
Vol. N's oe 3.] Translation of a Letter by Abu ’l-Fazl. 145 
Now Akbar like so many Easterns, Muslims! and Hindus, 
was a great pigeon-lover and had obtained a certain breed of 
pigeons, from whom is not clear. He stood in considerable awe of 
the -¢ Khandan, his ‘ Commander-in-Chief, ’ and was nervous- 
ly anxious that the latter should not ask for any or all of the 
ing letter, composed by his minister, Abi ’1 Fazl. It is intended ns 
convey the hint that the pro bable request of the KAdn-i Khana 
some of these pigeons would not meet with a cheerful peat: 
Translation. 
Orver or His Masesty THE Kitna or Kinas TO THE 
Kwanet-Kuindn,®? ComMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. 
o the Support of Our Great Empire, the Mainstay oft God’s 
hd "Viodiegency, the Pillar of the Mighty State, the Prop of 
the Glorious Kingdom, endowed with noble qualities and most 
excellent virtues, the possessor of outward and inward perfection, 
the Pattern to all Chiefs of exalted rank, Our Faithful Friend and 
Datiful Son, the Champion of ae ip ‘the Khan-i-Khanan, the 
Commander-in-Chief, ever rejoic in Our Royal Favours on 
the plenitude of the loving indoles of this Shadow of God—be 
known, that at this auspicious season, from beginning to end ie 
lightful, this budding season of spring, which begins when the sun 
vacates [enters ?] the mansion of Pisces, and the nights and on 
are equal in length, all rétiple should make their God-favoured heart 
the receptacle of every kind of gladness and the source of ore 
signal for the dooney, 'e and ~teg eige of the world; while the 
world-warming Sun has begun t “ Baseiskead his bounty on the four 
of vit lovers of nature ; and the ring-breeze has breathed the 
ter 
The March showers have washed off the dust of the road 

1It isa eitieda superstition that the breeze from a pigeon’s wing wafts 
mray sickne 
here 1 sie several well-known persons o bore the title of Bhan-i- 
Edinin The person referred to here is Tabaa r-Rahim, son of Bayram 
an ; born A.H. 964; died abont 1036; vide Blochmann’s translation of the 
Fini " Akbari, Vol. i., page 334. 
8 i.e., the whole earth. 
_# Apparently 4g? has been omitted before wh; it is, however, omitted in 
So editions. oes a third, the word wlge is also omi 
Naw-béwa is properly “ its.” 
