MIRZA ZU-L-QARNAIN, A CHRISTIAN GRANDEE. 119 



"Triumphant as it were at his victory, the King left orders to dress their 

 wounds. The same night, our Fathers 1 came near the children, entirely unaware of 

 what had passed. They found them stretched on the floor, quite disconsolate 

 and not uttering a word. But, as soon as they perceived the Fathers, f We are 

 Christians, ' they cried out, * we were circumcised against our will ' The Fathers 

 inspired them with courage to remain steadfast. They did so with such intrepidity 

 that they loudly abused Mohammed in the presence of a Mohammedan priest, 

 and cared no longer for what the King commanded; nay, the elder boy, who had 

 been the weaker one under sufferings, seized a poniard and cut through the skin and 

 flesh of his right arm a cross about a palm in length to triumph with these scars 

 to the spite of the Mohammedans. As they behaved now openly as Christians 

 and cared for nothing, the King, without molesting them further, left them alone." 2 



The heroism of these generous lads had conquered J ahanglr. He acknowledged 

 it soon after. 



" The King, seeing one day the two children, whom (as we have said) he had 

 caused to be circumcised, called them to him and asked whether they wished 

 to be Mohammedans or wanted to remain in the religion of their father. The 

 children answered they would live and die in the faith of Jesus Christ, which 

 they had sucked in with their mother's milk. Hearing this, the King turned to 

 some of his favourites and remarked, ( It is a shame not to remain in one's faith,' 

 and to the children he added, 'Remain free in your religion.' " a 



We may usefully place here an allusion to the above facts made by Bernier. 

 "He [JahangirJ permitted two of his nephews to embrace the Christian faith, and 

 extended the same indulgence to Zulkarmin [sic] who had undergone the rite 

 of circumcision and been brought up in the Seraglio. The pretext was that Mirza 

 was born of Christian parents, his mother having been wife of a rich Armenian, 

 and having been brought to the Seraglio by Jehan-Guyre' s desire." + 



Bernier visited Delhi and Agra about 50 years after Zu-1-Qarnain's forcible 

 circumcision, and when to all appearances the Mirza was dead. When he writes that 

 his mother, who had died in or before 1598, was brought to Jahanglr's harem, 

 we are not prepared to accept his statement. We can admit that she frequented the 

 ladies in his or his father's harem as a lady doctor. Bernier' s statement must be com- 

 pared with Fr. Corsi's, that in the Tuziik-i-Jahanglrl and others. 



One of the many surprising developments in our knowledge of Zu-1-Qarnain 

 is that quite recently an Armenian gentleman, Mr. C. Hyrapiet, writing to The 

 Pioneer and commenting on the passage just quoted from Bernier, should have 



1 Fathers Jerome Xavier and Francis Corsi. 



2 Cf. C Hazart, S.J., Kerckelycke Historie, Antwerpen, M. Cnobbaert, II e Deel, MDCI/XVII. The story is given 

 in greater detail by du Jarric, Troisiesme partie de I'histoire des choses plus memovables, Bovrdeavs, 1614, pp. 106-111, 115, 

 and in Ferxao Guerreiro's Relagam Annual of 1606 and 1607, Lisboa, MDCIX, foil. I5iv-i55r ; iS9r. 



3 Ibid. 



* Bernier, Travels in the Mogul Empire (1656-1668), A. Constable's edn., Westminster, 1891, p. 287. The French has: 

 " fils de la femme d'un riche Armenien, laquelle Jehan Guire s'etait fait amener dans le serail." 



5 The Pioneer, Thursday, March 28, 1912, in The T 'aj and its designers. Mr. Hyrapiet must, however, be warned 

 against seeing his compatriots everywhere and in everything. 



