favour and protection of the Asylum of the World, the English were not
only permitted to build factories in various parts of the country, but
were exempted from the duties formerly laid on their goods. Charnock
returned to Bengal with the emperor's firman; and the nawab, seeing
how matters stood, withdrew his opposition to the erection of the
factory at Hoogly. The English, however, preferred another situation,
and chose Calcutta, where a building was soon erected, the same which
is now called the old fort." This account, which is in fact more
favourable to the English than that given by their own writers, is the
only notice of these transactions we have ever found from a Mahommedan
author; for so small was the importance attached by the Moguls to
these obscure squabbles with a few Frank merchants, that even the
historian Khafi-Khan, who acted as the emperor's representative for
settling the differences which broke out about the same time in
Bombay, makes no allusion to the simultaneous rupture in Bengal.
[10] "So called from _Kali_, the Hindu goddess, and
_kata_, laughter; because human victims were formerly
here sacrificed to her."
[11] From the sanctity attached by Oriental ideas to the
privacy of the harem, it is a high crime and
misdemeanour, punishable by law in all Moslem countries,
to erect buildings overlooking the residence of a
neighbour. At Constantinople, there is an officer called
the Minar Aga, or superintendent of edifices, whose
especial duty it is to prevent this.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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