Madam, to obey your commands, and to show you by what strange accident I became blind of the right eye, I must give you the account of my life. I was yet a youth, when the sultan, my father, perceived that I was endowed with good natural ability, and spared nothing proper for improving it. No sooner was I able to read and write, but I learned the Koran from beginning to end by heart, all the traditions collected from the mouth of our prophet, and the works of poets. I applied myself to geography, chronology, and to speak the Arabian language in its purity; not forgetting in the mean time all such exercises as were proper for a prince to understand. But the thing which I was most fond of, and best succeeded in, was penmanship: wherein I surpassed all the celebrated scribes of our kingdom.
The fame of my learning reached the Emperor of Hindustan, who sent an embassy with rich presents to my father and invited me to his court. I departed with the ambassador.
We had been about a month on our journey, when we saw in the distance an immense cloud of dust, and soon after we
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