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646
HINDUSTAN
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a melon was brought to me; to cut and eat it affected me strangely; I was all tears ! "
" The unsettled state* of Kabul had already been written of to me. After thinking matters over, my choice fell on this : How should a country hold together and be strong (marbut u mazbiit), if it have seven or eight Governors ? Under this aspect of the affair, I have summoned my elder sister (Khanzada) and my wives to Hindustan, have made Kabul and its neighbouring countries a crown-domain, and have written in this sense to both Humayun and Kamran. Let a capable person take those letters to the Mlrzas. As you may know already, I had written earlier to them with the same purport. About the safeguarding and prosperity of the country, there will now be no excuse, and not a word to say. Henceforth, if the town-wall2 be not solid or subjects not thriving, if provisions be not in store or the Treasury not full, it will all be laid on the back of the inefficiency of the Pillar-of-the State." 3
" The things that must be done are specified below ; for some of them orders have gone already/ one of these being, ' Let treasure accumulate.' Thethingswhichmust be done are these: First, the repair of the fort ; again : the provision of stores; again: the daily allowance and lodging4 of envoys going hackwards and forwards5; again : let money, taken legally from revenue,6 be spent for building the Congregational Mosque; again : the repairs of the Karwan-sara (Caravan-sarai) and the Hot-baths ; again : the completion of the unfinished building made of burnt-brick which Ustad Hasan All was constructing in the citadel. Let this work be ordered after taking counsel with Ustad SI. Muhammad ; if a design exist, drawn earlier by Ustad
1 Ilai. MS. na marbutllghi \ so too the 2nd Pers. trs. but the 1st writes wairani u karabi which suits the matter of defence.
2 qurghan, walled-town ; from the mazbul following, the defences are meant.
3 viz. Governor Khwaja Kalan, on whose "want of dominance his sovereign makes good-natured reflection.
4 'alufa u quttdi; cf. 364^.
5 following ailchi (envoys) there is in the Hai. MS. and in I.O. 217 a doubtful word, biimla, yiimla ; I.O. 215 (which contains a Persian trs. of the letter' is obscure, Ilminsky changes the wording slightly ; Erskine has a free translation. Perhaps it is yaumi, daily, misplaced (see above).
6 Perhaps, endow the Mosque so as to leave no right of property in its revenues to their donor, here Babur. Cf. Hughes.' Diet, of Islam s.nn. shari', via sjid and waqf.
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