172 H. HOSTEN ON 



the application of some of my references, probably I err in good company, that of 

 Professor Blochmann and perhaps Mr. Beveridge himself. 



If the title " Mir ' ' could not be given to a Christian, what about the title Mirza ? 

 Mr. Beveridge wrote to me (July 30th, 1913) : " The use of the word Mirza in Zu-1- 

 Qarnain's case is curious. It is noteworthy that, as far as I know, no native writer 

 gives him the title. They call him Zu-1-Qarnain Firinghi. I fancy his humble rela- 

 tions and admirers called him Mirza out of flattery, and because he was a clerkly man. 

 One might suggest that he really was a bastard son of Akbar's and so was called 

 Mir-za. But, I do not adopt this view, though the position of his mother in Akbar's 

 harem is an equivocal one." I can understand the astonishment of my correspond- 

 ents on hearing every male member of a Christian family in Mogor designated for 

 three generations at least by the title of Mirza, and that not only by the Fathers and 

 Christians dependent on them, but by European travellers and factors generally. We 

 may say that our story from start to finish is an extraordinary one, and since the 

 relations between Akbar, f Abdu-l-Hayy, Sikandar and his children were such as we 

 see, since Sikandar's children grew up in the palace, travelled with Akbar in his 

 palanquin, played about the Court with the future Shah Jahan, who would be 

 surprised, whatever be the reason for the reticence of the Muhammadan historians, if 

 our Zu-1-Qarnain had been honoured with the title of Mirza in the inner circle of the 

 palace ? Shah Jahan called him Mirza (Cf. supra, p. 164), and there can be no doubt 

 that he was an Amir. 



If we suppose, as we do, that Khwaja c Abdu-l-Hayy is identical with the Chief 

 Justice of that name, it would follow that he had a brother, Mir 'Abdu-llah, who 

 played the qanun or harp at Court (A In, transl., I, 613). ' Here again, I shall be 

 asked whether I have any other authority. I have no other; for I suppose he is 

 different from Mir 'Abdu-llah, the calligrapher (ibid., I, 103). He was not, I think, 

 the 'Abdu-llah, who in 1579 came to Goa as Akbar's ambassador asking for the 

 Jesuits. (Cf. pp. 151 11. 1 ; 173.) The ambassador was a Shiah. (Cf. Monserrate). 



Privately, I threw out another suggestion, in the hope of discovering at last 

 Akbar's Christian wife. I now waive the point. It was that c Abdu-l-Wasi, whose 

 wife Akbar married in A.H. 970 (Ain, transl., I, 309) might stand for f Abdu-l-Masih 

 (servant of the Messiah). But, ' Abdu-1-Wasi's story in L,owe's translation of Badauni 

 (II, 59"6i) and H. Beveridge's Akbarnama (II, 204 n.) shows that I was venturing 

 into a blind alley. 



I spoke of Akbar's Christian wife. I have found so far no allusion to her in 

 the Jesuit letters. She is a most elusive being. So, too, was I,ady Juliana of Akbar's 

 time. 



The Vicar- Apostolic of Agra writing in 1832 to the traveller Dr. Wolff (see Wolff's 

 Researches and Travels, 1835) * said that the Jesuits first gained Akbar's favour 

 by means of a certain Signora Juliana of Goa, who as a lady doctor was in Akbar's 

 seraglio. A note in the Agra Mission Archives states that Juliana, an Armenian 



1 Music and poetry, Zu-1-Qarnain's accomplishments, may hat^e been hereditary in his family. 



2 I quote him through General R. Maclagan in J.A.S.B., 1896, p. 53 n. 1 , as I cannot get hold of the book. 



