Mas'úd raged at this like a fierce lion, and, compressing his lips, addressed the ambassador thus, “Well is it for thee that thou comest as an ambassador; had any one else addressed such an insolent speech to us, we would have had him torn in pieces. Go, tell thy princes their country belongs to the all-powerful God, who gives it to whom he wills. Think not that we are come only to take a journey. We intend to make our abode here, and, by the command of God, will uproot unbelief and unbelievers from the land.” * * *

So saying, he dismissed the ambassador, who went and told his master all that had passed, adding “This cub, in truth, fears no one. Do you use your best endeavours, for he cares nought for your 90,000 picked men.” The unbelievers were greatly alarmed. At length a barber, who was present, said, he would settle the business if authorized to do so. The Ráí ordered him to make the attempt [to poison Mas'úd, in which he succeeded, but the intended victim recovered.]

At that time Mas'úd was eighteen years of age. God had lavished upon him * * * every excellence of body and mind. * * * This slave once, in the beginning of life, looked upon the Sultán in a vision. From that hour his heart grew cold to the business of the world, and for three or four years he lost all thoughts of self in the pain of separation from him.

To continue our history. Mas'úd immediately ordered those about him to write letters to the governors of the provinces under his sway, informing them of the attempt of the unbelievers, and how God had turned it to good; for he feared lest short-sighted, ill-disposed persons should adopt a wrong idea; and thus, by their distortion of facts, evil might arise. He also sent a letter to his honoured father at Kábulíz. They soon wrote out all the dis­patches and brought them to him, and he signed them himself, and started them off by the hands of special messengers.

[Mas'úd's mother dies from grief, and Sálár Sáhú then proceeds to join his son.]

CHAPTER 4.

Sálár Sáhú arrives at Satrakh.—Mas'úd marches against Bahráích. —Death of Sálár Sáhú at Satrakh.—Mas'úd wages war with the unbelievers, and tastes the wine of martyrdom at Bahráích.

When Sálár Sáhú reached the neighbourhood of Satrakh, Mas'úd went out to meet him, and, conducting him home, held great rejoicings for three days and nights with social feasts. All men took fresh courage upon the arrival of the General of the army, while the unbelievers on every side were struck with dismay and apprehension.

A few days after, Malik Fíroz took three spies of the unbelievers at the passage of the river Saru (Sarjú), and sent them to Satrakh. The servants of Mas'úd recognized two of them as the Brahmans who had brought the saddle filled with sorceries and enchantments, as a present from the Ráís of Karra and Mánikpur to Mas'úd; and the third as the barber, who had presented the poisoned nail-cutter. Sálár Sáhú ordered them all to be put to death. But Mas'úd wished them to be released, saying, there was nothing to be gained by killing them. Sáhú consented, for his son's sake, to release the two Brahmans, but declared he would never let the barber go. So they immediately put him to death. They then found upon the Brahmans letters from the Ráís of Karra and Mánikpur to the Ráís of the neighbourhood of Bahráích, and read them. The contents were as follows:—“A foreign army is encamped between you and us. Do you draw out your army on your side, while we attack them on ours, and thus we shall destroy the Musulmáns.”

Sálár Sáhú was enraged, and instantly sent off two spies to gather intelligence of the Ráís of Karra and Mánikpur. They brought word that the unbelievers were amusing themselves with their sons and daughters in fancied security. The General im­mediately beat to arms, and started off, leaving Mas'úd in Satrakh. He proceeded that night to the head-quarters of the ill-fated un­believers, and, dividing his army into two bodies, sent one division against Karra, and the other against Mánikpur. The brave Musul-máns quickly surrounded each place, and the heathen came out to battle; but the forces of Islám prevailed, and, putting thousands of unbelievers to the sword, they took the two Ráís alive, and brought them before Sálár Sáhú, who put chains about their necks, and dispatched them to Satrakh, writing to Mas'úd that he had sent him some eaters of forbidden food, whom he was to keep with all care. Mas'úd sent them on to Sálár Saifu-d dín at Bahráích. Meanwhile, Sálár Sáhú reduced Karra and Mánikpur, and plunder and slaves to a great amount fell into the hands of the army. He then re­turned in triumph to Satrakh, leaving Malik 'Abdu-llah in the neighbourhood of Karra, and Mír Kutb Haidar at Mánikpur.

All the princes of Hindustan were alarmed at these doings; deeming it impossible to cope with the army of Islám, they began to retreat. Ere long, however, all united together, and prepared for war. Sálár Sáhú and Mas'úd one day went out hunting. [And Mas'úd despatched a tiger with his sword.]

A despatch reached Sálár Sáhú from Sálár Saifu-d dín, at Bah-ráích, praying for immediate assistance, as the unbelievers were assembling on all sides. Mas'úd begged to be allowed to go to Bahráích, and chastise their insolence; but Sáhú would not consent, saying, he could not bear to be separated from him, and entreat­ing him not to leave him alone in his old age. Mas'úd then asked permission to proceed to Bahráích for a few days to enjoy the hunt­ing, for which he said that place was famous. Sálár Sahú was obliged to yield; but he wept bitterly at the thought. Mas'úd, when he came to take leave, was himself melted into tears. He left in great sorrow, and turned his face towards Bahráích.

His mere coming was sufficient to quiet the unbelievers, whose dimness of perception alone had caused the rising. Mas'úd hunted through the country around Bahráích, and whenever he passed by the idol temple of Súraj-kund, he was wont to say that he wanted that piece of ground for a dwelling-place. This Súraj-kund was a sacred shrine of all the unbelievers of India. They had carved an image of the sun in stone on the banks of the tank there. This image they called Bálárukh, and through its fame Bahráích had attained its flourishing condition. When there was an eclipse of the sun, the unbelievers would come from east and west to worship it, and every Sunday the heathen of Bahráích and its environs, male and female, used to assemble in thousands to rub their heads under that stone, and do it reverence as an object of peculiar sanctity. Mas'úd was distressed at this idolatry, and often said that, with God's will and assistance, he would destroy that mine of unbelief, and set up a chamber for the worship of the Nourisher of the Universe in its place, rooting out unbelief from those parts. The Almighty was pleased to prosper the undertaking, and the light of the true faith there is now brighter than the sun, and clearer than the moon.

Mas'úd came to Bahráích from Satrakh on the 17th of the month of Sha'bán, in the year 423. In the second month a letter came from 'Abdu-l Malik Fíroz from Satrakh. * * * * * The contents were as follows: “On the 15th of the month of Shawwál, of the year 423, Sálár Sáhú was taken with a pain in the head. He said, ‘My time is come at last;’ and ordered us to bury him in Satrakh. And on the 25th of the same month he went his last journey, obeying the will of the Almighty.” Mas'úd wept bitterly at this heartrending intelligence. He was quite beside himself, and, uttering loud lamentations, covered his garments with earth. After a time, recovering some degree of composure, he called to mind Hasan Maimandí, accusing him as the cause of all his misfortunes. “My honoured mother,” said he, “died at Kábulíz, and my honoured father has met his death at Satrakh. Now I know what it is to be an orphan.” * * *