MIRZA ZU-L-QARNAIN, A CHRISTIAN GRANDEE. 171 



age"). ff If at this day the masters c Abdu-l-Hayy and Bihzad were alive, they 

 would have done him [Mansur] justice." {Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, transl., II. 20). ' 



Probably a great deal more can be found in the Muhammadan authors to bear 

 out what Fr. Corsi says about our Khwaja 'Abdu-1-Hayy, viz., that he was an 

 honourable man (honrado means honest, also notable), and that, by marrying his 

 daughter, Sikandar, already a servant of Akbar's, was much more esteemed at Court. 



Mr. H. Beveridge writing to me (July 30, 1913) thought that 'Abdu-1-Hayy, the 

 QazI, could have been no connection of Zu-1-Qarnain , because none but an approved 

 Muhammadan could be a QazI. " 'Abdu-1-Hayy, the father of your Juliana," he 

 writes, "probably got his name because he became a Mussulman, or because he 

 chose a name (servant of God) that could be appropriate for a Christian. But his 

 conversion [to Muhammadanism], even if it took place, would not be sufficient to make 

 him a QazI or a Chief Justice." 



A Muhammadan gentleman, signing A., objected in the same sense in The 

 Statesman, Calcutta, 3 or 4 days after I had published in that paper (6th July, 1913) an 

 abstract of my monograph on Mirza Zu-1-Qarnain , which I presented to the Asiatic 

 Society on July 2nd, 1913. iC I quite agree," he wrote, that Zu-1-Qarnain died as a 

 Christian, and that his father and the family were Christians. But, this does not 

 show that every member of the family for all time were Christians. For instance, 

 Father Hosten says that Khwaja or Mir 'Abdul Hai was the QazI of the Imperial 

 Camp. But, it is a well-known fact that, in order to be a QazI, or Judge, one must 

 be a follower of Islam. Even ' infidel ' Akbar never had the courage to appoint a 

 Christian or a Hindu to be a QazI. To me it is quite clear that, at one time or another, 

 certain (if not all) of the members of the Sikandar family became Moslems, but some 

 of them died in their ancestral faith. The word f Mir ' can be assumed by non-Syeds, 

 but it is doubtful whether it can be assumed by one professing the Christian faith.' ' 



I answer. If my friend A. has followed the story thus far, it will be less clear to 

 his mind that, at one time or another, certain (if not all) of the members of the 

 Sikandar family became Moslems, and, since he is not sure whether the title " Mir" 

 could have been assumed or not by Christian, how can he be so sure, that Akbar never 

 had the courage to appoint a Christian as Mir 'Adl or Qazi ? He takes for granted 

 what must be proved, and forgets that historical matters cannot be settled by the 

 canon of personal feeling. He cannot see an exception in the case of so exceptional a 

 potentate as Akbar. What, if at the time of Akbar's vagaries in matters of religion, 

 an Armenian, a Christian, joined in flattering him in his attempts at self-apotheosis ? 

 What, even without that? 



Let the references we have adduced be carefully examined and weighed, and let 

 it be shown how they should be split up into two parts, some applicable to our 

 Khwaja ' Abdu-1-Hayy, some to his namesake, the Khwaja and Mir 'Adl. If I err in 



1 One Maulana 'Abdu-1-Hayy is mentioned as a calligraphist and Private Secretary to Sultan Abu Sa'id Mirza in 

 Akbar's reign (Ain, transl., I. ioi, 101 n. 3). — Fr. Jerome Xavier in his letter from Lahore, 8 Sept 1596 (MS., fol. 254V) 

 mentions as one of his converts a Muhammadan who could read and write Persian excellently. He was the secretary of 

 a Christian Captain. The Ain, I. 103, mentions another calligrapher, Mir Abdullah. 



