1869.] Badaoni and his Works. 139 



Oh that this frame of mind would last for ever — Alas ! 

 And I saw a good omen in the word istiqdmat (purity of intentions), 

 by which I expressed the tdrihh (1002) of my repentance. Shaikh 

 Paizi also [who evidently felt amused at Badaoni's ' confessions'] 



favoured me with the following Arabic verse (metre Mutaqdrib) 



Laqad tdba Shaihhi ' ' anilhaubate* 

 Wa tdrilclmhu sdbiquttaubate 

 " My friend, the Shaikh, has now turned from his wickedness." 

 "And the words Sdbiquttaubate (the old repenter) give the tdrihh." 

 Badaoni adds, by way of explanation, (metre Mujtass) — 



The love of wine and sweethearts has vanished from my brain. 



And songs, and drums, and lyres, " enchant my heart no more." 

 Faizi in his letter of recommendation states that Badaoni was well 

 up in the melodies of Hindustan and Persia (naghmah i hind o loildyat) 

 and knew how to play chess, two-handed and four-handed (habit 

 o caghir), occupations which even now-a-days are looked upon as 

 unlawful by orthodox Muhammadans, and which form the never- 

 ending theme of discussion at their social meetings. In another 

 passage also (III, p. 239), alluding to his former habit of composing 

 love poems, he says that such poetry was current in the days before 

 the Prophet, and that sincere repentance was better than such oc- 

 cupations. 



Badaoni's ' repentance' was also connected with the loss of two of 

 his friends. In the beginning of 1002, he buried Khwajah Ibrahim 

 Husain, an Ahadi, to whom he was much attached (p. 394). The 

 Khwajah, according to a statement by Bakhtawar Khan,f was a cali- 

 graphist of great renown, and had been a pupil of Sultan Bayazid, 

 poetically styled Mir Dauri, whom Akbar had honoured with the 

 title of Kdtib ul Mulh. But a heavier blow befell Badaoni in the 

 death, on the 23rd f afar 1003, of his friend Nizamuddfn, the his- 

 torian. The fine passage which he devotes to the memory of his 

 friend and to his own sorrow, has been translated by Elliot.J The 



* The final ij counts as e,, 400. 



f In the most interesting chapter of his Mir-dt ul 'A' lam, which contains 

 biographies of learned men, caligraphists, and poets. 



% Index, p. 185. In Sir H. Elliot's extract from the Madsir ul Umard 

 containing the biography of Nizamuddin, p. 181, 1. 11 from below, read, Karl 



