120 H. HO^TEN ON 



asked the very pertinent question: ff Is Bernier's Mirza Zulkarmin identical with 

 'Ghool-Kurneyl' (the son of a Mr. Hakoob) of the Armenian writers, said to have 

 been adopted by Akbar as his son (having no issue at the time) during his journey 

 into Kashmir ? ' ' 



Doubtless " Ghool-Kurneyl " is identical with our Zu-1-Qarnain and what 

 surprises us is that there should be at all Armenian writers referring to Zu-1-Qarnain's 

 adoption by Akbar. What surprises us again is that there should be at all Armenian 

 writings concerning the early history of the Armenians in India. It is wrong to 

 say that Akbar had no issue at the time referred to, but it is quite possible that 

 Sikandar, senior, had the additional alternative name of Hakoob (Yakub) . Mr. Hyra- 

 piet does not appear to be acquainted with anything I have written, and I do not 

 remember to have printed before 1912 anything concerning the connection between 

 Akbar and Zu-1-Qarnain or his father. Mr. Hyrapiet possesses therefore independent 

 information, which, if these lines should meet his eyes or those of his friends, I must 

 urge him, as strongly as I can, to make public. He promised us other revelations, 

 which we are awaiting impatiently. 1 



At the beginning of 1608, when Jahanglr was returning from Lahore to Agra, he had 

 his rebellious son Khusru blinded, and the same fate befell a captain, his accomplice, 

 who had been the chief instigator in the persecution set on foot against Sikandar' s 

 two children. 2 



There is yet another allusion to the two boys trying to gain the Jubilee indul- 

 gence granted by Pope Paul V, " the first ever published in India." 3 



1 After writing the above I came upon what appears to be Mr. C. Hyrapiet's authority. " Akbar the Great 

 adopted the youthful and promising son of a Mr. Jacob, an Armenian merchant, whom he had met at Kashmere during 

 his ' incognito tours.' This singular adoption was made several years before Jahanglr was born, whose birth in 1570 

 he attributed to the advent of Armenians into Agra and their erection, in 1562, of a Christian church there at 

 the express wish of their royal patron." Cf. Mesrovb J. Seth, History of the Armenians in India, Calcutta, 1895, p. 23. 

 This adoption could not have taken place before 1570, and what authority is there for Akbar's attributing to the advent 

 of Armenians at Agra, and not to Salim Chishti, the birth of Jahanglr ? How, too, will it be proved that the Armeni- 

 ans had a church at Agra since 1562? And is there more than one Armenian author to state that Zu-1-Qarnain's 

 father was Mr. Jacob, an Armenian merchant ? On discovering that Mr. Mesrovb J. Seth was in Calcutta, I com 

 municated with him and urged him to give us Zu-1-Qarnain's history from Armenian sources. He complied very kindly 

 with my request and sent me the text which I publish below under Appendix E. 



2 Cf. Ragvagli d'alcvne missione iatte dalli Padri delta Comf>agnia di Giesv nell' Indie Orientali, Roma, Zanetti> 

 MDCXV, p. 15. Guerreiro's Rclacamior 1607-08 doss not say that the captain blinded at the same time as Khusru was 

 the chief instigator of the persecution (cf. fol. 8r). Two grandees, one the Minister of Finances (vedor da fazenda) and 

 Governor of Lahore, the other a great captain, were paraded' through the streets of Lahore after the capture of Khusru. 

 Sowed up in the skin of an ox and of an ass, their face turned to the tail of the ass they rode, they were brought into 

 the presence of Jahanglr, then in a pleasure garden near Lahore. The captain was beheaded ; the Governor of Lahore, 

 after several days of cruel torture due to the contraction of the skin, was ransomed for a lakh of cruzados and reinstated. 

 Cf. Guerreiro, Relacam for 1606-07, foil. 149V-150V, and compare with the account in Elliot, Hist, of India, VI. 300-301 , where 

 the names of the two nobles are given : Husain Beg, who was killed, and 'Abdu-l-'Aziz. (' Abdu-r-Rahim, according to 

 the Tuzuk-i-J 'ahangiri , edn A. Rogers and H. Beveridge, I. 68-69). The end of the two instigators of the cruel treatment 

 meted out to Zu-1-Qarnain and his brother is related in Guerreiro's Relacam for 1606-07, fo1 x S9 r - ° ne lost his appoint- 

 ment and was kept in an inferior position ; the other, the greatest noble of the kingdom, who therefore was called the 

 King's brother, began to languish : he became lame of both egs and lost his memory ; finally, the King deprived him of 

 the royal seal, and gave him a small jagir to live on. 



3 Cf. Ragvagli . . . Op. cit., p. 27. I have not found the year when this Jubilee indulgence was proclaimed. I sup 

 pose it was in 161011. It was not the first in India. St. Ignatius had obtained from Pope Julius III the permission for 



