In Volume 1-1: Qurʾānic Literature, History, and Biography | Section 2, History, Biography, etc.

previous chapter: 12.3.4 Akbar

§ 715. M. Salīm, the eldest son of Akbar and Rājah Bihārī Mal’s daughter, was born at Fatḥpūr-Sīkrī on 17 Rabīʿ i 977/31 Aug. 1569. He succeeded his father on 20 Jumādā ii 1014/24 Oct. 1605 at the age of 38, and adopted the title of Abū ’l-Muẓaffar Nūr al-Dīn M. Jahāngīr Pāds̲h̲āh. In 1020/1611 he married Mihr al-Nisāʾ (afterwards entitled Nūr-Maḥall and later Nūr-Jahān), the daughter of G̲h̲iyāt̲h̲ Bēg afterwards entitled Iʿtimād al-Daulah. He died on 28 Ṣafar 1037/7 Nov. 1627 and was buried at S̲h̲āhdarah near Lahore.

Jahāngīr-nāmah¹ or (Tūzuk Jahāngīrī), the Emperor’s memoirs, existing in three forms,² the first two apparently authentic and the third, which is confused, lacking in dates and marked by exaggerations and irrelevant digressions, more or less garbled (see de Sacy’s discussion in the Journal des savants, 1830, pp. 359 foll. and 430 foll.):

i

The earliest version³ of the memoirs written in the 3rd year of the reign (beginning Ḥamd i bī-g̲h̲āyat u s̲h̲ukr i bī-nihāyat mubdiʿī rā⁴): Bānkīpūr vii 557 (written at Ḥaidarābād ah 1020/1611 (note this very early date), Aumer 259 (1) (?) (ah 1138/1726), Ethé 309 (ah 1194/1780), Berlin 486 (ah 1199/1784–5), Bodleian 222 (ah 1225/1810), Rieu iii 932a (ah 1239/1824).

ii

The “authentic” memoirs (beg. Az ʿināyāt i bī-g̲h̲āyāt i ilāhī) written by the Emperor himself from his accession firstly to the end of the twelfth regnal year (after which copies were bound and distributed to ¶ relations and officials) then to the 17th year, after which they were continued, under his supervision, by Muʿtamad K̲h̲ān (for whom see p. 440 infra) to the beginning of the 19th year, and finally re-edited in the time of Muḥammad S̲h̲āh by M. Hādī, who added an introduction (beginning Ḥamd u t̲h̲anā-yi bī mar u ḥadd) dealing with Jahān-gir’s pre-regnal life and a continuation to the end of his reign: Lahore Panjāb Univ. Lib. (the first twelve years. A copy bearing the seals of Jahāngīr and S̲h̲āh-Jahān. See Oriental College Magazine, vol. ii, no. 4 (August 1926) pp. 51–2), Ross and Browne 9 (breaks off about halfway through the work. Bears a seal dated 1040/1630–1), Ethé 305 (to beginning of 19th year. N.d.), 306 (to beginning of 19th year. N.d.), 307 (defective, extending to beginning of 10th year. N.d.), 308 (ends as no. 307. ad 1835), 2833 (with M. Hādī’s continuation. Written after collating different mss. by S.M. K̲h̲ān Dihlawī ad 1843. Ornate copy), Rieu i 253b (to end of 12th year. 17th cent.), Suppt. 77 (breaks off in middle of 13th year. 17th cent.), iii 930b (with M. Hādī’s continuation. 1 Picture. ah 1241 /1825), 931a (with M. Hādī’s continuation. 18th cent.), 931a (with M. Hādī’s continuation. 18th cent.), 931a (extracts. Circ. 1850), 931a i (Or. 1648 foll. 35–181. The first twelve years in a shorter recension. Early 19th cent.), 931a ii (Or. 1648 foll. 202–296. Passages from the fuller recension. Early 19th cent.), Lindesiana p. 159 no. 938 (with M. Hādī’s continuation. Circ. ad 1700), Bodleian 219 (to 23 Rabīʿ i ah 1027/1618, the 14th year. ah 1118/1706), 220 (ends at same point), 221 (with M. Hādī’s continuation. Completed ad 1846 by S. Aḥmad K̲h̲ān (for whom see p. 380 supra) on the basis of 10 good mss. belonging to Bahādur S̲h̲āh’s libraries). Browne Pers. Cat. 94 (to end of 12th year. N.d.), 95 (to end of 12th year. ah 1139/1726), Spt. 333 (ah 1232/1816–17), 334 (King’s 88), Blochet 579 (to end of 12th year. ah 1196/1781), r.a.s. P. 124 = Morley 120 (with M. Hādī’s continuation, ah 1231/1815), Ivanow 142 (to the 19th year. ah 1253/1837), 144 (with M. Hādī’s continuation. 19th cent.), Curzon 27 (mid 19th cent.)

It is not clear from the catalogue whether the copies of the “Tuzuk i Jahāngīrī” mentioned in Āṣafīyah i p. 234 nos. 234 and 632 are the authentic or the “spurious” memoirs. There is a Tārīk̲h̲ i Jahāngīr-S̲h̲āhī mentioned in Semenov’s catalogue of the historical mss. in the Central Library at Buk̲h̲ārā, p. 8 no. 14.

Editions: (1) Toozuk-i-Jehangeeree [with M. Hādī’s continuation] … Edited by Syud Ahmad [for whom see p. 380 supra], G̲h̲āzīpūr and (preface etc.) ʿAlīgaṛh 1863–4°*, (2) Lucknow 1914*.

Extracts: Muntak̲h̲abāt i Tūzuk i Jahāngīrī, Lahore 1884†.

¶ Extracts with translation by J. Anderson: Asiatic Miscellany, Calcutta 1786*, ii pp. 70–85 and 172.

Extracts with translation by F. Gladwin: Gladwin History of Hindostan, Calcutta 1788, i p. 96 foll.

English translations: (1) Túzak-i-Jahángírí translated … by W.H. Lowe. [One fasciculus only], Calcutta 1889°* (Bibliotheca Indica), (2) The Tūzuk-i-Jahāngīrī, or Memoirs of Jahāngīr [without M. Hādī’s continuation]. Translated by A. Rogers … Edited by H. Beveridge. 2 vols. London 1909–14°* (Oriental Translation Fund, n.s. xix, xxii), (3) by W. Erskine (first nine years only): b.m. ms. Add. 26,611.

Description and translated extracts: Elliot and Dowson History of India vi pp. 276–391.

Description and extracts from M. Hādī’s continuation: Elliot and Dowson vi pp. 392–9.

iii

The “garbled” memoirs (beginning: Ḥamd i-bī-g̲h̲āyat u s̲h̲ukr i bī-nihāyat mubdiʿī rā, to which some verses beginning Ai nām i tū sar-daftar i asrār i wujūd are normally prefixed), apparently an amplification and extension of the earliest version (no. i above) and possibly, as Rieu suggests, written in the early part of S̲h̲āh-Jahān’s reign with a view to superseding the genuine memoirs, which contain many passages reflecting of S̲h̲āh-Jahān. (Most of the mss. contain at the end a Pand-nāmah, or collection of moral precepts, ascribed to Jahāngīr with a prologue by Iʿtimād al-Daulah): r.a.s. P. 122 = Morley 117 (ending with a number of letters, petitions etc. belonging to Jahāngīr’s later years. ah 1040/1630), P. 123 = Morley 119, P. 114 (2) = Morley 118 (the ms. from which Price made his translation), Mas̲h̲had iii p. 89 (defective at beginning. Probably the “garbled” memoirs, ah 1046/1636–7), Rieu i 254b (with a continuation not found in Price’s translation. Breaks off in prologue to the Pand-nāmah. 17th cent.), 255a (1 Picture. 19th cent.), iii 931b (circ. ad 1850), Lālā Ismāʿīl 337 = Tauer 550 (11th/17th cent.), Edinburgh 211 (ah 1127/1716), 212 (about same date ?), Ethé 310 (ah 1154/1742), 311 (circ. ad 1802–3), i.o. D.P. 775 (19th cent.), Riḍā Pās̲h̲ā 16 = Tauer 551 (12th/18th cent.), Ivanow 143 (ah 1202/1787–8), Aumer 258 (18th cent.), Blochet i 580 (late 18th cent.), Lahore Panjāb Univ. Lib. (one copy dated ah 1262/1846 and one of an abridgment dated ah 1242/1826), Bānkipūr vii 558 (with the continuation not found in Price’s translation. 19th cent.), Būhār 67 (19th cent.), 68 (19th cent.), Browne Suppt. 366 (Trinity R. 13. 67).

For a separate copy of the Pand-nāmah i Jahāngīrī see Ross and Browne 150 (ii) (ah 1124/1712–13).

¶ English translation: Memoirs of the Emperor Jahangueir … translated … by Major D. Price, London 1829°* (Oriental Translation Fund), Calcutta 1904° [a reprint with introduction and index].

Description and a translated extract (in both Elliot’s and Price’s versions): Elliot and Dowson History of India vi pp. 256–75. Translation of the Pand-nāmah: Elliot and Dowson History of India vi pp. 493–516.

§ 716. Walī Sirhindi, called K̲h̲wājah-zādah, was in the service of Jahāngīr and was more than 46 years old in the fourteenth year of the reign when he wrote his Tawārīk̲h̲ i Jahāngīr-S̲h̲āhī and dedicated it to his sovereign.

Tawārīk̲h̲ i Jahāngīr-S̲h̲āhī, or Farhang i badīʿ al-lug̲h̲āt i Jahāngīrī (?), a brief chronicle of the first fourteen years of Jahāngīr’s reign: Bodleian 231 (foll. 389b–421a. Autograph).

§ 717. M. S̲h̲arīf⁵ b. Dōst-Muḥammad,⁶ a member of an undistinguished Persian family, received the title of Muʿtamad K̲h̲ān in the third year of Jahāngīr’s reign, and was for a time Bak̲h̲s̲h̲ī of the Aḥadīs. Subsequently he was Bak̲h̲s̲h̲ī to Prince K̲h̲urram’s army in the Deccan. In the seventeenth year of the reign, ah 1031/1622, after returning from the Deccan, he was ordered by Jahāngīr, then in bad health, to continue his Memoirs (see the Memoirs of Jahāngīr tr. Rogers and Beveridge vol. ii p. 246). In the second year of S̲h̲āh-Jahān’s reign he became Second Bak̲h̲s̲h̲ī and in the tenth Mīr Bak̲h̲s̲h̲ī. In the thirteenth (ah 1049/1639–40) he died.

An account of S̲h̲āh-Jahān’s life until his accession, Aḥwāl i s̲h̲āh-zādagī i S̲h̲āh-Jahān, which is extant in three recorded mss. (Bānkīpūr vii 565 (1), Rieu Suppt. 76 ii, Būhār 74 i), is ascribed in “endorsements” to “Muʿtamad K̲h̲ān”, by which title the author of the Iqbāl-nāmah is doubtless meant, but the correctness of this ascription is doubted by Rieu on the ground that, whereas in the Iqbāl-nāmah Muʿtamad K̲h̲ān refers to himself by such phrases as “the present writer”, the author of this work speaks of Muʿtamad K̲h̲ān by name in the corresponding passages.

Iqbāl-nāmah i Jahāngīrī,⁷ completed, according to the preface, in Kas̲h̲mīr ah 1029/1619–20, the fifteenth regnal year (but the narrative is brought down to Jahāngīr’s death), a history in three volumes ((1) Bābur ¶ and Humāyūn, (2) Akbar, (3) Jahāngīr, of which the third is common, the first two rare), based mainly on the Akbar-nāmah, the Ṭabaqāt i Akbarī, K̲h̲wājah ʿAṭā [so Bānkīpūr vii p. 61, but read Asad ?] Bēg Qazwīnī’s history of [a small part of] Akbar’s reign (see p. 435 supra), and Jahāngīr’s own Memoirs: Bānkīpūr vii 560–1 (vols. i–ii. ah 1045/1635–6. The preface of this copy contains no mention of a third volume), 559 (vols. i–iii, slightly defective. 18th cent.), 562 (vol. iii. ah 12–(?)), Suppt. 1765 (vols. i and iii. ah 1207/1792–3), 1766 (vol. iii. 18th cent.), Blochet i 581 (vols. i–iii, lacking last chapter. Mid 17th cent.), 582 (vol. i. Latter half of 17th cent.), 583 (vol. ii. ah 1049/1639), 584 (vol. iii. ah 1204/1789), 585 (vol. iii. ah 1160/1747), Browne Pers. Cat. 96 (vol. iii. ah 1143/1730–1), 97 (vol. iii, defective. N.d.), Suppt. 75 (vol. iii. ah 1219/1804. Christ’s Dd. 3. 17), 76 (vol. iii. ah 1231/1816. Corpus 207), 77 (vol. i. ad 1063/1653. Vol. ii. ah 1086/1675–6. King’s 33), Ethé 312 (vols. i–ii. ah 1087/1676 (?)), 313 (vol. ii, pt. 2 (from middle of Akbar’s 28th year to his death. ah 1064/1654), 314 (vol. iii. ah 1071/1660), 315–24 (ten copies of vol. iii, 324 being misdescribed by Ethé⁸), i.o. D.P. 621 B (Vol. iii, defective), 621 C (Vol. iii. ah 1228/1813), Mehren 57 (Vol. iii. ah 1071/1661), Rieu i 255a (vol. iii. ah 1074/1664), 255b (vol. iii. 17th cent.), 256a–256b (five 18th-century copies of vol. iii, one containing nine Pictures), 256b (three 19th-century copies of vol. iii), ii 819b (ad 1819), iii 922b (vol. i. ah 1104–5/1693), 923a (vol. ii. 18th cent.), 923a (part of vol. ii (to Akbar’s 17th year). 17th cent.), 923b (vol. iii. ah 1103/1692), iii 1030b (extracts), Philadelphia Lewis Coll. p. 56 (Vol. ii. 54 Pictures, of which a list is given and three are reproduced in the catalogue), p. 63 (fragments of Vols. i and ii. Late 17th cent.), Bodleian 224 (vol. iii. ah 1095/1684), 225 (vol. iii. ah 1106/1695), 226–30 (five more copies of vol. iii), Oxford Ind. Inst. ms. Pers. A. ii. 19 (vol. iii), Vollers 981 (vol. iii), 982 (vol. iii apparently, ah 1101/1689–90), Berlin 487 (vols. i–iii), 488 (vols. i–ii. ah 1209/1794), 489 (vol. iii. ah 1111/1699), 490 (vol. iii. ah 1151/1738), Būhār 66 (vol. ii. ad 1719 (?)), Aumer 257 (vols. i–iii. N.d.), 259 (2) (vol. iii. ah 1138/1725–6), 260 (vol. iii. Early 12th cent. h.), r.a.s. P. 125 = Morley 121 (vol. iii. ah 1145/1732), Edinburgh 80 (vol. iii. ah 1189/177–6), 213 (vol. iii. Not later than ah 1150/1737), Ivanow 145–8 (four copies of vol. iii, one dated ah 1151/1738–9), Curzon 28 (vol. iii. 18th cent.), 1st Suppt. 759 (vol. iii. ah 1227/1812), Lindesiana p. 199 no. 373 (vol. iii (?). Circ. 1780), no. 923 (ah 1241/1825–6), ʿAlīgaṛh Subḥān Allāh mss. p. 60 no. 21, Āṣafīyah i p. 218 nos. 233, 490, 572 (vols. not specified), Lahore Panjāb Univ. Lib. (vol. iii. See Oriental College Magazine, vol. ii no. 4 ¶ (August 1926), p. 52, Madras, t.c.d. 1579 (see the Memoirs of Jahangir, vol. ii, p. vi, note, where Beveridge says that this ms. is only a modern copy of the Iqbāl-nāmah).

Editions: Calcutta 1865°* (vol. iii only. Ed. ʿAbd al-Ḥaiy and Aḥmad ʿAlī. Bibliotheca Indica), Lucknow 1870°* (vols. i–iii), 1890° (vol. iii only. Title: Jahāngīr-nāmah. Author’s name given in the publisher’s colophon as K̲h̲wājah Abū ’l-Ḥasan⁹), Allahabad 1931* (vol. iii only).

Description and 37 pp. of translated extracts: Elliot and Dowson Hist. of India vi 400–38.

English translation by J. Macmurdo (b. 1785, d. 1820): i.o. mss. Eur. E. 26 (according to G.R. Kaye, “The extracts given by Elliot, possibly from a different work, differ considerably from our manuscript”).

[Iqbāl-nāmah i Jahāngīrī iii pp. 91⁷, 104¹, 187¹², and doubtless elsewhere; Memoirs of Jahāngīr tr. Rogers and Beveridge i 300, ii 1, 2, 100–1, 128, 129, 131–2, 158, 175, 193, 235, 246; ‘Abd al-Ḥamīd Pāds̲h̲āh-nāmah i 73 etc., ii p. 102 etc. (see the indexes to both volumes in the Bibliotheca Indica); Maʾāt̲h̲ir al-umarāʾ iii 431–4 (two short extracts from this notice are translated in Elliot and Dowson viii p. 191); Tad̲h̲kirat al-umarāʾ; Elliot and Dowson vi p. 400; Ency. Isl. under Muʿtamad K̲h̲ān.]

§ 718. K̲h̲wājah Kāmgār Ḥusainī, originally in the service of Jahāngīr, took part in the campaign of his uncle ʿAbd Allāh K̲h̲ān Fīrōz-Jang against the rebel K̲h̲ān-Jahān Lōdī (for whom see Ency. Isl. ii 898) and took the latter’s head to S̲h̲āh-Jahān in the fourth year of his reign, ah 1040/1631, receiving as a reward the title of G̲h̲airat K̲h̲ān. In S̲h̲āh-Jahān’s tenth year he was appointed Nāẓim of the Ṣūbah of Delhi, but in 1049/1639, when the new buildings of S̲h̲āhjahānābād were just rising from their foundations under his superintendence, he was transferred to the Ṣūbahdārī of Tattah, where he died in 1050/1640–1.

Maʾāthir i Jahāngīrī, completed ah 1040/1630 in S̲h̲āh-Jahān’s third regnal year, a history of the early life and reign of Jahāngīr, regarded by K̲h̲āfī K̲h̲ān as more veracious than the Iqbāl-nāmah: Bānkīpūr vii 563 (17th cent.), Brelvi and Dhabhar p. xiii (ah 1137/1724–5), Rehatsek p. 76 no. 12 (defective at beginning. N.d.), Rieu i 257a (ah 1148/1735. Written by M. b. Rustam (see p. 110 supra)), 257b (imperfect. 18th cent.), iii 932a (frequent variations in the text. ah 1264/1848), i.o. D.P. 743 (ah 1223/1808) [Ethé 324, erroneously described as the Maʾāt̲h̲ir i Jahāngīrī, is the Iqbāl-nāmah. See p. 440 supra], Bodleian 223, Eton 186.

Description and two translated extracts: Elliot and Dowson History of India vi 439–45.

¶ [Maʾāt̲h̲ir al-umarāʾ ii 863–5; Tad̲h̲kirat al-umarāʾ; Elliot and Dowson vi 439–41; Rieu i 257a,]

§ 719. Mullā “Kāmī” S̲h̲īrāzī.¹⁰

Waqāʾiʿ al-zamān, or Fatḥ-nāmah i Nūr-Jahān Bēgam, a mat̲h̲nawī on events towards the end of Jahāngīr’s reign (especially “la lutte entre l’empereur timouride, Mohabat [sic] Khan, Asaf Khan, laquelle fut provoquée par les intrigues de sa femme, Nour Djihan Bégoum, qui avait fait choisir Khourram, son troisième fils, comme prince héritier”) composed at Kābul in 1035/1625–6 and dedicated to Jahāngīr: Blochet iii 1874 (circ. ad 1626), 1875 (late 17th cent.).

§ 720. One of the Elliot mss. of the Jahāngīr-nāmah (Or. 1648. Rieu iii p. 931a. Early 19th cent.) contains on foll. 181b–201b “detached notices and anecdotes relating to various periods of Jahāngīr’s reign” including some quotations from the Jahāngīr-nāmah and following no chronological order. They begin with the words “az intik̲h̲āb i Jahāngīr-S̲h̲āhī nawis̲h̲tah mī-s̲h̲awad”, and contain internal evidence that the author was a contemporary and companion of Jahāngīr. That they belong to a larger work is clear from the fact that “the author speaks of his having related, in another part of the volume, a detailed account of the proceedings of Bikramájít and of ’Usmán in Bengal; and neither of these passages occurs in these extracts”.

Intik̲h̲āb i Jahāngīr-S̲h̲āhī (?): see description above.

Description and 5 ½ pp. of translated extracts: Elliot and Dowson History of India vi pp. 446–52.

§ 721. For the S̲h̲as̲h̲ fatḥ i Kāngrah of Jalāl al-Dīn Ṭabāṭabāʾī see p. 444 infra.

next chapter: 12.3.6 S̲h̲āh-Jahān