MlRZA ZU-L-QARNAIN, A CHRISTIAN GRANDEE. 117 



The circumstances, which led the Emperor to prove false to the good advice he 

 had himself given to Sikandar in 1598, were as follows : — 



There was at the Court a young Hindu nobleman, who had allowed himself 

 to be circumcised. He was the son of a great Captain, who had.been high in Akbar's 

 favour. One day, Jahanglr represented to him that, as he was no longer a heathen, 

 he ought to make choice of another religion and become either a Muhammadan 

 or a Christian. " If you choose to become a Christian," he said, "I shall call 

 the Fathers, who will baptize you." The young man chose to become a Muham- 

 madan, and the King to mark his satisfaction had him paraded on an elephant 

 throughout the city. 



Seeing that what he had done delighted the Muhammadans, Jahanglr now 

 wished to obtain the same from Sikandar. " A distinguished Armenian gentleman, he 

 had stood high in the favour of the late King, and he had his two sons brought up at 

 Court with the King's own nephews. The King [Jahanglr] took it into his head 

 that he would get this Christian to accept the law of Mohammed ; but, he remained 

 steadfast in his religion, to the great consolation of the Fathers. He kept them 

 constantly informed of what happened, and , one day, speaking with them: c What 

 do I desire more here on earth, ' he said, ( than to die for the faith of my Saviour, in 

 forgiveness of my sins and in expiation of the scandal I gave ! ' (Long before, he 

 had, contrary to the law of the Church and the representations of the Fathers, 

 married the sister of his deceased wife). But this Christian together with his 

 two children escaped the danger. 



" Subsequently, the King asked for the two children, and, hearing that their 

 father had taken them with him, he had them brought back to the palace and 

 received them in the most friendly manner. 1 A few days later, he asked them what 

 religion they belonged to. The children answered they were Christians. ' Well 

 then,' said the King, ( if you are Christians, eat pork.' They answered that there 

 was no precept among Christians enjoining them to eat pork, though, on the 

 other hand, there existed no prohibition. 2 The King's proposal ended there for the 

 time being. 



"The next day, in the morning, these children came to see the Fathers, and 

 related to them all that had occurred. The Fathers encouraged them and taught 

 how they should conduct themselves, in case the King should urge them further. 

 Indeed, so it happened: for, as the Mohammedans did not cease sitting near the 

 King's ears to get him to pervert these children, the King forbade them to go out 

 of the palace, and kept them as if in confinement. When this had lasted some time, 

 he had them brought again before him, and, placing pork before them, he wished to 



1 Sikandar had come to Agra before the flight of Prince Khusru, which the Jesuits place during the night of April 

 1 5th, 1606, a Saturday. Jahangir went in pursuit of his rebel son, who was arrested and brought to Lahore. While again 

 in peace at Lahore, Jahanglr remembered Sikandar's two children. Their forcible circumcision happened before Septem- 

 ber 25th, 1606, when Fr. Jerome Xavier relates it in a letter from Lahore. 



2 Fernao GuERREIRO, S.J., Relacam Annal das cousas que fezeram os Padres da Companhia de Iesvs . . . .no anno de 606 

 & 607 (Lisboa, MDCIX), fol. I53r, remarks that as the children had been brought up by one of'the Queens " who reared 

 them in the spirit of Moors with as much aversion for pork as the Moors themselves," the elder boy, Zu-1-Qarnain, 

 could no more be prevailed upon by his father to eat pork. 



