116 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. VI. aspa.)* In November of the same year the province of Tatta or Sindh was added to his viceroyalty, and the districts of Bhakkar and Siwistan granted to him as his fiefs.† The Adab-i Alamgiri : its contents and historic value. On the public side of the Prince's career from 1650 a new and copious source of information is opened to the historian by the Adab-i-Alamgiri. Aurangzib took into his service an elegant and facile secretary, Shaikh Abul Fath, afterwards raised to the title of Qabil Khan and the high post of Munshi-ul-mamalik ("Secretary of the Empire") when his master won the throne of Delhi. The scribe served the Prince for 26 years and retired only when failing eye-sight made him unfit for his task. He kept copies of all the letters he wrote in the name of Aurangzib to the Emperor, the princes, ministers, and generals, and of certain other epistles written to them on his own behalf. These number more than six hundred and fill 427 pages of a foolscap folio manuscript, with 23 lines to the page. They cover the entire period from 1650 to the dethronement and captivity of Shah Jahan. From
- Waris, 24a, 39b, 48a, 49a, 59a. Adab-i-Alamgiri, 3a,
4b, 9a & b. † Waris, 396. Adab-i-Alamgiri, 1b, 209b. Digitized by Microsoft Ⓡ
