My friend Mr. Whiteway has kindly referred me to Diego-da-Couto's account in his 9th Decade, Chap. XIII, p. 63, ed. seq. of the edition of Lisbon, 1786. It appears from it that the embassy referred to by Abul Fazl was that which is known as Antonio Cabral's,1 and which is referred to by General Maclagan in a note at p. 48. Couto does not say distinctly where the embassy was received by Akbar. Probably this took place at Surat, though there may also have been negociations at Daman. The fact is that Akbar was as anxious to conciliate the Portuguese as the Portuguese were to please him. For his stepmother Ḥāji Begam and also other ladies wished to visit Mecca, and could not do so without the favour of the Portuguese. It is therefore quite possible that, as Couto states, Akbar had previously sent an embassy to the Viceroy. Couto gives a translation of a firmān granted by Akbar on 18th March 1573, that is ten days after Akbar had left Surat. Possibly this was granted at Broach, where Akbar halted on his way from Surat to Aḥmadābād. Couto also tells us that Akbar was waited upon by the Portuguese merchants at Cambay and that he assumed the Portuguese dress there. In the annals of the 23rd year Abul Fazl records III. 243, the arrival from Bengal of a Portuguese named Partab Bar and his wife Nashurna2 or Nasunta. He describes Partāb Bār as an officer of the merchants of the ports of Bengal. Afterwards, p. 320, he refers to him as giving protection to one of the Bengal rebels, and Blochmann, Ain translation 440, calls him the Portuguese governor of Hooghly. If this is so, the Portuguese records should give his name, for presumably they contain a list of the governors. As remarked in Elliot, VI. 59, where the passage from the Akbarnama is translated, the names of Partāb and his wife are very doubtful. There are several variations in the MSS., and among them is the reading Tab Bārsū, which the author of the Darbār-i-Akbarī seems to have found in his MS. (see his work, p. 67.) He also does not appear to have found any mention of Partab's wife, and indeed the fact that the lady did come is not free from doubt, for there are, I believe, other MSS. which omit her name. However, I think that there can be no reasonable doubt that Partāb Bār or Tār is either a corruption or the 1 Du Jarric also speaks of an embassy of Cabral's in March 1578, and in this he is supported by the authorities, e.g., Peruschi, who ascribes Akbar's original liking for the Christians to Antonio Cabral's communications. He, however, also makes mention of Tavares. He gives the name of the priests of Satgaon as Julian Pereira. 2 Variously called Nashurna, Nasunta, and Basurba. Possibly, as a lady has suggested to me, the name is Assunta, and the N belongs to the title Donna. Or it may be that the alif of ba, "with" is the first letter of her name. Indian title of Pietro Tavares, a Portuguese captain who was at Akbar's Court in 1578. His mission to Akbar is mentioned by Sebastian Manrique-Murray's Discoveries in Asia, p. 11, 99-who says he went up from Hooghly. Bartoli, on the other hand (Missione al Gran Mogor, Piacenza, 1819, p. 5) describes him as a military servant of Akbar. Tavares, apparently, deserves the credit of having been the first to introduce Portuguese priests to Akbar. He induced him to send for Egidio Anes Pereira, or Julian Pereira, the vicar of Sātgãon, and then the latter suggested to Akbar that he should send for priests from Goa. It was this which led to Akbar's sending an ambassador to Goa, and to the mission of Rodolfo Acquaviva and his companions. According to Bartoli, Akbar had already been favourably impressed by the honesty of two priests who had come to Bengal some three years previously, and had rebuked their countrymen for cheating the imperial government in the matter of the customs. The exact date of the arrival of Tavares and Pereira is not known, but presumably it was in 1578. Tavares is represented by Bartoli as remarking to Akbar that the priests would be better able to instruct him in religion than the Brahmans and Mullas by whom he was surrounded. This is an allusion to the discussions in the 'Ibadatkhāna which, as we learn from the Akbarnāma III. 252, were re-inaugurated about the beginning of October 1578. The building, however, had been constructed some three years before this-Akbarnāma III, 112.1 General Maclagan has touched, p. 53, upon the interesting question of Akbar's Christian wife. It is not certain if there was such a lady, but possibly she was some relation of Tavares. Colonel Kincaid in an article in the Asiatic Quarterly Review, Vol. III, p. 164, speaks of a Juliana who married John Philip Bourbon, and who was Akbar's sister-in-law, and the Catholic Bishop of Agra told Dr. Wolff that there was a Juliana who acted as a Doctor in Akbar's harem. Possibly, however, there has been a mistake of dates, and the lady Juliana meant is the lady who flourished in the time of Aurangzeb and Bahadur Shah2. General Maclagan has quoted a passage from Badayuni about a question put by Hāji Ibrāhīm regarding the derivation of the word Musa. A Qazi's son afterwards made a remark about this which was much 1 Abul Fazl puts the construction of the building into the 19th year of the reign, and Nizāmu-d-din puts it into the 20th year. It was begun in the month Zu-l-qa'da which, according to the Akbarnāma III. 334, is a month in which kindness should be shown to heretics. 2 Colonel Kincaid's article appeared in the Asiatic Quarterly Review for Janu ary 1887, p. 164. He describes John Philip Bourbon as having been born in 1535. applauded, but of which the point is invisible to us. The author of the Darbār-i-Akbari tells the story as a joke, p. 39, but fails to explain it. Possibly the point consisted in an allusion to the 'Isa who was a rebel in Bengal, or it may be that the point consisted in asking an ignorant man like Akbar the explanation of a grammatical nicety. A more interesting reference to Christianity is found at p. 256 of Vol. III of the Akbarnāma, where Akbar, in the course of speaking about the Hindu custom of Sati, observed to the Catholic priests that such sacrifice of life on the part of women would be more comprehensible in their country, as respect to women was part of their religion, and also as there a man was confined to one wife. At p. 42 General Maclagan quotes a passage from the Akbarnāma (Bib. Ind. ed. III. 577) about one Padre Farmaleūn. Formerly I suggested that this might be Fra Emmanuel Pinheiro, but General Maclagan has shown that this is untenable. I have now scarcely any doubt that the person meant is, as General Maclagan has suggested, the Greek Sub-deacon Leo, or Leon Grimon. Probably Abul Fazl rendered the initial G by a Q and wrote o and the copyist missed one dot, which is all the difference betwen fă and qムwhen the letters are joined. The dictionaries tell us that qāf is sometimes used for gaf, and indeed this must be the case in Arabic as that language has no G. An India Office MS. has Farbitun, and another has Farmilun. There is also the form Faribtūn. Apparently the surname has been placed before the Christian name and the name written as if it were Grimonleon. What helps us to identify Grimon the Greek with Farmaleon is that Abul Fazl tells us that Padre Farmaleon was employed in making translations of Greek books. It would seem that though Grimon or Farmaleūn came from Goa, he had not come from Europe. He had been returning to his own country when he touched at Goa, and presumably he was on his way home from China, for his companions brought China goods with them. That Grimon stayed on at Akbar's court for a considerable time we know from Du Jarric's account, who tells us that Grimon had a crown a day from Akbar, and that he relinquished this, and also left his wife behind him when he accompanied Benedict Goes to Yarkand.1 Abul Fazl's account enables us to know the date of Grimon's arrival at Lahore, for what he tells is, that he arrived on 26th Farwardin of the 35th year, that is, 5th or 6th April 1590. This makes it impossible that Farmileūn is a mistake for Edward Leioton, as the latter one did not arrive till 1591. Leioton, too, did not stay 1 Du Jarric says Yarkand, but apparently Sir Henry Yale says that Grimon turned back at Kabul. long at Court, and his mission was not at all a success. It is unlikely therefore that Abul Fazl would mention him. On the other hand, Grimon seems to have stayed many years at Court, for he came in 1590 and left with Goes on 15th February 1603. As he left his newly-married wife behind him, he probably returned to Agra from Kabul or Yarkand. At p. 56 General Maclagan gives a translation of Rodolfo Acquaviva's letter of 27th September 1582, which is in the Marsden M.S.B.M. Add. M.S.S. 9854. The translation, however, seems inferior to that given in Father Goldie's book (1897). Father Goldie also gives in an Appendix the original Portuguese. The words Dottor Imperbicado, or Impervicado, which were applied to Mubarak by Father Monserrat, present a difficulty, the word Imperbicado not being found in any dictionary. General Maclagan renders it "self-sufficient," but it seems to me from the context that the word was used as a compliment. I would suggest Imporfiado, which might mean Not-obstinate, i.e., liberal or open-minded, which, indeed, was Mubarāk's character. In a note to the translation by Mr. Phillips in Father Goldie's book, it is said that the phrase is obviously a nickname. General Maclagan's account of the 2nd and 3rd Missions is very interesting, but I have nothing to add to the information contained in it.1 1 There is an interesting passage about Akbar's religious discussions in the Zubdatu-t-Tawarikh of Nūr-al-haq.-See Elliot, VI. 182. 1 On 'Isa Khan, the ruler of Bhāti, in the time of Akbar.-By [Read December, 1903.] In 1874 Dr. Wise published in our Journal a valuable account of the Bāra Bhūyas of Eastern Bengal, and' he followed this up by a supplementary paper in 1875. J.A.S.B. XLIII, p. 197 and id. XLIV, 181. At p. 209 of his first paper there is the account of Isa Khān. Dr. Wise, in his modest way, expressed the hope that his notices might excite others to add further particulars, and to complete what is still wanting of the history of Bengal to the final conquest by the Muhammadans. The object of this present paper is to add some particulars about ‘Isā Khân from the third volume of the Akbarnāma, a source which has not been directly used by Dr. Wise. It is a curious circumstance that Abul Fazl in the Ain, Jarrett II, 117, calls 'Isa, 'Isa Afghan,1 for in the Akbarnāma III, 432, he says that his father was a Bais Rajput, that is, a Rajput belonging to Baiswāra in Oudh. (See Elliot's Supp. Glossary, ed. by Beames I, 13.) This seems to indicate that the Ain was written first, and before Abul Fazl had received correct information. The account in the Akbarnāma agrees with the family tradition mentioned by Dr. Wise that 'Isa's father was a Bais Rājpūt whose name was Kāli Dās Gajdānī, and that when he became a Muhammadan he received the title of Sulaimān Khan. Abul Fazl tells us, that the father settled in the fluviatile region of Bengal and became a rebel. In the reign of Salim Shah, the the son of Sher Shāh, Tāj Khan, the elder brother of Sulaimān Kararānī, and Darya Khan were sent against him. After severe fighting he gave in, and was pardoned. But soon afterwards he rebelled again and was, by stratagem, made a prisoner and put to death. His two sons, 'Isā and Ishmael were sold to merchants and carried off into Central Asia. When Salim Shah died (1554), Qutbu-d-din Khān, their father's brother, behaved well, and after much searching found his two 1 So in text, but the India Office MSS. Nos. 235 and 236 have a quite different name, viz., Mashhadi. J. 1. 8 |