Storia do Mogor : or, Mogul India, 1653-1708 / by Niccolao Manucci, Venetian ; tr., with introduction and notes, by William Irvine.

Storia do Mogor, or, Mogul India, 1653-1708 / by Niccolao Manucci, Venetian ; tr., with introduction and notes, by William Irvine.

  • Manucci, Niccolò, 1639-approximately 1717.
Date:
1907-08
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Storia do Mogor, or, Mogul India, 1653-1708 / by Niccolao Manucci, Venetian ; tr., with introduction and notes, by William Irvine. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    CONDEMNED TO DEATH at Gwàliyàr fortress, they cut off Murad Bakhsh’s head in the presence of the complainant and other witnesses. He was interred there and then. Thus came to an end the royal blood of the Mogul, leaving none but Sipihr Shukoh, son of Darà, and the son of Murad Bakhsh, of whom I will speak farther on {‘ Ezad Bakhsh,’ II., 144). Aurangzeb remained absolute master of the whole empire. Thus with the blood of his competitors were assuaged the fears which perturbed the Mogul. Now it remains to state how this king wreaked vengeance on those who laid hands upon those of royal blood. First of all, he who had claimed the head of Murad Bakhsh issued from the fortress to obtain the promised reward, but never again was he heard of. The slaves who first of all cut off Dàrà’s head, and now that of Murad Bakhsh, never left the fortress but met their fate within it that very day. Then there remained Nazar Beg and Maqbala, captains of the slaves, but they did not long survive. One day Aurangzeb sent for Maqbula, the second captain, and in secret said to him : ‘ What can I do for you, and what do you expect ? The command of the slaves belongs to you, and I had meant to give it to you ; but this brute of a Nazar Beg, without tact and overbold, leaves me no peace ; and for several reasons I cannot take the office from him. If it is your wish, it lies in your hands to become captain by killing him who unjustly holds the place to your detriment. To- morrow in my presence, while I am giving audience, kill him, and I forthwith declare you captain.’ The ambition [279] of Maqbula induced him to rely on the king’s word, never anticipating what was to happen to himself. Going off home he communicated to his wife, in high delight, what the king had said to him. To effect his design, he pro- vided himself with a dagger, and next day at the audience, when in the king’s presence, he stabbed Nazar Beg in the breast with such quietness that he fell dead on the spot. Aurangzeb, feigning ignorance in a matter which he had himself directed, gave a signal to the bystanders, who, with their swords, slashed Maqbula into pieces before he could utter a word in his defence. He did this to conceal his tyranny on the pretext that he