MIRZA ZU-L-QARNAIN, A CHRISTIAN GRANDEE. 133 



General. The Supreme Pontiff granted it him by word of mouth (vivae vocis oraculo), 

 and gave orders to write that he granted this dispensation, because the request came 

 from so high a King, one who so greatly favoured in his Kingdom Christianity and 

 the ministers of the Holy Gospel. It was at this time, in February of the year 

 1600, that I arrived at this Court. 



" Shortly after the two boys had left the Queen's house, King Acbar died. His 

 son, King Jahangir, succeeded him, and, at the instigation of some Grandees of his 

 Court, he tried to make the two boys renounce the law of Jesus Christ and embrace 

 the law of the Moors. In fact, he ordered them || to be circumcised by force, and Foi. 672*-. 

 first he had so many lashes given to each that the bodies of both were covered with 

 blood and with the marks of the cruel stripes, as I myself saw ; for I accompanied 

 Fr. Jeronimo Xavier, who, on hearing of the case, went at once to visit, console and 

 encourage them. And, though the two, mere children yet, showed some weakness 

 in this encounter (auto) , by pronouncing under the lashes certain words of the creed 

 of the Moorish law, still I am of opinion that we may regard them as Confessors of 

 the law of Jesus Christ. Indeed, during this same tragic affair, after the boys had 

 uttered the said words, they strongly resisted when they tried forcibly to circumcise 

 them. Amid tears, M. Zulcarnen clamoured to the King : ( Sire, tell them to cut off 

 our head, not the foreskin ! ' What strengthens me in this belief is what happened 

 shortly after ; for the King, regretting already what he had done, told both the boys 

 to live in the law of Jesus Christ like their father ; and so they have been doing 

 until now, through the Lord's mercy. 1 M. Zulcarnen, in particular, worthily 

 redeemed his weakness as a child. When he was come to man's estate, and had be- 

 come one of the King's nobles (fidalgo) , charged with important commissions, the 

 King gave him many times occasion to discuss in his presence and before the whole 

 Court about the things of our (| Holy I y aw against the highest and wisest Moors in Pol. 672* 

 the King's entourage. He would do it so ably that the King himself applaudebat et 

 apfrobahat quae dicebat (would applaud and approve what he said), and he showed 

 such zeal that Fr. Jose de Castro, who was always present, wrote to me several 

 times, and related to me orally, that he could not have done it better himself. 



c In 1613, when M. Zulcarnen was twenty years old, his father M. Scander died. 2 

 He left a very large fortune, which was distributed among the four sons he left 

 behind (two by his first wife, and two by his second), in conformity with the testa- 

 ment which he had drawn up through Fr. Jeronimo Xavier. In the said testament 

 M. Scander left twenty thousand Rupees to be distributed as follows for the good of 

 his soul : — 



1 This compared with the statement pouco depots se morreo {supra, p. 132 n. 7) shows that Mirza Iskandarus, Zu-1- 

 Qarnain's brother, had died shortly before Father Corsi wrote, i.e., before May 1628. 



2 We do not know where Mirza Sikandar (senior) and Bibi Juliana were buried. 



