ON the death of Sultán Ahmad Khán, Sultán Mahmud Khán resigned to his brother's children all the country and people that had belonged to their father, from the frontier of Khitái to the confines of Káshghar, viz.: Turfán, Chálish, Kucháh [Kuchar], Aksu and Uch [Ush-Turfán], while he himself withdrew, with those few of his own people who yet remained, to the deserts of Moghulistán. There he spent five years, during which time nothing of importance happened to him. At length those same base men who had caused the night shadows of ruin to overcloud the dawn of the Khán's reign, filled his mind with evil suggestions, saying: “Sháhi Beg Khán will treat you kindly, but even if he does not, he will at least allow us to return to this corner of corners.” My uncle used to relate that one day after the death of Álácha Khán, he was at the court of Sultán Mahmud Khán in Aksu, where the Khán, being friendly and talkative, asked him: “Is the position of scullion* in Táshkand better than that of king in Aksu?” My uncle replied: “Verily it is, if the scullion is allowed to perform his office.” At these words the Khán was very wroth.

In short, these base men succeeded in bringing the Khán to Farghána. When news of this reached Sháhi Beg Khán, he was in Uláng-zádagán. He at once despatched a party of men to find him. These men were coming in exactly the opposite direction to the Khán, whom they met and slew, together with his five young sons, at Khojand. To commemorate the date of their martyrdom the chronogram “Lab-i-daryá-i-Khojand”=914, was devised. (This matter I will also speak of elsewhere.)

Sultán Mahmud Khán had six sons, five of whom suffered death with their father. His eldest son was Sultán Muhammad Sultán. When the Khán was setting out from Moghulistán, in the hope of being well treated by Sháhi Beg Khán, Sultán Muhammad Sultán had done his utmost to dissuade his father from going, but his words being of no avail, he separated from his father and stayed behind in Moghulistán. From circumstances which, God willing, will be related in the First Part [Tárikh-i-Asl], he was not able to remain in Moghulistán, but went in dire distress to Baranduk Khán and Kásim Khán* in the Dasht-i-Kipchák. His followers, hoping that Sháhi Beg Khán had received Sultán Mahmud Khán well, led him by a wrong road and brought him to Táshkand, where the Uzbeg sent him to join his father. He left one son, whose name was Sháh Muhammad Sultán. His history will be given in my notice of the Khán.