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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(OCTOBER, 1887.
A.H.
whole dimágh." The skill of good physicians of my property-which is their own-and I having proved ineffectual to oure him, he refuse to grant it, I shall incur the blame of first went on a pilgrimage to Mulla Naşar and the Creator as well as of men." Akhund Badhla, situated north of Ahmad Blessed is the Padshah who after death BhAht. After his return the doctors advised Leaves such a record behind him. him to go for a change of climate to some Some of his ordinances were as follows:-A pleasant locality which was clean and had pure widow must be taken care of by the heirs of air, so he went to Mount Taba, which is the deceased husband, and by no others. To above all other places celebrated for its good divorce a wife is to be considered a very wicked climate; but as the time of his death, decreed act. He also instructed his son to prohibit those by fate was at hand, the change of air, and who were admitted to an audience, from perthe treatment of physicians proved of no avail, forming the salutation in vogue, which resemand according to the verse :-"Say, verily bled an act of adoration, but to order them the death from which you flee will surely meet simply to touch their heads; further, not to you," he expired on Friday, the twentieth of allow others to sit in their presence except the honoured month Rajab in the year 1184 the 'ulama and faqirs ; also to invite respect
able 'ulame every Friday evening and also aged When Ahmad ShAb expired, Yaqut Khan, the shekhs, to hold discussions on the sciences and eunuch, who was his confidential and special the history of ancient times, to eat food in chamberlain, kept his death secret, and con- their company, and to be present at Friday veyed his corpse with the treasury and the prayers; and lastly, not to cut off ears and harem in such a manner to Ahmadshabi, that noses for punishments, but to inflict these no one became aware of it. When the ShAhsada according to the commands of God. Whilst Sulaiman, who was the son-in-law of the Wazir he was alive he always also himself acted in Shah Wali Khan came to the city of Qanda- conformity with these precepts. hår PJ he took the body of the Shâh and buried As the reign of the PadshAh, the asylum of it in a garden situated on the west side of the the religion, has been described, it will be procitadel.
per likewise to record his descent and genesAhmad Shah had no second or equal to logy :-It is well known that originally all the him in character; in spite of his perfect Afgháns are the descendants of 'Abdu'rrashid dignity he assumed the manners of a fagir, Pathan, who had three sons; the first being and his extreme meekness, which was known Sara, the second Shekh Mabit, and the third everywhere, gained universal approbation. It is Ghurghusht, who is by the Afgháns also called said to have extended so far that when during Ghurghuch. According to the account given the siege of Nish&par the troops were kept in the history of the Durrani tribes, the Abdalis without pay and conjointly plundered the ere the descendants of Tarin, whereas the Shah's treasury, the keeper of it complained Sadozái tribe is a branch of the Pair tribe. of the robbery, and receiving no answer, began Popal and Nárak and Aska were som of to use disrespectful language towards Ahmad Zirak, and the pedigree of Ahmad Shah is as Shah, who then said :-"Ignorant fool! I am follows:-Ahmad Khan, brother of Zu'lfiqar also one of them, and have attained this dignity Khan, son of Zaman Khan, son of Daulat Khan, hv their consent, and with the help of their son of Sarmast Khân, son of Sher Khån, son swords; I have called them partners in my of Khwaja Khizar Khån, son of Sado, son of monarchy, so that whenever they require some Umr, son of Maraf, son of Bahlal, son of
** According to our text the disease in Arabic is called altla, eating, probably because it consumes or eats out the portion of the body which it attacks; but the expression for the part eaten, namely, dimdgh, brain, is less intelligible. A writer in the Calcutta Review, loc. cit. comes, however to our aid in both respects by alluding to the malady after Ahmad ShAh's last expedition to India, when he says :-"He devoted himself to consolidating the power he had created, and hence he was called in 1767 to appear once more in the field, for the protection of his Indian dominions. A fresh outbreak of the Sikhs
led again to their being driven into the hills, to emerge and renew the war, as soon as the king was once more across the Indys. This was almost the last appearance of the king in the field. His disease Was Anoer in the jaw, and this now compelled him to trust largely to his lieutenants and to his sons."
15 Qwrdn, oh. lxii. v. 8.
16 17th October 1772. "In 1778 the king retired from the conduct of the kingdom to a mountain retreat where he died early in June at the age of fifty.-Calc. Rev. 1870, No. CI. P. 40.
