3S 
THE ORIENTAL ANNUAL. 
persecuted Shere Afghan, who, after having evaded 
the malice and jealousy of Jelianghir, by a hundred 
gallant exploits, was at last treacherously murdered 
by a band of conspirators, acting under the orders of 
that monarch. Their united histories form one of 
the most romantic passages in the annals of the 
Mogul emperors of Delhi. The historian, Tarihk 
Kahfi Kahn, has related it with but little of those 
extravagant redundancies which Oriental writers of 
all ages have esteemed as beauties. It shall, there- 
fore, be told after his version. 
THE SUN OF WOMEN ; THE LIGHT OF THE HAREM ; 
THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 
In the reign of the mighty Emperor Akbur, — whose 
memory still floats upon the tears of the people of all 
India, — and while the prince J ehanghir was a youth 
about seventeen years of age, Khaja Aias, a native of 
western Tartary, quitted his own country in the hope 
of finding a better fortune in Hindostan. He was 
descended of an ancient and noble family, now fallen 
into decay by various revolutions of fortune ; though 
happily his parents vrere able to bestow upon him an 
excellent education, worthy of his intelligent mind 
and goodness of heart. Early in life he fell in love 
with a very beautiful young woman, as poor as him- 
self ; and, in defiance of grinning poverty, they mar- 
ried. Soon after their union, they found it difficult 
