THE winter was passed in the festivities and enjoyments, above described …* The Khán's mind had always been occupied with plans for making a holy war [ghazát], and after much thought he finally decided [whom he should attack]. Between Khotan and Khitái there was a race of infidels called Sárigh Uighur, and upon these people he proceeded to make a holy war. It is a twelve days' journey from Yárkand to Khotan, and most of the stages are without cultivation or inhabitants. When the Khán reached Khotan, a change in his health became evident. The holy war is one of the supports of Islám and a plenary duty. The Khán desired to discharge this obligation towards the faith; but now that his health failed him, he was obliged to appoint certain Amirs to perform the duty for him, and having thus relieved himself of this necessity, he returned [to Yárkand]. On the homeward journey, cups of wine were brought every morning, and drinking went on all through the day, so that [the Khán and his companions] were generally unable to distinguish the light from the darkness. At the end of a few days they reached Yárkand. In the autumn of that year, the expedition against the Kirghiz took place.

Those Amirs who had been sent against the Sárigh Uighur, after spending two months in the plains between Khotan and Khitái, returned in safety, laden with plunder, but without having seen or heard anything of the infidels.*