The Emperor Shams-ud-din Iltutmish is said to have designed this
great Muhammadan church at the suggestion of Khwaja Kutb-ud-din, a
Muhammadan saint from Ush in Persia, who was his religious guide and
apostle, and died some sixteen years before him.[29] His tomb is
among the ruins of this old city. Pilgrims visit it from all parts of
India, and go away persuaded that they shall have all they have
asked, provided they have given or promised liberally in a pure
spirit of faith in his influence with the Deity. The tomb of the
saint is covered with gold brocade, and protected by an awning--those
of the Emperors around it he naked and exposed. Emperors and princes
lie all around him; and their tombs are entirely disregarded by the
hundreds that daily prostrate themselves before his, and have been
doing so for the last six hundred years.[30] Among the rest I saw
here the tomb of Mu'azzam, alias Bahadur Shah, the son and successor
of Aurangzeb, and that of the blind old Emperor Shah Alam, from whom
the Honourable Company got their Diwani grant.[31] The grass grows
upon the slab that covers the remains of Mu'azzam, the most learned,
most pious, and most amiable, l believe, of the crowned descendants
of the great Akbar.
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