Ma'asir al-umara

Ma'asir al-Umara, written by Samsam ud Daula Shah Nawaz Khan and his son Abdul Hai Khan, at Aurangabad, is a Persian-language biography of notables in the Mughal Empire during the time period approximately 1556–1780. Variants of the title include Ma'athir al-Umara, Maasir al-Umara, and Maathir ul-Umara. Shah Nawaz Khan relies upon a variety of Persian histories for his information, which he lists in his introduction.

Quotes

• For instance, we read how a local faujdar named Murshid Quli Khan Turkman (who died in 1638) took advantage of his campaigns against refractory tenants to gratify his lust. When the villagers were defeated he seized all their most beautiful women and placed them in his harem. Another practice of this licentious officer is thus described in the Masir- ul-umara (iii. 422): ‘On the birthday of Krishna, a vast gathering of Hindu men and women takes place at Govardhan on the Jamuna opposite Mathura. The Khan, paint- ing his forehead and wearing a dhoti like a Hindu, used to walk up and down in the crowd. Whenever he saw a woman whose beauty filled even the Moon with envy, he snatched her away like a wolf pouncing upon a flock, and placing her in the boat which his men had kept ready on the bank, he sped to Agra. The Hindu [for shame] never divulged what had happened to his daughter.”’
  • Masir- ul-umara (iii. 422), quoted in Jadunath Sarkar, History of Aurangzib Vol III