[PART TWELVE] A theft
of rubies, the siege and taking of Qandahar, the pursuit of Mirza Kamran,
the taking of Kabul, the ladies' move to Kabul and the festivities, the
circumcision of Akbar [[171-180]]
On the 12th of the same month, her Highness my mother, Dil-dar Begam, and Gul-chihra Begam, and this lowly person paid our duty to the Emperor. For five years we had been shut out and cut off from this pleasure, so now when we were freed from the moil and pain of separation, we were lifted up by our happiness in meeting this Lord of beneficience again. Merely to look at him eased the sorrow-stricken heart and purged the blear-eyed vision. Again and again we joyfully made the prostration of thanks. There were many festive gatherings, and people sat from evening to dawn, and players and singers made continuous music. Many amusing games, full of fun, were played. Amongst them was this: Twelve players had each twenty cards and twenty shahrukhis. Whoever lost, lost those twenty shahrukhis, which would make five misqals. Each player gave the winner his twenty shahrukhis to add to his own. To widows and orphans, and kinsfolk of men who had been wounded and killed at Chausa and Kanauj, or Bhakkar, or who were in the royal service during those intermissions, he gave pension, and rations, and water, and land, and servants. In the days of his Majesty's good fortune, great tranquility and happiness befell soldiers and peasants. They lived without care, and put up many an ardent prayer for his long life. A few days later he sent persons to bring Hamida-banu Begam from Qandahar. When she arrived, they celebrated the feast of the circumcision of the Emperor Jalalu-d-din Muhammad Akbar. Preperations were made, and after the New Year they kept splendid festivity for seventeen days. People dressed in green, and thirty or forty girls were ordered to wear green and come out to the hills. On the first day of the New Year they went out to the Hill of the Seven Brothers and there passed many days in ease and enjoyment and happiness. The Emperor Muhammad Akbar was five years old when they made the circumcision feast in Kabul. They gave it in that same large Audience Hall Garden. They decorated all the bazars. Mirza Hindal and Mirza Yadgar-nasir, and the sultans and amirs, decorated their quarters beautifully, and in Bega Begam's garden the begams and ladies made theirs quite wonderful in a new fashion. All the sultans and amirs brought gifts to
the Audience Hall Garden. There were many elegant festivities and
grand entertainments, and costly khil'ats and head-to-foot dresses were
bestowed. Peasants and preachers, the pious, the poor and the needy,
noble and plebien, low and high,—everybody lived in peace and comfort,
passing the days in amusement and the nights in talk. [[178-180]]
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