210 Inscriptions from Agrah. [Nov. 



1. Wlieu the king of the world took his seat on the throne of distiuctiou, the throne 

 thus exalted placed its foot on the revolving- sphere. 



2. And the ancient heaven from joy extended the hand of benediction, and said, 

 * May thy rule be royal for ever !' 



3. Nami wished to write down the date of his accession, his lips being at the same 

 time full of praise and blessing ; 



4. Its Alif pierced the two eyes of envy, and he said " May our king Jahangir 

 be the king of the world 1' 1015—1 = 1014, A. H. 



Its Alif, i. e., the Alif of the tarikh, pierces the eyes of envy, i. e., of 

 critics ; hence critics cannot see that the tarikh contains a superfluous alif, 

 or 1. On adding up, therefore, we get 1015 — 1 = 1014.* 



Jaha'ngi'r's Black *' Marble" Throne in the A'grah Fort. 



This large marhle slab, which is 10 ft. 7^ in. long, 9 ft. 10 in. broad, 

 and 6 in. thick, lies at present in Shah Jahan's palace (the Diwdn i Kliag) 

 in the fort of A'grah. It has often been seen and described by travellers 

 (vide Mr. Keene's ' Hand-book for Visitors to Agra,' 1874, p. 19). The 

 stone is a historical record of Jahangir's rebellion against his father. While 

 Akbar was in Khandesh, Shah Salim (as Jahangir was called as prince) 

 proclaimed himself emperor at Ilahabad, and it was there in 1011, that he 

 gave orders to have the stone cut. From Ilahabad it was subsequently, 

 at Jahangir's request, brought to Agrah, as will be seen from the following 

 passage from the Titziih i Jaliangiri (p. 85, Sayyid Ahmad's edition) :- — ■ 



"Daulat Khan [a eunuch, who afterwards was Faujdarof Ilahabad and 

 Sirhar Jaunpur], whom I had some time ago sent to Ilahabad to fetch the 

 black stone throne, arrived on Wednesday, 4th Mihr, 1019 [August, 1610] 

 with the stone all safe and uninjured. It is, indeed, a fine slab of stone, very 

 black, and very shining. Many believe that it a kind of touchstone (sang i 

 mihak). It is SJ ells (dara') long, and 2|- dara' [3|^ ?] 1^ tasu broad, 

 and its thickness is 3 tasu.f I ordered clever stone-cutters to engrave 



* This idea is not new. Thus the tdrtJch of the birth of the Emperor Humayun 

 given in the Akbarnamah, is (metre, short Mamal) — 



The year of his august (humayun) hirth lies in the tvords ' May God Almighty 

 increase thy ivorih /' [914 A. H.] ; hut I have removed an Alif from the tarikh, in order 

 to blind loith it the evil eye. 



This gives 913 A. H. Humayun was born on Monday night, 4th Zi Qa'dah, 913. 



The letter Alif looks like a needle. 



f Assuming Mr. Carlleyle's measurements to be correct (Archaeological Report, IV, 

 p. 132), we would have to alter the breadth, 2^ dara' 1\ tasu, given in the Tuzuk, to 

 3i dara' li tasu. In that case we have — 



3 tasu in Tuzuh = 6 inch, measured by Mr. Carlleyle. 

 or 1 tasu = 2i inches. 



