be denied. He 
 died in 1630. Russia, France, Spain, Italy, 
 Germany, were no better governed than 
 India. It might very well be debated if 
 the actual condition of the English people 
 was to be preferred to that of the Hindus 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 155 
 
 of the central provinces under the compara- 
 tively mild rule of Akbar.* 
 
 Akbar was but little over thirteen years 
 of age when he ascended the throne. From 
 this time until he was eighteen, he remained 
 under the tutelage of a great noble, Bairam 
 Khan, his prime minister and guardian. 
 From him Akbar learned the art of war ; 
 and he saw in daily operation the rough and 
 ready methods of government which were 
 usual. We might call them the methods of 
 Timur. They were, in fact, Timur's methods 
 modified by the progress of culture and chiv- 
 alry under intelligent and generous princes 
 
 * It is difficult for us to realize the veritable condition of the 
 peasantry of Europe in the beginning of the seventeenth century. 
 If it should seem that the comparison in the text is too favorable 
 to India, I beg to refer to a graphic portrayal of the wretched- 
 ness of the peasants of France a century after Akbar, in the 
 Mimoires de Saint- Simon^ year 1709, chapter xxix. The misery 
 of 1709 in France vi^as exceptional, no doubt. But Akbar's policy 
 provided for exceptional cases by distributing food, remitting 
 taxes, and loaning money. In this connection reference may 
 also be made to Feillet, Histoire du Pauperisme, and to La 
 Bruyere's famous paragraph on the French peasants, in his chapter 
 De r Homme. The facts for England are to be found in Professor 
 Thorold Rogers' -^xjfery of Prices, and some conclusions therefrom 
 in the Nineteenth Century for June, 1893, page 932. 
 
156 The Mogul E^nperors 
 
 like Babar and Humayun. There Is little 
 doubt that Akbar's reflections on these 
 methods impressed upon him at least one 
 grave defect. If he were to rule in India, it 
 was essential to be at peace with the great 
 Hindu chiefs.* This could not be unless the 
 old political -methods were made more liberal. 
 Moreover, the fundamental law of every 
 Muhammadan empire was the law of the 
 Kuran, interpreted, be it remembered, by 
 big^ots. 
 
 It was clear that the millions of Hindus 
 could not be ruled by such a code. Political 
 and religious toleration were therefore forced 
 upon Akbar, and he became convinced that 
 the old methods must be greatly changed. 
 It is probable that Bairam Khan did not share 
 these views ; it is, at any rate, certain, that 
 the harem intrigued against him. In his 
 eighteenth year Akbar dismissed Bairam 
 (sending him on the pilgrimage to Mecca, 
 pardoning his outbreak into rebellion, and 
 treating him with considerate generosity), and 
 
 * There were nearly a hundred Hindu princes, many of them 
 very powerful. 
 
Shah Akbaj" the Great 157 
 
 assumed the sole authority. From this year 
 (1560) Akbar ruled alone. Until the eigh- 
 teenth year of his reign (1573) he was per- 
 petually occupied in suppressing rebellion, or 
 in conquering new provinces ; and it was not 
 until then that his vast possessions were 
 reduced to an orderly empire. These early 
 years were necessarily years of strife and of 
 successful military activity. 
 
 Abul-fazl came to his court in 1574, at the 
 end of this first period. Up to this time 
 Akbar had been a good Muslim, making 
 pilgrimages, and circumambulating the tombs 
 of saints. This second period of his reign 
 (15 74-1605), though not free from wars and 
 rebellions, is chiefly memorable for its peace- 
 ful triumphs. 
 
 " His majesty, who knows what high regard 
 is due to approved customs of antiquity, is 
 continually endeavoring to make himself 
 acquainted with them ; and then, regardless 
 of who was the institutor, he adopts such 
 as appear proper." 
 
 Toleration of the Hindu and Persian here- 
 tics was, particularly in the latter part of his 
 
158 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 reign, the keynote of Akbar's political con- 
 duct. As Abul-fazl well says, " Religious 
 persecution, after all, defeats its own ends ; 
 it obliges men to conceal their opinions, but 
 produces no change in them." In the flowery 
 language of the Thousand and One Nights., 
 this principle deserves to be " written with 
 needle-gravers on the corners of the eye-balls, 
 as a warner to whoso will be warned." 
 
 His early toleration in religious matters 
 was succeeded by the establishment of an 
 eclectic religion in which Akbar himself 
 represented Deity much as the Roman 
 emperors had done. The sun, as the symbol 
 of celestial power, was worshipped daily by the 
 ruler, while the people saluted the emperor 
 as the representative of that power on earth. 
 Abul-fazl has various references to " The 
 Divine Faith," or the " Divine Monotheism," 
 as the new belief was called, and I purpose to 
 extract a few of them. 
 
 There is nothing more curious in human 
 history than the formation of a creed. It 
 must not rudely reject all the beliefs of the 
 past, but it may modify them so as to meet 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 159 
 
 the demands of the present. " The Divine 
 Faith " was prosperous under Akbar, and it 
 survived for a while under his immediate 
 successor, but it died a natural death as time 
 went on ; and India was left under the sway 
 of its manifold native sects and of little- 
 altered Islamism. 
 
 Four times daily the emperor returned 
 thanks to the Deity — at daybreak, at noon, at 
 sunset, and at midnight. "All these grand 
 mysteries are in honor of God ; and if ignorant 
 people cannot comprehend their meaning, who 
 is to be blamed ? Every one is sensible that 
 it is our duty to praise our benefactor, and 
 consequently to praise this Fountain of Light, 
 the Sun, and more especially behoveth it 
 princes so to do, seeing that this sovereign 
 of the heavens sheddeth his divine influence 
 upon the monarchs of the earth. His 
 majesty has also great veneration for fire in 
 general, and for lamps, since they are to be 
 accounted rays of the greater light." Once 
 a year, near the vernal equinox, fire was 
 brought down from heaven by a crystal lens, 
 and " this celestial fire was committed to the 
 
i6o The Mogul Emperors 
 
 care of proper persons " (Abul-fazl himself 
 being the chief of these) ; " and when the 
 year expires they catch new fire." Huge 
 candles of camphor, in candlesticks of massy 
 gold and silver, lighted the emperor's camp 
 by night. So minutely were his affairs regu- 
 lated, that the number of fiambeajix in the 
 palace (fire-pots of torches) was regulated 
 by the age of the moon. At new moon 
 eight flambeaux were lighted ; from the 
 fourth to the tenth day, one less was burned 
 each night, so that on the tenth day one was 
 sufficient, and so on throughout the lunation. 
 The very quantity of oil and rags per torch 
 was specified. 
 
 Again he says, Of Spiritual Guidance, that 
 " by the decrees of God mankind are in 
 general disposed to applaud their own 
 actions, and to condemn those of others ; " 
 " thus different bodies of men hold different 
 beliefs, and amuse themselves with their 
 respective dreams and illusions." " Some- 
 times, through the good fortune of mankind, 
 the truth may be revealed. When a private 
 person arrives at such a degree of knowledge, 
 
Shah Akbar the Great i6i 
 
 he keeps silence from the dread of savage 
 
 beasts In human forms ; but if this light is 
 
 given to an emperor, as the astrologers 
 
 knew that it was given to Akbar," then, 
 
 indeed, is fit occasion to speak. " His 
 
 majesty did, however, for some time, cast a 
 
 veil over this mystery, that it might not be 
 
 known to strangers." 
 
 Finally he proclaimed his divine attributes, 
 
 and his miraculous power was manifested 
 
 in various ways ; those who came near him 
 
 increased in knowledge, and the poor and 
 
 needy loved him. He foretold the future 
 
 and cured diseases. " His majesty instructs 
 
 others as circumstances may require ; and 
 
 many, according to their capacities, are 
 
 recreated with sublime discourses." But, 
 
 says the courtier, "■ this Is not the proper 
 
 place for giving a full account of the manner 
 
 in which he instructs mankind, nor of the 
 
 numerous miracles he has performed. Should 
 
 my life be sufficiently prolonged, and should I 
 
 have leisure enough, it is my intention to 
 
 compose a volume on this interesting sub- 
 
 ject. 
 
 II 
 
1 62 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 It is plain that the good Abul-fazl was 
 willing to postpone his promised volume, 
 and it is clear enough that "the Divine 
 Faith " had no real interior vitality. This 
 religion was too much based on reasonings. 
 There were no mighty miracles and signs 
 manifest upon which to rest it. The " mir- 
 acles " ascribed to Akbar are poor and cheap 
 affairs. " Faith is believing what is not 
 true," as the little school-child wrote. Akbar 
 did not make sufficient demands on the credu- 
 lity of his sectaries. They acquiesced in his 
 lordship ; they rejoiced in the sunshine of his 
 favor ; they prospered under his just and even 
 rule. The state religion endured under him, 
 and under his immediate successor ; but even 
 the emperors held it lightly, and admitted 
 Jesuits and Mollahs to open debates in their 
 presence, and proposed to put the power of 
 prayer to physical tests. 
 
 Akbar's toleration is well summed up in 
 an inscription written by Abul-fazl for one 
 of the temples of Cashmere : 
 
 Oh God, in every tetnple I see people that see Thee, and in every 
 language I hear spoken, people praise Thee, 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 163 
 
 Polytheism and Islam feel after Thee, 
 
 Each religion says. Thou art One, without equal. 
 
 If it be a mosque, people murmur the holy prayer ; and if it be a 
 Christian church, people ring the bell from love to Thee. 
 
 Sometimes I frequent the Christian cloister, and sometimes the 
 mosque. 
 
 But it is Thou whom I seek frofn temple to temple. 
 
 Thy elect have no dealings with heresy nor with orthodoxy ; for 
 neither of these stands behind the screen of Thy truth. 
 
 Heresy to the heretic, and religion to the orthodox. 
 
 But the dtist of the rose-petal belongs to the heart of the perfume- 
 seller. 
 
 The foregoing account is mostly drawn 
 from Abul-fazl's book of the Regulations of 
 Akbar. I have not been willing to inter- 
 rupt its orderly flow with commentaries from 
 the other native historians of the reign, but 
 have preferred to present extracts from their 
 various accounts together in one place. 
 
 The Emperor Jahangir gives us this por- 
 trait of Akbar, his father, in his Memoirs, 
 It would seem to be of the highest authority. 
 He says : " My father used to hold discourse 
 with learned men of all persuasions ; though 
 he was illiterate, yet, from constantly convers- 
 ing with learned and clever persons, his 
 language was so polished that no one could 
 
164 The Mogtd Emperors 
 
 discover from his conversation that he was 
 entirely uneducated. He understood the 
 elegancies of poetry and prose so well, that 
 it is impossible to conceive of any one more 
 proficient." I had read this description a 
 great many times, and failed to reconcile 
 entire illiteracy with the possession of deli- 
 cate critical faculties, when I found what I 
 suppose to be a solution. Akbar ascended the 
 throne at the age of thirteen, after a youth 
 full of accidents and perils and vicissitudes. 
 From a paragraph in the history of Mir 
 Yahya Masum, whose son was chosen to be 
 his preceptor in the second year of his reign, 
 it appears that ''at that time the prince 
 knew not how to read and write." The very 
 phrase " at that time " indicates that he sub- 
 sequently became ** literate." And Jahangir's 
 description probably means no more than 
 that his father was not educated in his youth, 
 which is not surprising, considering the events 
 of the last years of Humayun's troubled 
 reign. This instructor of Akbar's— Mir Ab- 
 dullatif — was the first to teach him the prin- 
 ciple of '' peace-zuttk-all," a doctrine which 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 165 
 
 was then definite enough to have a special 
 name. In Akbar's sixteenth year he had 
 another tutor, and read with him "poems in 
 mystic language." 
 
 A highly educated youth in those days 
 would read and write Arabic, understand 
 its grammar and its rules of poetic com- 
 position. Large portions of the Kuran he 
 would know by heart. Persian would be 
 his mother-tongue, and he would be able to 
 repeat nearly the whole of the poems of Hafiz 
 and Saadi, and many verses from Firdausi. 
 He would be familiar with the biographies of 
 kings and princes. He would know a little 
 mathematics and astronomy and somewhat of 
 music. The descendants of Timur kept up a 
 knowledge of the Turki language certainly as 
 late as the time of Jahangir, who could com- 
 pose in Turki. '^^ 
 
 "Akbar was of middling stature, but with a 
 tendency to be tall ; wheat-color complexion, 
 rather dark than fair; black eyes and eye- 
 
 * For an amusing sketch of a perfect education, the reader 
 should refer to the tale of Abu-al-Husn and his slave-girl Tawad- 
 dud in I.ady Burton's Arabian Nights, vol. iii., p. 277. 
 
1 66 The Mogtd Emperors 
 
 brows ; stout body ; open forehead and chest ; 
 long arms and hands. ... He had a very 
 loud voice, and a very elegant and pleasant 
 way of speech. His manners and habits were 
 quite different from those of other persons, 
 and his visage was full of godly dignity," — so 
 says his son Jahangir. 
 
 Like his ancestors, Akbar was an eager 
 hunter. In one day he personally slew six- 
 teen of the swift wild asses of the desert. He 
 ornamented the mile-posts near Agra with 
 " some hundreds of thousands of the horns of 
 stags" which had been killed in his hunts. 
 He once rode two hundred and twenty miles 
 within forty-eight hours. '* His history is 
 filled with instances of romantic courage, 
 and he seems to have been stimulated by an 
 instinctive love of danger as often as by any 
 rational motive." He perfectly fulfilled the 
 ideals of personal chivalry which were current 
 in his day. These ideals had their sources 
 among the Arabs, and in India they were 
 modified by the Rajput standards of military 
 valor — no mean origin and descent. The 
 following instances of chivalry and loyalty 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 167 
 
 show how fully these Ideals were carried out 
 in practice by the Turki warriors. One of 
 Timur's sons (Jahangir) was pursuing Kum- 
 mer Addyn and overtook him. A soldier 
 threw himself forward and in a tone of 
 authority cried out, "/am Kummer Addyn," 
 — and perished in his master's stead. 
 
 Qasim Kokah and Babar were taken 
 prisoners by an Uzbeg Khan. Qasim an- 
 nounced that he was Babar, and was cut to 
 pieces, leaving Babar to escape. Bairam 
 Khan, a high officer of Humayun's (and the 
 guardian of young Akbar), was surprised by 
 an enemy. Abul Qasim, a man of imposing 
 stature, was mistaken for Bairam, and was 
 about to be killed, when the latter stepped 
 forward and said in a manly voice, " I am 
 Bairam." "No," said Abul Qasim, "he is 
 only my attendant ; and, brave and faithful 
 as he is, he wishes to sacrifice himself for me. 
 So let him off." It was so. Abul was slain, 
 and his over-lord Bairam escaped. 
 
 Akbar captured the strong castle of Chitor 
 after a heroic defence by Rajah Jeimall 
 (whom Akbar shot with his favorite gun 
 
1 68 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 named Sangrani) and his brother. To honor 
 the extraordinary valor of these high-born 
 adversaries, Akbar set up their statues, 
 mounted on elephants, at the gates of his 
 royal city of Delhi. Says Bernier, "These 
 two huge elephants, mounted by the two 
 heroes, are full of grandeur, and fill me with 
 indescribable awe and respect." 
 
 One more instance must suffice. To sup- 
 press a dangerous revolt, Akbar marched 
 an army of three thousand men four hundred 
 and fifty miles in nine days, in the rainy 
 season, and completely surprised the rebel 
 army (which was much larger than his own) 
 sleeping in their tents. The few who were 
 alert could not believe that they saw the 
 emperor, since there were no war elephants 
 in his train. "The feeling ran through the 
 royal ranks that it was unmanly to fall upon 
 an enemy unawares, and that they would wait 
 until he was roused." Akbar accordingly 
 ordered the trumpeters to sound the onset ; 
 the rebel army prepared for action, and was 
 routed and overwhelmed. 
 
 While Jahangir, the son of Akbar, was 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 169 
 
 yet the heir-apparent, his tendency to cruel 
 punishments had begun to show itself. In 
 all matters of state he was ever inexorable 
 and relentless. On one occasion he ordered 
 a servant, who had joined a conspiracy 
 against his life, to be flayed alive. When 
 this came to the ears of his father, whose 
 policy in such cases was usually so very 
 different, and whose nature was kind, he 
 wrote his son a severe letter, reprobating his 
 conduct, and saying that as he himself was 
 unable to see even a sheep stripped of its 
 skin without horror, it was inconceivable to 
 him how his son could inflict such an awful 
 punishment upon a fellow creature. Akbar 
 could be very brief and peremptory, how- 
 ever, upon occasion. To a dilatory envoy 
 he sent this letter : " If thou dost not return 
 to court with Asad, thou shalt see what will 
 happen to thee and to thy children." Vari- 
 ous anecdotes show that he had a violent, 
 though not a vindictive, temper.* His 
 clemency was of very gradual growth. 
 
 * See Herbert's Travels, edition of 1638, p. 71. 
 
170 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 " The emperor used to retire after even- 
 ing prayers, during which time the serv- 
 ants dispersed, assembHng again when they 
 expected his majesty to reappear. That 
 evening he happened to come out earlier 
 than usual. He saw a luckless lamplighter 
 coiled up in a careless sleep. Enraged at 
 the sight, he ordered him to be thrown from 
 the tower, and he was dashed into a thousand 
 pieces." The officers on guard were dis- 
 graced and their places given to others. We 
 have this story from one of the latter. In 
 the twelfth year of his reign eight thousand 
 Rajputs were slaughtered after the surrender 
 at Chitor ; in the seventeenth he ordered the 
 tongue of a captive to be cut out ; in the 
 eighteenth he raised a pyramid of two thou- 
 sand heads in the fashion of Timur ; and in 
 various portions of his earlier reign he 
 sanctioned, or directly ordered, barbarous 
 punishments and torture. This was before 
 he had come under the influence of Abul- 
 fazl, and while he was still a young man. 
 
 But for every such act of violence, a score 
 of wise and humane enactments can be cited. 
 
Shah Ahbar the Great 171 
 
 In the seventh year of his reign it was decreed 
 that the wives and children of soldiers cap- 
 tured in war should no longer be made slaves ; 
 in the eighth the onerous taxes on pilgrims 
 were removed ; in the ninth the poll-tax on un- 
 believers (a mighty multitude^ was abolished ;* 
 in the twenty-fifth a full census of all the 
 inhabitants (giving names and occupations) 
 was made, in order to equalize the inci- 
 dence of taxation ; in the twenty-eighth the 
 obligatory suttee was abolished, and Akbar 
 him.self broke up the custom by his per- 
 sonal presence ; these, among many other 
 instances, may be cited. 
 
 " He was a powerful, world-subduing mon- 
 arch, the very emblem of justice. His object 
 was to unite all men in a common bond of 
 
 * A century before Akbar's time the Muhammadan ruler of 
 Cashiuere — Ali Shah — had anticipated many of Akbar's reforms in 
 de.iling with his Hindu subjects. He abolished the hated tax on 
 infidels, forbade the slaughter of oxen, and was, besides, an ardent 
 patron of learning and of the arts. These and other like matters 
 were familiar to Akbar through verbal reports and, after the twelfth 
 year of his reign, through the translation of the history of Cashmere 
 which Faizi was preparing. The doctrine of nnirersal toleration, 
 too, was no new thing in India. During the whole of the six- 
 teenth century it was preached and practised by the Sikhs. 
 
1 72 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 peace." He strove to be the king of all his 
 subjects. He maintained four hundred and 
 fifteen Mansebdars — commanders of horse. 
 Of these, fifty-one were Hindus, the rest 
 Moguls, Usbeks, Afghans, Turks, and Per- 
 sians. Shah Jahan had six hundred and nine 
 Mansebdars, of whom one hundred and ten 
 were Hindus. It was simply impossible to 
 govern these chiefs and their followers by 
 the rigid law of Islam. Tolerance was a 
 political necessity. As Lord Tennyson has 
 said in the notes to his poem of Akbars 
 Dream, " His tolerance of religion, and his 
 abhorrence of religious persecutions, put our 
 Tudors to shame." 
 
 The most interesting incidents of his reign 
 are connected with the foundation of "the 
 Divine Monotheism." His chief adviser in 
 this step was his wazir Abul-fazl. 
 
 Shaikh Mubarak, a distinguished and lib- 
 eral-minded scholar, had two yet more distin- 
 guished and liberal-minded sons — Faizi the 
 poet (born 1547), and Abul-fazl the writer, 
 the statesman, and the prime minister of 
 Akbar (born 1551). It is necessary to know 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 173 
 
 something of this family, whose influence 
 was predominant during the larger part 
 of Akbar's life. Faizi was first intro- 
 duced at court in the twelfth year of Akbar's 
 reign, and became his friend and favorite. 
 Abul-fazl came six years later, in 1574, when 
 Akbar, now thirty-two years old, began to 
 have some respite from his incessant wars 
 and expeditions. Shaikh Mubarak was bred 
 an orthodox Sunni, had become, more or less, 
 a Shia, and had investigated the various 
 religions of India and of Persia. 
 
 Faizi's poems often turn on religious ques- 
 tions, which are sometimes treated mystically, 
 but frequently in a spirit of simple devotion. 
 Like all poets, he deals with the universal 
 passion of love ; but, as with other Ori- 
 entals, it is the beautiful boy who is the 
 beloved. Abul-fazl promises at some future 
 time to give a critical edition of Faizi's 
 verses ; * " but now," he says, " but now, it is 
 brotherly love — a love which does not travel 
 along the road of critical nicety — that com- 
 mands me to write down some of his verses." 
 
 * A promise which he redeemed. 
 
174 T"^^ Mogul Emperors 
 
 I shall copy a few of the many extracts so 
 given, partly to illustrate the nature of the 
 poetry of the age, partly to exhibit the char- 
 acter of the poet, and that of the emperor 
 who admired and loved him. 
 
 These verses are from Faizi's Odes : 
 
 Oh Thou who existest from Eiernily, and abidest forever, sight 
 
 cannot bear Thy light, praise cannot express Thy perfection. 
 Thy light melts the understanding, and Thy glory baffles wisdom ; 
 
 to think of Thee destroys reasoit ; Thy essence confounds thought. 
 Science is like blinding desert sand on the road to Thy perfection j 
 
 the town of Literature is a inere hamlet compared with the 
 
 world of Thy knowledge. 
 Human knowledge and thought combined can only spell the first 
 
 letter of the alphabet of Thy love. 
 Each brain is full of the thought of grasping Thee ; the brow of 
 
 Plato even burned with the fever heat of this hopeless thought. 
 
 Oh man, thou coin bearing the double stamp of body and spirit, I 
 
 do not know what thy nature is ; for thou art higher than 
 
 heaven and lower than earth. 
 Thy frame contains the image of the heavenly and the lower regions ; 
 
 be either heavenly or earthly, thou art at liberty to choose. 
 Do not act against thy reason, for it is a trustworthy coutisellor ; 
 
 put not thy heart on illusiojis, for the heart is a lying fool. 
 Be ashamed of thy appearance ; for thou pridest thyself on the 
 
 title of " sum-total," and art yet but a margifial note. 
 If thou wishest to understand the secret meaning of the phrase "to 
 
 prefer the welfare of others to thy own,^' treat thyself with poison 
 
 and others with supar. 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 175 
 
 My dear Son, consider hoxo short the time is that the star of good 
 fortune revolves according to thy wish ; Fate shozes no friend- 
 ship. 
 
 The companion of my loneliness is my conprehensive genius j the 
 
 scratching of my pen is harmony for my ear. 
 If I were to bring forth what is in my mind, I wonder whether 
 
 the spirit of the age could bear it. 
 
 The following couplets are from the 
 
 Ghazals : 
 
 It were better if I melted my heart, and laid the foundation for a 
 new one ; I have too of ten patie^itly patched up my torn heart. 
 
 Although life far from thee is an approach to death, yet to stand at 
 a distance is a mark of courtesy. 
 
 I cannot show tmgratefulness to love. Has he not overzvhelmed me 
 with — sadness and sadness? 
 
 I cannot understand the juggler-trick which love performed ; it 
 introduced Thy form through so sinall an aperture as the pupil 
 of my eye, into the large space of ?ny heart, and yet my heart 
 cannot contain it. 
 
 The most wonderful thing I have seen is Faizi's heart j it is at 
 once the pearl, the ocean, and the diver. 
 
 This verse from the Rtibais goes very far 
 in flattery of the emperor : 
 
176 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 If you ivish to see the path of guidance as I have done, you will 
 
 never see it without having seen the king. 
 Thy old-fashioned prostration is of no advantage to thee — see 
 
 Akbar and you see God. 
 
 Akbar had been, in all outward respects at 
 least, a good Muslim up to the year 1574, 
 making pilgrimages to the tombs of saints, 
 etc.* Unquestionably his mind had been 
 revolving religious doubts for some time 
 previous. The influence of Abul-fazl seems 
 to have confirmed Akbar's disposition, and to 
 have stimulated definite inquiry. 
 
 Shah Nawaz Khan (born 1699), a standard 
 authority, says of him that "It has often 
 been asserted that Abul-fazl was an infidel ; 
 it is more just to say that he was a pan- 
 theist. There is no doubt that he was a 
 man of lofty character, and desired to live 
 at peace with all men." He was magnani- 
 mous to his enemies ; he was pure in his 
 mind ; he was incorruptibly honest in the 
 public service. Abul-fazl was an elegant 
 writer. " His pen was more feared than 
 
 * In the twelfth year of his reign he destroyed or mutilated 
 the fine monuments of Chitor, partly for political reasons, no 
 doubt ; but partly, also, for religious ones. 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 177 
 
 Akbar's arrow." He was an excellent ad- 
 ministrator, a loyal and devoted subject, a 
 liberal patron, a considerate friend. A large 
 share of the glory of Akbar's reign is directly 
 due to him. Such a king deserved such a 
 wazir. 
 
 Bedauni (one of the emperor's histori- 
 ans, and a man of learning) says of Abul-fazl, 
 that Akbar " looked upon him more favor- 
 ably than he did upon me ; " that Abul-fazl 
 " ingratiated himself by his unremitting 
 devotion to the king's service, by his tem- 
 porizing disposition, by his duplicity, by his 
 study of the king's sentiments, and by his 
 boundless flattery." Abul-fazl's flattery was 
 boundless at times, but not more so than the 
 habit of the age demanded. He was never 
 silly about it, like the courtier who told Le 
 Roi-Soleil that the rain at Marly was not wet. 
 Abul-fazl's fortunes (deservedly) rose till he 
 became wazir. " But poor I," says Bedauni, 
 " from my inexperience and simplicity, could 
 not manage to advance myself." " I do not 
 like my position, and should be glad to be in 
 any other." He himself was much to blame 
 
I 78 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 for his ill-fortune, as he made enemies right 
 and left, and was so foolish as to be absent 
 from his duties for a long time without a 
 leave. The king did not like him (though 
 his learning was doubtless appreciated), and 
 on one occasion spoke harshly to him at 
 court. " From that day," Bedauni says, " I 
 have abandoned my presumptuous and con- 
 troversial manner." Both Abul-fazl and his 
 distinguished brother Faizi were constantly 
 kind to Bedauni for a space of forty years. 
 He was never tired of reviling them, partly, 
 no doubt, from sheer envy of their success. 
 It is only fair to say, however, that he was a 
 truly devout Muhammadan, and that his 
 religious beliefs were daily outraged by the 
 doings and sayings of these free-thinking 
 heretics. 
 
 Poor Bedauni was set (much against his 
 will) to translate the Maha-Bharata for the 
 emperor's library. What a task for a true 
 believer! "The consequence was, that I 
 translated two sections, at the puerile ab- 
 surdities of which the creation may well 
 be amazed. Such injunctions as one never 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 179 
 
 heard of ! What not to eat, and a prohibition 
 against turnips ! " " But such is my fate — to 
 be employed on such works ! " " Abul-fazl 
 wrote the preface. Allah defend us from 
 his infidelities and absurdities!" Bedauni 
 also translated the Ramayana, spending four 
 years in the task. He seems to have been 
 better pleased with this work, for, when he 
 presented the complete book, " it was greatly 
 praised." We learn that a Jesuit from Goa 
 translated many Greek treatises for the 
 emperor's library. 
 
 The Ain-i-Akbari of Abul-fazl presents 
 the history of Akbar's change of religious 
 opinions from the view-point of one who was 
 himself high-priest of the new religion. The 
 wazir of Akbar puts the most favorable con- 
 struction upon every circumstance. 
 
 The native historians also contain many 
 references to the establishment of the Divine 
 Faith, and the more important extracts shall 
 be copied here. Professor Blochmann's 
 edition of Abul-fazl's work devotes a long 
 note of fifty pages to a history of Akbar's 
 religious views. It is very largely composed 
 
i8o The Mogul Emperors 
 
 of extracts from Bedauni ; and these extracts 
 are carefully arranged in chronological order. 
 Bedauni was certainly a prejudiced witness 
 and a disappointed courtier; but he was, no 
 less certainly, a man of intelligence, learning, 
 and courage. Allowance should be made for 
 his bias ; but his testimony deserves the most 
 careful attention. I shall extract from Pro- 
 fessor Blochmann's translation of Bedauni 
 the most significant paragraphs, in order to 
 present both sides of a most important ques- 
 tion. Akbar is too great a man to need any 
 praise that is not his just due. 
 
 " It was during these days (a.d. 1574) that 
 Abul-fazl came the second time to court. 
 He laid before the emperor (as a present) 
 a commentary on (one of the verses of the 
 Kuran) ; and, though people said that it had 
 been written by his father, Abul-fazl was 
 much praised." 
 
 Bedauni now gives an account of the per- 
 secutions to which Abul-fazl and his two sons 
 had been subjected in the early years of 
 Akbar's reign. They were not orthodox 
 Sunnis, and they had been obliged to fly for 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 
 
 i«i 
 
 their lives and to keep in hiding for safety. 
 Faizi had been called to court as a poet, and 
 had been received graciously on that account, 
 as has been said. His influence over Akbar 
 grew rapidly and surely ; and soon his father 
 and his younger brother were high in Akbar's 
 favor through their own merits and on his 
 introduction. They did not persecute their 
 early enemies. 
 
 "During the year 1575 many places of 
 worship were built by command of his maj- 
 esty. The cause was this. For many years 
 previously the emperor had gained remark- 
 able and decisive victories. The empire had 
 grown in extent from day to day ; everything 
 had turned out well. His majesty had thus 
 leisure . . . and passed much of his 
 time in discussing the Kuran and the Tradi- 
 tions. Sufism, scientific discussions, inquiries 
 into philosophy and law, were the order of 
 the day. His majesty passed whole nights 
 in thoughts of God ; his heart was full of 
 reverence for Him who is the true Giver. 
 From a feeling of thankfulness for his past 
 successes, he would sit many a morning alone. 
 
1 82 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 in prayer and melancholy, on a large flat 
 stone which lay near the palace, in a lonely 
 spot, with his head bent over his chest, 
 gathering the bliss of early hours." 
 
 " The emperor had, from his youth, taken 
 delight in the society of learned men. He 
 always treated them with respect and honor. 
 He listened to their discussions of nice points 
 of science, of the ancient and modern history 
 of religions and peoples and sects, and he 
 profited by what he heard." He built a 
 special palace for such assemblies in the 
 twentieth year of his reign (when he was 
 thirty-three years old), and spent many 
 nights there in their company. The palace 
 had four halls. In the western, the descend- 
 ants of the Prophet sat ; in the southern, 
 sat the learned and the wise ; in the north- 
 ern, the Shaikhs and " men-of-ecstasy ; " in the 
 eastern, the nobles of the court who were in 
 sympathy with learning. When his majesty 
 was too fatigued with business to attend these 
 meetings, he sent one of his nobles in his 
 place, choosing a man " in whose kindness 
 and gentleness he had confidence." 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 183 
 
 Some idea of the constitution of Akbar's 
 court, and of the wise men who assembled 
 in these congresses, can be obtained from the 
 biographies given at the end of Bedauni's 
 history, which relate to thirty-eight Shaikhs 
 and holy men, sixty-nine "learned men," fif- 
 teen physicians, and no less than one hundred 
 and fifty-three poets. The names of three 
 monks who lived at court have come down 
 to us — Rudolpho Aquaviva, Antonio de Mon- 
 serrato, Francisco Enriques. These meetings 
 for discussion were held every Thursday 
 night. They were fully attended, and they 
 were often very far from orderly. " The 
 Chief Justice, in the meeting-hall, called 
 Hadji Ibrahim an accursed wretch, and lifted 
 up his stick to strike him." 
 
 Muhammad predicted that Islam would be 
 divided into seventy-two heretical sects ; and 
 there were representatives of enough hostile 
 parties in these meetings to bring their dis- 
 cussions to violent terminations. Akbar 
 became frankly disgusted with what he saw 
 and heard in his meeting-hall Abul-fazl, his 
 father, and his brother, did not fail to point 
 
184 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 out the scandal of it to the emperor, though, 
 at first, it appears they did not join freely in 
 the disputes. 
 
 Akbar's disgust was the first stage in his 
 perversion from Islam. He soon went farther. 
 On one occasion he commanded the presence 
 of a high doctor of the law, " as he wished 
 to annoy him." Abul-fazl and some others 
 newly come to court were set on by the 
 emperor to oppose him. " His majesty took 
 every occasion to interrupt." According to 
 an order previously given by Akbar, some 
 of those present began to tell scandalous 
 stories of the invited guest, and to badger 
 him in many offensive ways. The doctor 
 was disgraced, and odium was thrown on the 
 cause which he represented. At a later meet- 
 ing, Akbar, who had as many wives as Solo- 
 mon,* set a trap for the Muslim doctors of 
 the law by asking how many free-born wives 
 he could lawfully maintain. There is no doubt 
 that the maximum number for a good Muslim 
 is four. Muslim practice has always winked 
 
 * The names of eleven wives are given by Blochmann. Tiiere 
 were five thousand women in the harem, including servants. 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 185 
 
 at an unlimited number of wives for kings ; 
 but Akbar put the question as a matter of 
 Muslim theory. If he could have but four 
 wives, what, then, was the legal status of the 
 many free-born and high-born Rajput prin- 
 cesses in his harem ? Were they concubines ? 
 Dare the Muhammadan doctors insult the 
 emperor's wives ? The trap was not a fair 
 one. The Muslim doctor who was the victim 
 on that occasion, closed his part of the dis- 
 cussion with a very sensible remark, when he 
 saw that the case was hopeless. " Very well," 
 said he, " I have nothing more to add ; just 
 as his majesty pleases." A complaisant Cazi 
 was found who, then and there, gave a decree 
 that such marriages were legal. " The veteran 
 lawyers made very long faces at these pro- 
 ceedings," as well they might. The most 
 uncompromising of the religious orthodox 
 were now banished ; new heretics came to 
 court and were received into favor, and new 
 heresies sprung up. " His majesty had the 
 early history of Islam read to him, and soon 
 commenced to think less well " of everything 
 concerned with it. " Soon after, the observ- 
 
1 86 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 ance of the five prayers and fasts, and the 
 belief in everything connected with the 
 Prophet, were put down as religious blind- 
 ness, and man's reason was acknowledged 
 as the basis of all religion. Portuguese 
 priests also came frequently, and his 
 majesty inquired into the articles of their 
 belief, which are based on reason." 
 
 In the year 1576 Bedauni again chronicles 
 the arrival of new heretics. The Thursday 
 evening discussions still continued, and be- 
 came more and more violent. The funda- 
 mental truths of Islam were now called in 
 question. 
 
 In 1578 Bedauni writes: "His majesty, 
 till now, had shown every sincerity, and 
 was diligently searching for truth. But his 
 education had been much neglected ; and, 
 surrounded as he was by men of low and 
 heretic principles, he had been forced to 
 doubt the truth of Islam. Falling from one 
 perplexity into the other, he lost sight of 
 his real object, the search for truth ; and 
 when the strong embankment of our clear 
 law and our excellent faith had once been 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 187 
 
 broken through, his majesty grew colder 
 and colder, till, after the short space of five 
 or six years, not a trace of Muhammadan 
 feeling was left in his heart. Matters then 
 became very different." 
 
 In 1595 Bedauni says matters had come 
 to such a pass that a request to make the 
 pilgrimage to Mecca would have subjected 
 the asker to capital punishment. 
 
 " A faith based on some elementary prin- 
 ciples traced itself (gradually) on the mirror 
 of his heart, and there grew the conviction 
 that there were sensible men in all religions 
 (and in all ages). If some true knowledge 
 was thus everywhere to be found, why should 
 truth be confined to one religion ; or to 
 a creed like Islam, which was scarcely a 
 thousand years old ? " 
 
 " The doctrine of the transmigration of 
 souls, especially, took deep root in his heart." 
 Flatterers told the emperor that "the per- 
 fect man " referred to the ruler of the age, 
 and that the nature of a king was holy. " In 
 this way many agreeable things were said 
 to the emperor." " Learned monks brought 
 
1 88 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 the gospel. His majesty firmly believed in 
 the truth of the Christian religion, and 
 ordered Prince Murad (then eight years 
 old) to take a few lessons in Christianity." 
 "■ These accursed monks applied the descrip- 
 tion of a cursed Satan to Muhammad, the 
 best of all prophets — God's blessings rest 
 on him and his whole house — a thing which 
 even devils would not do." The Brahmin 
 Rajah Bir Bal " impressed upon the em- 
 peror that the sun was the origin of every- 
 thing. The emperor learned, from some 
 Hindus, formularies to reduce the influence 
 of the sun to his subjection, and read them 
 morning and evening as a religious exercise." 
 The sun was venerated as the chief light 
 and benefactor of the world, and as a friend 
 to kings, who used it to mark periods and 
 eras. 
 
 Akbar next prohibited the slaughter of 
 cows, for two reasons ; first, " because the 
 Hindus devoutly worship them," and, sec- 
 ond, " because physicians represent their 
 flesh as difificult of digestion and productive 
 of illness " (as it very likely is in the hot 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 189 
 
 climate of India). Akbar was eminently 
 practical in his religious enactments, while 
 he was at the same time devout. "Although 
 he had full trust and hope of heavenly 
 assistance, he neglected no material means 
 of success," says one of his officials. 
 
 Fire-worshippers also came to the court 
 and taught their religion, and the sacred 
 fire (lighted with a lens at the vernal equi- 
 nox) was committed to the care of Abul- 
 fazl. " Fire is one of the signs of God," said 
 the emperor, " and one light from among 
 the many lights of his creation." " In the 
 twenty-fifth year of his reign he prostrated 
 himself before the sun In public ; and in the 
 evening the whole court had to rise up 
 respectfully when the lamps were lighted." 
 " These sentiments had been long growing 
 in the emperor's mind, and ripened gradu- 
 ally to a firm conviction." 
 
 ''In the year 1579 his majesty was anx- 
 ious to unite in his person the powers of the 
 state and those of the church, for he could 
 not bear to be subordinate to any one." He 
 made an attempt to read the public prayers 
 
iQO The Mogul Emperors 
 
 in the mosque, ending with some verses of 
 Faizi's : 
 
 The Lord has given me the empire, 
 
 And a wise heart, and a strong arm. 
 
 He has guided me in righteousness aiid justice, 
 
 And has removed fror?i my thoughts everything but justice. 
 
 His praise surpasses mail's understanding. 
 
 Great is his power, Allahu Akbar! 
 
 Fear or the hope of promotion continu- 
 ally brought new converts to Akbar's views. 
 
 In the year 1579 Akbar issued a procla- 
 mation which declared his judgments to be 
 of higher validity than those of the religious 
 doctors, and which virtually pronounced him 
 to be infallible.* If there were a variance 
 of opinion upon questions of religion, the 
 decree of the king was to be final and bind- 
 ing. " Further, if his majesty, in his unerr- 
 ing judgment, should issue an order which 
 is not in opposition to the Kuran, and which 
 is for the benefit of the nation, it shall be 
 
 * He had previously obtained the sanction of the doctors of the 
 law, for form's sake. The document which they (reluctantly) 
 signed made the emperor the spiritual as well as the temporal chief 
 of the nation. " The intellect of the just king" took the place of 
 the Kuran as the basis of the law. 
 
Shah Akbar the G^-eat 191 
 
 binding and imperative on every man ; oppo- 
 sition to it shall involve damnation in the 
 world to come, and loss of religion and prop- 
 erty in this life." 
 
 ** His majesty had now determined to use 
 the formula : ' There is no God beside God, 
 and Akbar is God's representative ; ' but as 
 he found that the extravagance of this led 
 to contentions, he restricted the use of it to 
 a few people in the harem." 
 
 In this same eventful year the emperor 
 " distinctly denied the existence of jznns, of 
 angels, and of all other beings of the invisi- 
 ble world, as well as the miracles of the 
 prophets and the saints ; he rejected the testi- 
 mony of the witnesses of our faith, the proofs 
 of the Kuran, the existence of the soul after 
 death and future rewards and punishments 
 so far as they differed from metempsychosis." 
 Later on, his partisans strenuously insisted 
 on the miracles performed by Akbar ; but 
 they were feeble matters at the best — he 
 spoke at his birth, was one — and carried no 
 conviction. 
 
 The long beard was worn by all good 
 
192 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 Muslims, but Akbar ordered the officers 
 of his court to appear with shaven faces. 
 This was in the year 1592, when he was fifty 
 years old.* 
 
 Akbar became more and more ready to 
 claim the dignity of a prophet, or even divine 
 honors, says Bedauni. He also became in- 
 tolerant of opposition, and deported good 
 (and stubborn) Muslims as slaves, exchanging 
 them for Turkish horses. " His majesty 
 was now (1582) convinced that the millen- 
 nium was drawing near." f The coinage was 
 changed to show the era of the millennium ; 
 a history of the past thousand years was 
 written ; it was ordered that prostrations 
 should be made before the king. Wine 
 
 * I have, however, a beautiful portrait of him, in which he wears 
 a white beard, parted and brushed sidewise in the Hindu fashion. 
 It must have been painted late in his life. The face is nervous, 
 almost querulous in expression, fine to the verge of anxiousness. 
 In middle life his face was strong and somewhat coarse. Portraits, 
 taken in his last years, represent him with a long white moustache 
 and a full beard closely clipped. A medal struck after his death 
 represents him without a beard. I have never been fortunate 
 enough to see a picture of Akbar in his youth. 
 
 f We may recall that Europe in A.D. looo was subject to like 
 delusions. 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 193 
 
 shops were licensed in Agra. Pigs and dogs 
 were no longrer looked on as unclean. A 
 splendid tomb was even built for one of 
 Akbar's hounds. Certain of the ceremonial 
 ablutions were abrogated. It was forbidden 
 to marry a cousin. The prayers of Islam 
 and the pilgrimage were prohibited. The 
 era of the Hegira was abolished. A new 
 Persian solar year was introduced. The 
 feasts of the Zoroastrians were revived. The 
 Jesuits of Agra and Lahore exhibited repre- 
 sentations of the birth of Christ in wax. 'Tn 
 the same way every doctrine of Islam was 
 doubted and ridiculed." " The good were 
 in fear, and the wicked were secure." " His 
 majesty saw in the defeat of one party a 
 proof of his own infallibility." One of the 
 Muslim Mullas wrote, in derision : 
 
 This year the emperor has claimed prophetship. 
 Next year, if God wills, he will be God. 
 
 Everything did not go smoothly with 
 
 Akbar, however. Many of the best men 
 
 held aloof. Rajah Bhagwan said to the 
 
 emperor : " Only tell us where the new sect 
 13 
 
194 '^^^^ Mogul Emperors 
 
 is, so that I may believe." Rajah Man 
 Singh declared that Islam he knew, and 
 Hinduism he knew, but besides these he 
 knew no other religion. One of the court- 
 iers had made his fortune by proposing to 
 introduce the custom of prostration before 
 the king. Another, with an eye to profit, 
 exclaimed, " Oh that I had been the inventor 
 of this little business ! " A devout Muslim 
 courtier used to say his prayers in the audi- 
 ence chamber. When Akbar asked him to 
 say them at home, he replied : " My king, 
 this is not your kingdom, that you should 
 give orders." Whereupon Akbar called him 
 a fool, and cancelled his grant of land. 
 
 In 1583 new orders of various kinds were 
 made to " please the Hindus." Akbar wore 
 the Hindu mark on his forehead, and the 
 Brahminic thread. " His majesty learned 
 alchemy, and showed in public some of the 
 gold made by him." " Cheating Brahmins 
 collected a set of a thousand and one San- 
 scrit names of his majesty the Sun, and 
 told the emperor that he was an incarnation 
 like Ram and others. They also brought 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 195 
 
 Sanscrit verses, said to have been taken 
 from the sayings of ancient sages, In which 
 It was predicted that a great conqueror 
 should rise up In India who would honor 
 Brahmins and cows, and govern the world 
 with justice. They wrote this nonsense on 
 old-looking paper and showed It to the 
 emperor, who believed every word of It." 
 
 Bedauni carries the history farther, with 
 new details, but In what has gone before 
 he has said his say ; the side of the good 
 Muslim has been presented well and vigor- 
 ously. Professor Blochmann sums up the 
 evidence In a few words, saying that It 
 shows how " Akbar, starting from the Idea 
 of the divine right of kings, gradually came 
 to look upon himself as the (high priest) 
 of the age, then as the prophet of God and 
 God's vicegerent on earth, and lastly as a 
 deity." 
 
 We have an account of the king's change 
 of religious opinions, from Shaikh Nuru-1- 
 Hakh. "One of the strange incidents of 
 this year (1578) was the king's abandon- 
 ment of the national religion, which became 
 
196 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 a stumbling-block to many people weak in 
 the faith." The king was constantly in at- 
 tendance at the assemblies for religious dis- 
 cussion, "for his mind was solely bent on 
 ascertaining the truth." " The common 
 people learning, day after day, something 
 of the nature of the subjects discussed in 
 these assemblies, entertained suspicions of 
 the king's motives, which were derogatory 
 to his character and but little deserved." 
 They, in fact, feared that Akbar would 
 assume divine honors, as he subsequently 
 did, so far as was politic, or even possible. 
 
 Abul-fazl's account of the discussion of 
 the wise men is interesting. He says : 
 " Sufis, doctors, preachers, lawyers, Sunnis, 
 Shias, Brahmans, Buddhists, Christians, Jews, 
 Zoroastrians, and learned men of every belief 
 were gathered together in the royal assem- 
 bly. Each one fearlessly brought forward 
 his assertions, and the contentions were long 
 and heated." A Jesuit from Goa refuted all 
 comers, and offered, " with perfect calmness 
 and earnest conviction," to undergo the 
 ordeal of the fiery furnace with the Bible 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 197 
 
 in his hands, against the Muhammedan doc- 
 tors with the Kuran. The challenge was 
 refused with angry words. The emperor 
 also made experiments in natural religion. 
 " It was ordered that some twenty suckling 
 infants should be kept in a secluded place 
 where they should not hear a word spoken, 
 so as to test the accuracy of the tradition 
 which says, ' Every one is born with an 
 inclination to religion.' " This experiment 
 was to see what creed they would incline to. 
 It came to naught, for ''after three or four 
 years the children all came out dumb." The 
 experiment may have been suggested by 
 Herodotus' account of a similar experience, 
 which led to equally unsatisfactory conclu- 
 sions. 
 
 The following judgment, written by Mr. 
 Sherar, C.S.I., presents a view of Akbar's 
 religious experiments which it is worth while 
 to quote. It is not the received view of 
 Akbar's character, and it certainly is not a 
 complete account. On the other hand, there 
 is a shade of truth in it, at the very least. 
 It should be weighed along with the rest. 
 
1 98 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 Mr. Sherar says : "Akbarwas more amused 
 at new doctrines, new theories, new objects 
 of veneration, than burdened with the diffi- 
 culties which surrounded the acceptance of 
 them. And there surely is no parallel be- 
 tween a grave and powerful mind bowed 
 down, everlastingly, with the stern dilemmas 
 of that great enigma, whence and whither ? 
 and the superficial curiosity of an intellect 
 that was too restless to bind itself perma- 
 nently to any particular code of opin- 
 ions." 
 
 For my own part, I have found no brief 
 judgment of Akbar's faith so entirely satis- 
 factory as that of Elphinstone, who says: " It 
 is to his internal policy that Akbar owes his 
 place in that highest order of princes, whose 
 reigns have been a blessing to mankind ; and 
 that policy shows itself in different shapes, 
 as it affects religious or civil government. 
 Akbar's tolerant spirit was displayed early in 
 his reign, and appears to have been entirely 
 independent of any doubts of the divine 
 origin of the Muhammadan faith. It led 
 him, however, to listen, without prejudice, 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 199 
 
 to the doctrines of other reHgions, and 
 involved him in enmity with the bigoted 
 members of his own, and must thus have 
 contributed to shake his early belief, and to 
 dispose him to question the infallible author- 
 ity of the Kuran. The political advantages 
 of a new religion, which should take in all 
 classes of his subjects, could not fail, more- 
 over, to occur to him. In the first part of 
 his reign he was assiduous in visiting sacred 
 places, and in attendance on holy men ; even 
 in the twenty-first year of his reign he 
 spoke seriously of performing the pilgrimage 
 to Mecca. . . . The religion of Akbar 
 seems to have been pure Deism, in addi- 
 tion to which some ceremonies were per- 
 mitted in consideration of human infirmity. 
 It maintained that we ought to reverence 
 God according to the knowledge of him 
 derived from our own reason, by which his 
 unity and benevolence are sufficiently estab- 
 lished ; that we ought to serve him and to 
 seek for our future happiness by subduing 
 our bad passions and practising such vir- 
 tues as are beneficial to mankind; but that 
 
200 The Mogul E'lnperors 
 
 we should not adopt a creed on the authority 
 of any man, as all were liable to vice and 
 error like ourselves. If it were absolutely 
 necessary for men to have some visible 
 object of adoration, by means of which they 
 might raise their souls to the Divinity, Akbar 
 recommended that the sun, the planets, or 
 fire should be the symbols. He had no 
 priests, no public worship, and no restrictions 
 about food, except a recommendation of 
 abstinence, as tending to exalt the mind. 
 His only observances were salutations to the 
 sun, prayers at midnight and daybreak, and 
 meditations at noon on the sun. . . . But 
 as P\}^2ir practised ^iSi his ceremonies, as well 
 as permitted them, it may be doubted whether 
 they had not gained some hold on his imagi- 
 nation. He seems to have been by nature 
 devout, and, with all his scepticism, to have 
 inclined even to superstitions that promised 
 him a closer connection with the Deity." It 
 is necessary to pause for a moment and to 
 remark that, while these judgments are emi- 
 nently true, we are trying this ruler of the 
 sixteenth century by the standards of our 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 201 
 
 own day. It is wonderful how the test is 
 met. 
 
 "In these days (a.d. 1575-76), his maj- 
 esty asked how it would be if he engraved 
 the words Allahtc-Akbar (which means God 
 is great, but which can be made to mean 
 Akbar is God^ upon the imperial coins," 
 The ambiguity was pointed out to him, and 
 he was displeased, saying that " it was self- 
 evident that no creature, in the depths of his 
 impotence, could advance any claim to divin- 
 ity." The words were, however, finally so 
 engraved. 
 
 Of Akbar's revenue arrangements we have 
 this account by Bedauni (who was a malcon- 
 tent) : " Regulations were circulated, but 
 eventually these were not observed as they 
 ouofht to have been." He admits the excel- 
 lence of the regulations themselves, but gives 
 instances where the peasants' lands were laid 
 waste, and their wives and children sold 
 through the rapacity of the officials. But 
 "many of the officials were brought to 
 account" and punished; even tortured. In 
 spite of this, the fate of the husbandman and 
 
202 The Mogtd Emperors 
 
 of the soldier was hard ; " but for all this, 
 the emperor's good fortune was so great 
 and flourishing, that his enemies were every- 
 where annihilated, and soldiers were not so 
 much wanted," One of the Sivalte poets of 
 Bengal (quoted by Sir W. W. Hunter) in 
 the sixteenth century, gives a life-like picture 
 of the oppressions of Muhammadan officers 
 in the remoter districts of the empire. " All 
 classes," he says, " were crushed with an equal 
 tyranny ; fallow lands were entered as arable ; 
 and, by a false measurement, three-fourths 
 of a bigha were taxed as a full bigha. The 
 treasury officers deducted more than one 
 rupee in seven, short weight and exchange. 
 The husbandmen fled from their lands and 
 threw their cattle and goods into the mar- 
 kets, so that ' a rupee's worth of things sold 
 for ten annas.'" 
 
 In another native authority we read : " At 
 this place some of the emperor's officers 
 were directed to protect the cultivated land 
 in the vicinity of the camp; and, besides this, 
 trustworthy men were directed to carefully 
 examine the land after the army had passed, 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 203 
 
 and to assess the damage done. This prac- 
 tice became a rule in all his campaigns." '^" It 
 is plain that the effort of the emperor was 
 to do justice. It is certain that the older 
 provinces of the kingdom were well and 
 mildly governed. It is beyond a doubt that 
 frequent instances of misrule and oppression 
 occurred everywhere, especially in the newly 
 conquered districts. It was obviously neces- 
 sary for Akbar to be tolerant in religious 
 matters for the sake of political stability. 
 How much of his even-handed justice and 
 mild benevolence sprang from the same 
 necessity, it is not possible to say. But leav- 
 ing to one side all questions as to interior 
 motives, the writings of the native historians 
 show that the emperor's reign was marked 
 by the most consummate political skill. His 
 personal character is far less engaging and 
 distingruished than that of his g^randfather 
 Babar ; he did not leave so many magnifi- 
 cent buildings as Shah Jahan ; but he con- 
 
 * The troops of the Fronde (1652) regularly pillaged the quarters 
 of Paris which they chanced to hold, precisely as if they had been 
 in the heart of an enemy's country. 
 
204 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 solidated a great state by wise, just, and 
 even generous laws, and left a homogeneous 
 empire behind him. We are used to repre- 
 sent to ourselves the kingdom of the Great 
 Mogul as a barbaric state, ruled by a semi- 
 fabulous monster of bloodthirsty disposition. 
 A more careful inspection shows us an 
 empire which will bear close comparison 
 with the states of Europe at the same epoch. 
 The blood of Timur had been thinned so 
 that it ran calmly in the veins of a great 
 statesman and a good king, and the lust of 
 mere conquest was replaced by a sincere 
 desire for "the happiness and prosperity of 
 the husbandman." 
 
 The character of the Mogul Invaders of 
 India In Timur's day is indicated in the first 
 chapter of this book.' Their acts portray 
 them. The history of Babar, six generations 
 later, sufficiently displays the high ideals of 
 culture which were held by the chief men 
 of his time. Music, oratory, poetry, were cul- 
 tivated even by sanguinary military leaders. 
 They maintained at their courts, painters, 
 architects, musicians, astronomers. The 
 
Shah Akbar the Great 205 
 
 doctors of the religious law were learned in 
 the fashion of the time, speculative and 
 eloquent. Arabian Ideals of military chiv- 
 alry prevailed, or had begun to prevail. 
 Akbar opened the road of promotion to 
 all the nations of Western Asia. Persians, 
 Afghans, Turkis, Hindus, were welcome at 
 his court, and all were on equal terms. In 
 intellectual matters this intermixture of races 
 and religions showed itself in great freedom 
 and liberality In ideals of culture. Every 
 famous book from the Shah-Nameh to the 
 Mahabharata was in Akbar's library. In 
 religious questions a revolution was accom- 
 plished. The standards of military chivalry, 
 which had been based on Turki and Arab 
 models, were modified by the customs of the 
 splendid Rajput soldiers. 
 
 These processes went on during the reigns 
 of Jahangir and of Shah Jahan. It was not 
 until the reign of Aurangzeb that they re- 
 ceived a check. We must figure to ourselves 
 the period between Akbar and Aurangzeb as 
 one of remarkable freedom. I suppose the 
 peasants' condition was not especially differ- 
 
2o6 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 ent from what it now is. But the host of 
 officials, great and small, military and civil, 
 were free to do or to think as they liked, 
 provided, only, that they performed their 
 duties fairly well, paid their regular tribute 
 to the king, and did not meddle with plots 
 against their rulers. No one interfered with 
 their doings, and no one troubled himself 
 about the opinions of his neighbors. There 
 was no '' non-conformist conscience," and no 
 Inquisition to be taken account of by any 
 man. When Aurangzeb came to the throne, 
 this happy state of things was changed, and 
 the rigid law of Islam became the rule of 
 conduct, as we shall see ; but India was 
 under liberal rule during the years 1556- 
 1658. 
 
Jahangir, Emperor of Hindustan 207 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 JAHANGIR, EMPEROR OF HINDUSTAN (a.D. 
 1605-1627) 
 
 A Contribution towards a Natural History 
 of Tyrants 
 
 But if CcEsar, the emperor, should adopt you, ito one could 
 endure your arrogance. — Epictetus. 
 
 The most interesting authority on the 
 reign and character of this prince is the 
 Diary of Sir Thomas Roe, EngHsh Envoy 
 to his court from James the First. The 
 narrative has real literary merits, and is 
 inspired by a sound good sense. The con- 
 trast of the characters of the emperor and 
 the envoy, who esteemed each other, is most 
 marked and most interesting. Sir Thomas's 
 fournal commences as follows ; his very 
 words are given when it is practicable : 
 
 "March the i6th (161 5) we lost sight of 
 the Lizard ; the 26th we saw the coast 
 
2o8 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 of Barbary ; April the 14th we cut the Hne ; 
 and on the 5th of June came to anchor in the 
 bay of Saldanha, next the Cape of Good 
 Hope." From thence the voyage continued 
 till, on the 26th of September, Sir Thomas 
 landed at Surat, where the British East 
 India Company had its factory. Here he 
 "continued till the 30th of October, suffering 
 much from the (native) governor, who, by 
 force, searched many chests and took out 
 what he thought fit." On this day the envoy 
 departed on his land journey to the capital 
 of the Great Mogul. His mission was to 
 conclude a treaty of commerce, and to col- 
 lect outstanding debts due to English mer- 
 chants. How important the commerce of 
 England with India was becoming, may be 
 read in Mill's history. The profits were 
 immense. Eight voyages in the years 1603- 
 16 1 3 yielded an average of 171 per cent.* 
 By the 14th of November Sir Thomas had 
 reached Brampore, which he guessed to be 
 two hundred and twenty-three miles beyond 
 
 * Tavernier says that the profits of the Portuguese were 500 or 
 even 1000 per cent. 
 
Jahangir, Emperor of Hindustan 209 
 
 Surat. Here he was met by an officer of 
 
 the king, who conducted him to his lodgings 
 
 in the town, which were " four chambers like 
 
 ovens, and no bigger, made of brick in the 
 
 side of a wall, so that I lay in my tent ; the 
 
 officer making his excuse that it was the best 
 
 lodging in the town, as I found it was." 
 
 " I was conducted to visit the prince (Par- 
 
 wiz, a son of the emperor), in whose outward 
 
 court I found about a hundred gentlemen on 
 
 horseback. He sat high in a gallery that 
 
 went around. An officer told me that as I 
 
 approached I must touch the ground with 
 
 m.y head, which I refused, and went on to a 
 
 place right under him, railed in, where I 
 
 made him reverence, and he bowed his body; 
 
 so I went within, where were all the great 
 
 men of the town, with their hands before 
 
 them like slaves. The place was covered 
 
 overhead with a rich canopy, and under foot 
 
 all with carpets. It was like a great stage, 
 
 and the prince sat at the upper end of it. 
 
 Having no place assigned me, I stood right 
 
 before him, he refusing to admit me to come 
 
 up the steps or to allow me a chair. Having 
 14 
 
2IO The Mogul Einperors 
 
 received my presents, he offered to go into 
 another room where I should be allowed to 
 sit ; but, by the way, he made himself drunk 
 out of a case of bottles I gave him, and so 
 the visit ended." This was our envoy's first 
 struggle with Indian etiquette, and here, as 
 always after, he stood up mightily for the 
 dignity of an ambassador of the King of 
 England. The termination of the ceremony 
 was not unusual either for prince or empe- 
 ror. From his meeting with the prince. Sir 
 Thomas proceeded on his journey, passing 
 through the country of the Rajah Rama, 
 "who is lineally descended from Porus, that 
 warlike Indian monarch overcome by Alex- 
 ander the Great." 
 
 On January lo, 1616, he had arrived at 
 the court of Jahangir, and presented himself 
 at the durbar (audience) at four in the after- 
 noon. Here " the Mogul sits daily to enter- 
 tain strangers, receive petitions and presents, 
 give out orders, and to see and be seen. 
 And here it will be proper to give some 
 account of his court." 
 
 " None but eunuchs come within the king s 
 
Jahangir, Emperor of Hindustan 211 
 
 private lodgings, and his women, who guard 
 him with wadike weapons. The Mogul 
 every morning shows himself to the common 
 people at a window. At noon he is there 
 again to see elephants and wild beasts fight, 
 the men of rank being under him within a 
 rail. After noon he comes to the durbar 
 aforementioned. After the supper, at eight 
 of the clock, he comes down to the Guzalcan, 
 a fair court, in the midst of which is a throne 
 of freestone, where he sits. Here he dis- 
 courses of indifferent things very affably. 
 No business of state is done anywhere but 
 at one of these places, where it is publicly 
 canvassed, and so registered, which register 
 may be seen for two shillings, and the com- 
 mon people know as much as the council, 
 so that every day the king's resolutions are 
 the public news, and exposed to the censure 
 of every scoundrel." 
 
 " Before my audience I had obtained leave 
 to use the customs of my country. At the 
 durbar I was conducted right before him ; 
 entering the outward rail, two noble slaves 
 met to conduct me nearer. At the first rail 
 
212 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 I made a low reverence, at the next another, 
 and when under the king a third. His 
 reception was very favorable, but does not 
 need particularizing." 
 
 " When I came in I found him sitting 
 cross-legged on a little throne, all clad in 
 diamonds, pearls, and rubies, before him a 
 table of gold, on it about fifty pieces of gold 
 plate, set all with stones, his nobility about 
 him in their best equipages, whom he com- 
 manded to drink, froliquely, several wines 
 standing by in great flagons. So drinking 
 and commanding others, his majesty and all 
 his lords became the finest men I ever saw — 
 of a thousand humours." 
 
 Apparently the business of the envoy did 
 not advance. '' March the first I rid out to 
 see a house of pleasure of the king's, seated 
 between two mighty rocks, and defended 
 from the sun. It is a place of melancholy, 
 delight, and safety." On the nth of March 
 began the festival of the New Year, when 
 great presents of all sorts were offered to 
 the king, which, though not equal to report, 
 were yet incredible enough. On the 12th 
 
Jahangir, Emperor of Hindustan 213 
 
 of March came another audience, and on 
 the 13th another, when "I pressed to have 
 the peace and commerce with England settled 
 after a solemn manner, which the Mogul 
 ordered should be done." It may be noted 
 here that delay in attending to the missions 
 of envoys and in dismissing them was con- 
 sidered a proof of the king's dignity, and 
 that it was many a long day before Sir 
 Thomas had his treaty signed and the debts 
 due the English merchants settled. 
 
 " On the 23d the Mogul condemned one 
 of his own nation on suspicion of felony, and 
 sent him to me in irons, as a slave, to dis- 
 pose of at my will. This is looked upon as 
 a great favor, for which I returned thanks ; 
 adding that in England we had no slaves, 
 nor thought it lawful to make the image of 
 God equal to a beast, but that I would use 
 him as a servant, and if he behaved himself 
 well, give him his liberty. This the Mogul 
 was well pleased with." On this, as on every 
 other occasion, the English envoy conducted 
 himself with sense, and with a simple dignity 
 which evidently impressed the autocrat, who 
 
2 14 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 was never tired of showing him marks of his 
 appreciation. 
 
 One must read the original narrative in 
 all its detail to obtain the full sense of the 
 dramatic contrast between these two men 
 of different countries, whose mutual respect 
 was founded on something deeper than race. 
 
 At one of the durbars, Sir Thomas stood 
 alone in a high place of honor. ** Asaph- 
 Chan (the king's brother-in-law) insisted that 
 I should rank myself among the nobility. 
 I refused at first, but then removed to the 
 other side, where only the prince and young 
 Rama were, which more disgusted Asaph- 
 Chan." A complaint to the king was of no 
 avail, " so I kept my place in quiet." " On 
 the 31st of March, the king dined at Asaph- 
 Chan's house, all the way from the palace 
 to it, which was an English mile, being laid 
 under foot with silks and velvets sewed 
 together, but rolled up as the king passed. 
 They reported that the feast and present 
 cost ;^i 50,000." Little progress was made 
 in the business, as usual. 
 
 " On June i8th, the king commanded one 
 
Jahangir, Emperor of Hindustan 2 1 5 
 
 of his brother's sons, who had been per- 
 suaded to become a Christian, with a design 
 to make him odious to the people (so says 
 Sir Thomas), to lay his hand on the head of 
 a lion that was brought before the king, 
 which he refused out of fear ; upon which 
 the king bid his youngest son go touch the 
 lion, who did so without receiving any hurt. 
 Whereat the king took occasion to send his 
 nephew away to prison, where he is never 
 like to see daylight." * 
 
 In July a gentlewoman of Nur-Mahal's was 
 punished for a breach of decorum. " The 
 poor woman was set up to the armpits in 
 the earth close rammed about her, with her 
 feet tied to a stake, so to continue three days 
 and two nights. If she died not in that time 
 she was to be pardoned." 
 
 " On August the 9th, a hundred thieves 
 were brought chained before the Mogul, with 
 their accusation ; without further ceremony 
 
 * Four of Jahangir's nephews were baptized by the Jesuits by the 
 names of Philippo, Carlo, Henrico, Eduardo ; and the doors of the 
 palace at Lahore bore "the images of the crucifix and of the Blessed 
 Virgin," so says Herbert in his Travels. 
 
2i6 The Mogtil Emperors 
 
 he ordered them to be carried away, the 
 chief of them to be torn in pieces by dogs, 
 the rest put to death. This was all the pro- 
 cess and form," and the sentence was carried 
 out. 
 
 " Seven months were now spent in solicit- 
 ing the signing and sealing of the articles of 
 peace and commerce, and nothing obtained 
 but promises from week to week and from 
 day to day." During October the envoy 
 recites some of the struggles between the 
 king's sons for power at court. The wisest 
 men foresee a civil war upon the king's 
 death. " The whole court is full of whispers ; 
 the nobility are sad ; the multitude, like itself, 
 full of rumor and noise, without head or 
 order, rages, but applies not to any proper 
 means." 
 
 Sir Thomas says : " The history of this 
 country for variety of matter and the many 
 subtle practices in the time of Akbar-Shah, 
 the father of this king, were well worth 
 writing; but because they come from such 
 remote parts, many will despise them ; and 
 by reason these people are esteemed bar- 
 
Jahangir, Emperor of Hindustan 2 1 7 
 
 barous, few will believe them ; and therefore 
 I forbear making them public, though I could 
 deliver as many rare and notable acts of state, 
 subtle evasions, policies, answers and adages, 
 as I believe, for one age, would not easily be 
 equalled." It is a loss not to have had this 
 history from so good an observer. 
 
 About this time came the ambassador of 
 Persia, who was obliged to make the " knock- 
 ing his head against the ground," which Sir 
 Thomas had refused to do, " He brouorht 
 for presents three times nine Arabian and 
 Persian horses, this being a ceremonious 
 number among them ; nine mules very fair 
 and large ; seven camels laden with velvet ; 
 two chests of Persian hangings ; one rich 
 cabinet ; forty muskets ; five clocks ; one 
 camel laden with cloth of gold ; eight carpets 
 of silk ; two rubies ; twenty-one camel loads 
 of wine; fourteen camel loads of distilled 
 sweet waters ; seven of rose water ; seven 
 daggers set with precious stones ; five swords 
 set after the same manner; seven Venetian 
 looking-glasses, and these so fair and rich 
 that I was out of countenance when I heard 
 
2i8 The Mogtd Emperors 
 
 it." In fact, the meanness of the presents 
 which Sir Thomas had brought from England 
 was a constant thorn in his side. Only 
 the large mastiff-dogs seem to have been 
 thoroughly appreciated ; and the emperor 
 told him plainly that he could not understand 
 why the monarch of so great a country 
 as England should send so poor a list of 
 presents. 
 
 It is easily to be seen that the real success 
 of Sir Thomas' mission was due to his per- 
 sonality, and not to the fame of England or 
 to the value of his gifts. 
 
 "These people know the best of all kinds 
 of merchandise, and are served by the Portu- 
 guese, Venetians, and Armenians with all the 
 rarities of Europe." 
 
 Of the Persian envoy he says : " I caused 
 his reception to be diligently observed, and 
 found he was not favored above me at any 
 point, but much less in several particulars." 
 
 It is worth while to add that when the 
 Persian ambassador took his leave, he pre- 
 sented the king with other thirty horses, and 
 received in return three thousand crowns. 
 
Jahangir, Emperor of Hindustan 219 
 
 The king removed to a camp a few miles 
 from his palace, and at one of his audiences 
 the English envoy had a glimpse of "his two 
 principal wives," one of whom must have 
 been Nur-Mahal. " They were indifferently 
 white, with black hair smoothed up ; but if 
 there had been no other light, their dia- 
 monds and pearls had sufficed to show them. 
 When I looked up they retired, and were so 
 merry that I supposed they laughed at me." 
 " Then the king came down the stairs with 
 such an acclamation of health to the king as 
 would have outroared cannon. Then one of 
 his servants came, and girt on the king's 
 sword, and hung on his buckler set all over 
 with diamonds and rubies, the belts being of 
 gold, suitable. On his head he wore a rich 
 turban with a plume of heron's feathers, not 
 many, but long. On one side of his turban 
 hung a ruby unset, as big as a walnut ; on the 
 other side a diamond as large ; in the middle 
 an emerald like a heart, much bigger. His 
 staff was wound about with a chain of great 
 pearls, rubies, and diamonds, drilled. About 
 his neck he wore a chain of most excellent 
 
2 20 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 pearls, the largest I ever saw. Above his 
 elbows armlets set with diamonds, and on 
 his wrist three rows of various sorts ; his 
 hands bare, but on almost every finger a 
 ring." 
 
 The king and the queen, Nur-Mahal, rode 
 in coaches made after the pattern of an Eng- 
 lish carriage which Sir Thomas Roe had 
 brought out as a present. They had not 
 been willing to use so plain an affair as the 
 original one, but had had others made on 
 the same pattern, only covered with gold 
 and gems, somewhat to his discomfiture. In 
 Jahangir's Memoirs no reference is made to 
 the mission from England, except a bare 
 mention of these carriages. 
 
 So they proceeded to the camp, which was 
 a great wonder, having been set up and 
 finished in four hours, yet it was not less than 
 twenty English miles in compass. " The 
 vale showed like a beautiful city, for the bag- 
 gage made no confusion. I was ill provided 
 with carriage, and ashamed of my equipage ; 
 for five years' allowance would not have pro- 
 vided me with an indifferent suit answerable 
 
Jakangtr, Emperor of Hindustan 221 
 
 to the others, so I returned to my poor 
 house." 
 
 " You may add to all this," says another 
 authority, "that the Grand Mogul keeps nigh 
 him two or three thousand brave horses, to 
 be always ready upon occasion ; as also eight 
 or nine hundred elephants, and a vast num- 
 ber of mules, horses, and porters to carry all 
 the great tents and their cabinets, to carry 
 his wives, kitchens, household stuff, Ganges 
 water, and all the other necessaries for the 
 field which he hath always about him, as if 
 he were at home." 
 
 The envoy was now obliged to follow the 
 court in its migrations, finding transporta- 
 tion and food as best he might. He took up 
 his lodgings in tents, or sometimes on the 
 abandoned castles of Rajput rajahs, so beau- 
 tiful " that a banished Englishman might be 
 content to live there." He learns the in- 
 trigues of the court, and promises to tell a 
 tale " which will discover a noble prince, an 
 excellent wife, a faithful counsellor, a crafty 
 step-mother, an ambitious son, a cunning 
 favorite, all reconciled by a patient king, 
 
222 The Mogttl Emperors 
 
 whose heart was not understood by any of 
 all those." But I cannot find that he re- 
 deems his promise. He sees this patient 
 king embrace a dirty, ragged dervish after 
 conversing with him familiarly for an hour, 
 which left him " in admiration to see such 
 virtue in a heathen prince, which I mention 
 in emulation and sorrow ; wishing either that 
 our Christian princes had this devotion, or 
 that this zeal were guided by a true light of 
 the gospel." 
 
 " Laws these people have none written. 
 The king's judgment binds ; who sits and 
 gives judgment with much patience, both in 
 civil and criminal causes, where sometimes 
 he sees execution done by his elephants, with 
 too much delight in blood. His governors 
 of provinces rule by his commissions author- 
 izing them, and take life and goods at 
 pleasure." 
 
 "In revenue the king doubtless exceeds 
 either Turk or Persian ; the sums I dare not 
 name ; but the reason. All the land is his ; 
 no man has a foot. He maintains all that 
 are not mechanics, by revenues bestowed on 
 
Jakangzr, Emperor of Hindustan 223 
 
 them. Favor is got by frequent presents 
 rich and rare. The Mogul is heir to all that 
 die. He takes all their money, only leaving 
 the widow and daughter what he pleases. 
 To the sons of those that die worth two or 
 three millions, he gives some small lordship 
 to begin the world anew. He is of counte- 
 nance cheerful, not proud by nature, but only 
 by habit and custom, for at night he is 
 very affable and full of gentle conversa- 
 tion." 
 
 One of these evening conversations is 
 more minutely described : " The good king 
 fell to dispute of the laws of Moses, Jesus, 
 and Mahomet, and in drink was so kind, that 
 he turned to me and said : I am a king ; you 
 shall be welcome. Christians, Moors, Jews, 
 he meddled not with their faith ; they came 
 all in love, and he would protect them from 
 wrong ; they lived under his safety, and none 
 should oppress them ; and this often re- 
 peated, but in extreme drunkenness, he fell 
 to weeping and to divers passions, and so 
 kept us till midnight." 
 
 With this we leave Sir Thomas with re- 
 
224 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 oret, so many of his own adventures being 
 untouched upon. 
 
 " The Jesuits have a church at Agra," says 
 Bernier, " and a building which they call a 
 college, where they privately instruct the 
 children of (some) thirty Christian families, 
 collected I know not how in Agra, and 
 induced to settle there by the kind and chari- 
 table aid which they receive from the Jesuits. 
 This religious order was invited hither by 
 Akbar, and that prince not only gave them 
 an annual income for their maintenance, but 
 permitted them to build churches in Agra 
 and Lahore. The Jesuits found a still 
 warmer patron in Jahangir, but they were 
 sorely oppressed by Shah Jahan. That 
 monarch deprived them of their pension, 
 and destroyed the church at Lahore and the 
 greater part of that at Agra." ^' 
 
 Jahangir's attitude towards religion is well 
 set forth in the following story, which may 
 not be true, but which is ben trovato. The 
 Muslim doctors had admonished him against 
 
 * His empress, Mumtaz-i-Mahal, was, for some unknown 
 reason, especially unfriendly to Christians. 
 
Jahangir, Emperor of Hindustan 225 
 
 the use of forbidden meats, etc. ; Jahangir, 
 becoming impatient, inquired in what rehgion 
 the use of every kind of meat and drink was 
 permitted. The reply was, in the Christian 
 rehgion alone. '* We must, then," said the 
 emperor, "all turn Christians." 
 
 Professor Blochmann {Ain-z-Akbarz, pp. 
 310, 477, 619) has collected a list of twenty- 
 four of Jahangir's wives, and there easily 
 may have been more. Their number may 
 account for an amusing instance of the 
 emperor's easy-going fashions. In his Me- 
 moirs, Jahangir says that Prince Parwiz, 
 his child, is the son of Zain Kokah's daugh- 
 ter, whom he married in the forty-first year 
 of Akbar's reign. There is no doubt what- 
 ever that Parwiz was born in the thirty- 
 fourth year, long before Jahangir had seen 
 the daughter of Zain. Hence it follows, 
 apparently, that Jahangir had forgotten to 
 which one of his many wives he was Indebted 
 for his second son. 
 
 The acts of Jahangir are given at length 
 
 in his own Memoirs and in some of the 
 
 writings of the native historians. In the 
 15 
 
2 26 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 following chapter of this book the history of 
 the last years of his reign is recited. But 
 it is not the history which is of special 
 interest to Europeans, and still less to 
 Americans. Our desire is to comprehend 
 the character of this powerful and autocratic 
 ruler, as we understand that of Louis XIV 
 of France from the Memoirs of Samt-Simon. 
 The native historians are but poor substi- 
 tutes for the literary duke who has written 
 the annals of the reign of the Very Christian 
 King. And Jahangir's Memoirs are seldom 
 worth quoting, and give but a slight picture 
 of his personality. I append a few extracts 
 from various sources which have a sort of 
 value, and reserve the more important for 
 the next chapter, which treats of the reign 
 of the emperor's wife, who, after all, was the 
 real ruler of the state for many years. 
 
 We read in the Memoirs of Jahangir : 
 " One night I turned the discourse of my 
 courtiers on the chase, and told them how 
 fond of it I formerly was. At the same time 
 it occurred to my mind whether all the ani- 
 mals and birds I had killed could not be 
 
/ahangzr, Emperor of Hindttstan 227 
 
 calculated." The result was that from his 
 twelfth to his fiftieth year he had killed 
 17,168 animals and birds with his own hand, 
 "and the following is an account of them in 
 detail." 
 
 * * * * -Sfr * * 
 
 Of these 86 were tigers, 90 wild boars, 
 1,372 deer, 13,964 birds, etc. 
 
 Two young nobles of the city were very 
 dissipated, " lived in great pomp, and did not 
 care for the emperor." They amused them- 
 selves by passing the palace in pleasure-boats, 
 noisily, though they had often been warned. 
 Jahangir gave a hint to one of his officers, 
 and the young men were incontinently assas- 
 sinated, and the emperor's peace was dis- 
 turbed no more. Jahangir was fond of cruel 
 and unusual punishments. He revived the 
 barbarous impalements and flayings alive 
 which had been almost forgotten. He was 
 ingenious, too. A number of Amirs had dis- 
 graced the imperial cause by a defeat. He 
 caused the portrait of each Amir to be 
 painted in miniature, and, taking the por- 
 traits in hand, one by one, he showered 
 
228 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 abuse on each Amir before the assembled 
 courtiers. In another instance, the emperor 
 caused the offenders' heads to be shaved and 
 women's veils to be thrown over their faces. 
 Thus arrayed they were paraded through the 
 city on donkeys, seated so as to face the 
 donkeys' tails. Sewing the eyelids together 
 was a favored mode of punishment, as also 
 fastening the culprit inside the skin of a 
 newly-killed animal. As the skin dried the 
 victim perished. 
 
 "With the object of acquiring information 
 about the history of Kabul, I used to read 
 Babar's Memoirs, which all, except four parts, 
 was written with his own hand. To com- 
 plete the work, I copied those parts myself, 
 and at the end I added some paragraphs in 
 the Turki language to show that they were 
 written by me. Though I was brought up 
 in Hindustan, yet I am not deficient in read- 
 ing and writing Turki." 
 
 Here is a specimen of the religious debates 
 of which he was so fond. " One day I ob- 
 served to some learned Hindus, that if the 
 foundation of their religion rested on their 
 
Jakangzr, Emperor of Hindustan 229 
 
 belief in the ten incarnate gods, it was en- 
 tirely absurd, because in such a case it became 
 necessary to admit that the Almighty, who 
 is infinite, must possess a definite breadth, 
 length, and depth." " After a long discourse 
 they admitted that there was a God who had 
 no corporeal form and of whom they had 
 no definite notion " (which appears to have 
 agreed with Jahangir's own ideas). They 
 had represented him by these ten figures so 
 as to raise their minds up to him. " I then 
 told them they could not attain that end by 
 this means." Vishnu and his ten (nine) 
 incarnations seem to be referred to here at 
 first, and the Great First Cause at last ; but 
 the king is more practical and positive than 
 explicit. 
 
 Jahangir was fond — too fond — of the poet 
 Urfi, a man of real talent. These verses are 
 his: 
 
 Cling to the hem of a heart which saddens at the plaintive voice of 
 the nightingale ; for that heart knows something. 
 
 The jHore I exert myself, the ?nore J come into trouble ; if I am 
 calm, the ocean's centre is at the shore. 
 
230 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 Not a grain shall be taken of that which thou hast reaped, but a 
 harvest shall be demanded of that which thou hast not sown. 
 
 The emperor sets down, in his Memoirs, 
 that certain tribes " associate and intermarry 
 with Hindus, giving and taking daughters. 
 As for taking," he says, " it does not so much 
 matter ; but as for giving their own daughters 
 — heaven protect us ! " 
 
 Here is one of the king's experiments — 
 the trivial fooling of a muddled brain. " As 
 it has been several times asserted that laugh- 
 ter arises from eating saffron, his majesty 
 determined on making a trial of its effects, 
 and, therefore, sent for a condemned criminal 
 and made him eat (a large quantity) in his 
 presence. It did not occasion any change in 
 him. On the next day he gave him double 
 the quantity, but it did not even cause him to 
 smile, much less to laugh." The royal ex- 
 perimenter neglected an important element. 
 He should first \\2.-^^ par dotted \\\^ criminal ! 
 
 Jahangir describes, in his Memoirs, one of 
 the classic feats of Indian jugglery : " They 
 produced a chain, fifty cubits in length, and 
 threw one end of it towards the sky, where 
 
Jahangir, Emperor of Hiitdustan 231 
 
 it remained as if fastened to something. A 
 dog was brought, and immediately ran up 
 the chain and disappeared in the air. In 
 the same manner a hog, a panther, a lion, 
 and a tiger were successively sent up, and 
 all equally disappeared. At last they took 
 down the chain and put it into a bag, no one 
 discovering in what way the different animals 
 were made to vanish." Similar jugglers' 
 tricks were shown to Ibn Batuta, the Arab 
 traveller, in 1348. The Kazi, who sat next 
 to him, made a skeptical comment on the 
 whole performance. " Wallah ! " said he, " it 
 is my opinion there has been neither going 
 up nor coming down, neither marring nor 
 mending; 'tis all hocus-pocus." The emperor 
 is a capital witness. As this probably 
 occurred in the daytime, he was, in all likeli- 
 hood, sober. One could not ask for better 
 evidence for this famous trick, which has 
 been described by others also. If Indian 
 jugglers can hypnotize an entire audience, 
 and if they can then suggest to each member 
 of it that he sees what is desired, and if 
 every individual can be forced to recollect 
 
232 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 all the details of the performance, the trick 
 is explicable. Otherwise, we must share 
 Jahangir's bewilderment/^" 
 
 In the sixth year of his reign (a.h. 1020), 
 J ahangir coined his famous gold mohur. On 
 one face is a portrait of the emperor in the 
 act of raising a wine-cup to his lips ; on the 
 other is the sun in the constellation of Leo. 
 The inscription on the coin is in Persian. 
 Perhaps no more extraordinary coin was ever 
 minted. The emperor broke with all tradi- 
 tions. The Muhammadans — at least, of the 
 Sunni sect — did not permit the making of 
 statues and effigies. Wine was abhorred of 
 all good Muslims, and on this coin it was 
 celebrated by the head of the state, who was 
 also the head of the church. It was as if the 
 Pope should strike a medal defiling the cross 
 and denying the Holy Ghost.f 
 
 * Since the foregoing was written I liave noticed that Mr. 
 Andrew Lang {Contemporary Review for September, 1893) seems 
 to regard the explanation by hypnotic illusion as, at least, plausible ; 
 and Mr. Frank Stockton has adopted it, out and out, in his tale of 
 The Magic Egg {The Century for June, 1894). 
 
 \ It is not strictly correct to say that Jahangir was the head of 
 the orthodox church. The successor of Muhammad is that person 
 who has the custody of the relics of the prophet (his cloak, teeth, 
 
Jahangir, Emperor of Hindustan 233 
 
 The face is interesting, and it is probably 
 an unflattered likeness, as it resembles por- 
 traits of Jahangir which are accepted as 
 authentic. The jaw is heavy, the nose long, 
 and broad at the base, and the expression 
 astute and sly. In the same year another 
 coin was minted, where the wine-cup is ex- 
 changed for a book (which can only be the 
 Kuran), and on which the expression of the 
 emperor's face is entirely changed. His atti- 
 tude is one of dignity ; his face is softened 
 and refined ; he is no longer the violator, but 
 the protector, of the law. 
 
 It has been surmised that the first coin 
 gave such occasion of scandal (as well it 
 might) that the second was struck to take its 
 place. This may be so, but it then becomes 
 difficult to explain why another coin was 
 minted in the year a.h. 1023, three years 
 later, in which the wine-cup again appears. 
 The sun on these coins serves to recall the 
 fact that the emperor was born on a Sunday. 
 
 beard, etc.), and who rules the sacred cities of Mecca and Medina. 
 These titles belong to the Sultan of Constantinople (the Khalife=: 
 successor). But in India the orthodox doctors of the law had 
 declared the emperor to be the head of the church. 
 
2 34 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 Jahangir also caused a silver medal to be 
 struck soon after his father's death, which 
 bears the effigy of Akbar. The face has 
 only a moustache, and not the beard of the 
 orthodox Muslim. Yet the obverse of the 
 medal bears the profession of faith : There 
 is no God but God ; Muhammad is the 
 Apostle of God. 
 
 With this we may leave this nest of 
 tyrants. The atmosphere in which they 
 lived is foreign to us, and their actions seem 
 wild and barbarous to us Western folk who 
 live our orderly lives between well-drawn 
 lines which we do not overstep. *' Custom 
 makes cowards of us all," and habit makes us 
 unreflecting. These Oriental despots were 
 no more savage or vindictive or careless than 
 the Csesars ; and we have long ago accepted 
 them as part of our ancestry. 
 
 It is clear that Sir Thomas Roe, a model 
 Briton, was continually and unconsciously 
 comparing the Emperor Jahangir with his 
 own English king, not always to the advan- 
 tage of the latter. Even to us, who have 
 crossed the seas and the centuries, there is 
 
Jahangir, Emperor of Hindustan 235 
 
 something not totally unfamiliar in this 
 Oriental nature freely displayed under strange 
 and outlandish conditions. 
 
 Coehim, non animu^n mutant, qui trans 
 mare currttnt. 
 
 Note. — The description of Jahangir's coins on pages 232 et seq. 
 was written after consulting the older authorities (Marsden, etc.), 
 the only ones then available to me. It is not strictly correct in 
 several respects. Those interested should refer to Dr. R. S. Poole's 
 Coins of the Moghtil Emperors, London, 1892, pages Ixxx, 62, etc., 
 where plates of these coins are given. 
 
236 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 NUR-MAHAL (tHE LIGHT OF THE PALACE), 
 EMPRESS OF HINDUSTAN (a.D. 161I-1627) 
 
 In the history of the reigns of the Great 
 Moguls, the women of the royal house 
 seldom appear, except in the character of 
 devoted or intriguing wives and mothers, 
 whose words are never heard on this side of 
 the curtain which shuts them away from the 
 world. The fierce light which beats upon 
 the throne penetrates the harem only to 
 make a twilight of mystery and intrigue. 
 There is one great and striking exception in 
 the person of the Empress Nur- Mahal, whose 
 reign was nearly contemporaneous with that 
 of King James I. of England, the successor of 
 Elizabeth, and who may fairly be compared 
 with that great English queen. 
 
 We are more or less familiar in the Western 
 world with the power of women in govern- 
 ment. But our Western heroines — Frede- 
 

 NUR-MAHAL 
 
Nur-Mahal, Empress of Hindustan 237 
 
 gonde, Joan of Arc, Madame de Stael — have 
 been personages who could be seen and 
 heard. The Indian queen, after the time of 
 Babar, was confined to the harem, and could 
 be seen only by her nearest relations, and 
 could be heard only from behind the curtain. 
 I have met but two works which give a 
 realiizing sense of the power of Oriental 
 women ; namely, the brilliant novel of Kip- 
 ling and Balestier, The Naulakha (1892), 
 and the Memoirs of a certain wazir, one 
 Nizamu-1-Mulk Tusi (a.d. 1092), some eight 
 hundred years earlier. The wazirs whole 
 history is interesting. His accounts of the 
 power of female intrigue are pathetic. " Now, 
 from what I have said, the disadvantages 
 of the ladies of the royal household being 
 against us (wazirs) may be learned. But 
 the advantages of their being in our favor 
 are equally numerous," as he goes on to 
 show by a story too long to relate. He 
 quotes the words of a powerful minister who 
 resigned his office and went to govern a 
 remote province, as an example. " What 
 made him prefer it to a rank in which he 
 
238 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 exercised influence over the whole king- 
 dom?" "O Imam!" the ex-minister says, 
 " I have not told this secret even to my sons, 
 but I will not conceal the truth from you. 
 I have resigned that power on account of 
 Jamila Kandahari (one of the queen's ladies). 
 For years I had the management of all the 
 government in my hands, and she thwarted 
 me In everything. For this reason there was 
 darkness before my eyes, and I could find no 
 remedy against the evil. Now I have sought 
 retirement, and have procured release from 
 all such troubles. If Allah pleases, I shall 
 escape her machinations in this distant prov- 
 ince." 
 
 The Emperor Jahangir had succeeded 
 Akbar in the year 1605. ^^ the thirty-first 
 year of Akbar's reign he had rebelled against 
 his father, and had set up a separate govern- 
 ment in the Penjab and appropriated the rev- 
 enue (thirty lacs of rupees) to his own use. 
 To remove his chief enemy at court, he had 
 basely murdered his father's prime minister 
 and attached friend, the learned Abul-fazl, 
 and had embittered the last days of his great 
 
Nur-Mahal, Empress of Hindustan 239 
 
 sire by violent, cruel, and rebellious acts. 
 " About the close of my father's reign Abul- 
 fazl was wearing on his plausible exterior 
 the jewel of probity, which he sold to my 
 father at a high price. He was not my 
 friend. His bearing fully convinced me that 
 if he were allowed to arrive at court he 
 would do everything in his power to excite 
 the indignation of my father against me. 
 Under this apprehension I invited Nar 
 Singh to annihilate Abul-fazl on his journey, 
 promising him favors. God aided the enter- 
 prise ; Abul-fazl's followers were put to 
 flight, and he himself murdered. His head 
 was sent to me at Allahabad." Such is 
 Jahangir's own account. 
 
 Akbar's death is ascribed to his vexation 
 at a disgraceful and public quarrel between 
 Jahangir and his son Khosrou about the 
 merits of their respective elephants at a fight 
 of animals. 
 
 He was remorseless, even vindictive, in 
 the punishment of crimes against the state 
 — that is, against himself — and this seems in 
 a large measure to have been a matter of 
 
240 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 settled policy on his part. Jahangir had an 
 intimate horror of everything that tended to 
 disturb the indifferent thoughtlessness of his 
 self-indulgent and careless life. In the early 
 portion of his reign he was obliged to stamp 
 out a rebellion fomented by his son Khosrou, 
 His own words are : " I entered the castle at 
 Lahore, and took my seat in the royal pavil- 
 ion built by my father, and I directed that 
 a number of sharp stakes should be set 
 up, upon which thrones of misfortune and 
 despair I caused the seven hundred traitors 
 to be impaled alive. Than this there cannot 
 be," he goes on, " a more excruciating pun- 
 ishment, for the culprits die in lingering 
 torture." 
 
 His son was finally captured, paraded 
 between the lines of impaled victims, and 
 then imprisoned. He spent the time in 
 tears and groans for his past misconduct, 
 and no doubt in deadly fear for his own life. 
 He doubtless recalled his father's express 
 declaration that " Sovereignty does not re- 
 gard the relation of father .and son ; and 
 it is said a king should deem no one 
 
Nur-Mahal, Empress of Hindustan 241 
 
 his relation." Kingship knows no kin- 
 ship. 
 
 Jahangir always evinced "too much delight 
 In blood," and his violence was often due to 
 intoxication by wine or opium, " From that 
 time I took to wine drinking," he says, "and 
 from day to day took more and more, until 
 it had no effect upon me, and I resorted to 
 drinking spirits. In the course of nine years 
 I got up to twenty cups of spirit, fourteen of 
 which I drank in the day, and six at night." 
 Finally, he was warned to stop by a faithful 
 (and courageous) physician. " His advice 
 was good, and life was dear ; and for fifteen 
 years I have kept to six cups, neither more 
 nor less." Opium took the place of the 
 abandoned cups. Two of his brothers died 
 from drunkenness. 
 
 In spite of this dark picture, there are 
 many excellent, even admirable, traits in his 
 character. He was self-indulgent and capri- 
 cious, rather than deliberately vicious. The 
 very first act of his reign was to set up the 
 "chain of justice" in his palace at Agra — 
 
 a golden chain sixty feet long, reaching from 
 16 
 
242 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 the ground to his chamber. On this chain 
 were sixty golden bells, and a suitor for 
 justice could call the emperor's attention to 
 his claim without the intervention of any 
 person.* 
 
 His Memoirs, from which I have already 
 quoted, are addressed to his sons and dis- 
 ciples, and begin thus : 
 
 " First, let them know that the world is not 
 eternal, and that the less care they have for 
 it the better. Act towards your inferiors as 
 you wish that your superiors should act 
 towards you." It is clear that the Jesuits 
 of Goa had left their mark ; and indeed he 
 
 * The idea was not original. Tiie drums of Humayun were 
 established for the same end. Sultan Shamsu-d-din Altamsh, 
 (A.D. 1 211) at Delhi, " made an order that any man who suffered 
 from injustice should wear colored clothes Now all the inhabit- 
 ants of India wear white clothes, so that whenever he rode abroad 
 and saw any one in a colored dress he inquired into his grievance, 
 and look means to render him justice. But he was not satisfied 
 (even) with this plan, and said, ' Some men suffer injustice in the 
 night, and I wish to give them redress.' So he placed at the door 
 of his palace two marble lions on two pedestals. These lions had 
 iron chains round their necks from which hung great bells. The 
 victim of injustice came at night and rung the bell, and when the 
 Sultan heard it he inquired into the case and gave satisfaction to 
 the complainant." 
 
Niir-Mahal, Empress of Hindustan 243 
 
 was wonderfully tolerant of all religions, 
 although he did not (openly) go so far in 
 this direction as his father. " No king was 
 ever more generous and kind to beggars" or 
 to religious mendicants — fakirs — or more 
 anxious for new light from holy men. 
 
 Jahangir had been born in the house of a 
 famous Muslim saint, and was at first called 
 by his name (Selim). 
 
 " A famous place of worship is in this 
 neighborhood," he says, "and I went to see 
 it in the possible chance of meeting some 
 fakir from whose society I might derive 
 advantage ; but such a man is as rare as the 
 philosopher's stone, and all that I saw was 
 a small fraternity without any knowledge of 
 God, the sight of whom filled my heart with 
 nothing but regret." 
 
 He encouraged all sorts of learning at his 
 court, and was lavish in distribution of alms 
 from his audience window every week (on 
 Sundays). He was fond of architecture and 
 art, and devoted to the beauties of natural 
 scenery and flowers, even childishly so. On 
 his way to Kashmir the army marched along 
 
244 ^-^^ Mogul Emperors 
 
 a river bed, " and the oleander bushes were 
 in full bloom, and of exquisite color, like 
 peach-blossoms. I ordered my attendants 
 to bind bunches of the flowers in their tur- 
 bans, and I thus devised a beautiful garden." 
 At another camp the flowers were so beauti- 
 ful that *' it was a sight such that it was 
 impossible to take one's eyes off it." He 
 goes on, " As the air was very charming 
 (and the flowers beautiful), I indulged myself 
 in drinking wine. In short, I enjoyed myself 
 amazingly on this march." 
 
 It is surprising to us to meet this appre- 
 ciation of nature in the Mogul character, but 
 it is a genuine quality. Chengiz-Khan, that 
 bloodthirsty savage, in describing a spot in 
 Tartary, says, "It is a beautiful grazing 
 ground for roebucks, and a charming resting 
 place for an old man " — as he then was. To 
 the Moguls, nature was beautiful, but it was 
 something outside of themselves ; the Greeks 
 felt themselves a part of it. 
 
 Jahangir goes on to say, "Kashmir is a 
 delightful country in the seasons of autumn 
 and of spring. I visited it and found it 
 
Ntir- Mahal, Empress of Hindustan 245 
 
 even more charming than I had anticipated. 
 There is no other place in the world where 
 saffron is so abundantly cultivated. The 
 fields of saffron are sometimes two miles in 
 length, and they look very beautiful at a 
 distance. It has such a strong smell that 
 people get a headache from it. I asked the 
 Kashmirians whether it had any such effect 
 upon them, and was surprised by their reply, 
 which was, that they did not even know 
 what headache was." "The surface of the 
 land is so covered with green that it requires 
 no carpet to be spread upon it." The 
 place Vv^as full of wonders, and they showed 
 the sceptical king a fountain of " unfathom- 
 able depth." He ordered it sounded by a 
 stone and a rope, and the depth turned out 
 to be nine feet. 
 
 He was a mighty hunter,^ brave, fond of 
 manly sports, devoted and affectionate to his 
 friends, always providing that their actions 
 did not affect the safety or welfare of the 
 state, and again Vetat cetait lui; and cruel 
 
 * He had killed eighty-six tigers with his own hand, and ninety 
 wild boars. 
 
246 The Mogul Empei'ors 
 
 and vindictive in the contrary case. He was 
 deeply attached to his first wife, the daughter 
 of the Rajah Bhagwan Das of Amber, and 
 the mother of his rebellious son Khosrou. 
 " How can I describe her excellence and 
 good nature? Her affection for me was such 
 that she would have given a thousand sons 
 as a ransom for one hair of mine. She was 
 my first bride, and I was married to her in 
 youth. Her death had such an effect upon 
 me that I did not care to live. For four 
 days and nights I did not care to eat or 
 drink." It is recorded, also, and it is very 
 likely to be true, that after Nur- Mahal had 
 become his empress he declared, " Before I 
 married her, I never knew the real meaning 
 of marriao^e." The Persian woman was made 
 of different clay from the daughters of the 
 Rajput princes. 
 
 These extracts from his own sayings give 
 a picture of the capricious despot who 
 succeeded to the just and benevolent Ak- 
 bar. 
 
 Professor Dowson, the editor of Elliott's 
 History of India as told by its own Histo- 
 
Nitr-Mahal, Empress of Hindzistan 247 
 
 rzans, has made a calm estimate of Jahangir's 
 character. 
 
 " The autobiography proves Jahanglr to 
 have been a man of no common abiUty. He 
 records his weaknesses and confesses his 
 faults with candor, and a perusal of this work 
 alone would leave a favorable impression of 
 his character and talents. He was fond 
 of jewels, of flowers, of architecture, a lover 
 of nature, a mighty hunter. He seems to 
 have been just, and even generous, when he 
 was sober; but even as prince-royal he was 
 noted for his ruthless punishments when he 
 was in his cups." 
 
 Such was the king who received the 
 sovereignty of India from the dying Akbar, 
 and V\^ho then " began to win the hearts of 
 all the people and to rearrange the withered 
 world." While he was yet crown-prince, 
 he had seen in the women's apartments a 
 young girl of remarkable beauty for whom 
 he formed a passionate attachment. This 
 was Mihrunnisa, afterwards Nur-Mahal. 
 Her mother found means to lay the case 
 before Akbar, who remonstrated with his 
 
248 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 son, and who, the better to guard against a 
 mesalliance, married the girl to one of his 
 own officers, Shir-Afghan- Khan, on whom he 
 bestowed a government in distant Bengal. 
 The newly wedded pair departed to their 
 government, and the prince was duly married 
 to the grand-daughter of a great rajah, and 
 became a power in the state, warring and 
 making war, sometimes for his father, oftener 
 on his own account in rebellion. 
 
 The grandfather of Nur-Mahal had been 
 wazir to the governor of Khorassan. In 
 consequence of adverse circumstances his 
 son Mirza Ghiyas Beg set out for Hindu- 
 stan to retrieve his fortunes. His caravan 
 was plundered, and he was reduced to abject 
 poverty. When he reached Kandahar, in the 
 year 1585, his wife was delivered of a girl 
 child, Mihrunnisa — the sun of women — 
 afterwards called Nur-Mahal. So desperate 
 had their condition become that the infant 
 was exposed on the highway to perish. One 
 of the chief merchants of the caravan, see- 
 ing the beauty of the child, and moved by 
 pity, took her up and resolved to educate 
 
Nur-Mahal, Empress of Hindustan 249 
 
 her as his own daughter. His first care was 
 to seek for a nurse, and the only available 
 nurse in the party was, naturally, the child's 
 mother. The relation thus strangely brought 
 about was the turning point in their career. 
 When they reached the city of Fathpur, 
 Ghiyas Beg was presented to the Emperor 
 Akbar, and in a short time he was raised 
 to the office of superintendent of the house- 
 hold, and the fortunes of the family were 
 made. 
 
 " He was considered exceedingly clever 
 and skilful both in writing and in transact- 
 ing business. He had studied the old 
 poetry, and had a nice appreciation of the 
 meaning of words, and his handwriting was 
 bold and elegant" — accomplishments which 
 would commend him to the emperor. 
 " His leisure moments were devoted to the 
 study of poetry and style ; and his gener- 
 osity and beneficence to the poor were such 
 that no one ever turned disappointed from 
 his door." He was on the high road to 
 prosperity, and improved his opportunities 
 to the full. "In the taking of bribes he 
 
250 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 certainly was most uncompromising and fear- 
 less " ! His wife, too, was a woman of note. 
 Jahangir relates that she invented attar of 
 roses.^ " She conceived the idea of collect- 
 ing the oil which rises to the surface when 
 rose-water is heated, and the oil was found 
 to be a powerful perfume." The daughter, 
 also, was unusually accomplished in the arts 
 of painting and fine needlework, it is said, and 
 she wrote a few Persian poems also. Their 
 son Asaf-Khan rose to be prime minister 
 under the succeeding reign, and no subject of 
 an Indian king ever enjoyed a like pros- 
 perity. In 1 64 1 he died, and was buried near 
 the tomb of the Emperor Jahangir, his mas- 
 ter. His palace in Lahore had cost a mil- 
 lion dollars, and the jewels, plate, and money 
 which he left were valued at over twelve 
 millions. His daughter Arjamand (after- 
 wards Mumtaz-i-Mahal) married the Prince 
 Khurram (afterwards Shah Jahan). 
 
 In the meantime Jahangir's first wife had 
 died, and he had ascended the throne. In 
 
 * Antar, an Arab novel of the eighth century, mentions attar of 
 roses, however. 
 
Ntcr-AIakal, Empress of Hindustan 251 
 
 the first year of his reign he sent his foster- 
 brother Kutbu-d-Din to Bengal as viceroy, 
 and charged him with a mission to procure 
 the divorce of Nur-Mahal and to send her to 
 him. Details regarding these negotiations 
 are not known, but it is certain that they 
 were received with anger by Shir-Afghan, 
 her husband ; and probably Nur-Mahal never 
 heard of them at all. At all events, she 
 appears to have been sincerely attached to 
 her first husband. 
 
 In the second year of the reign, the vice- 
 roy, having received commands to send Shir- 
 Afghan to court, made an official visit to 
 his government. The men of the viceroy 
 crowded around Shir-Afghan, who had only 
 two attendants, and who asked " quietly " 
 what this kind of proceeding meant. The 
 viceroy ordered his men to stand apart, and 
 engaged in a conversation in which, no doubt, 
 the desires of the emperor were again de- 
 clared, and a promise of immunity given in 
 case the husband should prove docile and 
 complaisant. However this may be, the out- 
 raged noble immediately killed the viceroy 
 
252 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 with a dagger which he had concealed, and 
 was himself at once cut to pieces by the 
 viceroy's troops.* 
 
 The future empress was sent to Agra, and 
 was attached to the suite of the empress 
 dowager. Jahangir was sorely distressed by 
 the death of his foster-brother in such a 
 cause, and Nur-Mahal seems to have re- 
 pulsed his offer of marriage with disgust, and 
 to have made the emperor forget her. "She 
 remained some time without notice." This 
 " some time " must have been about four 
 years, for it was not until the sixth year (a.d. 
 161 1 ) of the reign that "the days of mis- 
 fortune drew to a close, and the stars of her 
 
 * One of the historians relates the end of Shir-Afghan differ- 
 ently. He says that Shir was not killed outright (which is un- 
 likely), but managed to drag himself to the door of his house, 
 intending to kill his wife rather than to lei her fall into Jahangir's 
 hands. Nur-Mahal's mother would not let him enter, and declared 
 to him that his wife had already committed suicide by throwing 
 herself into a well. " Having heard the sad news, Shir-Afghan 
 went to the heavenly mansions." The Muslim comment on such 
 stories is appropriate here — Allah knows if this be true. Jahangir 
 remarks of Shir-Afghan's death in his Memoirs that he hopes "the 
 black-faced wretch will forever remain in hell," which seems cruel 
 and in keeping with his character. 
 
Ntir- Mahal, Empress of Hindustan 253 
 
 good fortune commenced to shine, and to 
 wake as it were from a deep sleep." " The 
 bride's chamber was prepared, the bride was 
 decorated, and desire began to arise. Hope 
 was happy. A key was found for closed 
 doors, a restorative for broken hearts ; and 
 on a certain New Year's festival she (again) 
 attracted the love and affection of the king." 
 Thus lamely does the native chronicler recite 
 the history. " She was soon made the favor- 
 ite wife of his majesty. She received at 
 first the title of Nur-Mahal {the light of the 
 palace^, and after some days that of Nur- 
 Jahan-Begam {the queen, the light of the 
 world)." 
 
 Up to this time she had led the usual life 
 of an Oriental lady of rank, hidden from the 
 eyes of men, and having only an occult influ- 
 ence upon the petty affairs of a small gov- 
 ernment. At one step she became the chief 
 personage in India. " All her relatives were 
 elevated to the hig-hest offices of the state. 
 Her father became prime minister, and the 
 king and his relatives were thus deprived of 
 all power. Nur-Mahal managed the whole 
 
254 1^^^ Mogul Emperors 
 
 affairs of the realm, and honors of every 
 description were at her disposal, and nothing 
 was wanting to make her an absolute mon- 
 arch, except reading the Khutba * in her 
 name." The Persian child who had been 
 abandoned in the desert had become the 
 veritable ruler of all India. She was now 
 twenty- six years old. " Day by day," says 
 another historian, " her influence and dignity 
 increased. No grant of land was bestowed 
 upon any woman, except under her seal. 
 She was granted the rights of sovereignty. 
 She would sit in the balcony of her palace 
 while the nobles would present themselves 
 (as to a king) and listen to her dictates. 
 Coin was struck in her name with this 
 superscription : 
 
 By order of King Jahaitgir, gold ha." a htmdred spletidors 
 added to it by receiving the impression of the name of Nur-Jahan 
 the queen. 
 
 " She signed all fannans jointly with the 
 king. At last her authority reached such a 
 pitch that the king was such only in name. 
 
 * The official prayers. 
 
Nur-Mahal, Empress of Hindustan 255 
 
 "She commands and governs at this day 
 in the king's harem with supreme authority, 
 having cunningly removed out of the harem, 
 either by marriage or other handsome ways, 
 all the other women who might give her any 
 jealousy ; and having also in the court made 
 many alterations by deposing and displacing 
 almost all the old captains and officers, and 
 by advancing to dignities other new ones of 
 her own creatures, and particularly those 
 of her blood and alliance." 
 
 By this time the affairs of the kingdom 
 were in excellent shape, and the self-indulgent 
 Jahangir laughed and said that he had be- 
 stowed the government on the most com- 
 petent. As for himself, he asked only wine 
 and meat. When he was ill he dismissed 
 the physicians (who were indeed of small 
 account), and depended only on the empress, 
 " whose sense and experience " exceeded 
 theirs. " It is impossible to describe the 
 beauty and wisdom of the queen ; in any 
 matter that was presented to her, if a diffi- 
 culty arose she immediately solved it." She 
 was benevolent to all, protecting some from 
 
256 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 tyranny, and portioning penniless orphans. 
 "She won golden opinions from all people," 
 The greatest of all her benefits was in modi- 
 fying the tyrannical and capricious conduct 
 of the emperor, and in introducing by her 
 own intelligence and good taste, powerfully 
 aided in the wise conduct of state affairs by 
 her father, now wazir, something like a 
 steady policy. The affairs of the kingdom 
 were prosperous ; justice of a sort was easily 
 attainable ; the court was magnificent by her 
 taste ; liberal through Jahangir's good nature 
 and her tact. The praise which has been 
 bestowed on another Indian Sultana,* is 
 justly her due. " She was endowed with 
 every princely virtue, and those who scruti- 
 nize her actions most severely will find in 
 her no fault but that she was a woman." 
 
 Jahangir had four sons ; Khosrou, the 
 eldest, had been in open rebellion and was 
 in disgrace. His father had always disliked 
 him, but the people attributed his exclusion 
 from the court to the influence of Asaf- 
 Khan and the empress. He died suddenly 
 
 ■" Rezia Begum, circa A.D. 1240. 
 
Ntir-Mahal, Empress of Hindustmi 257 
 
 "of a colic," while in the custody of his 
 brother Shah Jahan, at a time when the 
 emperor was ill ; and his death was attrib- 
 uted (very likely falsely) to his keeper. 
 Prince Parwiz, the second son, was a brave 
 and dissipated soldier, and little more. Shah 
 Jahan had shown very high military talents, 
 and had obtained great successes. He had 
 married a niece of Nur-Mahal's,* and was 
 sustained at court (at this time) by her 
 powerful influence ; and for this reason, and 
 because of his marked talent for government, 
 he was the favorite of his father. To all 
 people, even to the greatest nobles, he was 
 cold and haughty. " He was flattered by 
 some, envied by others, loved by none." 
 
 The youngest son of Jahangir was Prince 
 Shahriyar, who was affianced to the daughter 
 who was born to Nur-Mahal of her alliance 
 with the unfortunate Shir-Afghan-Khan. Up 
 to the time of their engagement, Nur-Mahal 
 
 * His favorite wife was Arjamand, better known as Mumtaz-i- 
 Mahal (the exalted of the palace), the daughter of Asaf-Khan ; 
 the niece consequently of Nur-Mahal. She was born in 1590, and 
 at her death, in 1630, she was buried in the Taj-Mahal; she bore 
 many sons and daughters to Shah Jahan. 
 17 
 
258 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 had been a strong partisan of Shah Jahan. 
 But his success had made him overbearing, 
 and the empress began to reaHze that she 
 could never mould him to her purposes. 
 Her influence was thus transferred to the 
 cause of Shahriyar, where her interest lay. 
 At this very juncture the father of Nur- 
 Mahal died, which was all the more unfor- 
 tunate, as the contentions of the princes and 
 of their various partisans among the high 
 nobles began to be troublesome. Her 
 brother Azaf-Khan, who became prime min- 
 ister in his father's stead, was far too 
 weak to master events, which went from ill 
 to worse. The power of Shah Jahan grew 
 daily, and if it were to be curbed at all, it 
 must be done at once. Accordingly Nur- 
 Mahal cast about for a general who should 
 be devoted to her cause, to lead the imperial 
 armies. Her eye fell upon Mahabet-Khan, 
 one of the great nobles. Mahabet-Khan 
 was a saiyid, a descendant of the Prophet, 
 of high family. His lineage is to be traced 
 (if we are to believe one of his family) 
 " directly to the prophet Moses." Mahabet- 
 
Nur-Mahal, Empress of Hindustan 259 
 
 Khan in his youth entered the service of 
 Jahangir, then crown-prince, and became a 
 prime favorite with him by (treacherously) 
 murdering a Hindu rajah who stood in the 
 prince's way. Sir Thomas Roe calls him, 
 however, a noble and generous man, well 
 beloved by all men ; and he had risen to be 
 the most eminent of all the nobles. This 
 general, accompanied for a time by the 
 emperor, and later by Prince Parwiz, drove 
 Shah Jahan away from the vicinity of Agra 
 and into the Deccan ; and so thorough was 
 Shah Jahan's defeat that Jahangir felt at 
 liberty to go, for two successive summers, to 
 Kashmir. 
 
 The emperor had not been a very loyal 
 and docile son to Akbar, and had given his 
 father much pain and anxiety by his open 
 opposition. All this was returned to him 
 ten-fold by the conduct of his own son 
 Shah Jahan. Jahangir does not mention 
 him by name in parts of his Memoirs, but 
 calls him "the wretch." "Whenever the 
 word ' wretch ' occurs here, it is my son who 
 is referred to." " The pen cannot describe 
 
26o The Mogul Emperors 
 
 what I have done for him, nor the anxiety 
 and grief which oppress me during the (miH- 
 tary) marches which I am obHged to make 
 in pursuit of him who is no longer my son." 
 
 The close connection of Mahabet-Khan 
 with Prince Parwiz led to the fear that he 
 would endeavor to place this prince upon 
 the throne, and it was resolved to ruin 
 him. Accordingly Asaf-Khan recalled him 
 to the court, '* to bring him to disgrace, 
 and to deprive him of honor, property, and 
 life. But he had cleverly seen through 
 Asaf-Khan's designs, and had brought 
 with him four or five thousand Rajput 
 warriors united in one cause." He also 
 brought with him the war-elephants. " The 
 abiding place of the emperor was on the 
 bank of the River Behat, " where a bridge 
 had been built. Mahabet-Khan with his 
 army came to the court at this bridge. 
 " Asaf-Khan, notwithstanding the presence 
 of so brave and daring an enemy, was so 
 heedless of the emperor's safety, that he 
 left him on that side of the river with the 
 children and women. He sent over also 
 
Nur- Mahal, Empress of Hindustan 261 
 
 the baggage, the treasure, the arms, etc., 
 even to the very domestics. Mahabet-Khan 
 perceived that his Hfe and honor were 
 at stake, and that he had not a single 
 friend at court." He resolved on a bold 
 stroke. With about two hundred Rajputs 
 he suddenly appeared at the chief entrance 
 to the royal tents. Let us quote the account 
 of one of the royal household who was an 
 eye-witness. "■ Mahabet-Khan rode to the 
 door of the state room and alighted. I 
 then went forward, and in my simplicity 
 exclaimed, ' This presumption and temerity 
 exceeds all bounds. If you will wait a 
 moment, I will go in and make a report. 
 He did not trouble himself to answer." 
 "His attendants tore down a board parti- 
 tion. The emperor came out from behind 
 it, and seated himself. The Khan ap- 
 proached him respectfully, and said, ' I 
 have assured myself that escape from the 
 hatred of Asaf-Khan is impossible, and that 
 I shall be put to death in shame. I have 
 therefore boldly and presumptuously thrown 
 myself on your Majesty's protection. If I 
 
262 The Mogtil Emperors 
 
 deserve death or punishment, give the 
 order, that I may suffer it in your pres- 
 ence. 
 
 But it was for the Khan to make terms, 
 for his troops flocked in, and the emperor 
 was a prisoner without a blow. Jahangir 
 was wild with rage, but almost instantly 
 controlled himself, and began that course 
 of dissimulation which led to his release in 
 the end. He consented to ride out before 
 the troops on an elephant to the hunting- 
 ground, and was then forced to go to the 
 Khan's quarters. All this time Mahabet- 
 Khan had taken no thought of Nur-Mahal, 
 and he determined to make her a prisoner 
 also. " But, as it happened, Nur-Mahal, 
 thinking that his Majesty had gone out 
 hunting, took the opportunity to pass over 
 the river to pay a visit to her brother 
 Asaf-Khan. " Mahabet-Khan bitterly re- 
 pented of the blunder he had made in not 
 securing her at once, and he proceeded with 
 the emperor to the house of Prince Shah- 
 riyar, where they spent the night. 
 
 " After Nur-Mahal had crossed the river, 
 
Ntir-Mahal, Empress of Hindttstan 263 
 
 she summoned all the chief nobles, and ad- 
 dressed them in reproachful terms. ' This,' 
 she said, * has happened through your neg- 
 lect and stupid arrangements.'^ What 
 never entered into the imagination of any 
 one has come to pass, and now you stand 
 stricken with shame for your conduct. You 
 must do your best to repair this evil.' " 
 
 The bridge had been destroyed, and the 
 nobles resolved to pass the river at a ford, 
 and to give battle to the rebel. 
 
 The ford was a bad one, and everything 
 was in confusion. " I (says the officer 
 whose account is quoted above) had 
 crossed one branch of the river, and was 
 standing on the brink of the other, watch- 
 ing the working of destiny. At this time 
 an officer of the empress came and said, 
 ' The Begam wants to know if this is a 
 time for delay and irresolution. Strike 
 boldly forward.'" The empress herself was 
 in the press, mounted on an elephant, and 
 
 * It is impossible not to suspect treachery on the part of Asaf- 
 Khan. Though Nur-Mahal was his sister, his daughter was the 
 wife of Shah Jahan. 
 
264 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 nearly reached the opposite shore, which 
 was defended by swarms of Rajputs. Her 
 attendant in the howdah was wounded, and 
 the empress pulled out the arrow and was 
 covered with the blood. This could not 
 affright her, for she was a brave and skil- 
 ful hunter who had killed tigers with a 
 single shot* However, she was at last 
 forced to turn back, and the army was 
 defeated. Asaf-Khan fled to his fort, which 
 was invested and captured, and Asaf bound 
 himself to support the cause of Mahabet- 
 Khan. The emperor and Nur-Mahal re- 
 mained prisoners of the Khan, who gave 
 orders in their name. 
 
 "His majesty, in his great good nature, 
 and gentleness,f had now become reconciled 
 
 * In Jahangir's own Memoirs we read: " My huntsmen reported 
 that there was a tiger in the neighborhood. I ordered his retreat 
 to be surrounded. I told Nur-Jahan to fire my musket. The 
 smell of the tiger made the elephant very restless and he would not 
 stand still ; and to take good aim from a howdah is a very difficult 
 feat. Mirza Rustam, who, after me, has no equal as a marksman, 
 has fired three or four shots from an elephant's back without effect. 
 Nur-Jahan, however, killed this tiger with the first shot." 
 
 f Which, beyond a doubt, were assumed. 
 
Nztr-Mahal, Empress of Hindustan 265 
 
 to M ah abet- Khan, and showed him great 
 favor, so that he felt quite secure on that 
 side. Whatever Nur-Mahal said to the em- 
 peror in private, he repeated to the Khan, 
 and he bade him beware, for she had a design 
 upon him. Mahabet became less watchful. 
 Besides, he had lost some of his best soldiers 
 in the fight. Nur-Mahal worked against him 
 in private and public." She suggested to the 
 emperor to order a review of the troops, and 
 as she was an over-lord of a district near by, 
 she mustered a formidable array of cavalry 
 devoted to her cause. 
 
 The review was held, and Mahabet-Khan 
 was prevailed upon to absent himself with 
 many of his own troops, lest blood should be 
 again shed. His weakness induced him to 
 accede, and he left the emperor surrounded 
 by only a portion of his Rajputs. At the 
 review, the cavalry of the empress pressed 
 close around this guard and overawed it, and 
 once more the emperor was his own master 
 — saved by his own crafty dissimulation and 
 by the more manly energy of the empress. 
 Mahabet-Khan received peremptory orders 
 
266 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 to march at once against Shah Jahan, and to 
 send Asaf-Khan back to court. He hesitated 
 to obey the latter order, "which greatly en- 
 raged the Begam," who sent him a second 
 message which cowed him, and which was 
 promptly obeyed. He set off on his journey 
 with about two thousand troops, and joined 
 his fortunes with Prince Shah Jahan, whom 
 he had been sent to destroy. 
 
 It was at this very time that Prince Parwiz 
 died in " a heavy sleep." His illness was 
 attributed to excessive drinking, but, as Mu- 
 hammadans say in doubtful cases, " Allah 
 knows if this be true." Poisonings were 
 suspected in this reign as freely as in that 
 of Louis XIV of France, a century later. 
 He was in the custody of his brother Shah 
 Jahan. The twenty-second year of the reign 
 of Jahangir had now begun. Nur-Mahal was 
 all-powerful, but the forces of Shah Jahan 
 were increasing. Sultan Shahriyar also be- 
 came ill, and was obliged to leave Kashmir, 
 where the emperor had gone. The emperor 
 himself fell ill, with a return of his old dis- 
 ease, the asthma. He refused wine, and 
 
Nzir-Mahal, Empress of Hindustan 267 
 
 rapidly grew worse, and died October 28, 
 
 1627, at the age of fifty-nine years. 
 
 Shah Jahan was his designated successor, 
 but Nur-Mahal cluno: to the vain idea of 
 retaining the reins of government which she 
 had held so long, and intrigued to cause 
 Sultan Shahriyar to rebel. The sons of 
 Shah Jahan were still in the female apart- 
 ments with Nur-Mahal, but they "were not 
 safe with her," and they were accordingly 
 removed from her charge. By February, 
 
 1628, all obstacles had been removed, and on 
 the 6th of that month Shah Jahan ascended 
 the throne after Shahriyar had been captured 
 and blinded.* 
 
 " Thus had he (through a sea of blood) 
 attained the highest post and dignity of the 
 
 * Shahriyar was the most beautiful of all the princes. Once 
 when he was troubled with a severe pain in his eyes, he was cured 
 by Mukawab Khan. The emperor heard of his cure and cynically 
 remarked, that no doubt his eyes would remain entirely well until 
 they were put out by his brothers — as indeed came to pass. To 
 insure a safe title to the throne, Shah Jahan felt obliged to do away 
 with the sons of his brothers Khosrou, Parwiz, Daniel, and Morad. 
 All these were executed and buried at Lahore, and their heads sent 
 to Shah Jahan. His reign was not troubled by rival claimants to 
 the throne. 
 
268 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 Eastern world, surrounded with delights and 
 guarded by a power, in his conceiving, unre- 
 sistable." When Herbert wrote this (in 
 1638) the favorite Mumtaz-i-Mahal had been 
 dead eight years, and it was rumored he had 
 taken her daughter to wife, " incest of so 
 high nature that that yeare his whole empire 
 was wounded with God's arrowes of plague, 
 pestilence, and famine, this thousand yeares 
 before never so terrible," 
 
 Nur-Mahal's influence was now completely 
 gone, and her name is not again heard of till 
 her death in 1645.''* She was treated with 
 respect, and received a handsome income — 
 ninety-four thousand dollars (two lacs) a year 
 as empress-dowager. She wore no color but 
 white after the emperor's death, abstained 
 from all entertainments, and appeared to 
 
 * At the age of sixty years. Professor Blochmann (p. 510) says 
 she died at Lahore in A.H. 1055 at the age of seventy-two. Keene 
 {Agra Guide) has the same remark. I believe the date of her birth 
 to have been A.D. 1585. Akbar was in the Penjab directing the 
 campaigns against Kashmir and the Afghans during 1586 and 
 1587. It was at this time, I think, that the father of Nur-Mahal 
 was presented to the emperor in the city of Fathpur. {Native 
 Historians^ vol. vi., p. 404.) 
 
Nur- Mahal, Empress of Hindustan 269 
 
 devote her life entirely to the memory of her 
 husband. She is buried in a tomb at Lahore, 
 near Jahangir. 
 
 It is almost impossible to compare the 
 career and talents of an Asiatic and a West- 
 ern ruler. The circumstances are utterly 
 unlike, and our familiar standards fail. Bad, 
 weak, and cruel as Jahangir was, he does not 
 seem more despicable than James I. of Eng- 
 land, for example, who was his contem- 
 porary. His empress was unsuccessful in 
 her plans, where no skill or wisdom would 
 have prevailed, while Elizabeth of England 
 succeeded in her policy. If we think of the 
 contemporaries of the Indian empress, we 
 shall not find her equal. We are forced to 
 go back to the great Elizabeth for a term of 
 comparison even. While she lived, Nur- 
 Mahal was the greatest personage in all 
 Asia, if not in the whole world. 
 
70 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 SHAH JAHAN AND AURANGZEB, EMPERORS OF 
 HINDUSTAN (a.D. 1628-1658 AND A.D. 
 1658-I707) 
 
 The reigns of these two princes are 
 recounted in a famous work by Monsieur 
 Bernier, a man no less intelligent than Sir 
 Thomas Roe. A preface to his volume 
 eives some small account of him. " Mon- 
 sieur Bernier, after he had benefited himself 
 for many years by the converse of the famous 
 Gassendi, and had seen him expire in his 
 arms, succeeded him in his knowledge, and 
 inherited his opinions and discoveries, (then) 
 embarked for Egypt, stayed above a whole 
 year at Cairo, and took the occasion of some 
 Indian vessels to pass to Surat, and abode 
 twelve years at the court of the Great 
 Mogul. His prudent conduct made him 
 merit the esteem of his generous master, 
 Fazel-Khan, who since is become the first 
 
SHAH JAHAN 
 
Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb 271 
 
 minister of that great empire, to whom he 
 taught the principal languages of Europe, 
 after he had translated for him the whole 
 philosophy of Gassendi from the Latin, and 
 whose leave he could not obtain to 0-0 home 
 
 o 
 
 till he had got for him a select number of 
 our best European books, thereby to sup- 
 ply the loss he should suffer of his person. 
 Never a traveller went from home more 
 capable to observe, nor hath written with 
 more knowledge, candor, and integrity." 
 
 And after this preface the history of 
 Bernier begins by reciting his arrival at 
 Surat in the year 1655. "I found that he 
 who reigned there was called Shah Jahan, 
 that is to say, king of the world. He was 
 the tenth of those who were descended from 
 Tamerlane, which signifieth the lame prince, 
 who married his near kinswoman, the only 
 daughter of the prince of the nations of 
 Great Tartary, called Moguls, who have 
 (thus) communicated their name to the 
 strangers that now govern Hindustan, the 
 country of the Indians, though those that 
 are employed in public charges and offices, 
 
272 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 and even those that are listed In the militia, 
 be (from) nations gathered out of all coun- 
 tries, most of them Persians, some Arabians, 
 and some Turks." 
 
 " I found also at my arrival that this Shah 
 Jahan, of above seventy years of age, had 
 four sons and two daughters ; that some 
 years since he had made these four sons 
 vice-kings, or governors of provinces ; that 
 it was almost a year that he was fallen into 
 a great sickness, whence it was believed he 
 would never recover ; which had occasioned 
 a great division among these four brothers 
 (all laying claim to the empire), and had 
 kindled among them a war which lasted 
 about five years, and which I design here to 
 describe." 
 
 We cannot follow the very Intelligent nar- 
 rative of Bernier of the rise of Aurangzeb, 
 one of the four sons, to power. This is 
 compactly set forth in the original work, 
 which is a large book of itself. The intrigue 
 is so close and constant that the narrative 
 can scarcely bear condensation. It is more 
 to my purpose to give in Bernier's own words 
 
Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb 273 
 
 some of the incidents of which he had per- 
 sonal knowledge. He was at this court in 
 the quality of a physician under salary from 
 one of the great lords who was, he says, " the 
 most knowing man in Asia." 
 
 It will be necessary to name the children 
 of the king : " The eldest of these four sons 
 was called Dara, that is, Darius ; the second 
 was called Sultan-Sujah, that is, the valiant 
 prince ; the name of the third was Aurang- 
 zeb, which signifies the ornament of the 
 throne ; that of the fourth was Morad- 
 Bakche, as if you should say, desire accom- 
 plished. The eldest daughter was called 
 Begum-Saheb, that is, the mistress princess; 
 and the youngest, Rauchenara-Begum, which 
 is as much as bright princess, or the splendor 
 of princesses." 
 
 Here is Bernier's penetrating estimate of 
 the character of the members of this nest of 
 tyrants : " Dara, the eldest son, wanted not 
 in good qualities. He was gallant, witty, 
 exceeding civil and liberal, but entertained 
 so good an opinion of his person that he was 
 intolerant of all counsel, so that even those 
 
2 74 ^'^^ Mogul Emperors 
 
 most affectionate to him were shy of dis- 
 covering secret intrigues to him. He was 
 extremely passionate in anger and affronted 
 even the greatest nobles. Though he was a 
 Muhammadan in public, he was, probably, 
 a mere heathen in private, and it is certain 
 that he encouraged both Hindus and Jesuits. 
 This laxness in religion was afterwards 
 turned much against his advantage in the 
 strupfSfles for the throne." * 
 
 " Sultan-Sujah, the second son, was much 
 of the humor of Dara, but he was more close 
 and more settled, and had better conduct and 
 dexterity." 
 
 " Aurangzeb, the third brother, had not 
 that gallantry nor surprising presence of 
 Dara ; he appeared more serious and melan- 
 choly, and, indeed, was much more judicious, 
 understanding the world very well. He was 
 reserved, crafty, and exceedingly versed in 
 dissembling ; inasmuch that for a long while 
 
 * Dara's adherents were chiefly Hindus, and the prince trans- 
 lated the Upanishads from Sanscrit into Persian. Professor Max 
 Miiller makes the curious remark that Dara's Persian version was 
 the basis of the Latin translation upon which Schopenhauer 
 declares that his system is founded. 
 
Shah Jahan and Atirangzeb 275 
 
 he made profession to be (2,) fakir, renounc- 
 ing the world, and feigning not to pretend at 
 all to the crown, but to desire to pass his life 
 in prayer and other devotions. In the mean- 
 time he failed not to make a party at court 
 with dexterity, art, and secrecy. He also 
 had the skill to maintain himself in the affec- 
 tion of Shah Jahan, his father." 
 
 " Morad-Bakche, the youngest of all, was 
 the least dextrous and the least judicious. 
 He cared for nothing but mirth and pastime, 
 to drink, hunt and shoot ; he was very civil 
 and liberal, despised cabals, and bragged 
 openly that he trusted only in his arm and 
 sword." 
 
 " Concerning the two daughters, the eld- 
 est, Begum-Saheh was very beautiful and a 
 great wit, passionately beloved of her father. 
 It was even rumored that he loved her to 
 that degree as is hardly to be imagined. He 
 had given her charge to watch over his safety 
 and to have an eye to all that came to his 
 table, and she knew perfectly to manage his 
 humor, and to bend him as she pleased. 
 She stuck entirely to Dara, and espoused 
 
276 The Mog^il Emperors 
 
 cordially his part, because he had promised 
 her that so soon as he should come to the 
 crown he would (find a husband for her) ; 
 which is almost never practiced in Indostan" 
 (as the royal princesses were so far in rank 
 above any subjects). 
 
 Bernier relates one of the adventures of 
 this princess, as " they are not amours like 
 ours, but attended with events dreadful and 
 tragical." It appears that she received one 
 of her lovers into her apartments, and that, 
 as Shah Jahan was about to enter, she had 
 nowhere to conceal him except in one of the 
 large hot-water caldrons made to bathe in. 
 The emperor feigned to see nothing, but 
 after a long visit sternly commanded a fire 
 to be built beneath the bath, and did not 
 leave till the man was dead. 
 
 " Her sister, Rauchenara-Begum, never 
 passed for so handsome and witty as Begum- 
 Saheb, but she was not less cheerful, and 
 comely enough, and hated pleasures no more 
 than her sister ; but she addicted herself 
 wholly to Aurangzeb, and consequently de- 
 clared herself an enemy to Begum-Saheb and 
 
Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb 277 
 
 to Dara." Mumtaz-i-Mahal, their mother, 
 had been dead for some years, and was buried 
 in her glorious tomb, the Taj-Mahal. She 
 died in giving birth to the younger sister. 
 
 " So Shah Jahan, finding himself charged 
 with these four princes, all come of age, all 
 pretending to the crown, enemies to one 
 another, and each of them secretly forming 
 a party, was perplexed enough as to what 
 was fittest for him to do." They were too 
 powerful to be imprisoned, and he was con- 
 strained to set them over distant parts of the 
 empire, though this course gave each of them 
 power and an army of his own. 
 
 A trifling incident placed Aurangzeb in 
 alliance with Emir-Jemla, wazir of Golconda. 
 These two great men were not long together 
 till they framed large designs. And, first of 
 all, the emperor was presented with "that 
 great diamond which is esteemed matchless.* 
 Presents and intrigue put the two friends 
 into the possession of new powers, and gave 
 them new armies ; and every gain to them 
 seemed a loss to Dara, who was with his 
 
 * This was the Kohinur. 
 
278 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 father at court. In the midst of these events 
 Shah Jahan fell sick, and it was thought he 
 must die. 
 
 Mighty armies were raised by Dara at 
 Agra and Delhi ; by Sultan-Sujah in Ben- 
 gal ; by Aurangzeb in the Deccan ; by 
 Morad-Bakche in Guzarat. Aurangzeb ca- 
 joled the latter into joining forces with him, 
 and the two set out for Agra to take posses- 
 sion of the kingdom should their father be 
 dead ; " to kiss his feet should he be alive, 
 and to deliver him from the hands of Dara." 
 In a letter to Morad, Aurangzeb says, "I 
 need not remind you, my brother, how re- 
 pugnant to my real disposition are the toils 
 of government. While Dara and Sultan- 
 Sujah are tormented with a thirst for do- 
 minion, I sigh only for the life of 2. fakir." 
 
 " What, then, should Shah Jahan, this un- 
 fortunate king, do, who seeth that his sons 
 have no regard to his orders ; who is informed 
 at all hours that they march apace towards 
 Agra at the head of their armies, and who at 
 this conjuncture finds himself sick, to boot, 
 in the hands of Dara, that is, of a man who 
 
Shah Jahan and Atirangzeb 279 
 
 breatheth nothing but war ; who prepareth for 
 it with all the marks of an enraged resent- 
 ment against his brothers? But what could 
 he do in this extremity? He is constrained 
 to abandon to them his treasures. He is 
 forced to send for his old and most trusty- 
 captains, whom he knows for the most part 
 to be not very affectionate to Dara ; he must 
 command them to fio:ht for Dara agfainst his 
 own blood, his own children, and those for 
 whom he had more esteem than for Dara; 
 he is obliged forthwith to send armies against 
 them all." 
 
 The first battle was a decided victory for 
 Aurangzeb and Morad-Bakche, and they 
 were not far from Agra.* Immediately 
 all were in arms. An army of one hun- 
 dred thousand horse, twenty thousand foot, 
 and four thousand cannon was levied for 
 the cause of Dara, who forced a great battle 
 in which he was hopelessly defeated and 
 
 * In this battle the Jiowdah of Prince Murad's elephant "was 
 stuck thick with arrows as a porcupine with quills." It was long 
 preserved as a curiosity, " also as a memorial of the bravery of a 
 descendant of Timur." 
 
28o The Mogul Emperors 
 
 obliged to fly in desperate case, while his 
 victorious brothers came to the gates of 
 Agra, where presently the emperor's guards 
 were overpowered and he was subject to their 
 wilh " If ever man was astonished, Shah 
 Jahan was, seeing that he was fallen into 
 the snare which he had prepared for 
 others, that himself was imprisoned, and 
 Aurangzeb master of the fortress." 
 
 In a short time Morad-Bakche was im- 
 prisoned by his wily brother, and soon 
 done to death by violence. Sultan-Sujah 
 was defeated in a pitched battle as Dara 
 had been, and was again. All things fell 
 out contrary to both these vanquished and 
 unfortunate men. By a strange accident 
 Bernier met Dara after his worst defeat, 
 and saw him march away with an escort of 
 no more than five hundred cavalry, he who 
 had led hundreds of thousands. A few days 
 later he again saw him in chains, a prisoner, 
 borne on an elephant through the streets of 
 Delhi. 
 
 "This was none of those brave elephants 
 of Ceylon or Pegu, that he was wont to 
 
Shah Jahan and Atirangzeb 281 
 
 ride on, with gilt harness and embroidered 
 covers ; it was an old caitiff animal, very 
 dirty and nasty, with an old torn cover 
 and a pitiful seat all open to the sun. 
 There was no more seen about him that 
 necklace of big pearls which those princes 
 are wont to wear. All his dress was a 
 vest of coarse linen, all dirty, with a tur- 
 ban of the same, and a wretched scarf over 
 his head like a varlet." 
 
 By the vehement advice of his youngest 
 sister, Rauchenara-Begum, he was put to 
 death, and his bloody head was brought 
 to Aurangzeb, that he might see ; " which, 
 when brought, he wiped it with a handker- 
 chief, and after he was satisfied it was the 
 very head of Dara, he fell a-weeping, say- 
 ing, * Ah, unfortunate man ! Take it away 
 and bury it. ' " 
 
 The family of Dara was disposed of either 
 by death or by imprisonment. Sultan-Sujah 
 fled to the sea-shore by the Ganges' mouth, 
 and after incredible sufferings perished in 
 his flight. Shah Jahan was confined in a vir- 
 tual prison until his death. The walls of his 
 
282 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 apartments were covered with gilding, but 
 the monarch ordered them to be smeared 
 over with rough mortar as more suited to 
 his humbled condition ; and in his last 
 days he grew very devout. 
 
 " And thus endeth this war, which the 
 lust of reigning had kindled among those 
 four brothers, after it had lasted five or 
 six years, from 1655 to 1660 or 1661, which 
 left Aurangzeb in the peaceable possession 
 of this puissant empire." 
 
 " To conclude, I doubt not that most 
 of those who shall have read my history, 
 will judge the ways taken by Aurangzeb 
 for getting the empire very violent and 
 horrid. 
 
 " I pretend not to plead for him, but 
 desire only that before he be altogether 
 condemned, reflection be made on the 
 unhappy custom of this state, which, leav- 
 ing the possession of the crown undecided, 
 exposeth it to the conquest of the strong- 
 est. I am persuaded that those who shall 
 a little weigh this whole history, will not 
 take Aurangzeb for a barbarian, but for a 
 
Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb 283 
 
 great and rare genius, a great statesman, 
 and a great king. " 
 
 At the beginning of his reign Aurangzeb 
 received with admirable wisdom his former 
 tutor who had come to court expecting great 
 advancement. The interview is reported by 
 Bernier directly from the recital of one who 
 was present. 
 
 " * What is it that you would have of me? 
 Can you reasonably desire that I should 
 make you one of the chief noblemen of my 
 court ? Let me tell you, if you had 
 instructed me as you should have done, 
 nothing would have been more just. But 
 where are those good documents you should 
 have given me ? In the first place you have 
 taught me that all Europe was nothing but 
 I know not what little island, of which the 
 greatest king was he of Portugal, and next 
 he of Holland, and after him, he of England ; 
 and as to the other kings, you have repre- 
 sented them to me as our petty rajahs, 
 telling me that they tremble at the names 
 of the kings of Indostan. Admirable geog- 
 raphy ! You should rather have taught me 
 
284 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 exactly to distinguish all those different 
 states of the world and to well understand 
 their strength, their way of fighting, their 
 customs, religions, governments, and inter- 
 ests. I have scarce learned of you the 
 names of my grandsires, the famous found- 
 ers of this empire. You had a mind to 
 teach me the Arabian tongue. I am much 
 obliged to you, forsooth, for having made 
 me lose so much time upon a language, as 
 if the son of a king should think it to be 
 an honor to him to be a grammarian ; he 
 to whom time is so precious for so many 
 weighty things, which he ought betimes to 
 learn. . . . Ought you not to have 
 instructed me on one point, at least, so essen- 
 tial to be known by a king, namely, on the 
 reciprocal duties between the sovereign and 
 his subjects ? Did you ever instruct me in 
 the art of war, how to besiege a town, or 
 draw up an army in battle array ? Happy for 
 me that I consulted wiser heads than thine 
 on these subjects ! Go ! withdraw to thy vil- 
 lage. Henceforth let no person know either 
 who thou art, or what is become of thee.' 
 
Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb 285 
 
 " And thus did Aurangzeb resent the pe- 
 dantic instructions of his tutor." * 
 
 Bernier's narrative has great merit, and it 
 has been given consecutively without inter- 
 ruption from other authorities, for several 
 reasons. In the first place, it is a recital 
 which we can understand, since it is written 
 by one of ourselves— an Occidental. He 
 was especially qualified as an observer, for 
 he was the friend and pupil of the learned 
 Gassendi, and fully acquainted with classic 
 and Western knowledge. He was the phy- 
 sician and friend of the most learned man of 
 the court of the Great Mogul, and had special 
 opportunities for knowing the events of the 
 time. In one instance, at least, he is able to 
 
 * I am tempted to add in a foot-note the instructions given by 
 the great Caliph Haroun-al-Raschid to his mentor Al-Asma'i. 
 
 " Never undertake to teach me in public, and do not be too 
 anxious to give me advice in private. Make it your custom to wait 
 till I ask you, and when I do so, give me a precise answer void of 
 all superfluity. When you see that I am departing from the way 
 of equity in my decisions, lead me back again with gentleness, and 
 without harsh words or reprimands. Instruct me principally in 
 such things as are most requisite for my public speeches, and never 
 employ obscure or mysterious terms or recondite words." 
 
 There spoke a tyrant who understood human nature in general, 
 and his own nature in particular. 
 
286 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 report a conversation which the emperor 
 had in private, from the direct report of his 
 master who was present. At least one of 
 the emperor's letters which he quotes, he 
 actually saw in the original. 
 
 His work was written after his return to 
 Europe, when he had no reason to tell any- 
 thing but the exact truth. He had nothing 
 to fear from the displeasure, and nothing to 
 hope from the favor, of the court. This 
 cannot be said for the native historians of 
 India. They wrote for the eye and ear of 
 the monarch, and their narratives usually 
 represent the official view of past events. 
 In certain cases the native author has not 
 published his history during his lifetime, but 
 kept it secret, and has spoken freely. His 
 family, in this case, suffered in his stead for 
 the posthumous publication.* 
 
 On the other hand, the native historians 
 had the great advantage of first-hand knowl- 
 edge such as a foreigner could but rarely 
 possess. 
 
 The extracts which follow have been 
 
 * This was notably the case of Bedauni. (See Chapter IV.) 
 
Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb 287 
 
 chosen from Sir Henry Elliott's invaluable 
 collection, for the purpose of illustrating the 
 characters of the rulers and of their times. 
 Little attention has been paid to the his- 
 torical sequence of events. Knowledge of 
 this sort must be sought for in professed 
 histories, like those of Elphinstone and Hun- 
 ter, Mill and Elliott. 
 
 Shah Jahan. 
 
 A glimpse of Shah Jahan when he was but 
 crown-prince is given in the narrative of Sir 
 Thomas Roe, who says : " I never saw so 
 settled a countenance, nor any man keep so 
 constant a gravity, never smiling, nor in face 
 showing any respect or difference of men, 
 but mingled with extreme pride and con- 
 tempt of all." He was then but twenty-five 
 years old, cold, haughty, silent, a competent 
 soldier, an able administrator. " He was flat- 
 tered by some, envied by others, loved by 
 none." The inevitable struggles for the suc- 
 cession to the throne of his father, Jahangir, 
 brought him into sharp conflict with his 
 
288 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 brothers, his father, and the Empress Nur- 
 Mahal. 
 
 The professional historian is condemned 
 to the dreary task of following their wars 
 and conquests if he wishes to understand the 
 course of political events. But these events 
 throw little light on the character of the 
 personages. Everywhere we find the Hindu 
 husbandman living in his village and flying 
 at the approach of all comers. If they are 
 on a peaceful mission, he must furnish pro- 
 vision for their beasts; if they are bent on 
 war, his fields are ravaged. Above the 
 husbandman we have the soldier, the petty 
 chief, the over-lord, the great noble, the 
 king — all of them warriors, and all " craving 
 for action." Their expeditions were all alike, 
 and the history could be prepared before- 
 hand on one of two models — either the war 
 was successful or not so. The same strata- 
 gems appear and reappear. On the death 
 of a king, his sons strive for the succession. 
 The army of each pretender, at first small, is 
 reenforced by those who have much to gain or 
 little to lose. The unsuccessful princes fly 
 
Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb 289 
 
 to Persia, go on the pilgrimage to Mecca, are 
 imprisoned for life, are blinded with hot irons, 
 according to the degree of the discomfiture 
 or the mildness of the king's temper. The 
 recital of the details of these events is 
 monotonous a dorm-ir debotU; unless, indeed, 
 from time to time we can catch some glimpse 
 of the real personality of the ruler, and hear 
 his very accents or read his very writings. 
 
 The reign of Shah Jahan is even less 
 eventful than that of Jahangir in these 
 respects. It was peaceful because he left 
 none of his rivals alive. It is memorable 
 through the surpassing loveliness of the 
 public buildings which he caused to be 
 erected. 
 
 The Taj-Mahal, "a dream in marble, 
 designed by Titans and finished by jewel- 
 lers;"* the Pearl Mosque of Agra, "the 
 
 * Bernier says of the Taj that it was raised in honor of Taj- 
 Bibi, Mumtaz-i-Mahal, " his wife, that extraordinary and celebrated 
 beauty of the Indies, whom he loved so passionately that it is said 
 he never enjoyed any other woman while she lived, and that when 
 she died he was in danger to die himself." The Taj has been 
 described a thousand times, but never with more delicate insight 
 than by M. Andre Chevrillon in the Revue des Deux Mondes, 
 19 
 
290 The Mogtd Emperors 
 
 purest and loveliest house of prayer in the 
 world ; " the great mosque of Delhi ; the 
 palace of the same royal city — these noble 
 and exquisite constructions will make his 
 reign famous forever. The early period of 
 cruelty to his enemies and extermination of 
 the rival claimants to the throne was suc- 
 ceeded by an era of peace, prosperity, and 
 magnificence by which alone he is now 
 remembered. 
 
 The public buildings absorbed enormous 
 sums. The famous "peacock throne" was 
 alone valued at above sixty million dollars. * 
 One of its rubies was " upwards of three 
 fingers' breadths wide {sic) by two in length." 
 This was, perhaps, the famous stone, "the 
 tribute of the world," given by Shah Abbas 
 of Persia to Jahangir. The royal treasuries 
 overflowed with jewels and gold and silver. 
 
 vol. civ, page 91 (1891). Mumtaz-i-Mahal has no public history. 
 While she lived the king was held captive in the tresses of her 
 hair ; she bore him many sons and daughters ; at her death he was 
 like to die ; in her memory he raised the chief building of the round 
 world : this is all her history, and it is enough. 
 
 * According to Tavernier, a French jeweller, who travelled in 
 India. 
 
Shah Jahan and Atcrangzeb 291 
 
 ** In the course of years many valuable 
 gems had come into the imperial jewel- 
 house, each one of which might serve as 
 an eardrop for Venus." These were given 
 to the chief goldsmith to make the fa- 
 mous throne. Its canopy was literally 
 covered with gems and was supported by 
 twelve columns set with pearls. On the 
 top of the canopy was a peacock with ex- 
 tended tail thick set with gems. The 
 three steps were incrusted with precious 
 stones. This throne remained the wonder 
 of India until it was carried away by Nadir- 
 Shah, in 1739. -^^ ^s still to be seen in 
 Teheran, but its chief jewels have been 
 displaced and dispersed. It is even now 
 valued at thirteen million dollars."^ 
 
 Tavernier the jeweller has his word to say 
 of the Taj-Mahal. "Of all the tombs which 
 one sees at Agra, that of the wife of Shah 
 Jahan is the most splendid. It is at the east 
 
 * There were six other thrones, Tavernier says, and the native 
 historians describe one which was also ornamented with peacocks, 
 arranged two and two. See a paper by Dr. Ball, on the engraved 
 gems of the Moguls, in Proc. R. Irish Acad., vol. iii., p. 3S0. 
 
292 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 end of the town, by the side of the river, in 
 a great square surrounded by walls. This 
 square is a kind of garden divided into com- 
 partments like our parterres, but in the 
 places where we put gravel there is white 
 and black marble. ... I witnessed the 
 commencement and accomplishment of this 
 great work, on which they have expended 
 twenty-two years, during which twenty 
 thousand men worked incessantly. . . . 
 Shah Jahan began to build his own tomb on 
 the other side of the river, but the war which 
 he had with his sons interrupted his plan, 
 and Aurangzeb, who reigns at present, is not 
 disposed to complete it." Tavernier has 
 also left an expert's opinion on the crown- 
 jewels, which he was permitted to examine 
 at leisure. The curious in such matters 
 should consult his Travels in India, edited 
 by V. Ball. 
 
 - Shah Jahan's entertainments were on a 
 magnificent scale. The festival given on 
 his accession, together with the presents to 
 his officers, cost eight million dollars. His 
 gifts to the two sacred cities were on a 
 
Shah Jahan and Aura7igzeb 293 
 
 corresponding scale. " Among the events 
 of this year was the despatch of a candle- 
 stick studded with gems to the revered 
 tomb of the Prophet (in Medina), on whom 
 be the greatest favors and blessings." The 
 candlestick was of amber, and weighed 
 about eighteen pounds, and it was literally- 
 covered with gems, including a monster 
 diamond from Golconda, which alone was 
 valued at over seventy-five thousand dol- 
 lars. '* One of the subject provinces was 
 taxed to provide magnificent gifts besides, 
 and a special embassy was sent to the 
 holy cities under the charge of a descend- 
 ant of the Prophet (on whom be the 
 peace)." All these and other splendors 
 were dispersed when the sacred cities were 
 despoiled by the Wahabees. 
 
 This lavish expenditure was the mark of 
 a peaceful and prosperous reign. The king 
 was not oppressive, and in his later years 
 grew to be kind ; the revenue was plenty, 
 and the surplus was devoted to immense 
 government works. He was certainly very 
 popular with his officers, especially in the 
 
294 "^^^^ Mogtil Emperors 
 
 latter part of his reign. It is to be noted 
 that most of the anecdotes of Shah Jahan 
 which have come down to us represent the 
 king as always worsted in an exchange of 
 repartee. 
 
 Rai Bhara Mai says that In Shah Jahan's 
 happy times the prosperity of the land was 
 greatly increased ; that domains which in 
 Akbar's reign yielded but three lacs, now 
 yielded ten, and that this was the rule with 
 some few exceptions. " Notwithstanding the 
 great area of the country, complaints were 
 so few that only one day in the week, 
 Wednesday, was fixed upon for the admin- 
 istration of justice; and it was rarely even 
 then that twenty plaintiffs were found." 
 
 The subordinate courts in the country 
 districts seem to have been organized with 
 full liberty of appeal, so that finally only 
 cases of blood feuds and concerning reli- 
 gious matters came directly to the king. 
 
 Attrangzeb. 
 
 Bernier has given strong evidence to the 
 great qualities of Aurangzeb. The native 
 
Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb 295 
 
 writers, each in his own way, confirm the 
 judgment. I have extracted a few para- 
 graphs from the very complete histories of 
 this reign, and have given some of the 
 emperor's own letters almost in full ; but I 
 refer to the succeeding chapter — " The Ruin 
 of Aurangzeb" — for a masterly picture of the 
 whole career of the puritan emperor, from 
 his austere youth to the troubled ending 
 of his power. 
 
 The Habits and Manners of the Emperor 
 Aurangzeb. 
 
 " Be it known to the readers of this work 
 that this humble slave of the Almighty is 
 o-oinof to describe in a correct manner the 
 excellent character, the worthy habits, and 
 the refined morals of this most virtuous 
 monarch, according as he has witnessed 
 them with his own eyes." 
 
 " The emperor, a great worshipper of 
 God by natural propensity, is remarkable 
 for his rigid attachment to religion." He 
 regularly makes the appointed ablutions, 
 prayers, fasts, and vigils. Several pages 
 
296 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 are devoted to a list of his meritorious 
 acts. " In his sacred court no word of 
 backbiting or falsehood is allowed ; " which 
 must have been a blessing in a country of 
 intrigue, and a glaring novelty in courts. 
 
 " Under the dictates of anger or passion 
 he never issues orders of death." " Islam is 
 everywhere triumphant, and the Hindu tem- 
 ples are destroyed." " All the mosques in 
 the empire are repaired at the public ex- 
 pense." A digest of all the theological 
 works in the royal library was ordered to 
 be prepared, so that any inquirer might 
 satisfy himself on the points of orthodoxy. 
 The very essence of the long reign — its 
 leit-motiv — was the return from the worship 
 of strange gods to Islam. 
 
 "The emperor himself is perfectly ac- 
 quainted with the commentaries, traditions, 
 and law ; and he learned the Kuran by 
 heart after ascending the throne. He even 
 made two copies of it with his own hand, 
 which he sent to the two holy cities." 
 
 '' So long as nature keeps the garden of 
 the world fresh, may the plant of the pros- 
 
Shah /a hail and Attrangzeb 297 
 
 perity of this preserver of the garden of 
 dignity and honor continue fruitful." The 
 four daughters of Aurangzeb were all pious. 
 One of them knew the Kuran by heart. 
 Another was an Arabic and Persian scholar 
 in prose and poetry, and learned in the 
 Muhammadan law, having been taught 
 under the emperor's own eyes. 
 
 It is interestinp' to take note of the effect 
 of intermarriages upon the purity of blood of 
 the (so-called) Mogul emperors. Babar was 
 the sixth in direct descent from Tamerlane, 
 and was of pure Turki stock In the male 
 line. His mother, however, was a pure 
 Mogul, a descendant of Chenglz-Khan. 
 Babar was, therefore, partly Turki and 
 partly Mogul. One of his wives was 
 Maham-Begam, a relation of Sultan Husein 
 Mirza of Herat ; and Humayun, the suc- 
 cessor of Babar, was her son. There is 
 every reason to believe that Humayun's 
 mother was pure Turki. Her father was a 
 direct descendant of Tamerlane. 
 
 Humayun made a rash marriage of incli- 
 nation during the period of his misfortunes 
 
298 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 and wanderings (a.d. 1541). At his brother, 
 Prince Hindal's, camp he married the young 
 daughter of Hindal's preceptor, Sheikh AH 
 Akbar Jami ; she was not fourteen years of 
 age, and far below the emperor in rank, al- 
 though she was a descendant of the Prophet, 
 and counted at least one saint among her 
 ancestors. Her father's family was from 
 Khorassan. Her name was Hamida.* 
 
 Akbar the Great was the son of Hamida ; 
 and his son Jahangir was born of Akbar's 
 marriage with the daughter of a Hindu 
 rajah, Bihari Mal.f Shah Jahan, his suc- 
 cessor, was the son of Jahangir's first wife, 
 the granddaughter of the Rajah Maldeo of 
 Jodhpur. 
 
 Shah Jahan's favorite queen and the 
 mother of all his sons was Mumtaz-i- Mahal, 
 the niece of Nur-Mahal (Jahangir's queen), 
 the daughter of Asaf-Khan, the grand- 
 daughter of Mirza Ghiyas Beg, a Persian. 
 Aurangzeb, the emperor, was the son of 
 
 * Her title was Maryam Makani — dwelling with the Virgin 
 Mary. She was not a Christian, 
 
 f Her title was the Maryam uzzamani — Mary of the age, of the 
 period. 
 
Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb 299 
 
 Mumtaz-i-Mahal, and had, therefore, but 
 little Turki blood in his veins. The char- 
 acters of the male ancestors are well known. 
 Of the female we know next to nothing, 
 excepting always the famous Empress Nur- 
 Mahal. 
 
 In a general way the effect of the Hindu 
 strain of blood is not difficult to trace in 
 the characters of the successive monarchs as 
 we follow the line from the frank, bold, 
 generous Babar, through the humaner, and 
 though not less adventurous, Akbar, to 
 Jahangir, the indolent and self-indulgent 
 king, down to Shah Jahan, who was, in his 
 youth at least, the very model of a magnifi- 
 cent, cold, and aristocratic Hindu. 
 
 The chief characteristics of Aurangzeb's 
 reign are to be attributed more to his 
 bigoted Muhammadanism than to his tem- 
 perament. When we consider that all these 
 kings are of the stock of Chengiz-Khan and 
 of the Amir Timur, the gradual thinning of 
 that savage blood by the richer, more 
 luxurious Hindu and Persian streams de- 
 serves at least this brief digression. 
 
300 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 On occasion, Aurangzeb could be as cruel 
 as Timur himself. When Sambha and Kab- 
 kalas were taken prisoners, and were abusive 
 to him while in chains before the throne, he 
 ordered their tongues to be cut out, " that 
 they might no longer speak disrespectfully." 
 " After that their eyes were to be torn out," 
 and finally they, with ten others, were put to 
 death with a variety of tortures. These 
 were Hindus, " infidels " (not Muhamma- 
 dans), however. 
 
 Shah Jahan was kept closely in the citadel 
 at the end of his reign, and Aurangzeb 
 communicated with him only by letters. In 
 one of them he states his position with 
 apparent humility, and, recounting his vic- 
 tories over his brothers, hopes " soon to be 
 free of this business." " It is clear to your 
 Majesty that Almighty Allah bestows his 
 trusts upon one who discharges the duty of 
 cherishing his subjects and protecting the 
 people. It is manifest and clear to wise men 
 that a wolf is not fit for a shepherd, and that 
 no poor-spirited man can perform the great 
 duty of governing. Sovereignty signifies 
 
Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb 301 
 
 protection of the people, not self-indulgence 
 and libertinism." Thus proudly, though in 
 outwardly respectful form, he justifies his 
 course to his captive father and king, who 
 had been a wolf and not a shepherd. 
 
 His crafty spirit appears in one of his 
 letters to Murad Bakhsh, where he says : '' I 
 have not the slightest liking for, or wish to 
 take any part in, the government of this 
 deceitful and unstable world ; my only desire 
 is, that I may make the pilgrimage (to 
 Mecca). But whatever course you may take 
 against our brother (Dara), you may con- 
 sider me your sincere friend and ally." 
 When Murad was a prisoner in Aurangzeb's 
 camp, it was necessary to send him away 
 secretly, for fear of a rescue. Four elephants 
 were prepared, and were sent under escort in 
 four different directions. On one of these 
 the captive prince was placed, but his 
 partisans could not tell on which one, and 
 dared not attack all four. Though Aurang- 
 zeb was endowed with every kind of courage, 
 physical and moral, he was ever crafty and 
 suspicious. It was not in his nature to be 
 
302 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 frankly bold like Babar ; but as age came on 
 he grew kinder and more indulgent to erring 
 human nature, though no less distrustful 
 of it. 
 
 He journeyed with Wariness, and where he halted 
 There Wariness halted herself, his comrade. 
 
 We have a picture of the king in the 
 seventy-sixth year of his age, by Gemelli, 
 a Neapolitan traveller. It is worth quota- 
 tion, though it is but a superficial and trivial 
 portrait at the best. The Neapolitan could 
 not comprehend a nature like the emperor's. 
 
 '' Soon after, the king came in, leaning on 
 a staff forked at the top, abundance of court- 
 iers going before him. He had on a white 
 vest, a turban of the same white stuff, and 
 tied with a gold web, on which an emerald 
 of a vast bigness appeared amidst four little 
 ones. A silk sash covered the Indian dagger 
 hanging at the left. His shoes were after 
 the Moorish fashion, and his legs naked, 
 without hose. Two servants put away the 
 flies with long white horse-tails ; another, at 
 the same time, keeping off the sun with a 
 green umbrella. The king was of low stature, 
 
Shah Jahan and A^trangzeb 30 
 
 :i^3 
 
 with a large nose, slender and stooping with 
 age (he was now seventy-six years old, as 
 has been said). The whiteness of his round 
 beard was more visible on his olive-colored 
 skin. When he was seated, they gave him 
 his cimeter and buckler, which he laid down 
 on his left side, within the throne. Then he 
 made a sign with his hand for those that had 
 business to draw near ; who being come up, 
 two secretaries, standing, took their petitions, 
 which they delivered to the king, telling him 
 their contents. I admired to see him indorse 
 them with his own hand, without spectacles, 
 and by his cheerful, smiling countenance seem 
 pleased with the employment." 
 
 After the audience of the king's sons and 
 grandsons and the great officers was over, 
 the king retired, and the court returned to 
 their tents, led by the provost-marshal, who 
 was preceded by a great trumpet of green 
 copper eight spans long. " That foolish 
 trumpet made me laugh, because it made a 
 noise much like that our swine-herds make 
 to call together their swine at night." 
 
 In the fiftieth year of the reign, when he 
 
304 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 was eighty-eight years old, Aurangzeb fell 
 seriously ill. His son, Azam-Shah, wrote 
 for leave to visit him, urging that the air 
 of his station did not agree with his health. 
 "This displeased the emperor, who replied 
 that he had once written a letter of exactly 
 the same effect to his father, Shah Jahan, 
 when he was ill, and that he was told in 
 answer that every air {hawa) was suitable to 
 a man, except the fumes {haw a) of ambition." 
 Aurangzeb writes to his two sons not long 
 before his death. To his heir he says : 
 " Health to thee ! My heart is near thee. 
 Old age has arrived ; weakness subdues me. 
 I came a stranger into this world, and a 
 stranger I depart, knowing nothing of myself, 
 what I am, or for what I am destined. The 
 instant which has passed in power hath left 
 only sorrow behind it. I have not been the 
 guardian and protector of the empire. My 
 valuable time has been passed vainly. I have 
 a dread for my salvation and with what tor- 
 ments I may be punished. Though I have 
 strong reliance on the mercies of Allah, yet 
 regarding my actions fear will not quit me. 
 
Shah Jahan and Atcrafigzeb 305 
 
 Come, then, what may, I have launched my 
 vessel in the waves. Give my last prayer to 
 my grandson, whom I cannot see, but the 
 desire affects me. The Begam (his daugh- 
 ter) appears afBicted ; but Allah is the only 
 judge of hearts. The foolish thoughts of 
 women produce nothing but disappointment. 
 Farewell. Farewell. Farewell." 
 
 To his younger and most beloved son, 
 the Prince Kam-Bakhsh, he writes : " My son, 
 nearest to my heart. . . . Now I depart a 
 stranger, and lament my own insignificance, 
 what does it profit me ? I carry with me 
 the fruits of my own sins and imperfections. 
 Surprising Providence ! I came here alone, 
 and alone I depart. ... Be cautious that 
 none of the faithful are slain (in the troubles 
 which he foresees will arise), or that their 
 miseries fall upon my head. The agonies of 
 death come fast upon me. The courtiers, 
 however deceitful, yet must not be ill-treated. 
 It is necessary to gain your ends by gentle- 
 ness and art. I am going. . . . What- 
 ever good or evil I have done, it was for 
 you. . . . No one has seen the departure 
 
3o6 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 of his own soul, but I see that mine is 
 departing." 
 
 To him the moral of his long reign was 
 that all is vanity. He, like the Caliph 
 Abdulrahman of Spain, might say : " Fifty 
 years have I reigned, and in so long a course 
 of time I count but fourteen days which have 
 not been poisoned by some vexation." 
 
 When the emperor was nearly ninety years 
 old, and had reigned fifty years, he departed 
 to the mercy of Allah. He left a will ; and 
 in a letter he renounced the pomp of a 
 magnificent tomb, " Carry this creature of 
 dust quickly to the first burial place, and 
 consign him to the earth without any use- 
 less coffin," he wrote. His funeral expenses 
 were paid from money which he had himself 
 earned by transcribing the Kuran, and they 
 were limited to the smallest possible sum. 
 According to the will of the king, his mortal 
 remains were to be deposited in a tomb con- 
 structed during his lifetime. "A red stone 
 three yards in length, two in width, and only 
 a few inches in depth, is placed above the 
 tomb. On this stone was hollowed out a 
 
Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb 307 
 
 place for the reception of earth and seeds, 
 and odoriferous herbs there diffused their 
 fragrance round about." 
 
 One of Auranorzeb's higrh nobles has left us 
 an affecting account of the emperor's death. 
 " My attachment to his majesty was so great 
 that, observing his life to be drawing to a 
 close, I did not wish to quit the presence. 
 The emperor called me to him and said : 
 ' Separation now takes place between us, and 
 our meeting again is uncertain. Forgive, 
 then, whatever wittingly or unwittingly I 
 may have done against thee, and pronounce 
 the words I forgive, three times, with sincerity 
 of heart. As thou hast served me long, I 
 also forgive thee whatever knowingly or 
 otherwise thou mayst have done against me.' 
 Upon hearing these words sobs became like 
 a knot In my throat, and I had not power to 
 speak. At last, after his majesty had repeat- 
 edly pressed me, I made a shift to pronounce 
 the words I forgive, three times, interrupted 
 by heavy sobs. He shed many tears, re- 
 peated the words, and, after blessing me, 
 ordered me to retire." 
 
3o8 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 Khafi-Khan, who knew Aurangzeb well, 
 writes of him that " of all the sovereigns of 
 the house of Timur, no one has ever been 
 so distinguished for devotion, austerity, and 
 justice. In courage, long-suffering, and 
 sound judgment he was unrivalled. But, 
 from reverence to the injunctions of the law, 
 he did not make use of punishment ; and 
 without punishment the administration of a 
 country cannot be maintained." " So every 
 plan and project that he formed came 
 (finally) to little good." 
 
 He was the last of the Mogul kings who 
 can be called great. 
 

 
 AURANGZEB 
 
The Ruin of Atirangzeb 309 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE RUIN OF AURANGZEB ; OR THE HISTORY 
 OF A REACTION * 
 
 By Sir William Wilson Hunter, LL.D., K.C.S.I., 
 
 C.I.E., ETC. 
 
 When Dr. Johnson wanted a modern ex- 
 ample of The Vajiity of Human Wishes, he 
 took the career of the Royal Swede. But 
 during the same period that witnessed the 
 brief glories of Charles the Twelfth in 
 Europe, a more appalling tragedy of wrecked 
 ambition was being enacted in the East. 
 Within a year of Charles's birth in 1681, 
 Aurangzeb, the last of the Great Mughals, 
 set out with his grand army for Southern 
 India. Within a year of Charles's fatal 
 
 * It is necessary to explicitly say in this place that the British 
 copyright in this chapter is the property of Sir William Wilson 
 Hunter, the author of it, by whose kind permission it is repro- 
 duced in this American book ; with the authority, however, to 
 circulate it in England and the Colonies. 
 
 Edward S. Holden. 
 
3IO The Mogul Emperors 
 
 march to Russia In 1708, Aurangzeb's grand 
 army lay shattered by a quarter of a century 
 of victory and defeat ; Aurangzeb himself 
 was dying of old age and a broken heart ; 
 while his enemies feasted around his starv- 
 ing camp, and prayed heaven for long life 
 to a sovereign In whose obstinacy and de- 
 spair they placed their firmest hopes. The 
 Indian emperor and the Swedish king were 
 alike men of severe simplicity of life, of the 
 highest personal courage, and of Indomit- 
 able will. The memory of both Is stained by 
 great crimes. History can never forget that 
 Charles broke an ambassador on the wheel, 
 and that Aurangzeb Imprisoned his father 
 and murdered his brethren. 
 
 But here the analogy ends. As the Indian 
 emperor fought and conquered in a wider 
 arena, so was his character laid out on 
 grander lines, and his catastrophe came on 
 a mightier scale. He knew how to turn 
 back the torrent of defeat, by commanding 
 his elephant's legs to be chained to the 
 ground in the thick of the battle, with a 
 swift yet deliberate valour which Charles 
 
7^ he Ruin of Atirangzeb 311 
 
 might have envied. He could spread the 
 meshes of a homicidal intrigue, enjoying all 
 the time the most lively consolations of reli- 
 gion ; and he could pursue a State policy 
 with humane repugnance to the necessary 
 crimes, yet with an inflexible assent to them, 
 which Richelieu would have admired. From 
 the meteoric transit of Charles the Twelfth 
 history learns little. The sturdy English 
 satirist probably put that vainglorious career 
 to its highest purpose when he used it * to 
 point a moral, or adorn a tale.' From the 
 ruin of Aurangzeb the downfall of the Mughal 
 Empire dates, and the history of modern 
 India begins. 
 
 The house of Timur had brought with it 
 to India the adventurous hardihood of the 
 steppes, and the unsapped vitality of the 
 Tartar tent. Babar, the founder of the In- 
 dian Mughal Empire in 1526, was the sixth 
 in descent from Timur, and during six more 
 generations his own dynasty proved prolific 
 of strongly marked types. Each succeeding 
 emperor, from father to son, was, for evil or 
 for good, a genuine original man. In Babar 
 
312 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 himself, literally The Lion, the Mughal 
 dynasty had produced its epic hero ; in 
 Humayun, its knight-errant and royal refu- 
 gee ; in Akbar, its consolidator and states- 
 man ; in Jahangir, its talented drunkard ; 
 and its magnificent palace-builder in Shah 
 Jahan. It was now to bring forth in 
 Aurangzeb a ruler whom hostile writers 
 stigmatise as a cold-hearted usurper, and 
 whom Muhammadan historians venerate as 
 a saint. 
 
 Aurangzeb was born on the night of the 
 4th of November 161 8, and before he reached 
 the age of ten, his father, Shah Jahan, had 
 succeeded to the throne of his ancestors. 
 His mother. The Exalted of the Palace, was 
 the last of the great queens who shared and 
 directed the fortunes of a Mughal Emperor. 
 Married when just out of her teens, she bore 
 thirteen children to her husband, and died in 
 giving birth to a fourteenth. Her nineteen 
 years of wedded life had been splendid but 
 sorrowful. Of her children, eight died in 
 infancy or childhood. Her bereaved hus- 
 band raised to her, in sight of his palace, the 
 
The Rtiin of Aurangzeb 313 
 
 most beautiful tomb in the world. It crowns 
 the lofty bank of the Jumna, a dream in 
 marble, with its cupolas floating upwards like 
 silver bubbles into the sky. To this day it 
 bears her Persian title, The Exalted of the 
 Palace ; a title which travellers from many 
 far countries have contracted into the Taj 
 Mahal. 
 
 She left behind her four sons and two 
 daughters. Her eldest surviving child was 
 the Princess Imperial, named the Ornament 
 of the World ; a masterful but affectionate 
 girl of seventeen, and not free from feminine 
 frailties. The Princess Imperial succeeded 
 to her mother's place in her father's heart. 
 During the remaining twenty-seven years 
 of his reign, she guided his policy and con- 
 trolled his palace ; and during his last eight 
 years of dethronement and eclipse, she shared 
 his imprisonment. The great rest-house for 
 travellers at Delhi was one of her many 
 splendid charities. She died with the fame 
 of her past beauty still fresh, unmarried, at 
 the age of sixty-seven. Her grave lies close 
 to a saint's and to a poet's, in that campo 
 
3T4 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 santo of marble latticework, and exquisite 
 carving, and embroidered canopies of silk 
 and gold, near the Hall of the Sixty-four 
 Pillars, beyond the Delhi walls. But only a 
 piece of pure white marble, with a little grass 
 piously watered by generations, marks the 
 princess' grave. ' Let no rich canopy sur- 
 mount my resting place,' w^as her dying in- 
 junction, inscribed on the headstone. 'This 
 grass is the best covering for the grave of a 
 lowly heart, the humble and transitory Orna- 
 ment of the World, the disciple of the holy 
 Man of Chist, the daughter of the Emperor 
 Shah Jahan.' But the magnificent mosque of 
 Agra is the public memorial of the lady who 
 lies in that modest grass-covered grave. 
 
 The eldest son of The Exalted of the 
 Palace, and the heir apparent to the empire, 
 was Prince Dara. One year younger than 
 the Princess Imperial, he became the object 
 of her ardent affection throus^h life. In the 
 troubles that were to fall upon the family 
 she devoted herself to his cause, Dara 
 was an open-handed, high-spirited prince, 
 contemptuous of advice, and destitute of 
 
The Ruin of Azirangzeb 315 
 
 self-control. He had a noble and dio-nified 
 
 o 
 
 bearing, except when he lost his temper. 
 At such moments he would burst out into 
 a tornado of abuse, insulting and menacing 
 the orreatest orenerals and officers of State. 
 The rigid observances of Islam, with its per- 
 petual round of prayers and its long fasts, 
 were distasteful to his nature. And he had 
 all the rival religions, Christian, Muham- 
 madan, and Hindu to choose from, in the 
 Court and the seraglio. Dara leaned to- 
 wards Christianity and Hinduism. While 
 contemptuously continuing in externals a 
 Muhammadan, he concocted for himself an 
 easy and elegant faith from the alternate 
 teaching of a Brahman philosopher and a 
 French Jesuit. He shocked good Mussul- 
 mans by keeping an establishment of learned 
 Hindus to translate their infidel scriptures 
 into Persian. He even wrote a book himself 
 to reconcile the conflicting creeds. 
 
 His next brother Shuja was a more dis- 
 creet young prince. Conciliatory to the 
 nobles, courageous and capable of forming 
 well-laid plans, he might also have been able 
 
3i6 The Mogtil Emperors 
 
 to execute them, but for his love of pleasure. 
 In the midst of critical affairs, he would sud- 
 denly shut himself up with the ladies of his 
 palace, and give days and nights to wine, 
 and song, and dance ; no minister of State 
 daring to disturb his revels. Like his elder 
 brother, he too fell away from the orthodox 
 Suni faith of the Indian Muhammadans. 
 But Shuja's defection was due to deliberate 
 policy. He adopted the Shia heresy of Per- 
 sia, with the hope of winning the Persian 
 adventurers, then powerful at Court and in 
 the army, to his side in the struggle 
 which he foresaw must take place for the 
 throne. 
 
 Next to him in the family came the princess 
 named The Brilliant Lady ; less beautiful and 
 less talented than her elder sister, but equally 
 ambitious, and fonder of gifts and of display. 
 She attached herself to the cause of the third 
 brother Aurangzeb, born fourteen months 
 after herself. The youngest of the four 
 brethren was Prince Murad, six years younger 
 than Aurangzeb. Murad grew up a model 
 Muhammadan knight ; generous, polite, a 
 
The Ruin of Aurangzeb 317 
 
 despiser of intrigue, and devoted to war and 
 the chase. He boasted that he had no 
 secrets, and that he looked only to his 
 sword to win his way to fortune. But as 
 years passed on, his shining qualities were tar- 
 nished by an increasing indulgence at the 
 table, and the struggle for the throne found 
 him, still a brave soldier indeed, but also a 
 glutton and a drunkard. 
 
 In the midst of this ambitious and voluptu- 
 ous Imperial family, a very different character 
 was silently being matured. Aurangzeb, the 
 third brother, ardently devoted himself to 
 study. In after-life he knew the Kuran by 
 heart, and his memory was a storehouse of 
 the literature, sacred and profane, of Islam. 
 He had himself a facility for verse, and wrote 
 a prose style at once easy and dignified, run- 
 ning up the complete literary gamut from 
 pleasantry to pathos. His Persian Letters 
 to his Sons, thrown off in the camp, or on 
 the march, or from a sick bed, have charmed 
 Indian readers during two centuries, and still 
 sell in the Punjab bazaars. His poetic faculty 
 he transmitted in a richer vein to his eldest 
 
3i8 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 daughter, whose verses survive under her 
 nom de plume of The Incognita. 
 
 But in the case of Aurangzeb, poetry and 
 Hterary graces merely formed the illuminated 
 margin of a solid and sombre learning. His 
 tutor, a man of the old scholastic philosophy, 
 led him deep into the ethical and grammat- 
 ical subtleties which still form the too exclu- 
 sive basis of an orthodox Muhammadan 
 education. His whole nature was filled with 
 the stern religion of Islam. Its pure adora- 
 tion of one unseen God, its calm pauses for 
 personal prayer five times each day, its 
 crowded celebrations of public worship, and 
 those exaltations of the soul which spring 
 from fasting and high-strained meditation, 
 formed the realities of existence to the 
 youthful Aurangzeb. The outer world in 
 which he moved, with its pageants and 
 pleasures, was merely an irksome intrusion 
 on his inner life. We shall presently see 
 him wishing to turn hermit. His eldest 
 brother scornfully nicknamed him The Saint. 
 
 To a young Muhammadan prince of this 
 devout temper the outer world was at that 
 
The Ruin of Aurangzeb 319 
 
 time full of sadness. The heroic soldiers of 
 the Early Empire, and their not less heroic 
 wives, had given place to a vicious and 
 delicate breed of grandees. The ancestors 
 of Aurangzeb, who swooped down on India 
 from the North, were ruddy men in boots. 
 The courtiers among whom Aurangzeb grew 
 up were pale persons in petticoats. Babar, 
 the founder of the empire, had swum every 
 river which he met with during thirty years 
 of campaigning, including the Indus and 
 the other great channels of the Punjab, and 
 the mighty Ganges herself twice during a ride 
 of 160 miles in two days. The luxurious 
 lords around the youthful Aurangzeb wore 
 skirts made of innumerable folds of the finest 
 white muslin, and went to war in palankeens. 
 On a royal march, when not on duty with 
 the Emperor, they were carried, says an eye- 
 witness, * stretched as on a bed, sleeping at 
 ease till they reached their next tent, where 
 they are sure to find an excellent dinner,' a 
 duplicate kitchen being sent on the night 
 before. 
 
 A hereditary system of compromise with 
 
320 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 strange gods had eaten the heart out of the 
 State religion. Aurangzeb's great-grand- 
 father Akbar, deliberately accepted that sys- 
 tem of compromise as the basis of the 
 empire. Akbar discerned that all previous 
 Muhammadan rulers of India had been 
 crushed between two opposite forces ; be- 
 tween fresh hordes of Mussulman invaders 
 from without, and the dense hostile masses 
 of the Hindu population within. He con- 
 ceived the design of creating a really national 
 empire in India, by enlisting the support of 
 the native races. He married, and he com- 
 pelled his family to marry, the daughters of 
 Hindu princes. He abolished the Infidel 
 Tax on the Hindu population. He threw 
 open the highest offices in the State, and the 
 highest commands in the army, to Hindu 
 leaders of men. 
 
 The response made to this policy of con- 
 ciliation forms the most instructive episode 
 in Indian history. One Hindu general sub- 
 dued for Akbar the great provinces of 
 Bengal and Orissa ; and organised, as his 
 finance minister, the revenue system of the 
 
The Rtiiii of Aurangzeb 321 
 
 Mughal Empire. Another Hindu general 
 governed the Punjab. A third was hurried 
 southwards two thousand miles from his 
 command in Kabul, to put down a Muham- 
 madan rising in districts not far from 
 Calcutta. A Brahman bard led an imperial 
 division in the field, and was Akbar s dearest 
 friend, for whose death the emperor twice 
 went into mourning. While Hindu leaders 
 thus commanded the armies and shaped the 
 policy of the empire, Hindu revenue officers 
 formed the backbone of its administration, 
 and the Hindu military races supplied the 
 flower of its troops. It was on this political 
 confederation of interests, Mussulman and 
 Hindu, that the Mughal Empire rested, so 
 long: as it endured. 
 
 Akbar had not, however, been content 
 with a political confederation. He believed 
 that if the empire was to last, it must be 
 based on a religious coalition of the Indian 
 races. He accordingly constructed a State 
 religion, catholic enough, as he thought, to 
 be acceptable to all his subjects. Such a 
 scheme of a universal religion had, during 
 
322 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 two hundred years, been the dream of Hindu 
 reformers and the text of wandering preach- 
 ers throughout India. On the death of the 
 Bengal saint of the fifteenth century, the 
 Muhammadans and Hindus contended for 
 his body. The saint suddenly appeared in 
 their midst, and, commanding them to look 
 under the shroud, vanished. This they did. 
 But under the winding sheet they found only 
 a heap of beautiful flowers, one-half of which 
 the Hindus burned with holy rites, while the 
 other half was buried with pomp by the 
 Mussulmans. In Akbar's time, many sacred 
 places had become common shrines for the 
 two faiths : the Mussulmans venerating the 
 same impression on the rocks as the foot- 
 print of their prophet, which the Hindus 
 revered as the footprint of their god. 
 
 Akbar, the great-grandfather of Aurang- 
 zeb, utilised this tendency towards religious 
 coalition as an instrument of political union. 
 He promulgated a State religion, called the 
 Divine Faith, which combined the mono- 
 theism of Islam with the symbolic worship of 
 Hinduism, and with something of the spirit 
 
The Ruin of Aurangzeb 323 
 
 of Christianity. He worshipped the sun as 
 the most glorious visible type of the Deity ; 
 and he commanded the people to prostrate 
 themselves before himself as the Divine 
 representative. The Muhammadan lawyers 
 set their seal to a decision supporting his 
 Majesty. The Muhammadan medical men 
 discovered that the eating of beef, which 
 Akbar had renounced as repugnant to Hindu 
 sentiment, was hurtful to the human body. 
 Poets glorified the new faith ; learned men 
 translated the Hindu scriptures and the 
 Christian gospel ; Roman priests exhibited 
 the birth of Jesus in waxwork, and intro- 
 duced the doctrine of the Trinity. The 
 orthodox Muhammadan beard was shaved ; 
 the devout Muhammadan salutation was dis- 
 continued ; the Muhammadan confession of 
 faith disappeared from the coinage ; the 
 Muhammadan calendar gave place to the 
 Hindu. At length, a formal declaration of 
 apostasy was drawn up, renouncing the 
 religion of Islam for the Divine Faith of 
 the Emperor. 
 
 The Emperor was technically the elected 
 
324 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 head of the Muhammadan congregation, and 
 God's vicegerent on earth. It was as if the 
 Pope had called upon Christendom to re- 
 nounce in set terms the religion of Christ. 
 A Persian historian declares that when these 
 'effective letters of damnation,' as he calls 
 them, issued, ' the heavens might have rent 
 asunder and the earth opened her abyss.' 
 As a matter of fact, Akbar was a fairly suc- 
 cessful religious founder. One or two grave 
 men retired from his Court, and a local in- 
 surrection was easily quelled. But Akbar 
 had no apostolic successor. His son, the 
 talented drunkard, while he continued to 
 exact the prostrations of the people, revived 
 the externals of Islam at Court, and restored 
 the Muhammadan confession of faith to the 
 coin. Akbar's grandson, the palace-builder, 
 abolished the prostrations. At the same 
 time he cynically lent his countenance to the 
 Hindu worship, took toll on its ceremonies, 
 and paid a yearly allowance to the Hindu 
 high-priest at Benares. 
 
 But neither the son nor the grandson of 
 Akbar could stem the tide of immorality 
 
The Ruin of Aurangzeb 325 
 
 which rolled on, with an ever-increasing vol- 
 ume, during three generations of contempt- 
 uous half-belief. One of Akbar's younger 
 sons had drunk himself to death, smuggling 
 in his liquor in the barrel of his fowlingpiece, 
 when his supply of wine was cut off. The 
 quarter of Delhi known as Shaitanpara, or 
 Devilsville, dates from Akbar's reign. The 
 tide of immorality brought with it the lees 
 of superstition. Witches, wizards, diviners, 
 professors of palmistry, and miracle-workers 
 thronged the capital. ' Here,' says a French 
 physician at the Mughal Court, ' they tell a 
 poor person his fortune for a halfpenny.* 
 A Portuguese outlaw sat as wisely on his bit 
 of carpet as the rest, practising astrology by 
 means of an old mariner's compass and a 
 couple of Romish prayer-books, whose pic- 
 tured saints and virgins he used for the signs 
 of the zodiac. 
 
 It was on such a world of immorality, 
 superstition and unbelief that the austere 
 young Aurangzeb looked out with sad eyes. 
 His silent reflections on the prosperous 
 apostates around him must have been a 
 
326 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 sombre monotone, perhaps with ominous 
 passages in it, Hke that fierce refrain which 
 breaks in upon the Easter evening psalm, 
 ' But in the name of the Lord, I will destroy 
 them.' A young prince in this mood was a 
 rebuke to the palace, and might become a 
 danger to the throne. No one could doubt 
 his courage ; indeed he had slain a lion set 
 free from the intervening nets usually em^- 
 ployed in the royal chase. At the age of 
 seventeen, his father accordingly sent him to 
 govern Southern India, where the Hindu 
 Marathas and two independent Muhamma- 
 dan kingdoms professing the Shia heresy, 
 might afford ample scope for his piety and 
 valour. 
 
 The imperial army of the south, under his 
 auspices, took many forts, and for a time 
 effected a settlement of the country. But 
 after eight years of viceregal splendour, 
 Aurangzeb, at the age of twenty-five, re- 
 solved to quit the world, and to pass the rest 
 of his life in seclusion and prayer. His 
 father angrily put a stop to this project ; 
 recalled him to Court, stripped him of 
 
The Ruin of Aurangzeh 327 
 
 his military rank, and deprived him of his 
 personal estate. But next year it was found 
 expedient to employ Aurangzeb in the gov- 
 ernment of another province ; and two 
 years later he received the great military com- 
 mand of Balkh. On his arrival, the enemy 
 swarmed like locusts upon his camp. The 
 attempt to beat them off lasted till the hour of 
 evening prayer ; when Aurangzeb calmly dis- 
 mounted from his horse, kneeled down in the 
 midst of the battle, and repeated the sacred 
 ritual. The opposing general, awed by the 
 religious confidence of the prince, called off 
 his troops, saying ' that to fight with such a 
 man is to destroy oneself.' After about 
 seven years of wars and sieges in Afghanis- 
 tan, Aurangzeb was again appointed Viceroy 
 of Southern India. 
 
 In 1657, his eldest brother, firmly planted 
 in the Imperial Court, and watching with 
 impatient eyes the failing health of the 
 Emperor, determined to disarm his brethren. 
 He procured orders to recall his youngest 
 brother Murad from his viceroyalty on the 
 western coast ; and to strip Aurangzeb of his 
 
328 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 power in the south. These mandates found 
 Aurangzeb besieging one of the two hereti- 
 cal Muhammadan capitals of Southern India. 
 Several of the gre^t nobles at once deserted 
 him. He patched up a truce with the be- 
 leaguered city, and extorted a large sum of 
 money from its boy-king. He had pre- 
 viously squeezed a great treasure from the 
 other independent Muhammadan kingdom of 
 the south. Thus armed, at the cost of the 
 Shia heretics, with the sinews of war, he 
 marched north to deliver his father, the 
 Emperor, from the evil counsels of the 
 Prince Imperial. 
 
 For the Emperor, now sixty-seven years of 
 age, lay stricken with a terrible disease. 
 The poor old palace-builder well knew the 
 two essential conditions for retaining the 
 Mughal throne — namely, to be perfectly piti- 
 less to his kindred, and to be in perfect 
 health himself. In the early days of the 
 Empire, the royal family had been knit to- 
 gether in bands of warm affection ; and its 
 chivalrous founder had given his own life for 
 his son's. Babar, runs the story, seeing his 
 
The Rtiin of Aurangzeb 329 
 
 son sinkine under a mortal disease, walked 
 three times solemnly round the bed, and im- 
 plored God to take his own life and spare 
 the prince. After a few moments of silent 
 prayer, he suddenly exclaimed, ' I have borne 
 it away ; I have borne it away ! ' and from 
 that moment his son began to recover, 
 while the Lion Babar visibly declined. But 
 during three generations, the Mughal dyn- 
 asty had lain under the curse of bad sons. 
 Aurangzeb's father, the stricken Emperor, 
 had been a rebel prince. He left not one 
 male alive of the house of Timur, so that he 
 and his children might be the sole heirs of 
 the Empire. These children were now to 
 prove his perdition. Amid the pangs of his 
 excruciating disease, his eldest son Dara 
 grasped the central government ; while the 
 next son. Prince Shuja, hurried north from 
 his Viceroyalty of Bengal to seize the im- 
 perial capital. 
 
 Prince Shuja was driven back. But there 
 was a son advancing from the south whose 
 steps could not be stayed. Aurangzeb had 
 been forced by his eldest brother's intrigues 
 
330 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 to assume the defensive. It seems doubtful 
 whether, at first, he aspired to the throne. 
 His sole desire, he declared, was to rescue 
 his father from evil counsellors, and then to 
 retire from the world. This longing for the 
 religious life had led to his public degradation 
 when a young prince : it asserted itself amid 
 the splendours of his subsequent reign. At 
 the present crisis it served him for a mask : 
 as to whether it was genuine, his previous 
 and later life perhaps entitle him to the 
 benefit of a doubt. On one point he had 
 firmly made up his mind : that the apostasy 
 of his two elder brothers disqualified them 
 for a Muhammadan throne. He accordingly 
 resolved to join his youngest brother, whose 
 viceroyalty lay on his way north ; and who, 
 although a drunkard in private life, was 
 orthodox in his public belief. 
 
 A five years' war of succession followed. 
 Each one of the four brethren knew that the 
 stake for which he played was an empire or 
 a grave. The eldest brother, Dara, defeated 
 by Aurangzeb and betrayed into his hands, 
 was condemned by the doctors of the law for 
 
The Rtnn of Aurangzeb 331 
 
 his apostasy to Islam, and put to death as a 
 renegade. The second brother, Shuja, was 
 hunted out of his viceroyalty of Bengal into 
 the swamps of Arakan, and outraged by the 
 barbarian king with whom he had sought 
 shelter. The last authentic glimpse we get 
 of him is flying across a mountain into the 
 woods, wounded on the head with a stone, 
 and with only one faithful woman and three 
 followers to share his end. The destiny of 
 the youngest brother, Murad, with whom 
 Aurangzeb had joined his forces, for some 
 time hung in the balance. The tenderness 
 with which Aurangzeb, on a memorable occa- 
 sion, wiped the sweat and dust from his 
 brother's face, was probably not altogether 
 assumed. But the more Aurangzeb saw of 
 the private habits of the young prince, the 
 less worthy he seemed of the throne. At 
 last, one night, Murad awoke from a drunken 
 sleep to find himself Aurangzeb's prisoner. 
 His friends planned his escape ; and he would 
 have safely let himself down from the fort- 
 ress, but for an alarm caused by the weeping 
 of a lady who had shared his confinement 
 
332 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 and from whom he could not part without 
 saying farewell. He was not allowed another 
 chance. Aurangzeb had him tried — nomi- 
 nally for an old murder which he had com- 
 mitted when Viceroy — and executed. Having 
 thus disposed of his three brothers, Aurang- 
 zeb got rid of their sons by slow poisoning 
 with laudanum, and shut up his aged father 
 in his palace till he died. 
 
 Then was let loose on India that tremen- 
 dously destructive force, a puritan Muham- 
 madan monarch. In 1658, in the same sum- 
 mer that witnessed the death of the puritan 
 Protector of England, Aurangzeb, at the age 
 of forty, seated himself on the throne of the 
 Mughals. The narrative of his long reign of 
 half a century is the history of a great reaction 
 against the religious compromises of his pre- 
 decessors, and against their policy of concilia- 
 tion towards the native races. He set before 
 himself three tasks : he resolved to reform 
 the morals of the Court ; to bring down the 
 Hindus to their proper place as infidels ; and 
 to crush the two heretical Muhammadan 
 kingdoms of southern India. 
 
The Ricin of Aurangzeh 333 
 
 The luxurious lords soon found that they 
 had got a very different master from the old 
 palace-builder. Aurangzeb was an austere 
 compound of the emperor, the soldier, and 
 the saint ; and he imposed a like austerity 
 on all around him. Of a humble silent 
 demeanour, with a profound resignation to 
 God's will in the height of success as in the 
 depths of disaster, very plainly clothed, never 
 sitting on a raised seat in private, nor using 
 any vessel of silver or gold, he earned his daily 
 food by manual labour. But he doubled the 
 royal charities, and established free eating- 
 houses for the sick and poor. Twice each 
 day he took his seat in court to dispense jus- 
 tice. On Fridays he conducted the prayers 
 of the common people in the great mosque. 
 During the month of fast, he spent six to nine 
 hours a night in reading the Kuran to a select 
 assembly of the faithful. He completed, 
 when emperor, the task which he had begun 
 as a boy, of learning the sacred book by 
 heart ; and he presented two copies of it 
 to Mecca, beautifully written with his own 
 hand. He maintained a body of learned 
 
334 ^-^^ Mogtd Emperors 
 
 men to compile a code of the Muhammadan 
 law, at a cost exceeding 20,000/. sterling. 
 
 The players and minstrels were silenced by 
 royal proclamation. But they were settled 
 on grants of land, if they would turn to a 
 better life. The courtiers suddenly became 
 men of prayer ; the ladies of the seraglio 
 took enthusiastically to reciting the Kuran. 
 Only the poor dancers and singers made a 
 struggle. They carried a bier with wailing 
 under the window of the Emperor. On his 
 Majesty's looking out and asking the purport 
 of the funeral procession, they answered, that 
 " Music was dead, and that they were bear- 
 ing forth her corpse." " Pray bury her deeply," 
 replied the Emperor from the balcony, " so 
 that henceforth she may make no more 
 noise." 
 
 The measures taken against the Hindus 
 seemed for a time to promise equal success. 
 Aurangzeb at once stopped the allowance 
 to the Hindu high-priest at Benares. Some 
 of the most sacred Hindu temples he lev- 
 elled, with the ground, erecting magnificent 
 mosques out of their materials on the same 
 
The Rum of Aurangzeb 335 
 
 sites. He personally took part in the work 
 of proselytism. ' His Majesty,' says a Per- 
 sian biographer, ' himself teaches the holy 
 confession to numerous infidels, and invests 
 them with dresses of honour and other 
 favours.' He finally restored the Muhamma- 
 dan Calendar. He refused to receive offer- 
 ings at the Hindu festivals, and he sacrificed 
 a large revenue from Hindu shrines. He 
 remitted eighty taxes on trade and religion, 
 at a yearly loss of several millions sterling. 
 The goods of the true believers, indeed, 
 were for some time altogether exempted 
 from duties ; and were eventually charged 
 only one-half the rate paid by the Hindus. 
 
 These remissions of revenue compelled 
 Aurangzeb to resort to new taxation. When 
 his ministers remonstrated against giving up 
 the Hindu pilgrim-tax, he sternly declined to 
 share the profits of idolatry, and proposed a 
 general tax on the infidels instead. That 
 hated impost had been abolished by Akbar 
 in the previous century — as part of his 
 policy of conciliation towards the Hindus. 
 Aurangzeb revived the poll-tax on infidels, 
 
336 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 in spite of the clamours of the Hindu popu- 
 lation. They rent the air with lamentations 
 under the palace windows. When he went 
 forth in state on Friday, to lead the prayers 
 of the faithful in the great mosque, he found 
 the streets choked with petitioners. The 
 Emperor paused for a moment for the sup- 
 pliant crowd to open ; then he commanded 
 his elephants to advance, trampling the 
 wretched people under foot. The detested 
 impost was unsparingly enforced. If a 
 Hindu of rank, writes a Persian historian, 
 met a menial of the tax-office, 'his counte- 
 nance instantly changed.' So low were the 
 native races brought, that a proclamation 
 issued forbidding any Hindu to ride in a 
 palankeen, or on an Arab horse, without 
 a licence from Government. 
 
 While Aurangzeb dealt thus hardly with 
 the Hindu population, his hand fell heavily 
 on the Hindu princes. He vindictively re- 
 membered that the Hindu Rajputs had 
 nearly won the throne for his eldest brother, 
 and that their most distinguished chief had 
 dared to remonstrate with himself. ' If your 
 
The Ruin of Aurangzeh 337 
 
 Majesty,' wrote the brave Hindu Raja of 
 Jodhpur, ' places any faith in books by dis- 
 tinction called divine, you will there be 
 instructed that God is the God of all man- 
 kind, not the God of the Mussulmans alone. 
 In your temples to His name, the voice of 
 prayer is raised ; in a house of images, where 
 a bell is shaken. He is still the object of 
 worship.' Aurangzeb did not venture to 
 quarrel with this great military prince. He 
 sought his friendship, and employed him in 
 the highest and most dangerous posts. But 
 on his death, the Emperor tried to seize his 
 infant sons. The chivalrous blood of the 
 Rajputs boiled over at this outrage on the 
 widow and the orphan. They rose in rebel- 
 lion ; one of Aurangzeb's own sons placed 
 himself at their head, proclaimed himself 
 emperor, and marched against his father with 
 70,000 men. A bitter war of religion fol- 
 lowed. Aurangzeb, whose cause for a time 
 had seemed hopeless, spared not the Hindus. 
 He burned their homesteads, cut down their 
 fruit-trees, defiled their temples, and carried 
 away cartloads of their gods to the capital. 
 
338 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 There he thrust the helpless images, with 
 their faces downwards, below the steps of the 
 great mosque, so that they should be hourly 
 trampled under foot by the faithful. The 
 Rajputs, on their side, despoiled the mosques, 
 burned the Kuran, and insulted the prayer- 
 readers. The war ended in a sullen submis- 
 sion of the Hindus ; but the Rajputs became 
 thenceforth the destroyers, instead of the 
 supporters, of the Mughal Empire. 
 
 Having thus brought low the infidel 
 Hindus of the north, Aurangzeb turned his 
 strength against the two heretical Muham- 
 madan kingdoms of southern India. The 
 conquest of the south had been the dream 
 of the Mughal dynasty. During four genera- 
 tions, each emperor had laboured, with more 
 or less constancy, at the task. To the aus- 
 tere conscience of Aurangzeb it seemed not 
 only an unalterable part of the imperial 
 policy, but an imperative religious duty. It 
 grew into the fixed idea of his life. The 
 best years of his young manhood, from sev- 
 enteen to forty, he had spent as Viceroy of 
 the South, against the heretic Shia kingdoms 
 
The Ruin of Awangzeb 339 
 
 and the infidel Marathas. When the Vice- 
 roy of the South became Emperor of India, 
 he placed a son in charge of the war. Dur- 
 ing the first twenty-three years of his reign, 
 Aurangzeb directed the operations from his 
 distant northern capital. But at the age of 
 sixty-three he realised that, if he was ever to 
 conquer the South, he must lead his armies 
 in person. Accordingly, in 1681, he set 
 forth, now a white-bearded man, from his 
 capital, never to return. The remaining 
 twenty-six years of his life he spent on the 
 march, or in the camp, until death released 
 him, at the age of nearly ninety, from his 
 long labour. 
 
 Already a great sense of isolation had 
 chilled the Emperor's heart. ' The art of 
 reigning,' he said, ' is so delicate, that a 
 king's jealousy should be awakened by his 
 very shadow.' His brothers and nephews 
 had been slain, as a necessary condition of 
 his accession to the throne. His own sons 
 were now impatient of his long reign. One 
 of them had openly rebelled ; the conduct of 
 another was so doubtful that the imperial 
 
340 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 guns had to be pointed against his division 
 during a battle. The able Persian adven- 
 turers, who had formed the most trustworthy 
 servants of the Empire, were discounte- 
 nanced by Aurangzeb as Shia heretics. The 
 Hindus had been alienated as infidels. But 
 one mighty force still remained at his com- 
 mand. Never had the troops of the Empire 
 been more regularly paid or better equipped, 
 although at one time better disciplined. 
 Aurangzeb knew that the army alone stood 
 between him and the disloyalty of his sons, 
 between him and the hatred of the native 
 races. He now resolved to hurl its whole 
 weight against the two heretical Muhamma- 
 dan kingdoms of southern India. 
 
 The military array of the Empire con- 
 sisted of a regular army of about 400,000 
 men, and a provincial militia estimated as 
 high as 4,400,000. The militia was made 
 up of irregular levies, uncertain in number, 
 incapable of concentration, and whose ser- 
 vices could only be relied on for a short 
 period. The regular army consisted partly 
 of contingents, whose commanders received 
 
The Rm7i of Aurangzeb 341 
 
 grants of territory, or magnificent allowances 
 for their support, partly of troops paid direct 
 from the imperial treasury. The policy of 
 Akbar had been to recruit from three mutu- 
 ally hostile classes — the Suni Muhammadans 
 of the Empire, the Shia Muhammadans from 
 beyond the north-western frontier, and the 
 Hindu Rajputs. The Shia generals were 
 conspicuous for their skill, the Rajput troops 
 for their valour. On the eve of battle the 
 Rajput warriors bade each other a cheerful 
 farewell for ever ; not without reason, as in 
 one of Aurangzeb's actions only six hundred 
 Rajputs survived out of eight thousand. 
 
 The strength of the army lay in its cav- 
 alry, 200,000 strong. The pay was high, a 
 trooper with only one horse, says Bernier, 
 receiving not less than Rs. 25 (say 55 shil- 
 lings) a month — a large sum in those days. 
 Cavaliers with parties of four or more horses 
 drew from 200/. to nearly 1,000/. sterling a 
 year, while a commander of five thousand 
 had an annual surplus of 15,000/. sterling, 
 after defraying all expenses. The sons of 
 the nobility often served as private troopers, 
 
342 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 and the path of promotion lay open to all. 
 Originally a commander of cavalry was 
 bound to maintain an equal number of 
 infantry, one-fourth of them to be match- 
 lockmen and the rest archers. But, as a 
 matter of fact, the infantry were a despised 
 force, consisting of 15,000 picked men 
 around the king's person, and a rabble of 
 200,000 to 300,000 foot soldiers and camp- 
 followers on the march. The matchlock- 
 men squatted on the ground, resting their 
 pieces on a wooden fork which they carried 
 on their backs ; ' terribly afraid,' says 
 Bernier, 'of burning their eyelashes or 
 long beards ; and, above all, lest some jin 
 or evil spirit should cause the musket to 
 burst.' For every random shot which they 
 fired under these disadvantages, the cavalry 
 discharged three arrows with a good aim, at 
 their ease. The pay of a matchlockman 
 went as high as 445-. a month. 
 
 The artillery consisted of a siege-train, 
 throwing balls up to 96 and 112 pounds; 
 a strong force of field-guns ; 200 to 300 
 swivel guns on camels ; and ornamental 
 
The Ruin of Aurangzeb 343 
 
 batteries of light guns, known as the stirrup- 
 artillery. The stirrup-artillery on a royal 
 march numbered 50 or 60 small brass pieces, 
 mounted on painted carriages, each drawn 
 by two horses, with a third horse led by an 
 assistant driver as a relay. At one time 
 many of the gunners had been Christians 
 or Portuguese, drawing 22/. sterling per 
 mensem. The monthly pay of a native 
 artilleryman under Aurangzeb was about 
 70^-. The importance of the artillery may 
 be estimated from the fact, that after a 
 battle with one of his brothers, Aurangzeb 
 found 114 cannon left on the field. The 
 army of Kandahar in 165 1 carried with it 
 30,000 cannon-balls, 400,000 lbs. of gun- 
 powder, and 14,000 rockets. The war ele- 
 phants were even more important than the 
 artillery. Experienced generals reckoned 
 one good elephant equal to a regiment of 
 500 cavalry ; or, if properly supported by 
 matchlockmen, at double that number. Ele- 
 phants cost from io,ooo/. downwards : 500/. 
 to 1,000/. being a common price. Akbar 
 kept 5,000 of these huge animals, * in 
 
344 ^-^^ Mogtcl Emperors 
 
 strength like a mountain, in courage and 
 ferocity lions.' Under Aurangzeb, over 
 800 elephants were maintained in the royal 
 stables, besides the large number employed 
 on service and in the provinces. 
 
 A pitched battle commenced with a 
 mutual cannonade. The guns were placed 
 in front, sometimes linked together with 
 chains of iron. Behind them were ranged 
 the camel-artillery with swivel-guns, sup- 
 ported by the matchlockmen ; the elephants 
 were kept as much as possible out of the 
 first fire ; the cavalry poured in their arrows 
 from either flank. The Emperor, on a lofty 
 armour-plated elephant, towered conspicuous 
 in the centre ; princes of the blood or power- 
 ful chiefs commanded the right and left 
 wings. But there was no proper staff to 
 enable the Emperor to keep touch with the 
 wings and the rear. After the cannonade 
 had done its work of confusion, a tremen- 
 dous cavalry charge took place ; the horse 
 and elephants being pushed on in front and 
 from either flank to break the adverse line 
 of pfuns. In the hand-to-hand onset that 
 
The Ruin of Aurangzeb 345 
 
 followed, the centre division and each wingf 
 fought on its own account ; and the com- 
 mander-in-chief miorht consider himself fortu- 
 nate if one of his wings did not go over to 
 the enemy. If the Emperor descended from 
 his elephant, even to pursue the beaten foe 
 on horseback, his own troops might in a 
 moment break away in panic, and the just 
 won victory be turned into a defeat. 
 
 With all its disadvantages, the weight of 
 this array was such that no power then in 
 India could, in the long run, withstand. Its 
 weak point was not its order of battle, but 
 the disorder of its march. There was no 
 complete chain of subordination between the 
 divisional commanders. A locust multitude 
 of followers ate up the country for leagues 
 on either side. The camp formed an im- 
 mense city sometimes five miles in length, 
 sometimes seven and a half miles in circum- 
 ference. Dead beasts of burden poisoned the 
 air. ' I could never,' writes Bernier, in words 
 which his countryman Dupleix turned into 
 action a century later, ' see these soldiers, 
 destitute of order, and moving with the 
 
34^ The Mogul Emperors 
 
 irregularity of a herd of animals, without 
 thinking how easily five and twenty thou- 
 sand of our veterans from Flanders, under 
 Conde or Turenne, would destroy an Indian 
 army, however vast' 
 
 A Bundela officer in the grand army has 
 left a journal of its operations, but without 
 mentioning the total number of troops 
 employed. Aurangzeb found two distinct 
 powers in southern India : first, the heretical 
 Muhammadan kingdoms of Golconda and 
 Bijapur ; second, the fighting Hindu peas- 
 antry, known as the Marathas. In the 
 previous century, while Akbar was con- 
 ciliating the Hindu Rajputs of the north, 
 the independent Muhammadan sovereigns 
 of the south had tried a like policy toward 
 the Hindu Marathas, with less success. 
 During a hundred years, the Marathas had 
 sometimes sided with the independent 
 Muhammadan kingdoms against the im- 
 perial troops, sometimes with the imperial 
 troops against the independent Muhamma- 
 dan kingdoms ; exacting payment from both 
 sides ; and gradually erecting themselves 
 
The Ruin of Atirangzeb 347 
 
 into a third party which held the balance 
 of power in the south. After several 
 years of fighting, Aurangzeb subdued the 
 two Muhammadan kingdoms, and set him- 
 self to finally crush the Hindu Marathas. 
 In 1690 their leader was captured ; but he 
 scornfully rejected the Emperor's offer of 
 pardon coupled with the condition of turning 
 Mussalman. His eyes were burned in their 
 sockets with a red-hot iron, and the tongue 
 which had blasphemed the Prophet was cut 
 out. The skin of his head, stuffed with 
 straw, was insultingly exposed throughout 
 the cities of southern India. 
 
 These and similar atrocities nerved with 
 an inextinofuishable hatred the whole Mara- 
 tha race. The oruerilla war of extermination 
 which followed during the next seventeen 
 years has scarcely a parallel in history. The 
 Marathas first decoyed, then baffled, and 
 finally slaughtered the imperial troops. The 
 chivalrous Rajputs of the north had stood 
 up against the shock of the grand army and 
 had been broken by it. The Hindu peasant 
 confederacy of the south employed a very 
 
348 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 different strategy. They had no idea of 
 bidding farewell to each other on the eve 
 of a battle, or of dying next day on a pitched 
 field. They declined altogether to fight 
 unless they were sure to win ; and their 
 word for victory meant ' to plunder the 
 enemy.' Their clouds of horsemen, scantily 
 clad, with only a folded blanket for a saddle, 
 rode jeeringly round the imperial cavalry 
 swathed in sword-proof wadding, or fainting 
 under chain-armour, and with difficulty spur- 
 ring their heavily caparisoned steeds out of 
 a prancing amble. If the imperial cavalry 
 charged in force, they charged into thin air. 
 If they pursued in detachments, they were 
 speared man by man. 
 
 In the Mughal army the foot-soldier was 
 an object of contempt. The Maratha in- 
 fantry were among the finest light troops in 
 the world. Skilled marksmen, and so agile 
 as almost always to be able to choose their 
 own ground, they laughed at the heavy 
 cavalry of the Empire. The Marathas 
 camped at pleasure around the grand army, 
 cutting off supplies, dashing in upon its line 
 
The Ruin of Aurangzeb 349 
 
 of march, plundering the ammunition-wag- 
 gons at river-crossings, and allowing the 
 wearied imperialists no sleep by night- 
 attacks. If they did not pillage enough food 
 from the royal convoys, every homestead 
 was ready to furnish the millet and onions 
 which was all they required. When encum- 
 bered with booty, or fatigued with fighting, 
 they vanished into their hill forts ; and 
 next morning fresh swarms hung upon the 
 imperial line of march. The tropical heats 
 and rains added to the miseries of the 
 northern troops. One autumn a river over- 
 flowed the royal camp at midnight, sweeping 
 away ten thousand men, with countless tents, 
 horses, and bullocks. The destruction only 
 ceased when the aged Emperor wrote a 
 prayer on paper with his own hand, and cast 
 it into the rising waters. 
 
 During ten years Aurangzeb directed 
 these disastrous operations, chiefly from a 
 headquarters' cantonment. But his head- 
 quarters had grown into an enormous assem- 
 blage, estimated by an Italian traveller at 
 over a million persons. The Marathas were 
 
350 T^^^ Mogul Emperors 
 
 now plundering the imperial provinces to the 
 north, and had blocked the line of commu- 
 nication with upper India. In 1698 the 
 Emperor, lean, and stooping under the 
 burden of eighty years, broke up his head- 
 quarters, and divided the remnants of his 
 forces into two corps d'armee. One of them 
 he sent under his best general to hold the 
 Marathas in check in the open country. 
 The other he led in person to besiege their 
 cities and hill forts. The corps d'armee of 
 the plains was beguiled into a fruitless chase 
 from province to province ; fighting nineteen 
 battles in six months. It marched and 
 counter-marched, writes the Bundela officer, 
 3,000 miles in one continuous campaign, 
 until the elephants, horses, and camels were 
 utterly worn out. 
 
 The Emperor's corps d''ar'mee fared even 
 worse. Forty years before, in the struggle 
 for the throne, he had shared the bread of 
 the common soldiers, slept on the bare 
 ground, or reconnoitred, almost unattended, 
 several leagues in front. The youthful 
 spirit flamed up afresh in the aged monarch. 
 
The Ruin of Aurangzeb 351 
 
 He marched his troops in the height of the 
 rainy season. Many of the nobles, having 
 lost their horses, had to trudge through the 
 mire on foot. Fort after fort fell before his 
 despairing onslaught ; but each capture left 
 his army more shattered and the forces of 
 the enemy unimpaired. At last his so-called 
 sieees dwindled into an attack on a fortified 
 village of banditti, during which he was 
 hemmed in within his own entrenchments. In 
 1703 the Marathas had surprised an imperial 
 division on the banks of the Narbada, 21,000 
 strong, and massacred or driven it pell-mell 
 into the river, before the troopers could even 
 saddle their horses. In 1705 the imperial 
 elephants were carried off from their pasture- 
 ground outside the royal camp ; the convoys 
 from the north were intercepted ; and grain 
 rose to fivepence a pound in the army — a 
 rate more than ten times the ordinary price, 
 and scarcely reached even in the severest 
 Indian famines when millions have died of 
 starvation. The Marathas had before this 
 begun to recover their forts. The Emperor 
 collected the wreck of his army, and tried to 
 
352 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 negotiate a truce. But the Insolent exulta- 
 tion of the enemy left him no hope. ' They 
 plundered at pleasure,' says the Bundela 
 officer, ' every province of the south ; ' * not 
 a single person durst venture out of the 
 camp.' 
 
 In 1706, a quarter of a century since the 
 grand army had set forth from the northern 
 capital, the Emperor began to sink under the 
 accumulation of disasters. While he was shut 
 up within his camp In the far south, the 
 Marathas had organised a regular system of 
 extorting one-fourth of the imperial revenue 
 from several of the provinces to the north. 
 In the northwest the Hindu Rajputs were in 
 arms. Still further north, the warlike Jat 
 Hindu peasantry were up In revolt, near the 
 capital. Aurangzeb had no one to quell this 
 general rising of the Hindu races. The Mu- 
 hammadan generals, who had served him so 
 well during his prime of life, now perceived 
 that the end was near, and began to shift for 
 themselves. Of his four surviving sons, he had 
 Imprisoned the eldest during six years ; and 
 finally released him only after eleven years 
 
The Ruin of Atcrmtgzeb 353 
 
 of restraint. The next and most favoured 
 son so little trusted his father that, after one 
 narrow escape, he never received a letter 
 from the Emperor without turning pale. The 
 third son had been during eighteen years a 
 fugitive in Persia from his father's vengeance, 
 wearying the Shah for an army with which 
 to invade Hindustan. The fourth son had 
 known what it was to be arrested on suspicion. 
 The finances had sunk into such confusion 
 that the Emperor did not dare to discuss 
 them with his ministers. With one last 
 effort, he retreated to Ahmadnagar ; the 
 Marathas insulting the line of march, but 
 standing aside to allow the litter of the 
 Emperor to pass, in an awed silence. 
 
 The only escape left to the worn-out Em- 
 peror was to die. ' I came a stranger into 
 the world,' he wrote to one of his sons a 
 few days before the end, ' and a stranger 
 I depart. I brought nothing with me, and, 
 save my human infirmities, I carry nothing 
 away. I have fears for my salvation, and of 
 what torments may await me. Although I 
 
 trust in God's mercy, yet terror will not quit 
 
 23 
 
354 ^-^^ Mogul Empcj^ors 
 
 me. But, come what may, I have launched 
 my barque on the waves. Farewell, farewell, 
 farewell ! ' The fingers of the dying mon- 
 arch kept mechanically telling his beads till 
 the last moment. He expired on the 21st 
 of February, 1707, in the 91st year of his 
 age and the 51st of his reign according to 
 the Muhammadan calendar ; or two years 
 less by our reckoning of time. ' Carry this 
 creature of dust to the nearest burying-place,' 
 he said, ' and lay it in the earth without any 
 useless coffin.' His will restricted his funeral 
 expenses to ten shillings, which he saved from 
 the sale of work done with his own hands. 
 Ninety odd pounds that he had earned by 
 copying the Kuran, he left to the poor. His 
 followers buried him beside the tomb of a 
 famous saint, near the deserted capital of 
 Daulatabad. 
 
 Never since the Assyrian summer night 
 when the Roman Emperor Julian lay dying 
 of the javelin wound in his side, had an im- 
 perial policy of reaction ended in so complete 
 a catastrophe. The Roman Empire was des- 
 tined to centuries of further suffering before 
 
The Ruin of Aurangzeb 355 
 
 it passed through death into new forms of life. 
 The history of Aurangzeb's successors is a 
 swifter record of ruin. The Hindu miUtary 
 races closed in upon the Mughal Empire ; its 
 Muhammadan viceroys carved out for them- 
 selves independent kingdoms from its dis- 
 membered provinces. A series of puppet 
 monarchs were set up and pulled down ; seven 
 devastating hosts poured into India through 
 the northern passes ; a new set of invaders 
 who would take no denial landed from the 
 sea. Less than a century after Aurangzeb's 
 death, Lord Lake^ on his entry into Delhi, 
 was shown a feeble old captive of the Hindu 
 Marathas, blinded, poverty-stricken, and half 
 imbecile, sitting under a tattered canopy, 
 whom he compassionately saluted as the 
 Mughal Emperor. A new rule succeeded in 
 India ; a rule under which the too rapid re- 
 forms of Akbar, and the too obstinate reaction 
 of Aurangzeb, are alike impossible. 
 
 Periods of progress have alternated with 
 periods of pause. But the advance has been 
 steady towards that consciousness of solidar- 
 ity, that enlightenment of the masses^ and 
 
356 
 
 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 that capacity for political rights, which mark 
 the growth of a nation. It was by the aliena- 
 tion of the native races that the Mughal 
 Empire perished ; it is by the incorporation 
 of those races into a loyal and united people 
 that the British rule will endure. 
 
 And ye^ that read these Ruines Tragicall, 
 Learne, by their losse, to love the low degree; 
 And, if that Fortune chaunce you up to call 
 To Honour's seat, forget not what you be : 
 For he, that of himself is most secure. 
 Shall finde his state most fickle and unsure. 
 
The Conquests of India — Appendix 357 
 
 THE CONQUESTS OF INDIA- 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Alexander the Great entered India 327 
 B.C., and with his invasion our accurate 
 knowledge of the country begins. The 
 empire of Chandra-Gupta was formed on the 
 remains of Alexander's conquest, and endured 
 from 316 to 292 B.C. His grandson, the mild 
 and pious Asoka (264-223 B.C.), established 
 Buddhism throughout all India, even to 
 Ceylon. An Indian embassy was sent to 
 Caesar Augustus in Rome (22-20 B.C.), and 
 many coins of the reigns of Nero and 
 Tiberius have been found buried in India 
 in recent times. Buddhism was superseded 
 in India at about the period when Muham- 
 madanism was rising in Arabia, Muhammad 
 died in 632 a.d., and thirty-two years later 
 India was invaded by his followers ; and 
 again in 71 1 and 977. The great Mahmud 
 (977 to loio) conquered the country from 
 
358 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 Persia to the Ganges, and established an 
 empire which lasted till 11 86, when it 
 was overthrown by the Afghans of Ghor. 
 Muhammad Ghori was assassinated in 1206, 
 and one of his slaves, a viceroy, founded 
 a dynasty, with its capital at Delhi, which 
 existed till 1288. 
 
 The third great conqueror was Allah-ud- 
 din-Khilji (i 294-1316), whose successful 
 generals (specially Malik Kafur) overran 
 even the remotest regions of Southern 
 India. A successful revolt (1321) founded 
 the Tughlak dynasty, which endured 
 till about 1400 A.D. Muhammad Tugh- 
 lak, the second of the house, removed 
 his capital from Delhi to the Deccan. 
 Gradually his subordinate kings threw off 
 their allegiance and set up independent 
 states. The Afghan kingdoms of Bengal 
 date from about 1336. This dismember- 
 ment of the country favored the progress 
 of the fourth great invader, Timur. 
 
 Timur's invasion was in 1398. After fear- 
 ful victories and slaughters, he returned to 
 Samarkand, which was the central city of the 
 
The Conquests of India — Appendix 359 
 
 many petty kingdoms parcelled out to his 
 descendants. 
 
 India was left in confusion, ruled by 
 Hindu, by Afghan, by Turki kings and 
 rajahs, and all at war. Babar, the sixth 
 in descent from Timur, invaded India in 
 1525, and founded the Mogul Empire, so 
 called, which lasted, theoretically at least, 
 till the mutiny of 1857. Its real unity and 
 power ended with the reign of Aurangzeb in 
 1707. 
 
 Babar's was the first conquest of India ; 
 all the previous invasions had been mere 
 razzias in search of plunder. His son 
 Humayun simply succeeded in not losing 
 the empire ; his grandson Akbar organized 
 and consolidated the Mogul power. The 
 son and grandson of Akbar (Jahangir and 
 Shah Jahan) ruled over a magnificent and 
 fairly homogeneous realm. With Aurang- 
 zeb's long reign the solidarity of the empire 
 ended forever. 
 
 The principal dates in the period referred 
 to in this book are collected in what follows, 
 for convenience. In most cases they are 
 
360 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 simply copied from Sir W. W. Hunter's 
 admirable book, The Indian Empire : Its 
 People, History, a7id Products (Triibner's 
 Oriental Series). 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Irruption of the Moguls under Timur (Tamer- 
 lane) 1398-99 
 
 Timur captures Delhi , . 1398 
 
 Babar — sixth in descent from Timur — born 1483 
 
 " becomes king of Ferghana ^494 
 
 " conquers Samarkand i497 
 
 " conquers Kabul 1504 
 
 " invades India 1526 
 
 " dies 1530 
 
 Humayun — Babar's son — succeeds 153° 
 
 " capture of Lahore and occupation of 
 
 the Punjab by his brother Kamran 1530 
 " campaigns in Malwa and Guzarat. . . . 1532 
 
 *' defeated by Sher-Shah, the Afghan 
 
 ruler of Bengal ; retreat to Agra... . 1539 
 " finally defeated by Sher-Shah; escapes . 
 to Persia as an exile ; Sher-Shah as- 
 cends the Delhi throne 1540 
 
 *' returns to India ; defeat of the Afghans 
 
 by his young son Akbar ; dies, and 
 
 is succeeded by Akbar 1556 
 
 Akbar — son of Humayun — born at Amarkat in Sind 1542 
 '* succeeds to the throne under the regency 
 
 of Bairam Khan. 1556 
 
The Conqtiests of India — Appendix 361 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Akbar — assumes direct management of the king- 
 dom ; quells revolt of Bairam Khan.. . 1560 
 
 " invasion of the Panjab by Akbar's rival 
 
 brother Hakim, who is defeated 1566 
 
 " subjugates the Rajput kingdoms to the 
 
 Mogul Empire 1561-68 
 
 " campaign in Guzerat, and its annexation 
 
 to the empire, 1572-73 
 
 " reconquest of Bengal, which is finally an- 
 nexed to the empire 1576 
 
 " insurrection in Guzerat (1581-93) which 
 
 is finally subjugated to the empire 1593 
 
 " conquest of Kashmir 1586 
 
 " conquest of Sind 1592 
 
 " subjugation of Kandahar, and consolida- 
 tion of the Mogul Empire over all India 
 north of the Vindhya mountains, as far 
 as Kabul and Kandahar 1594 
 
 ■' unsuccessful campaign of Akbar's son, 
 
 Prince Murad, in the Deccan 1595 
 
 " Akbar's campaign in the Deccan 1599 
 
 " annexation of Khandesh, and return of 
 
 Akbar to Northern India 1601 
 
 " dies at Agra 1605 
 
 Jahangir — succeeds his father Akbar 1605 
 
 *' flight, rebellion, and imprisonment of 
 
 his eldest son Khusru 1606 
 
 *' marries Nur-Mahal 161 1 
 
 " Sir Thomas Roe's embassy arrives at his 
 
 court 1615 
 
362 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Jahangir — Kandahar captured by the Persians. ... 162 1 
 " Rebellion of Shah Jahan, his son. . . 1623-25 
 
 " Mahabet-Khan seizes the emperor 1626 
 
 " recovers his liberty ; Mahabet-Khan 
 
 and Shah Jahan in rebellion 1627 
 
 " dies 1627 
 
 Shah Jahan — Nur-Mahal imprisoned 1627 
 
 " ascends the throne 1628 
 
 " Afghan uprisings in Northern In- 
 dia 1628-30 
 
 " death of his wife M umtaz-i- Mahal . . 1630 
 
 " wars in the Deccan 1629-35 
 
 " Kandahar reconquered by the Moguls 1637 
 
 " temporary invasion of Balkh by the 
 
 Moguls 1645 
 
 " Nur-Mahal dies 1645 
 
 " Balkh abandoned by the Moguls .... 1647 
 
 " Kandahar finally taken and held by 
 
 the Persians 1653 
 
 " war in the Deccan under Aurang- 
 
 zeb 1655-56 
 
 " disputes as to the succession to the 
 
 throne between the four sons of 
 
 Shah Jahan 1657-58 
 
 " dies 1666 
 
 Aurangzeb — deposes Shah Jahan, his father 1658 
 
 " Dara, his brother, executed 1659 
 
 ** Shuja, his brother, flies and perishes 
 
 miserably 1660 
 
The Conquests of India — Appendix 363 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Aurangzeb — Murad, his brother, imprisoned and 
 
 executed 166 1 
 
 Maratha wars, under Sivaji, who 
 
 rebels 1662-65 
 
 war in the Deccan ; defeat of the 
 
 Moguls 1666 
 
 Sivaji makes peace, and obtains 
 
 favorable terms 1667 
 
 Sivaji ravages the Deccan , . . . , 1670 
 
 Sivaji defeats the Mogul army. .... 1672 
 the emperor revives the poll-tax on 
 
 non-Muhammadans. 1667 
 
 war with the Rajputs 1679 
 
 Maratha successes in the Deccan 1672-80 
 the emperor in person invades the 
 
 Deccan 1683 
 
 guerrilla wars with the Marathas.. 1692 
 the Maratha wars ; successes of the 
 
 Moguls 1699-1 701 
 
 the Marathas successful 1702-05 
 
 retreats 1 706 
 
 and dies 1707 
 
;64 The Mogul Emperors 
 
 A GENEALOGICAL TABLE OF 
 THE HOUSE OF TIMUR 
 
 [abridged from professor blochmann's 
 ain-i-akbari.] 
 
 I. TiMUR, ^. A.H. 736 (a.d. 1336) ; d. A.H. 807 (a.d. 
 1405) ; buried at Samarkand. 
 
 II. Jalaluddin Miran Shah (third son of I.), b. 
 A.H. 769 ; d. A.H. 810. 
 
 III. Sultan Muhammad Mirza (sixth son of II.), 
 b. -i ; d. 1 . 
 
 IV. Sultan Abusaid Mirza (eldest son of III.), 
 A.H. 830 ; d. A.H. 873. 
 
 V. Omar-Shaikh Mirza (fourth son of IV.), b. a.h. 
 860 ; d. A.H. 899 (a.d. 1494). 
 
 VI. Babar (eldest son of V.), b. a.h. 888 (a.d. 
 1483) ; d. A.H. 937 (a.d. 1530) ; buried at Kabul. 
 Babar had two brothers, viz.: 2. Jahangir Mirza. 
 3. Nazir Mirza. 
 
 VII. HuMAYUN (eldest son of VI.), b. a.h. 913 (a.d. 
 1508) ; d. A.H. 963 (a.d. 1556) ; buried at Delhi. 
 HuMAYUN had three brothers, viz.: 2. Kamram 
 Mirza. 3. Askari Mirza. 4. Mirza Hindal. 
 
 VIII. Akbar (eldest son of VII.), b. a.h. 949 (a.d. 
 1542) ; d. A.H. 1014 (a.d. 1605) ; buried at Agra. 
 
Genealogical Table — House of Timtir 365 
 
 Akbar had two brothers, viz.: 2, Mirza Muham- 
 mad Hakim, King of Kabul. 3. Sultan Ibrahim. 
 
 IX. Jahangir (third son of VIII.), b. a.h. 977 (a.d. 
 1569) ; d. A.H. 1037 (a.d. 1627) ; buried 21 Lahore. 
 Jahangir had four brothers, viz.: i, 2. Hasan 
 and Husain (twins, died in infancy). 4. Sultan 
 Murad. 5. Sultan Danyal. 
 
 X. Shah Jahan (third son of IX.), b. a.h. iooo (a.d. 
 1591) ; d. A.H. 1076 (a.d. 1666) ; buried at Agra. 
 Shah Jahan had four brothers, viz.: i. Sultan 
 Khusru. 2. Sultan Parwiz. 4. Jahandar, 
 5. Shahryar. 
 
 XI. Aurangzeb (third son of X.), b. a.h. 1027 (a.d. 
 1618) ; d. A.H. 1118 (a.d. 1707) ; buried at Daulat- 
 abad. Aurangzeb had eight brothers, of whom we 
 need only mention : i. Dara Shikoh. 2. Sul- 
 tan Shuja. 6. Murad Bakhsh. 
 
 Finis 
 

 
 

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