92 
[No. 1, 
A History of the GaklAhars* 
“ Early in the morning the king marched towards Hindust&n, 
hut before his departure, determined that the prince should be 
blinded, and gave orders accordingly, but the attendants on the 
prince disputed among themselves who was to perform the cruel 
act. Sultan ’All, the pay-master, ordered ’All Dost to do it. 
The other replied, “ You will not pay a Shah Rukhi (3s. 6d.) to 
any person without the king’s directions ; therefore, why should 
I commit this deed without a personal order from his majesty ? 
perhaps to-morrow the king may say, i Why did you put out the 
eyes of my brother ?’ what answer could I give ? depend upon it, 
I will not do it by your order.” Thus they continued to quarrel 
for sometime: at length, I said, “ I will go and inform the king.” 
On which I, with two others, galloped after his majesty : when 
we came up with him, ’All Dost said, in the Chaghtai Turki lan¬ 
guage, “ No one will perform the business.” The king replied 
in the same language, abused him, and said, “ Why don’t you do 
it yourself?” 
After receiving this command, we returned to the prince, and 
Ghulam ’All represented to him in a respectful and a condoling 
manner that he had received positive orders to blind him; the 
prince replied “ I would rather you would at once kill me.” Ghulam 
’All said, “We dare not exceed our orders: he then twisted a 
handerchief up as a ball for thrusting into the mouth, and he, with 
the Farrash, seizing the prince by the hands, pulled him out of the 
tent, laid him down and thrust a lancet ( nashtar ) into his eyes 
(such was the will of God). This they repeated at least fifty times ; 
but he bore the torture in a manly manner, and did not utter a 
single groan, except when one of the men who was sitting on his 
knees pressed him ; he then said ‘ ‘ Why do you sit upon my knees ? 
what is the use of adding to my pain ?” This was all he said, and 
acted with great courage, till they squeezed some (lemon) juice 
and salt into the sockets of his eyes; he then could not forbear, 
and called out, “ 0 Lord, 0 Lord, my God, whatever sins I may 
have committed, have been amply punished in this world, have 
compassion on me in the next.” 
After some time he was placed on horseback, and we proceeded 
to a grove planted by the emperor Flruz Shah; where it being very 
