1869.] Baddoni and his WorJcs. 133 



ers in the Mosque of Fathpur, was commissioned to execute literary 

 tasks ; but inasmuch as these orders were connected with the reli- 

 gious views of the emperor, they were unwillingly and hesitatingly 

 performed. The first task which was given him, was to assist in the 

 composition of a historical work, to which Akbar beforehand had 

 given the title of Tdrikli i Alf'i* or History of the Millennium. The 

 year 1000 A. H. was near, and Akbar had been flattered into the 

 belief that he was the Qdhib i Zamdn, or Man of the Millennium, 

 through whose agency Muhammadanism was to be totally changed 

 [Ain translation, p. 190] ; and the object of the new historical work 

 was to represent the religion of the Prophet as a thing of the past. 

 The coins of the realm even were to announce this fact, and their inscrip- 

 tions exhibited the mysterious word alf, or millennium. But as Akbar 

 had engaged nearly every literary man at court to take part in the 

 grand work, the narrative was tinged with the heretical and Shi'itic 

 prejudices of the joint authors ; and 'Abdul Qadir, who was a staunch 

 Sunni, was soon called to account for certain facts which he had re- 

 presented as having happened during the reigns of the early Caliphs. 

 The Shi 'ah account, it is well-known, of the events of that period 

 differs remarkably from that of the Sunnis ; and Akbar who rejoiced 

 in any record which reflected discredit on Muhammadanism and the 

 deeds and lives of the prophet and the apostles of Islam, naturally 

 preferred Shi'ah accounts, soon relieved 'Abdul Qadir of his portion 

 of the historical work which was to appear " By Authority," and 

 entrusted the execution of it to Mulla Ahmad of T'hat'hah who, 

 from all accounts, indulged openly at court in the most vehement 

 abuse (sabb o tabarrd), which Shi'ahs cannot and will not suppress 

 as often as they hear the names of 'Omar and Abu Bakr.f At a later 

 period, however, [in 1002] 'Abdul Qadir, after the murder of the 

 Mulla,| was ordered to revise the whole work after its completion ; 

 but knowing the propensities of the emperor, he limited his corrections 

 to style and arrangement, without altering the party-coloured state- 

 ments of the Shi'ah joint authors. 



* Vide Elliot's Index, p. 144. 



t A Shiah once told me that 'Omar appeared to them more ridiculous than 

 Abu Bakr. They often use phrases which occasion mirth and laughter among 

 themselves, though a Sunni would not know what they are laughing at. 



X Vide Badaoni, II, p. 392. 



