Page:History of India Vol 5.djvu/403

 FINAL ILLNESS OF AUKANGZIB 345 secretly composed the annals of the emperor's reign, despite the well-known prohibition. The picture of the last period of Aurangzib's life, broken by warfare, old age, and sorrow, has been given in the preceding volume of this series. The final scene of the melancholy drama, depicting practically the end of Moghul power in Au- rangzib's decease, is thus portrayed by Musta'idd. ' After the conclusion of the holy wars which rescued the countries of the Deccan from the dominion of the pagans, the army encamped at Ahmadnagar on the six- teenth of Shawwal in the fiftieth year of the reign of Aurangzib (1117 A. H.; 1706 A. D.). A year after this, at the end of Shawwal in the fifty-first year of his reign, the king fell ill and consternation spread among people of all ranks; but by the blessing of Providence his Majesty recovered his health in a short time and resumed once more the administration of affairs. About this time, the noble Shah Alam was appointed governor of the province of Malwa and Prince Kam Bakhsh was made ruler of Bijapur. Only four or five days had elapsed after the departure of their royal highnesses, when the king was seized with a burning fever which continued unabated for three days. Never- theless, his Majesty did not relax his devotions and every ordinance of religion was strictly kept. On the evening of Thursday, his Majesty perused a petition from Hamid-ad-din Khan, who stated that he had de- voted the sum of four thousand rupees, the price of an elephant, as a propitiatory sacrifice and begged to be permitted to make over this amount to the Kazi Mulla