Bagh O Bahar | Page 4

was given the title of Urdu-e
Mu'alla. [39]
From the time of Amir Taimur until the reign of Muhammad Shah, and
even to the time of Ahmad Shah, and Alamgir the Second, the throne
descended lineally from generation to generation. In the end, the Urdu
language, receiving repeated polish, was so refined, that the language
of no city is to be compared to it; but an impartial judge is necessary to
examine it. Such a one God has at last, after a long period, created in
the learned, acute and profound Mr. John Gilchrist, who from his own
judgment, genius, labour and research, has composed books of rules
[for the acquisition of it]. From this cause, the language of Hindustan
has become general throughout the provinces, and has been polished
anew; otherwise no one conceives his own turban, language and
behaviour, to be improper. If you ask a countryman, he censures the
citizen's idiom, and considers his own the best; "well, the learned only
know [what is correct]." [40]
When Ahmad Shah Abdali, came from Kabul and pillaged the city of
Dilli, Shah 'Alam was in the east. [41] No master or protector of the
country remained, and [42] the city became without a head. True it is,
that the city only flourished from the prosperity of the throne. All at
once it was overwhelmed with calamity: its principal inhabitants were
scattered, and fled wherever they could. To whatever country they went,

their own tongue was adulterated by mixing with the people there; and
there were many who, after an absence of ten to five years, from some
cause or other, returned to Dilli, and stayed there. How can they speak
the pure language of Dilli? somewhere or other they will slip; but the
person who bore all misfortunes, and remained fixed at Dilli and whose
five or ten anterior generations lived in that city, and who mixed in the
company of the great, and the assemblies and processions of the people,
who strolled in its streets for a length of time, and even after quitting it,
kept his language pure from corruption, his style of speaking will
certainly be correct. This humble being [viz. Mir Amman], wandering
through many cities, and viewing their sights, has at last arrived at this
place.

INTRODUCTION.
I now commence my tale; pay attention to it, and be just to its merits.
In the "Adventures of the Four Darwesh, [43]" it is thus written, and the
narrator has related, that formerly in the Empire of Rum [44] there
reigned a great king, in whom were innate justice equal to that of
Naushirwan, [45] and generosity like that of Hatim. [46] His name was
Azad-Bakht, and his imperial residence was at Constantinople, [47]
(which they call Istambol.) In his reign the peasant was happy, the
treasury full, the army satisied, and the poor at ease. They lived in such
peace and plenty, that in their homes the day was a festival, and the
night was a shabi barat [48]. Thieves, robbers, pickpockets, swindlers,
and all such as were vicious and dishonest, he utterly exterminated, and
no vestige of them allowed he to remain in his kingdom. [49] The doors
of the houses were unshut all night, and the shops of the bazar
remained open. The travellers and wayfarers chinked gold as they went
along, over plains and through woods; and no one asked them, "How
many teeth have you in your mouth," [50] or "Where are you going?"
There were thousands of cities in that king's dominions, and many
princes paid him tribute. Though he was so great a king, he never for a
moment neglected his duties or his prayers to God. He possessed all the
necessary comforts of this world; but male issue, which is the fruit of

life, was not in the garden of his destiny, for which reason he was often
pensive and sorrowful, and after the five [51] regulated periods of
prayer, he used to address himself to his Creator and say, "O God! thou
hast, through thy infinite goodness blest thy weak creature with every
comfort, but thou hast given no light to this dark abode. [52] This
desire alone is unaccomplished, that I have no one to transmit my name
and support my old age. [53] Thou hast everything in thy hidden
treasury; give me a living and thriving son, that my name and the
vestiges of this kingdom may remain."
In this hope the king reached his fortieth year; when one day he had
finished his prayers in the Mirror Saloon, [54] and while telling his
beads, he happened to cast his eyes towards one of the mirrors, and
perceived a white hair in his whiskers, which glittered like a silver wire;
on seeing it, the king's eyes