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قراءة كتاب Akbar: An Eastern Romance
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Akbar: An Eastern Romance
which had never before been united under one rule. They approached from the sea, the base of their operations is their ships, and not, as in the case of Akbar’s grandsire, the mountains of the north-west frontier.
If the balance of administrative merit is in favour of the English, and this is not established, it in no way detracts from the glory of the great Emperor. Yet we may claim that the islanders who now occupy the place of Akbar are not unworthy to succeed him. The work that is before us is more prosaic than was the duty of the puissant sovereign. The charm of one central glory, round which all that was great and good in India could congregate; the fascination of one ruling spirit, combining irresistible power with virtue and beneficence; the pomp and circumstance of a brilliant court—all these are gone for ever. We have instead the united thought and energy of many sound heads and brave hearts, working without ostentation, and achieving objects of a magnitude and endurance such as no single brain of any despot, how great soever, could even conceive.
“The old order changeth, yielding place to new,
And God fulfils Himself in many ways.”
1 “Akbar: een Oostersche Roman,” door Mr. P. A. S. Van Limburg-Brouwer. ’s Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1872. 8vo. pp. 358.
2 “Akbar. Ein Indischer Roman. Deutsche autorisirte ausgabe aus dem Niederlandischen des Dr. V. Limburg Brouwer,” von Lina Schneider (Wilhelm Berg). Leipzig: Heinrich Killinger, 1877. Small 8vo. pp. 346.
3 Published by J. de Laet in his “De Imperio Magni Mogolis.” Leyden: 1631.
4 Prince Frederick has visited India three times. He made an extensive tour in 1863–64, and again in 1867–69. After his first visit he published a narrative of his travels, in three volumes, “Altes und Neues aus den Landern des Ostens, von Onomander.” Hamburg: 1859.
5 Mahmud of Ghazni, the first Muhammadan invader of India, reigned from A.D. 997 to A.D. 1030. His dynasty lasted until 1183. The Ghori dynasty lasted from A.D. 1192 to 1289. The Khilzi dynasty, from 1289 to 1321. The dynasty founded by Tuglak Shah, from 1321 to 1393. Then followed the inroad of Timur and subsequent anarchy; and the Afghan Lodi dynasty lasted from 1450 to the invasion of Baber in 1526.
6 “Mogul” is the old form. Dowson and Thomas have “Mughal”; Blochmann and Hunter, “Mughul.”
7 Jauhar wrote his “Tazkiratu-l Wákiat” thirty years after the death of Humayun. It was translated by Major Stewart, and printed for the Oriental Translation Fund in 1832.
8 Humayun met this young lady, when on a visit to his brother Hindal’s mother. She was a daughter of a Seyyid, a native of Jami in Khurasan.
9 Calotropis gigantea (Asclepiadaceæ). It is a shrub from six to ten feet high, generally found in waste ground or among ruins. An acrid, milky juice flows from every part of the plant when wounded, which is used by native doctors for cutaneous diseases. The bark fibre is spun into fine thread.
10 Kashmir was ruled by Hindu princes until the beginning of the fourteenth century, when it was conquered by the Muhammadans. Owing to distractions in the reigning family, Akbar sent an army into Kashmir in 1586. The king then submitted, and was enrolled among the Delhi nobles.
11 Akbar was also much interested in the gospels as explained to him by Christian missionaries; and, as Colonel Yule says, he never lost a certain hankering after Christianity, or ceased to display an affectionate reverence for the Christian emblems which he had received from his Jesuit teachers.—See “Cathay and the Way thither,” ii. p. 532, note.
12 This was in 1579. See “Blochmann,” i. p. 185; “Elliot,” v. p. 531.
13 For a plate of Indian arms and accoutrements in the time of Akbar see the very interesting work by the Hon. Wilbraham Egerton, M.P., published by order of the Secretary of State for India in Council, “A Handbook of Indian Arms,” p. 23. (Wm. H. Allen & Co., 1879.)
14 Mr. Blochmann has supplemented this list with biographical notices of Akbar’s nobles, of which there are four hundred and fifteen. These notices are chiefly taken from the “Tabakat-i Akbari,” the work of El Badaoni, the “Akbar-namah,” the “Tuzuk-i Jahangiri,” and a manuscript called “Maásir ul Umará” in the collection of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.—Blochmann’s “Ain-i Abkari,” i. pp. 308 to 526.