AMIR TIMUR having left Atákum, crossed the Sihun and arrived at his capital, Samarkand, where he found
| [Verses]: | The people wearing clothes of black and grey |
| And tears of sorrow streaming from their eyes. | |
| And all had sprinkled dust upon their heads | |
| And as a sign of mourning beat their breasts. | |
| They came in haste to greet their lord the king, | |
| Their heads they bared, and on their necks they hung | |
| Black felt and sackcloth, thus they left the town | |
| Filling the air with moans and lamentations. | |
| “What pity that Jahángir, just and good, | |
| Should thus be carried off in early youth, | |
| As is a flower by the cruel wind.” |
When Amir Timur heard these wailings he could no longer doubt but that his forebodings had been correct. The death of his son, which he now learned, caused the whole world for him to become black; his cheeks were continually wet with tears, and life became almost unbearable to him. The kingdom, which should have been overjoyed at the return of its mighty monarch, was become, instead, a place of desolation and mourning. The whole army, clothed in black and grey, sat down in mourning. The generals put dust upon their heads, and their eyes were filled with the blood of their hearts.
Though the Emperor was greatly overcome by grief at the loss of his son, his noble intelligence fully realised that this world is but transitory, and that every being must inevitably perish at some time—that we must “Verily all return unto God.” These considerations brought healing to the wounds of his sorrow. He, moreover, instituted many pious works, and ordered alms to be distributed in the form of food to the poor and indigent. His son's body was carried to Kesh, where it was buried, and over the grave a beautiful building was raised.* The prince was twenty years of age when he died. He left behind him two sons, one called Mirza Muhammad Sultán, by his wife Khánzádah, and the other, Mirza Pir Muhammad, by his wife Bakhtimulk Aghá, daughter of Ilyás Yasuri. This second son was born forty days after his father's death, which happened in the year 777 of the Hajra [A.D. 1375-6], the year of the Crocodile (Lui) of the Tartar cycle.
When Prince Saifuddin* heard of this sad event, he became weary of life, and begged Amir Timur to allow him to retire to the Hijáz.