Said he, "If the honoured Mlrza will pledge himself to strengthen my hands by not opposing my orders, it shall so be before long that the country shall prosper, the peasant be content, the soldier well-off, and the Treasury full." The Mlrza for his part gave the pledge desired, put Majdu'd-din Muhammad in authority throughout Khurasan, and entrusted all public business to him. He in his turn by using all possible diligence and effort, before long had made soldier and peasant grateful and content, filled the Treasury to abundance, and made the districts habitable and cultivated. He did all this however in face of opposition from the begs and men high in place, all being led by 'All-sher Beg, all out of temper with what Majdu'd-din Muhammad had effected. By their effort and evil suggestion he was arrested and dismissed.1 In succession to him Nizamu'1-mulk of Khwaf was made Dlwan but in a short time they got him arrested also, and him they got put to death.2 They then brought Khwaja Afzal out of 'Iraq and made him Dlwan ; he had just been made a beg when I came to Kabul (910 AH.), and he also impressed the Seal in Dlwan.
Khwaja 'Ata 3 was another ; although, unlike those already mentioned, he was not in high office or Finance-minister {dlwan), nothing was settled without his concurrence the whole Khurasanat over. He was a pious, praying, upright [inutadaiyiri) person ; he must have been diligent in business also.
Count von Noer's words about a cognate reform of later date suit this man's work, it also was "a bar to the defraudment of the Crown, a stumbling-block in the path of avaricious chiefs" (Emperor Akbar trs. i, n). The opposition made by 'All-sher to reform so clearly to Husain's gain and to Husain's begs' loss, stirs the question, "What was the source of his own income ? " Up to 873 AH. he was for some years the dependant of Ahmad Haji Beg ; he took nothing from the Mirza, but gave to him ; he must have spent much in benefactions. The question may have presented itself to M. Belin for he observes, " 'All-sher qui sans doute, a son retour de l'exil, recouvra l'heritage de ses ptres, et depuis occupade hautes positions dansle gouvernement de con pays, avait acquis une grande fortune" [J. Asiatique xvii, 227). While not contradicting M. Belin's view that vested property such as can be described as " paternal inheritance ", may have passed from father to son, even in those days of fugitive prosperity and changing appointments, one cannot but infer, from Nawa'i's opposition to JUajdu'd-din, that he, like the rest, took a partial view of the " rights" of the cultivator.
2 This was in 903 AH. after some 20 years of service (I.I. S. iii, 231 ; Ethe I.O. Cat. p. 252).
3 Amir Jamalu'd-dTn 'Ata'u'1-lah, known also as Jamalu'd-din Husain, wrote a History of Muhammad (H.S. iii, 345 ; Rieu's Pers. Cat. p. 147 & (a correction) p. 1081).
