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Persian word for Mongol—Mughal.
ague
the Padshah continued to resist all attempts to formally educate him.
‘for we cannot bear the burden of existence without divine pleasure’.
some two lakh persons were captured every year in the Mughal Empire and exported as slaves.
waqia nevis, or news writers,
Amir Hamza, father-in-law of the Prophet,
In nine days, Akbar and his men reached the outskirts of Ahmedabad, having covered a distance of 800 kilometres
urine of cows fed on mangoes a bright, arresting yellow.
‘whoever writes “in the name of God the Merciful and Compassionate” in fine lettering will enter paradise’.
by transferring his assets to his wife’s name every year when the time for tax inspection came around.
naqis ul-aql,
Koranic warning—‘and some of you shall have life prolonged to a miserable age’.
striking of square rupees.
Muslims are those who wage war on their “self ” and control their desires and temper; and surrender (themselves) to the rule of law.’
‘God deserved the homage of all peoples’.
at least in the field of idol worship, the Muslims and Hindus were superior to the Protestants of Europe.
Jesuit priests and their converts had ruthlessly destroyed temples, even while admitting they were ‘highly honoured by the Hindus who treated them as living beings’.
‘Will these Musalmans never martyr us?’
Allopanisad
man should marry four wives—a Persian woman to have somebody to talk to; a Khurasani woman for his housework; a Hindu woman for nursing his children; and a woman from Mawarannahr, to have someone to whip as
one of Akbar’s great achievements was the standardization of measurement of area.
When his vision is raised to higher things, sorrow and joy withdraw.
*Two hundred lengths of the ten-foot rod made up a kos.
Braj with their Rajput wives and their Hindu
Persian as the official language of administration.
Jesuit, along with four companions, was hacked to death by a mob of Hindus whom they had been trying to convert, in Salcette, south of Goa.
‘Cheating, thieving Brahmans,’ moaned Badauni, ‘collected another set of 1001 names of “his Majesty the Sun” and told the Emperor that he was an incarnation, like Ram, Krishna and other infidel kings; and though lord of the world, he had assumed his shape, in order to play with the people of our planet.’
the poet Faizi, the musician Tansen, and Raja Birbal.
‘are God-seeking, generous-hearted, friendly to strangers, pleasant-faced, of broad forehead, patrons of learning, lovers of asceticism, inclined to justice, contented, hard-working and efficient, true to salt, truth-seeing and attached to loyalty.’
‘exceeding many and equally monotonous, and with each note they seem to dig their nails into your liver’.
‘no worship of God was equal to taking care of the weak. It was therefore better that he should look after the affairs of the oppressed.’
to give away all his clothes to his servants, apart from his payjamas which he had burnt in his presence.
refusal to be claimed by one certitude and one truth.
