This same year Khosrou Shah, accompanied by Baiesanghar Mirza, marched with an army to Cheghāniān, and, with the most deceitful and treacherous intentions, sent an embassy to Sultan Masaūd Mirza, inviting him to join them in their enterprise against Samarkand; proposing that, if they conquered it, the one Mirza should fix the seat of his government in Samarkand, and the other in Hissār. At this time very general discontents prevailed among the Begs, courtiers, cavaliers, and soldiers of Sultan Masaūd. The reason of their dissatisfaction was, that Sheikh Abdallah Birlās, who had left Sultan Baiesanghar Mirza to join Sultan Masaūd Mirza, and who was the Mirza’s father-in-law, had obtained great rank and confidence; and, though Hissār is but a narrow and confined country, Sultan Masaūd Mirza had given him an allowance of a thousand tumāns* in money, besides the whole country of Khutlān. Khutlān was the jagīr* of the Begs and officers about Sultan Masaūd Mirza’s person. Sheikh Abdallah Birlās, however, got possession of the whole, and he and his sons gained a complete ascendancy and unlimited direction of affairs at the court. Such as were dissatisfied fled and joined Baiesanghar Mirza. Khosrou Shah and Baiesanghar Mirza having lulled Sultan Masaūd Mirza into a careless security by their deceitful professions, after a sudden march from Cheghāniān, appeared before Hissār about the beat of the morning drum, invested and took it.
Sultan Ma-At this time Sultan Masaūd Mirza was not within the fortress, but at a palace in the vicinity,* which had been built by his father, called the Doulet Serāi. Finding it impossible to throw himself into the fort, he fled towards Khutlān, accompanied by Sheikh Abdallah Birlās; but having separated from him on the road, he proceeded by the Pass of Ubāj* and took refuge with Sultan Hussain Mirza.
KhosrouAs soon as Khosrou Shah had taken Hissār, he placed Baiesanghar Mirza in it, and gave Khutlān to his younger brother Wali. A few days after he set out against Balkh. Having dispatched before him one of his principal retainers, named Nazar Bahāder, with four thousand men, to occupy the environs of that place, he himself followed soon afterwards, accompanied by Baiesanghar Mirza, and commenced the siege. Ibrahīm Hussain Mirza commanded in Balkh, and had with him a considerable number of Sultan Hussain Mirza’s Begs.
Wali sentKhosrou Shah at the same time sent his younger brother Wali with a large detachment to lay siege to Shaberghān,* and to ravage and destroy the country around. Wali was not able to approach Shaberghān, but sent out his troops to plunder the Īls and Ulūs (the wandering tribes and hordes) that occupied the desert of Zardek, which they accordingly did, carrying off above one hundred thousand sheep, and nearly three thousand camels. Proceeding thence, he pillaged the district of Sancherik,* and having taken prisoners and carried off a number of the inhabitants who had fled for refuge to the hills and there fortified themselves, he returned to Balkh and rejoined his elder brother.
While Khosrou Shah lay before Balkh, he one day sent
Nazar Bahāder, who has been mentioned, to destroy the
water-courses and spoil the waters in the environs of Balkh.
Tengri Berdi Samānchi, an officer who had been brought
forward by*
Sultan Hussain Mirza, issued from the fort with
seventy or eighty men, and having fallen in with Nazar
Bahāder’s party, met him face to face, beat him down from
Nazar Ba-
hāder slain.
his horse, cut off his head, and returned back with it to the
fort, having displayed singular bravery in the whole course
of the affair.
This same year Sultan Hussain Mirza levied an army and
advanced to the fort of Bost*
for the purpose of reducing to
order Zulnūn Arghūn and Shah Shujaa his son; who,
having joined Badīa-ez-zemān Mirza, and given him a
daughter of Zulnūn’s in marriage, were now in a state of
rebellion and revolt. On that occasion, when the Sultan
could not procure supplies of grain for the army from any
quarter, and was on the point of being compelled to raise
the siege, and of being reduced to the last extremity from
Takes
Bost.
famine, the governor surrendered the fort, and the stores
found in the granaries enabled the army to return to
Khorasān.
When a king like Sultan Hussain Mirza, who was attended
with such royal equipage, and displayed so much pomp and
state, had led his army on several different occasions
against Kunduz, Hissār, and Kandahār, and had in every
instance returned unsuccessful, his sons and Begs were
spirited up to venture on seditions and rebellion. Sultan
Hussain Mirza had dispatched Muhammed Wali Beg, with
a number of Begs and the bulk of his army,*
for the purpose
of chastising his son Muhammed Hussain Mirza, who was in
revolt, and gaining ground at Asterābād,*
with instructions
to advance upon him by rapid marches. He himself, meanwhile,
remained encamped in the auleng (or meadow) of
Nīshīn;*
when Badīa-ez-zemān Mirza, and Shah Beg the
son of Zulnūn, having collected a body of troops, came on
him by surprise. By a most fortunate accident, Sultan
Masaūd Mirza, who had just lost Hissār, came that very
day to join Sultan Hussain Mirza; and, in the course of
the same day, the army that had been detached against
Asterābād, having returned back, also joined him. When
the two armies therefore came to face each other, the enemy
found themselves too weak to venture on a battle, and
Badīa-ez-zemān Mirza and Shah Beg took to flight. Sultan
Hussain Mirza received Sultan Masaūd Mirza in the most
gracious manner, gave him one of his daughters in marriage,
and distinguished him by every mark of attention and
kindness. Seduced, however, by the instigations of Bāki
Cheghāniāni, the younger brother of Khosrou Shah, who
some time before had entered into the service of Sultan
Sultan Ma-
saūd Mirza
leaves his
court.
Hussain Mirza, he did not continue in Khorasān, but went
off, under some false pretext, without even taking leave of
Sultan Hussain Mirza, and joined Khosrou Shah.
Khosrou Shah now sent for Baiesanghar Mirza from
Hissār. At this time Mirān Shah Mirza, the son of Ulugh
Beg Mirza,*
who had rebelled against his father and taken
shelter among the Hazāras, having done something which
gave them offence, was obliged to leave them also, and now
came to Khosrou Shah. Some evil-minded counsellors
advised Khosrou Shah to put all the three princes to death,
and to cause the khutbeh*
to be read in his own name. He
did not fall into this plan, but yet, for the sake of this
fleeting and faithless world, which never was, and never will
be, true to any one, this thankless and ungrateful man seized
Sultan Masaūd Mirza, a prince whom he himself had reared
from infancy to manhood, and whose governor he had been,
His eyes
put out by
Khosrou
Shah.
and blinded him by lancing his eyes. Some of the foster-brothers,
clansmen, and playmates*
of Masaūd Mirza
carried him off, with the intention of conducting him to
Sultan Ali Mirza in Samarkand, and brought him to Kesh.*
Here, discovering a plan that had been formed for attacking
them, they fled, crossed the river Amu by the passage
of Chār-jūi, and took refuge with Sultan Hussain Mirza.
Every day until the day of judgement, may a hundred
thousand curses light on the head of that man who is guilty
of such black treachery, and on his who plans it: let every
man who hears of this action of Khosrou Shah, pour out
imprecations on him; for he who hears of such a deed and
does not curse him, is himself worthy to be accursed.
After this abominable transaction, having declared Baiesanghar Mirza King, he sent him off to Hissār; and, at the same time, sent Mirān Shah Mirza towards Bāmiān, accompanied by Syed Kāmil, who was to lend him his assistance.