On Wednesday, the 12th, 3,000 rupees were handed over to ʿAz̤amat K͟hān and Muʿtaqad K͟hān, that they might go the next day to the tomb of S͟haik͟h Aḥmad K͟haṭṭū, and divide it among the fakirs and indigent people who had taken up their abode there. On Thursday, the 13th, I went to the lodging of my son S͟hāh Jahān, and held a Mubārak-s͟hamba entertainment there, and distributed cups among my private servants. I gave my son the elephant Sundar Mathan,112 which was superior to all my private elephants in speed and beauty and pleasant paces, and competed with horses, and was the first among the elephants, and one much liked by King Akbar. My son S͟hāh Jahān had a great liking for him, and frequently asked him of me, and seeing no way out of it I gave it to him with its gold belongings of chains, etc., together with a female elephant. A present of 100,000 of darbs was given to the wakils of ʿĀdil K͟hān. At this time it was represented113 to me that Mukarram K͟hān, son of Muʿaz̤z̤am K͟hān, who was the governor of Orissa, had conquered the country of K͟hūrdā, and that the Raja of that place had fled and gone into the Rājmahendra. As he was a k͟hāna-zād (houseborn one) and worthy of patronage, I ordered his mansab, original and increase, to be 3,000 personal and 2,000 horse, and honoured him with drums, a horse, and a dress of honour. Between the province of Orissa and Golconda there were two zamindars, one the Raja of K͟hūrdā and the second the Raja of Rājmahendra. The province of K͟hūrdā has come into the possession of the servants of the Court. After this it is the turn of the country of Rājmahendra. My hope in the grace of Allah is that the feet of my energy may advance farther. At this time a petition from Qut̤bu-l-mulk reached my son S͟hāh Jahān to the effect that as the boundary of his territory had approached that of the King, and he owed service to this Court, he hoped an order would be issued to Mukarram K͟hān not to stretch out his hand, and to acquire possession of his country. It was a proof of Mukarram’s valour and energy that such a one as Qut̤bu-l-mulk should be apprehensive about his (Mukarram) becoming his neighbour.

On this day Ikrām K͟hān, son of Islām K͟hān, was appointed faujdār of Fatḥpūr and its neighbourhood, and presented with a dress of honour and an elephant; Chandar Sen, the zamindar of Haloẕ (Halwad?),114 was given a dress of honour, a horse, and an elephant. An elephant was also given to Lāchīn Qāqs͟hāl. At the same time Muz̤affar,115 son of Mīrzā Bāqī Tark͟hān, had the honour of kissing the threshold. His mother was the daughter of Bārha (Bhārā), the zamindar of Kachh. When Mīrzā Bāqī died and the government of Thatta went to Mīrzā Jānī, Muz̤affar was apprehensive of Mīrzā Jānī, and he took refuge with the aforesaid zamindar. He had remained from his childhood until now in that country. Now that the fortunate retinue had reached Ahmadabad, he came and did homage. Though he had been reared among men of the wilds, and was unfamiliar with civilized ways and ceremonies, yet as his family had had the relations of service with our exalted dynasty from the times of Timur116—may God make his proof clear!—I considered it right to patronize him. For the present I gave him 2,000 rupees for expenses, and a dress of honour. A suitable rank will be given to him, and perhaps he will show himself efficient as a soldier.

On Thursday, the 20th, I went to the “Garden of Victory,” and contemplated the red roses. One plot had bloomed well. There are not many red roses (gul-i-surk͟h) in this country, so it was pleasant to see so many here. The anemone117 bed, too, was not bad, and the figs had ripened. I gathered some figs with my own hands, and weighed the largest one. It came to 7½ tolas. On this day there arrived 1,500 melons from Kārīz. The K͟hān ʿĀlam had sent them as a present. I gave a thousand of them to the servants in attendance, and five hundred to the women of the harem. I spent four days in this garden in enjoyment, and on Monday eve, the 24th, I came to the city. Some of the melons were given to the Shaikhs of Ahmadabad, and they were astonished to see how inferior were the Gujarat melons. They marvelled at the goodness of the Deity.

On Thursday, the 27th, I held a wine-feast in the Nagīna118 garden, which is inside the palace grounds, and which one of the Gujarat Sultans had planted. I made my servants happy with flowing bowls. A pergola (tak͟hta) of grapes had ripened in this garden, and I bade those who had been drinking to gather the bunches with their own hands and partake of them.

On Monday, the 1st of Isfandārmuẕ, I left Ahmadabad and marched towards Malwa. I scattered money on the road till we reached the bank of the Kānkriyā tank, where I halted for three days. On Thursday, the 4th, the presents of Muqarrab K͟hān were laid before me. There was nothing rare among them, nor anything that I took a fancy to, and so I felt ashamed. I gave them to my children to take into the harem. I accepted jewellery and decorated vessels and cloths to the value of a lakh, and gave him back the rest. Also about one hundred Kachhi horses were taken, but there was none of great excellence.

On Friday, the 5th, I marched 6 kos, and encamped on the bank of the Ahmadabad River. As my son S͟hāh Jahān was leaving Rustam K͟hān, one of his chief servants, in charge of the government of Gujarat, I, at my son’s request, gave him a standard, drums, a dress of honour, and a decorated dagger. Up till now it had not been the custom in this dynasty to give to the prince’s servants standards or drums. For instance, H.M. Akbar with all his affection and graciousness to me, did not decide upon giving to my officers a title or a standard. But my consideration for this son is so unbounded that I would do anything to please him, and, in fact, he is an excellent son, and one adorned with every grace, and in his early youth has accomplished to my satisfaction, everything that he has set his hand to.

On this day Muqarrab K͟hān took leave to go to his home.

As the shrine of Qut̤b ʿĀlam, the father of S͟hāh ʿĀlam Buk͟hārī, was in the village of Batoh,119 and on my way, I went there and gave 500 rupees to the guardians. On Saturday, the 6th, I entered a boat on the Mahmūdābād River and went a-fishing. On the bank is the tomb of Sayyid Mubārak Buk͟hārī. He was one of the leading officers of Gujarat, and his son Sayyid Mīrān erected this monument to him. It is a very lofty cupola, and there is a very strong wall of stone and lime round it. It must have cost more than two lakhs of rupees. None of the tombs of the Gujarat Sultans that I saw came up to one-tenth of it. Yet they were sovereigns, and Sayyid Mīrān was only a servant. Genius and the help of God have produced this result. A thousand blessings on a son who has made such a tomb for his father:120

On Sunday I halted and fished, and caught 400 fish. One of them had no scales, and is called the sang-māhī, ‘the stone-fish.’ Its belly was very large and swollen, so I ordered them to cut it open in my presence. Inside was a fish with scales which it had recently swallowed and which had as yet undergone no change. I told them to weigh both fish. The stone-fish came to 6½ seers and the other to nearly 2.

On Monday, the 8th, I marched 4¼ kos, and encamped in the village of Moda (Mahāondat). The inhabitants praised the rainy season of Gujarat. It happened that on the previous night and on this day before breakfast some rain fell, and the dust was laid. As this is a sandy country, it is certain that there would not be any dust in the rainy season, nor would there be any mud. The fields would be green and cheerful. At any rate, a specimen of the rainy season has been seen by me. On Tuesday I marched 5½ kos, and halted at the village of Jarsīma (Jarīsamā).121

At this stage news came that Mān Singh Sewṛā had surrendered his soul to the lords of hell. The account of this in brief is that the Sewras122 are a tribe of infidel Hindus who always go with their head and feet bare. One set of them root out their hair, their beards, and moustaches, while another set shave them. They do not wear sewn garments, and their central principle is that no living creature should be injured. The Banyans regard them as their pīrs and teachers, and even worship them. There are two sects of Sewras, one called Patā (Tapā) and the other Kanthal (Kartal). Mān Singh was the head of the latter, and Bāl Chand the head of the Patās.123 Both of them used to attend upon H.M. Akbar. When he died and K͟husrau fled and I pursued him, Rāy Singh Bhurṭiyā, zamindar of Bikanir, who had been made an Amīr by Akbar’s kindness, asked Mān Singh what would be the duration of my reign and the chances of my success. That black-tongued fellow, who pretended to be skilled in astrology and the extraction of judgments, said to him that my reign would, at most, last for two years. The doting old idiot (Rāy Singh) relied upon this, and went off without leave to his home. Afterwards, when the glorious God chose out this suppliant and I returned victorious to the capital, he came, ashamed and downcast, to Court. What happened to him in the end has been told in its proper place.124 In fine, Mān Singh, in the course of three or four months, was struck with leprosy (juẕām), and his limbs fell off him till he was in such a state that death was by many degrees preferable to life. He was living at Bikanir, and now I remembered him and sent for him. On the road he, out of excessive fear, took poison, and surrendered his soul to the lords of hell. So long as the intentions of this suppliant at God’s courts are just and right, it is sure that whoever devises evil against me will receive retribution according to his merits.

The sect of the Sewras exists in most of the cities of India, but is especially numerous in Gujarat. As the Banyans are the chief traders there, consequently the Sewras also are plentiful. Besides making idol-temples for them, they have built houses for them to dwell in and to worship in. In fact, these houses are the headquarters of sedition. The Banyans send their wives and daughters to the Sewras, who have no shame or modesty. All kinds of strife and audacity are perpetrated by them. I therefore ordered that the Sewras should be expelled, and I circulated farmans to the effect that wherever there were Sewras in my empire they should be turned out.

On Wednesday, the 10th, I went out to hunt, and shot two nilgaw, one male and one female. On this day the son of Dilāwar K͟hān came from Pattan, which was his father’s fief, and paid his respects. He presented a Kachhī horse. It was a very handsome animal, and pleasant to ride. Till I came to Gujarat no one had presented me with so fine a horse. Its value was 1,000 rupees.

On Thursday, the 11th, I had a wine party on the bank of the tank, and bestowed many favours on those servants who had been appointed to the province, and then dismissed them. Among the promotions was that of S͟hajāʿat K͟hān, the Arab, to the rank of 2,500 personal and 2,000 horse. I also gave him drums, a horse, and a robe of honour. Himmat K͟hān was raised to the rank of 1,500 with 800 horse, and had a robe of honour and an elephant. Kifāyat K͟hān, who was made Diwan of the province, received the rank of 1,200 with 300 horse. Ṣafī K͟hān bakhshi received a horse and a robe of honour. K͟hwāja ʿĀqil had the rank of 1,500 with 650 horse, and was made bakhshi of the Ahadis, and had the title of ʿĀqil K͟hān. Thirty thousand darbs were given to the wakil of Qut̤bu-l-Mulk, who had brought the tribute.

On this day my son S͟hāh Jahān presented pomegranates and quinces that had been sent to him from Farāh. I had never seen such large ones, and I ordered them to be weighed. The quince weighed 29 tolas 9 mashas and the pomegranate 40½ tolas. On Friday, the 12th, I went a-hunting and shot two nilgaw, a male and a female. On Saturday, the 13th, I shot three nilgaw, two males and one female. On Sunday, the 14th, I gave S͟haik͟h Ismāʿīl, the son of S͟haik͟h Muḥammad G͟haus̤, a robe of honour and 500 rupees. On Monday, the 15th, I went a-hunting and shot two female nilgaw. On Tuesday, the 16th, I again presented the Shaikhs of Gujarat, who were in attendance, with robes of honour and maintenance-lands. To each of them I gave a book from my special library, such as the Tafsīr-i-kas͟hs͟hāf,125 the Tafsīr-i-Ḥusainī,126 and the Rauẓatu-l-aḥbāb.127 I wrote on the back of the books the day of my arrival in Gujarat and the day of presentation of the books.

At the time that Ahmadabad was adorned by the setting up of the royal standards my employment by day and by night was the seeing of necessitous persons and the bestowing on them of money and land. I directed S͟haik͟h Aḥmad the Ṣadr and some other tactful servants to bring before me dervishes and other needy persons. I also directed the sons of S͟haik͟h Muhammad G͟haus̤, the grandson of S͟haik͟h Wajīhu-d-dīn, and other leading Shaikhs to produce whatever persons they believed to be in want. Similarly I appointed some women to do the same thing in the harem. My sole endeavour was that as I a king had come to this country after many years, no single person should be excluded. God is my witness that I did not fall short in this task, and that I never took any rest from this duty. Although I have not been delighted with my visit to Ahmadabad, yet I have this satisfaction—that my coming has been the cause of benefit to a large number of poor people.

On Tuesday, the 16th, they caught Kaukab, the son of Qamar K͟hān. He had in Burhanpur put on a faqir’s dress and gone off into the wilds. The brief account of his case is this:—He was the grandson of Mīr ʿAbdu-l-Lat̤īf, who was one of the Saifī Sayyids and was attached to this Court. Kaukab had been appointed to the Deccan army, and had spent some days with it in poverty and wretchedness. When for a long time he did not get promotion he suspected that I was unfavourable to him, and foolishly took the dress of asceticism and went off to the wilderness. In the course of six months he traversed the whole of the Deccan, including Daulatabad, Bidar, Bijapur, the Carnatic, and Golconda, and came to the port of Dābul.128 From there he came by ship to the port of Gogā, and after visiting the ports of Surat, Broāch, etc., he reached Ahmadabad. At this time Zāhid, a servant of S͟hāh Jahān, arrested him and brought him to Court. I ordered them to bring him before me heavily bound. When I saw him I said to him, “Considering the obligations of service of your father and grandfather, and your position as a houseborn one, why have you behaved in such an inauspicious manner?” He replied that he could not tell a lie in the presence of his qibla and real teacher, and that the truth was that he had hoped for favours, but as he was unlucky he had left outward ties and gone into the wilderness of exile. As his words bore the marks of truth they made an impression on me, and I abandoned my harsh tone and asked him if in his misfortunes he had waited upon ʿĀdil K͟hān, or Qut̤bu-l-Mulk, or ʿAmbar. He replied that though he had been unsuccessful at this Court and had remained thirsty in this boundless ocean of beneficence, he had never—God forbid that he should—approached with his lips other fountains. Might his head be cut off if it had bowed at this Court and then lowered itself at another! From the time that he went into exile he had kept a diary showing what he had done, and by examining it it would be seen how he had conducted himself. These words of his increased my compassion for him, and I sent for his papers and read them. It appeared from them that he had encountered great hardship, and that he had spent much time on foot, and that he had suffered from want of food. On this account I felt kindly disposed towards him. Next day I sent for him and ordered them to remove the bonds from his arms and legs, and gave him a robe of honour, a horse, and 1,000 rupees for his expenses. I also increased his rank by one half, and showed him such kindness as he never had imagined. He repeated this verse—

On Wednesday, the 17th, I marched 6 kos and halted at the village of Bārasīnor (Bālasīnor). It has already been mentioned that the plague had appeared in Kashmir. On this day a report of the chronicler of events arrived, stating that the plague had taken firm hold of the country and that many had died. The symptoms were that the first day there was headache and fever and much bleeding at the nose. On the second day the patient died. In the house where one person died all the inmates were carried off. Whoever went near the sick person or a dead body was affected in the same way. In one instance the dead body was thrown on the grass, and it chanced that a cow came and ate some of the grass. It died, and some dogs that had eaten its flesh also all died. Things had come to such a pass that from fear of death fathers would not approach their children, and children would not go near their fathers. A strange thing was that in the ward in which the disease began, a fire broke out and nearly 3,000 houses were burnt. During the height of the plague, one morning when the people of the city and environs got up, they saw circles on their doors. There were three large circles, and on the face of these (i.e. inside them) there were two circles of middle size and one small one. There were also other circles which did not contain any whiteness129 (i.e. there were no inner circles). These figures were found on all the houses and even on the mosques. From the day when the fire took place and these circles appeared, they say there was a diminution of the plague. This has been recorded as it seems a strange affair. It certainly does not agree with the canons of reason, and my intellect cannot accept it. Wisdom is with God! I trust that the Almighty will have mercy on his sinful slaves, and that they will be altogether freed from such calamity.

On Thursday, the 18th, I marched 2½ kos and halted on the bank of the Mahī. On this day the Jām zamindar130 had the good fortune to kiss the ground. He presented 50 horses, 100 muhrs, and 100 rupees. His name is Jassā, and Jām is his title. Whoever succeeds is called Jām. He is one of the chief zamindars of Gujarat, and, indeed, he is one of the noted rajas of India. His country is close to the sea. He always maintains 5,000 or 6,000 horse, and in time of war can supply as many as 10,000 or 12,000. There are many horses in his country; Kachhī horses fetch as much as 2,000 rupees. I gave him a dress of honour.

On the same day Lachmī Narāyan, Raja of Kūch (Bihār), which adjoins Bengal, did homage and presented 500 muhrs. He received a dress of honour and an ornamented dagger.

Nawāzish K͟hān, son of Saʿīd K͟hān, who had been appointed to Jūnagaṛh, had the good fortune to pay his respects. On Friday, the 19th, I halted, and on Saturday, the 20th, I marched 3¾ kos and halted at the tank of Jhanūd. On Sunday I marched 4½ kos and halted at the tank of Badarwālā. On this day there came the news of the death of ʿAz̤amat K͟hān Gujarātī. On account of illness he had remained in Ahmadabad. He was a servant who knew one’s disposition, and did good work. As he had thorough knowledge of the Deccan and Gujarat, I was grieved at his death. In the tank above mentioned I noticed a plant which at the approach of the finger or the end of a stick contracts its leaves. After a while it opens them out again. Its leaves resemble those of the tamarind, and it is called in Arabic S͟hajaru-l-ḥayā, ‘the plant of modesty.’ In Hindī it is called Lajvantī. Lāj means modesty. It is certainly not void of strangeness. They also call it nag͟hzak, and say that it also grows on dry land.

On Monday, the 22nd, I halted. My scouts reported that there was a tiger in the neighbourhood which vexed wayfarers, and in the forest where it was they had seen a skull and some bones lying. After midday I went out to shoot it, and killed it with one discharge. Though it was a large tiger, I had killed several that were larger. Among them was a tiger which I killed in the fort of Māndū, and which was 8½ maunds. This one weighed 7½ maunds, or 1 maund less.

On Tuesday, the 23rd, I marched over 3½ kos and alighted on the bank of the River Bāyab.131 On Wednesday I marched nearly 6 kos and halted at the tank of Hamda.132 On Thursday I ordered a halt and had a wine party, and gave cups to my special servants. I promoted Nawāzish K͟hān to the rank of 3,000 with 2,000 horse, which was an increase of 500 personal, and gave him a robe of honour and an elephant, and allowed him to go to his fief. Muḥammad Ḥusain Sabzak,133 who had been sent to Balkh to buy horses, came to Court to-day and paid his respects. Of the horses he brought, one was piebald and was of fine shape and colour. I had never seen a piebald horse of this colour before. He had also brought other good roadsters. I therefore gave him the title of Tijāratī K͟hān.

On Friday, the 26th, I marched 5¼ kos and halted at the village of Jālod.134 Rāja Lachmī Narāyan, the paternal uncle of the Raja of Kūch, to whom I had now given the territory of Kūch, was presented with a horse. On Saturday I marched 3 kos and halted at Boda.135 On Sunday I marched 5 kos and set up the royal standards at Doḥad. It is on the borders of Malwa and Gujarat.

Pahluwān Bahāʾu-d-dīn, the musketeer, brought a young monkey (langūr) with a goat, and represented that on the road one of his marksmen had seen the female langur with a young one in its arms on a tree. The cruel man had shot the mother, which on being struck had left the young one on a branch, and had herself dropped on the ground and died. Pahluwān Bahāʾu-d-dīn had then come up and taken down the young one, and had put it beside the goat to be suckled. God had inspired the goat with affection for it, and it began to lick the monkey and to fondle it. In spite of difference of species she showed such love as if it had come out of her own womb. I told them to separate them, but the goat immediately began to lament, and the young langur also became much distressed. The affection of the monkey is not so remarkable, as it wanted to get milk, but the affection of the goat for it is remarkable. The langur is an animal belonging to the monkey tribe. But the hair of the monkey (maimūn) is yellowish and its face is red, while the hair of the langur is white and its face is black. Its tail, too, is twice as long as the maimun’s. I have written these things on account of their strangeness. On Monday, the 29th, I halted and went to hunt nilgaw. I shot two, one male and one female. On Tuesday also, the 30th, I halted.

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End of the twelfth year of the Emperor’s reign, in the Tūzuk-i-Jahāngīrī.