EXPEDITION OF SHÁHI BEG KHÁN INTO KHWÁRIZM. HIS CONQUEST OF THAT COUNTRY. HIS RETURN TO MÁVARÁ-UN-NAHR, AND HIS MARCH INTO KHORÁSÁN.
WHEN Sháhi Beg Khán had disposed of the Moghuls, Sultán Said Khán fled to Moghulistán, and my father to Khorásán. Some [of the Moghuls] were put to death and others imprisoned. Sháh Begum was sent into Khorásán, while the rest of the Moghuls, [Sháhi Beg] carried with him into Khwárizm. He besieged [Khwárizm] for eleven months. Chin Sufi was then acting as governor for Mirzá Sultán Husain. During all that time no one came in answer to his appeal for help; and he fought some marvellous battles, which even now are celebrated among the Uzbeg. At length, in consequence of the dearth of provisions, most of his men died of hunger, and resistance became no longer possible; then Sháhi Beg Khán took the citadel, put Chin Sufi to death, and returned to Samarkand.
As, before the conquest of Khwárizm, he had laid siege to Balkh for six months, and had left that enterprise only half completed (as has been related above), he now went and conquered Balkh, and then returned to Samarkand, where he passed the winter. In the spring he set out against Khorásán. Mirzá Sultán Husain had died the year before, and his sons, in their indolence and indifference, could not come to any mutual agreement. When the news arrived of Sháhi Beg Khán's approach, everything was thrown into dire confusion and disorder. Every one had some suggestion to offer, but no conclusion could be arrived at, [and while they were still engaged in these arguments] news came that Sháhi Beg Khán had reached Herat. Mirzá Zunnun led out an army [to oppose him], but [saw] that it was too late to dam the torrent with earth, or to smother the blazing fire with dust, and he was himself slain at the first onset of the Uzbeg, who forthwith entered and plundered Herat. The Mirzás all fled in different directions, and the greater part of the army did not even know how Herat had been taken. Thus easily fell that important city with its vast population.
Mir Muhammad Sálih, one of the Amirs of Sultán Abu Said,
whose name is to be found in the “Lives of the Poets” [tazkira]
discovered the date of this event, namely, 912, in the words Fath-