18G9.] Badaoni and his Works. 119 



Mubarik of Nagor. This Mubarik is one of the most remarkable men 

 of Akbar's reign. He bad the good fortune of seeing his eldest son, 

 Abul Faiz, acquire the renown of being the second greatest poet that 

 Hindustan has produced ; whilst his second son Abulfazl became the 

 greatest statesman and patriot that Muhammadan India can point 

 to. Shaikh Mubarik was, moreover, one of the principal causes of 

 Akbar's apostacy from the Islam. The heretical influence which he 

 even exercised on 'Abdul Qadir, who at that time had commenced rigour- 

 ously to walk on the path of the law and the commentaries, is clearly 

 visible in his belief in the approach of the Millennium, of which I 

 shall say a few words in connection with 'Abdul Qadir's character. 



The law studies which Abdul Qadir continued at Agrah, remained 

 his favourite occupation to the end of his life. Under Shaikh Mubarik 

 he had made friendship with Abul Faiz and Abul Fazl ; under Qazi 

 Abul Ma'ali, a lawyer who had come to Agrah from Bukhara, he had 

 Naqib Khan as class fellow (hamdars), who subsequently played an 

 important part under Akbar and Jahangir. 



Thus we see that, as far as education and society were concerned, 

 'Abdul Qadir enjoyed all those advantages upon which success in after- 

 life depends. 



In 969, 'Abdul Qadir and Shaikh Muhammad, his younger brother, 

 had to mourn over the death of their father. His body was carried from 

 Agrah to Basawar. In the following year, Makhdum Ashraf also, 

 'Abdul Qadir's grandfather, died at Basawar. " Thus in the space of 

 one year," says 'Abdul Qadir in chronicling these events, u nothing 

 but grief entered my heart, which up to this time had been so thought- 

 less ; and sorrow which I had hitherto avoided, stepped up in all its 

 ruthlessness and attacked me. The meaning of ' It has hef alien me' 

 became now clear to me, and I saw the truth of what my father had 

 once told me, " that my light-mindedness would last as long as he was 

 on earth ; but afterwards people would see how I would go on without 

 him, and how I would scorn the world and everything connected with 

 it." 



'Abdul Qadir soon after removed to Badaon (oJjI^J)* where he 



* The word Badaon has the accent on the penultima, and a final nasal n ; 

 hence badaoni, with a short o or u, and the Shakl i Harazah above the wdw, 

 an inhabitant of Badaon. The transliteration Badauni, which I. have seen in 



