Deprived of his office and influence Bairam Chan hastened to the
Punjab and took arms against his Imperial Master. Akbar led his troops
in person against the rebel and overcame him. When barefooted, his
turban thrown around his neck, Bairam Chan appeared before Akbar and
prostrated himself before the throne, Akbar did not do the thing which
was customary under such circumstances in the Orient in all ages. The
magnanimous youth did not sentence the humiliated rebel to a painful
death but bade him arise in memory of the great services which Bairam
Chan had rendered to his father and later to himself, and again assume
his old place of honor at the right of the throne. Before the
assembled nobility he gave him the choice whether he would take the
governorship of a province, or would enjoy the favor of his master at
court as a benefactor of the imperial family, or whether, accompanied
by an escort befitting his rank, he would prefer to undertake a
pilgrimage to Mecca.[5] Bairam Chan was wise enough to choose the
last, but on the way to Mecca he was killed by an Afghan and the news
caused Akbar sincere grief and led him to take the four year old son
of Bairam Chan under his special protection.
[Footnote 5: Noer, I, 131.
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