________________
HISTORY OF THE NIZAM SHAHI KINGS OF AHMADNAGAR
THE HISTORY OF THE NIZAM SHAHI KINGS OF AHMADNAGAR.
BY LIEUT.-COLONEL T. W. HAIG, C.S.I., C.M.G., C.B.E. (Continued from p. 128.)
SEPT., 1920]
157
XIX-THE CHARACTER OF AHMAD NIZAM SHIH.
Aḥmad Nizam Shah was exceedingly chaste and continent. When riding through the city and the bazaars, he never glanced either to the right hand or to the left. One of his intimate companions one day asked him why he never looked around him on these occasions. The king replied that as he and his troops passed by, crowds of people, both men and women, assembled to see them pass, and lined the doors and walls, and crowded the streets and market-places. He could not look upon them without seeing somebody upon whom it was not proper to gaze, and as to let his glance rest on such a one would be unpleasing to the Creator, he thought fit to refrain from looking about him.
Aḥmad Ni âm Shâh was also noted for his austerity and piety. Once in the early days of his reign, while he was yet a young man, and at the age when the lusts of the flesh are predominant and most violent, he led an army against the fort of Râwil and took it. Among the captives who fell into the hands of the royal army, was a most beautiful young woman whom Masnad-i-'Ali Malik Naşir-ul-Mulk, on hearing of her beauty, summoned before himself. On seeing her, he considered that such a being should adorn none but the royal haram, and wrote to the king, proposing to send her to the haram. The king replied, commanding him to do so. When the king retired to his bedchamber in order to go in unto her, the woman came before him with blandishments and coquetry, but the king, before retiring, asked her whether she had a husband, or a mother, or a father. The woman replied that her husband and her parents were living, and the king at once extinguished the fire of lust and bade the woman be comforted, for he would send for her husband and her parents and hand her over to them. In this case it may be said that Ahmad Ni âm Shâh's chastity and continence excelled those of Joseph, for Zulaikha, being the wife of Joseph's master, was not lawful to him, whereas this woman being a captive taken in war, was lawful to Aḥmad Nizam Shah. On the following day Masnad-i-'Ali Malik Naşir-ul-Mulk came to pay his respects to the king and would have congratulated him on his enjoyment, but the king told him of what had passed, and of his promise to the woman. In accordance with the royal commands, the woman's husband and parents were produced and, after they had been royally entertained, the king handed the woman over to her husband.
One of Ahmad Ni âm Shâh's wise customs was this. If by chance in the day of battle he saw one of his men behave in a cowardly manner and turn his back on the enemy, he would send for him and ask him, kindly and gently, why he had behaved so. When the coward, in halting phrases, excused himself, the king would give him a quid of betel and allow him to depart to his post. When the fight was over, and those who had distinguished themselves, were brought up to receive robes of honour and royal favours, the king would first enquire for the coward and, when he had been found, would confer on him a robe of honour and other favours, and would afterwards bestow rewards on the brave. One day one of the king's more intimate associates made so bold as to say that it was not understood why the king thus gave to a coward precedence of those who had borne the burden and heat of the day, and had acquitted themselves valiantly. The king replied that the reason for this practice would be made known to him later. Shortly afterwards it so happened that the king's army was engaged with the troops of the enemy, and the man who had on a former occasion
