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could have been tempted to court the Princess by the absence of her august father.

The Khan's temporary retirement from service and residence at Lahor away from the court (November, 1661-October, 1663) could not have been due to imperial displeasure as he was given a large pension all the time. But his long removal from the capital and Emperor's entourage for ten years (1669-1679) during the first seven of which he was denied any imperial bounty shows that he had for some reason, unknown to us, fallen under the Emperor's wrath.

Was it a punishment for making love to Zeb-un-nissa? A letter to her from her brother Prince Akbar, written in 1680, contains the statement, "As the Emperor has now ordered that no packet (nalwo) bearing the seal of Aqil should be admitted to the ladies' apartments of the palace, it is certain that papers will have to be now sent [by me?] after careful consideration."

Was this Aqil her alleged lover Aqil Khan Razi the poet? I think, not. There was at this time in Akbar's camp a Mulla named Muhammad Aqil, who afterwards signed a manifesto pronouncing canonical sentence of deposition on Aurangzib in favour of Akbar, for which the luckless theologian was imprisoned and severely bastinadoed when his patron's rebellion failed. Zeb being herself a Quranic scholar and a patron of new commentaries on the Muslim scripture, correspondence between her and a noted theologian like Mulla Muhammad Aqil would naturally pass unsuspected. The writer