________________
NOVEMBER, 1899.)
HISTORY OF THE BARMANI DYNASTY.
291
sented that letter to the Sultan in his private apartment, and secretly gave him that manifes, calumny in the garb of sincerity and certainty; and this served to verify the statements of the former calumniators. Since, from the passage of the complaint of the inhabitants of Kondâvirt the dust of alleged injury from the minister had already settled on the mind of the Sultân, the contents of this letter put the former matter into motion, and he fully determined to put to death that incomparable minister.
On the 5th of Şafar, in the year last mentioned (A. H. 886 = 5th April, A.D. 1481), the nobles being all assembled in the court, the Sultan, on pretence of having taken an aperient, retired from the assembly, and sent some one to summon Khwajah Jahan, and called him into his private apartment.
It is said that when the Khwajah was mounting, with the intention of waiting on the Sultan, an astrologer represented to him that it would be advisable for him to put off going into the Sultan's presence on that day. The Khwajah replied: -" The merit of attendance on His Majesty may be productive of eternal happiness and honour.to me. Praise be to God, to Whose goodness I bear witness !"
It is related that before the Khwajab attained the grade of martyrdom, he used continually to repeat this verse :
"As martyrdom to love is glorious here and hereafter,
“ Happy should I be to be carried dead from this field." And in an ode which he had composed in the previous year in praise of the Sultan, he foretold this circumstance.
When the Khwajah arrived in the presence of the Sultin, he kissed the ground in salutation. The Sultan asked him: "If a slave of mine is disloyal to his benefactor, and his crime is proved, "what should be his punishment P"
Khwajah Jabain, without hesitation, replied: "The abandoned wretch who practises treachery against his lord should meet with nothing but the sword."
The Sultan then showed Khwajah Jabân the forged letter; and when the wretched Khwajah saw it, he exclaimed: - "By God! this is an evident forgery."38 Ho placed his head on the ground and emphatically swore :- " Although this letter is sealed with my seal your slave has no knowledge of its contents. God forbid ! that such base ingratitude should emanate from this slave, with so many past services and risking of life; who has experienced so many acts of kindness from Your Majesty, and who has been distinguished and selected above all his equals.
By God, the jewel of whose commands The spiritual perforate with their hearts' blood, It is like the false story of Yusuf and the wolf - 30
That which his enemies say of this slave." However much Khwajah Jahân spoke in this strain, it was of no avail. The Sultan, on some excuse, rose up. Jauhar Habshi and some of the slaves had previously been ordered to watch for the Sultan's signal, and whenever he might look towards them, to kill Khwajalı Jahan, and clear the mind of the Sultan froin anxiety on account of that minister. At a sign from the Sultan they now martyred Khwajah Jahân by blows of their swords, and threw him in the dust of destruction. And having called As'ad Khan inside they put him also to death.
But the clique who had designed this plot, in & short time met with their just recompense ; for shortly afterwards their fraud and deceit became manifest to the Sultan : their treachery
38 A quotation from the Kur, at » Alluding to Joseph's brethren telling Jacob that he had been torn by a wild bent.
