between tJie Courts ofDehli and Constant inoj)Ie. 467 



it insinuated that as a true Suni, and therefore a natural ally to the Shah of 

 Hindustan, the sultan should remain in the next campaign a couple of years 

 on his frontiers, either at H^leb or Adana, under pretence of ensuring the 

 conquest of Bagdad.* The pride of Murad and his ministers was exaspe- 

 rated at the tone of this letter, which was answered by one deficient in the 

 courtesy usually observed in eastern courts towards great monarchs ; and, 

 as a counterpart to the proposition of spending a couple of years on the 

 frontiers, it proposed that the Shah of India and one of his princes should 

 first march into Candahar and Khorasan. Although this letter is nowhere 

 to be met with in its original form and style, yet its contents are made 

 perfectly clear from the next despatch of the Wazlr of Shah Jehan, who, 

 according to the rules of Oriental official correspondence, recapitulating the 

 contents of the letter, reproaches the Ottoman Grand Wazir with this want 

 of courtesy ; and enumerates at the same time, the principal provinces of 

 Hindustan. The bearer of this letter was the Turkish ambassador Arslan 

 Aga (the lion knight), of whose appointment and departure with the Indian 

 ambassador a record is found to the following purport, in the history of 

 ^3aima. 



" Return of the Indian Envoy. 



" It has been recorded above, that the Indian envoy was ordered to remain 

 " at Mousul till the affair of Bagdad should be accomplished. After the 

 " conquest, a messenger was sent to call him into the Sultan's presence; 

 " accordingly he rubbed his forehead on the imperial stirrup at Tacrit. 

 " Arslan Aga, the chamberlain, was selected to accompany him on the 

 " Sultan's part ; and he was sent on to the Grand Wazlr in order to be regu- 

 " larly despatched by him." 



Arslan Aga was detained at Agra till the news of Murad's death, and the 

 accession of Ibrahim had reached India. He was then dismissed, without 

 credentials or presents, from Shah Jehan to the new sultan ; but merely 

 with a letter from the Indian Grand Wazlr to the Ottoman one, of rather 

 an insulting purport. This letter, preserved entire in the collection of state 

 papers of the Reis Effendi Isari Abdullah, is a full proof of the incorrect- 



* This letter, whitli in its full extent is translated in the Appendix (No. 2), is taken from the 

 valuable collection of stale papers of the Ueis Eft'endi Isari Abdullah. 



