A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Candahari
Appears by the account of the penetrating statesman, Vizir Nezam, to have been the chief, though secret spring of every ministerial movement. She was handsome, and endowed with uncommon parts; a steady friend, and a determined, but not a cruel enemy. She protected her favourites in the most dangerous situations; and hurled with a sure and inevitable arm, disappointment and disgrace on the heads of those that wished to rise upon their ruin.
Altun Tash was the first omra of the divan; when the government of Kharezme being vacant, he solicited the appointment. As he was esteemed the chief pillar of the throne, the court was surprised that he should have accepted it: and a friend begging to know what could induce him to resign the power he had over so vast an empire, to take the charge of a court? he replied, "By the God who created heaven and earth, the secret which I shall now disclose to you I have not revealed to any living soul. It was the enmity of Jemila Kandahari,and that only, which made me give up the power I had over this great empire. For many years have the affairs thereof been under my management; and in that time, whatever I tied she unloosed, and whatever I unloosed she tied. Whatever she resolved upon I was incapable of opposing; and whatever she opposed, it was in vain for me to attempt. Vexed with being continually foiled, and unable to apply a remedy, the world appeared dark in my eyes, and I voluntarily threw myself into this retirement."
We must not suppose that this influence was thus powerful in the court of a weak or a dissipated prince: Mahmoud was one of the greatest monarchs who ever reigned; almost the whole of his large empire he had conquered himself; and it was governed entirely under his own inspection. The resentment Jemila Khandahari, or, literally, the beauty of Khandahar, bore to Altun Tash, was occasioned by his opposition to the Vizir Ahmed Hassen, whom she patronised. Gallantry, at the same time, does not appear to have had any concern in her operations; for Nezam observes, that though her favourite Ahmed corresponded with her often, they did not see one another perhaps once in twelve months.