In those days Hamida-banu Begam was often in the mirza's residence.  Another day when his Majesty came to see her Highness my mother, he remarked:  "Mir Baba Dost is related to us.  It is fitting that you should give me his daughter in marriage."  Mirza Hindal kept on making objections, and said:  "I look on this girl as a sister and child of my own.  Your Majesty is a king.  Heaven forbid there should not be a proper alimony, and that so a cause of annoyance should arise."/1/

His Majesty got angry, and rose and went away.  Then my mother wrote and sent a letter, saying:  "The girl’s mother has even before this been using persuasion.  It is astonishing that you should go away in anger over a few words."  He wrote in reply:  "Your story is very welcome to me.  Whatever persuasion you may use, by my head and eyes, I will agree to it.  As for what they have written about alimony, please Heaven, what they ask will be done.  My waiting eye is on the road."  My mother fetched his Majesty, and on that day she gave a party.  When it was over, he went to his own quarters.  On another day he came to my mother, and said:  "Send someone to call Hamida-banu Begam here."  When she sent, the begam did not come, but said:  "If it is to pay my respects, I was exalted by paying my respects the other day.  Why should I come again?"  Another time his Majesty sent Subhan Quli, and said:  "Go to Mirza Hindal, and tell him to send the begam."  The mirza said:  "Whatever I may say, she will not go.  Go yourself and tell her."  When Subhan Quli went and spoke, the begam replied:  "To see kings once is lawful; a second time it is forbidden.  I shall not come."  On this Subhan Quli went and represented what she had said.  His Majesty remarked:  "If she is not a consort, we will make her a consort."

To cut the story short:  For forty days the begam resisted and discussed and disagreed.  At last her highness my mother, Dil-dar Begam, advised her, saying:  "After all you will marry someone.  Better than a king, who is there?"  The begam said:  "Oh yes, I shall marry someone; but he shall be a man whose collar my hand can touch, and not one whose skirt it does not reach."  Then my mother again gave her much advice.

At last, after forty days (discussion), at mid-day on Monday Jumidu-l-awwal 948H. (September, 1541), and in Patr, his Majesty took the astrolabe into his own blessed hand and, having chosen a propitious hour, summoned Mir Abu'l-baqa and ordered him to make fast the marriage bond.  He gave the mir two laks of ready money for the dower, and having stayed three days after the wedding in Patr, he set out and went by boat to Bhakkar. [[149-151]]

N O T E S

/1/ This looks like a side-glance at the wasted fortunes of royalty.  No kingdom!  Nor revenues!  Whence then the dowry?  It is clear from the sequel that the important point was being pressed.  Jauhar says that Hamida had been already asked in marriage, but not betrothed or perhaps promised.  Her objections to marry Humayun seem personal, and may indicate preference for another and dislike for him.  She is said to have been fourteen years old and Humayun was thirty-three, an opium-eater, and much married already.  Her objections, whatever their true basis, must have been strong or they could hardly have survived, for Gul-badan to record, through the many years of prosperity and proud motherhood which her husband's renewed sovereignty in India and her son's [Akbar's] distinction secured to her.