for the ease of his
address and his intelligence. One of his many aphorisms has descended
to posterity. It runs as follows: 'A man should marry four wives--a
Persian woman to have somebody to talk to; a Khorasani woman for his
housework; a Hindu woman, for nursing his children; and a woman from
Marawannahr (Turkistan), to have some one to whip as a warning to the
other three.'

One of the ablest warriors and most generous of men in the service of
Akbar was Mirza Abdurrahim, {168} son of his old Atalik or preceptor,
Bairam Khan. For many years he exercised the office of Khan Khanan,
literally 'lord of lords,' tantamount to commander-in-chief. But he
was as learned as he was able in the field. He translated the memoirs
of Babar, well described by Abulfazl as 'a code of practical wisdom,'
written in Turkish, into the Persian language then prevalent at the
court of Akbar, to whom he presented the copy. Amongst other writers,
the historians, Nizam-u-din Ahmad, author of the Tabakat-i-Akbari, or
records of the reign of Akbar; the authors of the Tarikhi-i-Alfi, or
the history of Muhammadanism for a thousand years; and, above all,
the orthodox historian, Abul Kadir Badauni, author of the
Tarikh-i-Badauni, or Annals of Badauni, and editor and reviser of a
history of Kashmir, stand conspicuous.

Badauni was a very remarkable man. Two years older than Akbar, he had
studied from his early youth various sciences under the most renowned
and pious men of his age, and had come to excel in music, history,
and astronomy. His sweet voice procured for him the appointment of
Court Iman for Fridays. For forty years Badauni lived at court in
company with Shaikh Mubarik and his sons Faizi and Abulfazl, but
there was no real friendship between them, as Badauni, an orthodox
Musalman, always regarded them as heretics. Under instructions from
Akbar he translated the Ramayana from its original Sanscrit into
Persian, as well as part of the _Mahabharata_. His {169} historical
work above referred to as the Tarikh-i-Badauni, and which is perhaps
better known under its alternative title _Muntakhabat-ul-Tawarikh_,
or _Selections from the Annals_, is especially valuable for the views
it gives of the religious opinions of Akbar, and its sketches of the
famous men of his reign.

Badauni died about eleven years before the Emperor, and his great
work, the existence of which he had carefully concealed, did not
appear until some time during the reign of Jah