* IT has been already explained to how great an extent the Khán was addicted to wine-drinking. If, for example, he dreamt of sobriety, he interpreted it to mean that he ought to get drunk; this is [the system of] interpretation by contraries. [Turki couplet]…

No one would ever have imagined that the Khán could give up this habit, but by the intervention of Providence he repented him of his intemperance …*

In short, at the end of the winter following that spring which saw Rashid Sultán set out for Moghulistán, the Khán happened to be in Yángi-Hisár. My uncle was in attendance on him, while I was in Yárkand. I have frequently heard the Khán relate that, one night when a drinking bout was coming to an end, the following verse came into his head: “‘At night he is drunk, at dawn he is drunk, and all day he is crop-sick; see how he passes his noble life! It is time that thou should'st return to thy God [and abandon these unseemly practices].’ When this purpose had become fixed in my heart, I again became irresolute [and said to myself]: ‘these ideas are merely the outcome of excessive inebriety. For otherwise, who could endure life without this form of enjoy­ment?’ Thinking thus I fell asleep; when I awoke I writhed like a snake with crop-sickness, and to dispel this I called for a draught. When it was brought, the intentions of the night before again took possession of my brain, and I sent for Sayyid Muhammad Mirzá, and said to him: ‘I am tired of this wine-drinking, and wish to reform.’” Now my uncle had for a long while been a disciple of the order of Yasavvi Shaikhs,* and practised austerity and abstinence; thus he had been greatly distressed at the Khán's shortcomings; but when the Khán now announced to him his desire to mend his ways, my uncle burst into tears and urged him strongly to carry out his intention. Having repented, the Khán went into the assembly; [verses] … the wine-bibbers and profligates were dejected and distressed, but all the pious and the learned rejoiced, while the zealots and devotees began to thank God, and the townsfolk and peasantry stretched their hands in praise to heaven. Thus the Khán repented of his past deeds, and night and day begged the forgiveness of God for his offences…*