And Muntasir after this defeat betook himself to the Gozz-Turks. These people greatly boasted of their fidelity to the family of Sámán, and had been forward in favour and support unto them. They vied with each other in affording him a kind reception, and entered into his design with the ut­most anxiety and respect, and girded up their loins to assist and defend him, and encouraged each other in a ready and zealous recognition of the glory of his ancient house and renowned grandeur. They accordingly proceeded in the service of his standard to the country of Ilek-Khán. And Ilek-Khán, when he received intelligence of the approach of Muntasir arose to resist him, and assembled a con­siderable body of troops out of the Turkish tribes, and came to the frontiers of Samarkand. The army of the Gozz-Turks thought upon the matter, and the result of their arrangements and resolution was this, that they chaunted the following (Verse)

And they made a night attack upon Ilek-Khán, and when the ship of the morning arrived from the whirlpool of darkness at the shore of the horizon, they fell upon his soldiers, and they made prisoners of all his officers, and put all the other men to the sword, and plundered and seized their furniture and tent baggage, and collecting together all their spoil, and the wealth and property which they had obtained they returned, and they delivered up the prisoners which they had taken into the hand of Muntasir. Then a report arose that they wished to be reconciled (with the enemy), and Muntasir was alarmed and uneasy at the thought, and in the night-time he selected seven hundred of the most excellent and trusty of his cavalry, and departed from amongst the Ghozzes. And when they came to the banks of the river Jihún it was entirely frozen over, therefore he ordered that they should strew straw over the surface— thus they passed. And when the army of the Ghozzes arrived it was daylight, and the sun had risen and entirely scorched (and melted away) the marks of their passage, and destroyed them. Thus Muntasir arrived at Amil-Shatt, and sent a letter to the Sultán, in which he reminded him of the rights of his ancestors, and of the Sultán’s feudal relation to them, and expressed many complaints of the heavy floods of sorrow and the large measures of extreme distress which had been his portion, and took refuge under the canopy of his kindness and humanity, and under the shadow of his compassion and favour, and gave the reins of obedience and guidance into the hand of his will and pleasure, and said (Verse)

“If by means of the law of thy clemency and the volume of thy generosity I should become partaker of the water of life, I will wear the ring of slavery in my ear, and I shall gird up the waistband of obedience around my loins, and if thou wouldest retain the darkness of my misfortunes under the shadow of the State, then shall I stand unmoved, like the sun, in thy light-streaming Court.” In this manner did he paint the pages of this volume, and thus did he decorate the construction of the volume of this letter with royal pearls taken from the treasury of the imagination. But,* from the alarm which arose at the dread of the violence of the Ghozz Turks, he removed, and went to Merú, and sent a person to Abu-Jaafar, son of Khahar, seeking assistance in restoring his affairs and relieving his necessity, requesting him to supply him with the gift of arms and necessaries. But he was one of that crowd of base and vile per­sons who had arrived at power in the days of the government of the family of Sámán, and had ob­tained worldly wealth and prosperity. His ignoble disposition, mean notions, and low-born baseness, restrained him from performing the good action of shewing pity unto, and zealously bestirring him­self in the service of, so royal a Prince; therefore he drew the hand of rejection over the face of his request; nor was he satisfied until he had departed, and he came out and displayed opposi­tion to him. And the guards of Muntasir in a furious and tempestuous onset broke him up, and dissevered his troops like the letters of words separated from one another. Muntasir therefore betook himself unto the direction of Abiward, and arrived alone at Abiward, in the year 394. And the Sultán displayed the most striking proofs of compassion, and the splendour of a most generous disposition, and exhibited the most glorious purity and sincerity in receiving his message, and treating his messenger with honour, and allowing him the recognition which he had hoped for. He sent to him the number of troops that were required, and gave a commission to the son of Kháhir-Zadah to perform all that was necessary for his service. And by dint of necessity, and at the end of his teeth, girded up his loins to assist Muntasir. He there­fore attained his wish, without paying and without praising; but the spot of disgrace thus became apparent upon the face of his fortune, so that the consequences of his error and fault lasted many years. And Abú-Nasr, one of the lord chamber­lains of the Sultán was posted at that place;* and when Muntasir arrived at those borders he rose up to support his pretensions, and displayed the utmost zeal in the service of his standard. But the mind of the people of Nissa* was averse to this end; they suspected that this movement of Abú-Nasr would not give content, and they wished to beware of the imputation of participating in his offence. They therefore sent a letter to the King of Khwarízm, and requested assistance. He accord­ingly sent Abú-Fazl, a chamberlain, who was one of the most distinguished men of his Court, in order that he might effect a repulse of the danger, and act as an expedient rectifier of the injury of that army. Upon this Abú-Nasr removed the veil from his head, and openly appearing in the service of the flag of Muntasir, they proceeded together side by side against the enemy. And in the middle of a gloomy night, when a cold and strong wind discharged the eyesight from the office of discerning individuals and distinguishing bodies (forms), and when the darkness blocked up the pupil of the eye, a battle took place between them and the army of Khwarízm under Abú-Fazl. And until the falcon of the morning opened his wings from the nest of the horizon they continued to cast at each other swords, and arrows, and spears. And when the bride of day washed off the black dye of the dark­ness, Abú-Nasr, the chamberlain, and the son of Hisám-Addoulat Tásh, with a considerable body of the allies of Muntasir, lay slain upon the field of battle, and the remainder were dispersed. And Muntasir went to Isfarayin, the inhabitants of which place, dreading the trouble into which they would be exposed by aiding him, rose up against him. Muntasir therefore quitted that city, and with a body of men who adhered as closely to him as a mill-working bullock to his mill, went on, and by the most direct roads proceeded on his return, until he arrived at the confines of Sarkas. Here they halted for a day, until the soldiers who had been separated from him came up to him, when he passed over the Jihún, and arrived at the shore of the Kayta. And the General commanding the cavalry at Bukhárá went out to meet him and oppose him, and he not possessing any means of escape halted to engage him. A severe battle ensued, and Muntasir himself by great exertion narrowly escaped with his life. And the General of that place (Bukhárá?)* . . . . and took with him the army stationed there, and therewith again expelled Muntasir from the city of Darband­púr. And the thread that united his troops in a body was broken, and they were all dispersed. But the son of Ibn-Dar, who was Military Governor of Samarkand, arose to support Muntasir, and joined him with three thousand men. And the principal citizens of Samarkand sent unto him three hundred chosen Turkish soldiers, with a large sum of money, for the purpose of effecting a junction with him; and a body of the Ghozz tribe also joined him. And thus by their aid he again became strong, and the flame of his affairs again mounted high. And when Ilek-Khán received information of the recovery of his power, and of the consequent shaking of his own authority, he applied himself to repulse him. The armies engaged at the village Burband, on the border of the territory of Samarkand, when the Khán was put to flight, and the army of the Ghozzes collected abundant booty and treasure beyond computation. This event occurred in the month of Shaaban, in the year 394. The Khán retreated to his own terri­tory, where he reassembled his army, and again proceeded to attack Muntasir. (But by this time the tribes of the Ghozzes had separated from him, and taken the road unto their own homes and resi­dences, and were occupied in the division of the spoil.) The troops engaged in a plain which is between Darak and Javas. And just as the two armies engaged, and the two bodies of troops met, Abul-Hasan-Ták, with five thousand men of his army, treacherously betrayed Muntasir, and de­serted to the party of the Khán, and Muntasir deprived of all hope was routed, yet he continued to resist the Khán and his army, for the purpose of vengeance. And from the clouds of (striking) swords the hills and the plains became full of tor­rents of blood, and from that body of men a perfect satiety of gluttony and a rich banquet resulted for the lions and the vultures. And Muntasir came to the bank of the Jihún, and finding no boat, he joined some trees together, and thus escaped from the army of the Khán, and passed over the water. And he seized all that he found in those coasts and cultivated lands, and shared it with his army. And he himself went by the way of the wilderness to the bridge of Zaghul. They informed the Sultán* of his arrival, who commanded that they should speedily resist him, before he could arrange affairs, or draw the matter to a head. He there­fore came to Balkh. And he sent Farighún-’bn-Muhammad, with forty standards of select officers, to banish his band, and cut down his iniquity. And Muntasir retreated from them, and went in the direction of Kohistan. But in all the world he found no place of refuge and no prospect towards which he could direct himself, for wherever he turned his face he found the dragon of misfortune opening his mouth against him, and on all sides to which he could hasten the lion of misery extended his claws against him. Thus he ran round in a circle, and when he arrived at Kohistan, the General of the troops, Nasr, and Arslan-Jazib, Prince of Tús, and Toghanjak, Prince of Sarkhas, hurried after him. For fear of them he directed his course to Jumand, and from that place came to Borstam. And Shams-Almuáli-Kabits sent two thousand men of the royal body-guards to repulse him, in order that they might hurry him away from those countries. He accordingly retreated to Bibar, and from thence came to Nisa; but the son of Sarkhak-Samáni wrote a letter to him, and deceived him with lying promises, and treacherous words, and promised him the assistance and support and friendship of Ilek-Khán. He, beguiled with the hope which these blandishments afforded, marched into the province of Bukhárá, and when he arrived at Chah-Hamad his army became wearied with their lengthened marches, and with the constant opposition of unlucky fortune, and becoming dispirited with the long continuance of war and battles they deserted him, and went to Sulaiman and Safi, who were chamberlains of Ilek-Khán, and informed him of the weak state of his horses, and the low ebb of his supplies, and scanty means of resistance, and of the stopping up of all sources of succour. And when Muntasir heard of this, and when many of the soldiers came around his tent, he for a short time remained as if intend­ing to await them and resist them; but he after­wards betook himself to flight. And they took his brothers and his chief friends and officers prisoners and carried them to Urkand. And Muntasir re­treated to the encampment of Ibn-Bahaj-Arabi. Here one named Máh-Rói had been placed over them, on behalf of the Sultán. This man incited (the tribe) to pursue him. And when night arrived the vile Arabs of this Arab made a sudden attack upon him, and gave his precious life to the wind, and spilt his noble blood upon the ground. His fate is described in the following verses of Abu-Tamám (Verse)

And they buried his remains in the marshy ground in the irrigated country of Mardam. This event happened on the first day of the month Rabiah, in the year 395.

And when the news of this occurrence reached the Sultán, he seized the perpetrator and put him to a cruel death, and plundered the encampment of Ibn-Bahaj. Thus at one blow the lofty flame of the house of the Sámánides sunk down, and the star of their empire fell. But God directs all things according to his fore-knowledge.*