AMIR TIMUR ordered Amir Musa, Amir Muvayid Arlát and Uchkará Bahádur, with a force of 500 picked men, to wait for the enemy near the Stone Bridge, while he himself, with 1500 men, swam the river at midnight and took up his position on the mountains. On the following day, the sentinels of the enemy saw, by their footprints, that they had crossed the river during the night; and they were very much perturbed in consequence. When night set in, Amir Timur commanded his soldiers to light a great number of fires on the summits of the highest of the mountains; and at the sight of these fires the enemy were seized with fear and terror, so that they lost heart and fled. Thus did God, without the trouble of a battle, scatter this numerous army, which was in the proportion of ten warriors to one of their opponents. “Verily God giveth the victory to whomsoever He will.”
The enemy being thrown into flight and confusion, Amir Timur rushed down the mountain with his army, like a raging lion or a mighty boiling torrent, and pursued them as far as Gujarát* —falling upon them with his life-taking sword and his soul-biting lance, till the road was covered with the heaps of their slain. In this place he halted, victorious and happy, while Amir Husain with the rest of the army continued the pursuit. This victory helped to spread the fame of Amir Timur and much encouraged his troops. Feeling the reality and importance of the advantages he had just secured, Amir Timur again set out with two thousand men; and when he arrived at Kuhlagha,* the people of Kesh and the districts round about, fleeing from the army of Jatah, kept coming to him in detachments, with offers to serve him if he would protect them. Out of the two thousand men Amir Timur had brought with him, he selected three hundred as his own special bodyguard. With these he advanced, commanding the rest to stay behind. He then sent on two hundred of these men, under the Amirs Sulaimán Barlás, Chakui Barlás, Bahrám Jaláir, Jaláluddin Barlás, Saifuddin and Yultimur, to Kesh, telling them to divide into four squadrons, and ordering every man to suspend from either side of his horse, a large leafy branch, in order that much dust might be raised and so cause the governor of Kesh, if he saw them, to beat a retreat.* They carried out his orders exactly, so that when they entered the plains of Kesh, the governor, frightened at the sight of so much dust, took to flight, and they entered the town, where they occupied themselves with the appointment of officers and the like.
Thus the boundless favour of God descended in such a manner upon this king, that by means of sparks of fire he was able to put an army to flight, and with dust to conquer a town.
| [Verse]: | The evil eye was distant from him, for greater successes than these it is impossible to conceive. |
At that time Ilyás Khwája Khán was encamped at Tásh Arighi, which is four farasangs distant from Kesh; he had round him his nobles and princes and an innumerable army. About this time Tughluk Timur Khán died. Ulugh Timur and Amir Hamid came to announce the news to Ilyás Khwája Khán and to bring him back to his tribe, that he might rule in his father's stead.
Mean while, Amir Timur, with one hundred chosen men, having marched all the night, came to Khuzár, and when day broke, the people of that town learnt the arrival of that royal prince and hastened out to kiss the ground in obeisance to him. He then combined the troops of Khuzár and Kesh, and put Khwája Sálibari in command of the rearguard. With this mighty army he set out for Chekadálik, and on arrival there, pitched his camp. At that place too, he was joined by Muhammad, son of Salduz, with seven regiments, and he remained there seven days. In the meanwhile, Amir Husain arrived with his own forces, and with those that Amir Timur had left behind at Kuhlagha. Shir Bahrám also, who had separated from them in the desert [or plain] of Gulak, in order to visit his own people, now rejoined them, after an absence of forty-three days. They then all set forth together, under the command of Amir Timur and Amir Husain, in the direction of Khuzár, and on their arrival there, visited the tomb of Khwája Resmes,* in the name of whose blessed spirit they made a solemn alliance and swore eternal friendship.