1 SHAW ALAM BADADUR SHAH. 181
2 were defeated in argument,.and the emperor ordered that the word wast
3 (heir) should be added to the attributes of Alf in the public prayers and the
4 khutba. The innovation proved very unwelcome to the Sunnis. Jan
5 Muhammad and Haji Yar Muhammad, the most eminent learned men of
6 Ldhore, accompanied by other scholars and a large multitude, waited on the
7 Kazi and the Sadr and remonstrated with them openly on the use of the word
8 wust in the khutba and the prayers, The emperor’s eldest sons, Azim-ush-
9 shan and ‘Khajasta. Akhtar, were both zealous Suimnis, and they suffered
10 the Shid minister who had been sent to the chief mosque to repeat the
11 Shid creed, “and Alfis the saint of God,” to be dragged from the top of
12 the pulpit by the congregation and hewn in pieces before he had time to
13 utter the offensive words. Haji Yar Muhammad, Muhammad Mirdd Khan
14 and a few other learned men waited upon his majesty in his oratory. After
15 much disputation, hot words ensued between the king’s supporters and
16 Haji Yar Muhammad. The emperor, seeing him excited, asked him if he was
17 not afraid to speak so boldly in the audience of a king. The Haji replied:
18 “T had wished four things from my Creator,—first, acquisition of knowledge ;
19 second, preservation of my creed ; third, pilgrimage ; fourth, martyrdom. Thank
20 God, I have been gifted with the first three. Martyrdom remains, and I
21 hope to get it now through the kindness of your majesty.” The whole of
22 the inhabitants of the city, together with a party of Aighans, were bent on
23 resisting the innovation with all their might and fortunes, and the Sadr, not
24 long after this event, presented a petition to the king, in which his majesty was
25 invited over to their principles, On this petition the emperor wrote with
26 his own hands that the khutba should be read in the form used in the reign
27 of Khuld Zami Aurangzeb. After this coucession by the throne the agitation
28 ceased.
29 The emperor had passed his seventieth lunar year when a change became
30 perceptible in his mind. He was then encamped on the Ravi, in the
31 suburbs of Léhore. In the early part of February, 1712 a.p., he took it into
32 his head to give orders to kill all the dogs in the city of Lahore, as ,well
33 as his camp. He was all at once seized with fainting fits, which continued
34 without intermission till 21st Moharram, 1124 a.m. (19th February 1712, A.D.),
35 when, about two hours before night, he breathed his last. The princes and
36 ladies of the harem made loud lamentations round his bed.* The nobles
37 left the royal camp in the darkness of the night to join the parties of their
38 respective princes, while many of the camp-followers, greatly alarmed,
39 retired to the-city with their families. The following day there was great
40 agitation in the city, and the streets were crowded with multitudes of noisy
41 people who gave free rein to their imagination as regards the succession to
42 the monarchy. The body of the late emperor was conveyed to Delhi, where it
43 was buried within the precincts of the mausoleum of the Saint Kutb-ud-din.
44 He died in the seventy first lunar year of his age and the fifth of his reign.
45 Bahddur Shah was a generous, munificent and an excessively good-
46 natured prince. His tolerance and amiability were a great contrast to the
47 bigotry and hypocrisy of his predecessor. Brought up in the school of
48 adversity, he had grown up mild and affable to such a degree that people
49 called him the saint king. Before taking up arms against his brother,
50 Sultan Muhammad Azam, he wrote to him that if he would be satisfied with
51 the Dekkan, which was an extensive kingdom, and which the deceased
52 emperor had set apart for him, he would desist from warlike operations.
53 But these overtures were disregarded by Muhammad Azam, and the emperor
54 *The Memoirs of lradat Khan.
55 Innovation in the
56 public prayers.
57 Murdor of the Shia
58 pontiff in the grand
59 mosque of Lahore,
60 The Sunni form of
61 khutba restored,
62 Change in the om-
63 peror’s temper, 1712,
64 His death, 1712.
65 A great bewilder-
66 ment follows,
67 Thé character
68 Bahadur Shah,
69 + He was Sep dt gerfineatyit Singh Ptbeibfarnpuszeb, for sevenyermdhariElibrary@ gmail.com