ety. The elder
son, {150} Shaikh Faizi, was born near Agra to the vicinity of which
the father had migrated in 1547. He was thus five years younger than
Akbar. Shortly after that prince had reconquered the North-western
Provinces, Shaikh Faizi, then about twenty, began his quiet,
unostentatious life of literature and medicine. He soon made a name
as a poet. His native generosity, backed by the earnings of his
profession as physician, prompted him to many acts of charity, and it
became a practice with him to treat the poor for nothing.

In religious matters he, following his father's example, displayed a
tendency towards the unfashionable doctrines of the Shiahs. It is
related that, on one occasion, when he applied to the Kadr[1] for the
grant of a small tract of land, that officer, who was a Sunni, not
only refused him but, solely because he was a Shiah, drove him from
the hall with contumely and insult. Meanwhile, moved by the report of
his great ability, Akbar had summoned Faizi to his camp before
Chitor, which place he was besieging. Faizi's enemies, and he had
many, especially among the orthodox or Sunni Muhammadans, interpreted
this order as a summons to be judged, and they warned the Governor of
Agra to see that Faizi did not escape. But Faizi had no thought of
escape. He was nevertheless taken to the camp of Akbar as a prisoner.
The great prince received him with courtesy, and entranced by his
varied talent, {151} shortly afterwards attached him to his court, as
teacher in the higher branches of knowledge to the princes, his sons.
He was occasionally also employed as ambassador.

[Footnote 1: Kadr: an officer appointed to examine petitions, and
selected on account of his presumed impartiality. Vide Blochmann's
_Ain-i-Akbari_, p. 268.]

His abundant leisure Faizi devoted to poetry. In his thirty-third
year he was nominated to an office equivalent to that of Poet
Laureate. Seven years later he died, never having lost the favour of
Akbar, who delighted in his society and revelled in his conversation.
It is said that he composed a hundred and one books. His fine
library, consisting of four thousand three hundred choice
manuscripts, was embodied in the imperial library.

But if Shaikh Faizi stood high in the favour of Akbar, his brother,
Shaikh Abulfazl, the author of the Ain-i-Akbari, stood still higher.
Abulfazl was born near Agra the 14th January, 1551. He too, equally
with his brother, profited from the broad