CHAPTER XLVIII.
THE CONQUEST OF KÁSHGHAR.

HAVING taken the citadel of Yangi-Hisár, in the manner above described, the Khán turned his attention to [the reduction of] Káshghar. On the third day he learnt that the garrison of Kásh-ghar had abandoned their citadel and, taking their horses, had fled to whatever place each thought safest for himself. The Khán's noble mind being thus, in the most satisfactory manner, set at rest with regard to Káshghar, he placed the foot of success in the stirrup of victory, and drew his reins towards Yárkand, confident of success and triumph. He sent Khwája Ali Bahádur in advance [Verses] … The first stage from Yángi-Hisár is Sátlik, and here the Khán pitched his camp. [On the same day] news came that Mirzá Abá Bakr, having given over Yárkand to the charge of his son Jahángir Mirzá, had retired to Khotan. [On hearing this news] the Khán hastened still more, and on reaching Kizil heard that Jahángir Mirzá also had fled, and that Khwája Ali Bahádur had entered Yárkand. At the end of Rajab of the year 920, the Khán made his triumphant entry into the town of Yárkand, and with the splendour of his glittering sword, he allayed the dust of tyranny and enmity [etc.] …

Before [his army] entered the town, he sent on Amir Dáim Ali and Beg Muhammad to occupy Khotan; he also despatched in pursuit of Mirzá Abá Bakr, seven brave generals—namely, Kará Kulák Mirzá, Háji Mirzá, Sultán Ali Mirzá, Nazar Mirzá, Mir Kambar, Mirzá Ali Taghái and Beg Kuli Makrit. These seven generals started in pursuit with the greatest eagerness. This affair having been attended to, the Khán issued a general order that every one might go and plunder wherever he liked. And every man in the army who cared for pillage and booty, immedi­ately hastened out [to take advantage of the permission]. Only a few of the Amirs, who held plundering to be derogatory, remained in attendance on the Khán. Having settled this matter also, the victorious Khán mounted the throne of the town. He then went up to the citadel [ark], within which were many lofty buildings, containing, each of them, rooms and upper-apartments and battle­ments, so numerous as to astound the beholder. And these build­ings were filled with cloths, chintzes, carpets, porcelain, cuirasses, horse-trappings, saddles, bows and other things useful to man. All these things had been seized by Mirzá Abá Bakr, or procured by whatever means he chose to employ, and had been hidden away by him, so that no one might know of their existence. Of such as remained over, Mirzá Jahángir had destroyed and wasted as much as he was able; and on his departure had sanctioned a general pillage, which, until the arrival of Khwája Ali Bahádur, was carried on by the whole population—each taking what he could. When Khwája Ali Bahádur entered the town, he, likewise, devoted himself to pillage. Seven days later the Khán arrived, and he too gave his men permission to plunder right and left. Everything in the way of money, as well as the valuable cloths and stuffs, had been carried off, but the houses were still full [of other things]. Two months after the flight of Mirzá Abá Bakr, there were still great quantities of cuirasses and the like, lying about the houses and passages, that no one had cared to carry away. [Five couplets]…

Thus, all that Mirzá Abá Bakr had, in the course of forty-eight years, amassed with infinite toil, and guarded with savage miser­liness, he was finally obliged, with a thousand heart-rendings, to abandon; while the Khán, with one stroke of his pen, gave it all over to a general sack, and during two months the dust thereof rose to the sky. [Verses]…

At the end of two months, every man returned safely—laden with plunder from different directions—and presented the Khán with tribute [pishkash], according to the quantity of booty he had taken. But the Khán, in order to win the hearts of his people, divided the property up into shares [suyurghal] in accordance with the old Moghul custom, and distributed it among his soldiers. I remember distinctly that some of the Amirs who had come from Karánghutágh, presented, besides arms [álát] and vases, and Andiján man of gold-dust. Now an Andiján man is sixty-four chárik and a chárik is 400 mithkál.* From this the extent of the rest of the booty may be conceived.