438 A Sketch of the Mahomedan History of Cashmere. [No. 5. 



relieved the following year by the emperor's favourite Zufr Khan 

 (second time) who remained in power four years, during which 

 period Shah Jehan (A. D. 1645,) visited Cashmere : he was 

 succeeded by Tarbiat Khan in whose time a famine occurred, 

 (A. D. 1647;) after two years Hussein Beg Khan (Usbuk) (A. D. 

 1649,) succeeded, whose tenure of power was also two years. Allie 

 Murdan Khan now became Governor of Cashmere for the second 

 time. A. D. 1651. 



This nobleman was governor of Lahore as well as Cashmere, and 

 was in the habit of spending the winter season at the former city, 

 and proceeding to Cashmere on the approach of spring each year. 

 3?or his convenience in these journeys (A. D. 1651,) he built many 

 Serais along the roads leading into Cashmere, some of which remain 

 to this day ; his travelling expenses are said to have amounted to a 

 lakh of Eupees (£10,000) each trip. In this governor's time there 

 were " bread-riots" in which many lost their lives. 



The emperor visited Cashmere in the summer of 1061 H., 

 and was accompanied by many poets and savants : amongst the 

 former, a certain Hadjie Mahomed Jan, a Persian, composed a 

 poem on the country, but appears to have been more impressed 

 with the difficulties of the road than the beauty of the landscape. 

 He compares the sharpness of the passes to the " swords of the 

 Eeringees," and their tortuous ascents to the " curls of a blackamoor's 

 hair!" 



^'iji £a3 ft t^a. <_5*i3 &i ^fy ,Jy> }\J> *xx x 4 ^ 



Of all the emperors of Delhi, Shah Jehan appears most to have 

 affected the strains of poets and musicians, and, as they and 

 the courtiers increased in the land, the Kishees and devotees, 

 for which Cashmere had been so celebrated, receded like game 

 before the hunter, into the most dreary solitudes, and were in 

 danger of becoming extinct amidst the discouragements of this 

 festive court, until they again recovered under the subsequent reign 

 of the orthodox Aurungzebe. A. D. 1657, (H. 1048,) Luskur Khan 

 succeeded Allie Murdan, and during his short tenure of power, 

 so severe a winter occurred, that the river and all the lakes 

 were frozen over, hard enough to admit of passage on their surface. 

 This year also the emperor Shah Jehan was deposed by his son 



