to India; for, leaving out of view for the present the high positions afterward attained by the father and his sons, that babe of the desert became, a few years subsequently, Empress of India, and bore the famous title of “Noor Jehan”—the Light of the World—while her brother, Asuf Jan, became the father of the equally celebrated Moomtaj-i-Mahal—to whose memory her husband, Shah Jehan, built the matchless Taj Mahal—the noblest monument ever erected to woman.
Asuf Khan, a distant relative of Khwaja Accas, held a high place at Court, and was much in the confidence of the Emperor. He made his kinsman his private secretary. Pleased with his ability and diligence, Asuf soon brought his merits to the special notice of Akbar, who raised him to the command of a thousand horse, and soon after appointed him Master of the Imperial Household. From this he was subsequently promoted to that of Etmad-od-Doulah, or High Treasurer of the Empire, and first minister. His legislative ability soon produced beneficial results in public affairs, while his modest yet manly bearing conciliated the nobility, who learned to appreciate the value of the control which he exercised over the ill-regulated mind of the Emperor.
His daughter, born in the desert, developed into one of the most lovely women of the East, as celebrated for her accomplishments as she was for her beauty, and ultimately she became the wife of the Prince Selim, known afterward by his title of Jehangeer, by whom she was raised to the throne, and had lavished upon her honors and power never before enjoyed by the consort of an Oriental potentate, even to the conjunction of her name with that of Jehangeer on the coins of the realm.
On the death of her venerable and honored father she erected this tomb over his remains. The building, rising from a broad platform, is of white marble, of quadrangular shape, flanked by octagonal towers, which are surmounted by cupolas on a series of open columns. From the center of the roof of the main building springs a small tomb-like structure, elaborately carved and decorated, the corners terminating in golden spires. Immediately
