//[p.22] I had the honor of waiting upon the Emperor; he beckoned me to draw close. Present were the Prince of the World Sultan Shahryar and such nobles of the Steadfast State as Navvab Asaf Khan, Khwaja Abu'l Hasan-i Divan, Iradat Khan, Khavvas Khan, Bahadur Khan of Transoxiana and others. His Majesty showed me the kindness of asking a few questions. First he asked about the condition of the mausoleum of his majesty Timur, where the tomb of the Emperor's great honored forefathers is and which in Samarqand is known as the Gur-i Amir. I replied,

"I have told everything of the condition of that mausoleum in my book, The Beautiful Book of Jahangir, the very title and completion date of which is an expression of this very thing. I //[p.23] hope that this will become known to His Excellency the Divine Viceregent."

The Emperor then asked the color of Timur's sepulchre, and whether it was indeed made of a slab of black stone. He showed me a stone and asked,

"Is that blessed stone as black as this? Because I've never even seen a torch beam as bright as this, if I'm not mistaken."

"That blessed stone is brighter than this, and shinier," I replied. "It's so shiny you can see your face in it."

"Apparently," I went on, "it's not a slab of stone after all. My son Muhammad 'Ali told me that when they showed it to him, someone said it wasn't a stone, but rather black gold. I said to my son, 'O, son! All my life I've denied the existence of such black gold, but now it's become clear that it does in fact exist.' The reason for my denial was that in the shrine of the Most Enlightened Prince Qusam ibn Abbas an eight-part stone was erected over the entry arch bearing the following inscription:

"During the reign of Baqi Muhammad Khan, Javanmard 'Ali Khan had a son of Sultan Sa'id Khan's household assistant //[p.24] Shams al-Din Muhammad thrown from the top of the Ulugh Beg seminary as a punishment. As they were carrying him up to the roof he recited the following quatrain.

"The reason for this event is that the son, whose name was Mirak, had read the quatrain on the aforementioned stone, and the meaning he gleaned was that from this stone one could obtain one's wishes. One night he brought a ladder and removed the stone from its place and carried it off. When the custodians of the shrine realized what had happened they informed Baqi Khan of it. Mirak was sought out and found, and when the stone was studied it was found to be made of shiny black gold.

"Your humble servant was in Bukhara when this incident became known and now, in the year 1036, the original place of that stone at the top of the archway is empty, as anyone who looks will notice."

[. . .]

Fourth Meeting: Maktub Khan

//[p.29] I came before the throne of the peerless world-turning King. He said, "I very much liked your book."

In gratitude for this good fortune I recited this couplet:

I had composed this couplet in the style of Yadgar Qurchi:

//[p.30] Maktub Khan stared uncomfortably, then tried to begin. When I realized his state, I said, "Your health, King! Maktub Khan doesn't know Yadgar Qurchi. But Yadgar Qurchi knows Maktub Khan, because Maktub Khan is the forerunner and Yadgar Qurchi came after him."

The Divine Viceregent seemed pleased, and showed me the favor of asking me the correct version. I recited:

Maktub Khan is one of the most privileged of the trustworthy servants of the Court, and for a long time had offered his life in service to the Emperor and continued to serve him honorably. He is currently in charge of the royal library as well as the painters' atelier. What fortune for him could be greater than this, that in the Divine Viceregent's royal memoirs, the Book of Jahangir—which is the ultimate expression of that peerless enlightened king's nature—he is described positively. When Jahangir acceded to the throne he ordered that the poets should commemorate the event with chronograms. When Maktub Khan composed a good one, the Emperor liked it and put it into the royal memoirs. It went thus:

Even though the honorable Khan is nearly eighty years of age, the meadow of his speech still blossoms with insight from the rain of the clouds of meaning, and the richness of expression //[p.31] in his pearly offerings is striking. He was especially skilled at rhyming couplets. In the following quatrain he nicely expresses the weakness of his own old age:

[. . .]

//[p.58] It is said that Shaykh Nur al-Din "the Seer" (may his tomb be blessed), who was called "the Fourteenth Axis of the World" and was one of the "forty bodies" upon which the world stands, was just like my grandfather. That is to say is that he too was blind and his blessed face was featureless, yet he was able to do anything that seeing people could do. His pure, luminous tomb is inside the citadel of Samarqand; the mausoleum is covered with white tilework. The mausoleum had fallen into disrepair, when Aq Khanum, the wife of Sultan Sa'id Khan, had it repaired during the governorship of Javanmard 'Ali Khan. Shaykh Nur al-Din was a very great man. Most of the "forty" are buried in a mosque known as the Azure Mosque. It is said that one day in that mosque while a group of sufis were reciting zikr, the roof of the mosque flew up to the sky and then came back down again in its place.

Shaykh Nur al-Din had a sufi lodge built outside the Samarqand citadel which is still there. Every Thursday night in that lodge sufis and well-wishers stay awake all night chanting zikr. The Shaykh had instructed that these "wakeful nights" should take place there until the Day of Resurrection. People say the Day of Resurrection will take place on a Friday, at a time when no one is awake. The Shaykh said, "Almighty God will send down his angels to ensure that this duty [i.e., all-night vigils] is carried out."

I myself once took part in such a vigil at that lodge. The Shaykh's sons got up to chant with the group; people were whirling around and clapping rhythmically and stamping their //[p.59] feet while they chanted. Near dawn they cooked sweets, and after morning prayers they ate harisa while standing up.

They say someone once tried to test the Shaykh by throwing a needle on the ground and pretending to look for it. The Shaykh asked him what he was looking for. "I've lost a needle and am looking for it," the man replied. The Shaykh picked up his cane and placed it upon the needle, and said, "Here is your needle, underneath my cane."

Here are some of the Shaykh's quatrains:

[. . .]

//[p.73] That same day I was again by the foot of the great throne. That day ten bags, each bag filled with a thousand rupees, were given to the Doctor [Masih al-Zaman]. I didn't know whether this was a prize for his couplet, or for some medical treatment that had been useful in treating some illness. The reward was given; God knows best.

Doctor Masih al-Zaman is one of the intimates of the foot of the World-Turning Throne of the Divine Viceregent. He is extremely good-natured; His Majesty trusts his word completely, and gave him a nice mention in the Book of Jahangir, where he says, "When the World-Axis of the Age, His Excellency Khwaja Abu Hashim Dihbidi—whose blessed breath today warms the bazaar of asceticism in Transoxiana—sent us presents by means of his disciples, in return we sent him a piece written by Babur for his grandfather Makhdum-i A'zam (may he be sanctified):

"We gave a thousand jahangiri muhrs to his disciples, and in a letter to him I wrote this verse:

"The point is," he continued, "that whatever has the quality of poetry is in response to this quatrain. There have been many //[p.74] responses, but I like that of Doctor Masih al-Zaman and gave him the prize of jahangiri muhrs, This is Masih al-Zaman's quatrain:

[. . .]

//[p.76] I came to kiss the threshold. The Emperor had a miniature painting in his hand and was studying it. He called me forward, and told me, "Look at this painting. Do you know whose portrait it is?"

When I looked I saw that one was a portrait of 'Abdullah Khan Uzbek and another was of 'Abd al-Mu'min Khan. "Are these good likenesses," he asked me, "or do you have some comments to make? If you do, then tell me."

"The portrait of 'Abdullah Khan is too fleshy, and his chin was not as straight as it's shown here," I replied. "In fact he was rather thin, and he had a crooked chin."

"Was it crooked on the right side, or the left?" he asked.

"On the left," I said.

A painter was called out to correct the portrait, and whatever I said he was ordered to make the appropriate changes. Then the Emperor asked, "What about the portrait of 'Abd al-Mu'min Khan?"

"He's painted very greenish here," I said. "He wasn't like that; in fact he was more white than green, and he wore his turban a little more to the front, as neatly as possible."

"Take off your turban," he said, "and show me how he did it."

//[p.77] I took off my turban and showed him. The Emperor said to the painter, "Paint it this way."

The next day the painter brought out the paintings just the way I had said they should be. His Majesty was very pleased. Abu'l Biy Uzbek, who is known as Bahadur Khan, was present, and said, "During the time I was in 'Abd al-Mu'min's service he didn't tie his turban like that."

The Divine Viceregent replied, "The Preacher was talking about when he was still a prince, which was almost fifty years ago."

Then he asked me, "Did 'Abd al-Mu'min Khan compose poetry?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Recite some," he said. Accordingly, I recited this:

One of the attendants said, "'Abd al-Mu'min Khan composed a stupid couplet."

The Divine Viceregent replied, "Even if 'Abd al-Mu'min Khan composed a stupid couplet, your interruption is even stupider." What he meant was that one has no right to point out the faults of kings, especially their words, since "the most kingly words are the words of kings".

O dear brother! And O friend of the Pure Master! Be very, very careful to watch over your eye and tongue and hand, and be careful, for many, for lack of watching over these things, have given their souls to the wind. Above all, the most important is to keep watch over your tongue.

//[p.78] And that is why tongue (zaban) rhymes with loss (ziyan).

[. . .]

//[p.81] I had the good fortune to be received at the foot of the throne. The Emperor said, "We were very carefully reading your anthology today, when your mention of Muhammad Yusuf Khwaja son of Taj al-Din Hasan Juybari fell under our enlightened gaze. Having read one of his odes, we realized that he is very talented and composes very nice poetry. Even though he was known to us even before Khwaja Zayn al-Din Nagshbandi introduced him to us, we didn't know much about his poetry. Now we have understood the extent of his skill, and that of all the Juybari khwajas it appears none are as talented as he.

"We also read your mention of Fawlad Khwaja Shaykh al-Islam," the Emperor continued. "He is certainly a master of high ambition. But what a pity he hasn't come to India and that the light of his erudition has in no way fallen here, and that he hasn't come to give the devotees an apple of Samarqand wisdom. You will pass on our complaint to him.

//[p.82] "We also hear that Nadr Divan Begi has become an intimate of the ruler of Turan Imam Quli Khan. Is this true or not?" "Yes," I replied; "he gave evidence for this in an order which he had written out in the name 'Nizam al-Din Nadr Mirza-yi Tughay'." "I can't believe he is an intimate of Imam Quli Khan," said the Emperor. "Imam Quli Khan never sends his intimates to us as ambassadors, only low-ranking servants and inferior people. That's what we're concerned about. We don't know if this is a good sign or not."

I said,

[. . .]

//[p.86]

I arrived at the happiness of kissing the threshold. The pleasantness of Samarqand was being discussed. The Emperor asked me, "Is Samarqand spelled with a 'q' or with a 'k'?"

"Either way is correct," I replied. "In Tabari's history and several other books it is referred to as Samarkand, but in popular usage it has become known as Samarqand. Some say that the name comes from Samar and Qamar, two slaves of Alexander the great who built the city which was then named for them. Their graves are situated in the main market square of Samarqand."

The Divine Viceregent said, "We've also seen it spelled Samarkand in books." Then he asked, "Do you know anyone in Samarqand erudite and articulate and good-natured and companionable enough to be deserving of our royal company, that we might send them money and an invitation?"

My son Muhammad 'Ali then greatly praised Akhund Mawlana Sabiri, son of Hafiz Tashkandi who is also known as Hafiz "the Celestial", and brought him to the attention of His Majesty. The Divine Viceregent said, when we were nine years old we often saw his father conversing with our own great father; he was the best sort of person."

//[p.87] Then he said, "The shrine of our great honored ancestors, which is known as the Gur-i Amir, how many rupees does its maintenance cost?"

"If you want to do it properly, 10,000 rupees," I said; "otherwise 5,000 rupees just to keep it going."

"If 10,000 rupees will maintain it," he said, "then we have decided that in accordance with your information we will send 10,000 rupees, in order that that blessed station be main- tained."

I said,

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