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rate gardens, baths, and fountains. The apartments for the officers 

 and attendants of the court were still further detached. Every 

 thing indicates the taste and judgment of Shah Jehan, in planning 

 this lovely retreat from the cares of royalty. It now exhibits a 

 scene of solitude and ruin, except the palace itself. The zenana 

 seems to have been intended to accommodate a great number 

 of females: whether Shah Jehan entertained the same political 

 sentiments on this subject as his grandfather Akber, is foreign 

 to the purpose; but it may not be irrelevant to give Abul 

 Fazel's account of Akber's seraglio, both for its novelty and good 

 sense. 



That intelligent writer allows " that there is in general a great 

 inconvenience arising from a number of women; but his majesty, 

 out of the abundance of his wisdom and prudence, has made it 

 subservient to public advantage; for by contracting marriages 

 with the daughters of the princes of Hindostan and other coun- 

 tries, he secures himself against insurrections at home, and forms 

 powerful alliances abroad." He then describes the haram as an 

 enclosure of such an immense extent, as to contain a separate 

 room for every one of the women, whose number exceeded five 

 thousand; who were divided into companies, and a proper em- 

 ployment assigned to each individual. Over each of these com- 

 panies a woman was appointed (darogha) ; and one was selected 

 for the command of the whole, in order that the affairs of the 

 haram might be conducted with the same regularity and good 

 government as the other departments of the state. Every one re- 

 ceived a salary according to her merit: the pen cannot measure 

 the extent of the emperor's largesses, but the ladies of the first 



VOL. III. t 



