AFTER the affair of Sháh Muhammad Sultán, misunderstandings arose among my relations. In the winter of the same year, the Khán commanded Rashid Sultán and myself to make a holy war on Balur. Though we had been at variance with our relations, we made it up, and set out in all haste for Balur.
Balur is an infidel country [Káfiristán], and most of its inhabitants are mountaineers. Not one of them has a religion or a creed. Nor is there anything which they [consider it right to] abstain from or to avoid [as impure]; but they do whatever they list, and follow their desires without check or compunction. Baluristán is bounded on the east by the provinces of Káshghar and Yárkand; on the north by Badakhshán; on the west by Kábul and Lumghán; and on the south by the dependencies of Káshmir.* It is four months' journey in circumference. Its whole extent consists of mountains, valleys, and defiles, insomuch that one might almost say that in the whole of Baluristán, not one farsákh of level ground is to be met with. The population is numerous. No village is at peace with another, but there is constant hostility, and fights are continually occurring among them.
Most of their battles are conducted in the following manner. Their women are employed in the management of the house and the labour of the fields; the men in war. While their wives are in their houses preparing the food [the men will be engaged in fighting]. Then the wives will come out to them and make them desist, saying it is time for a meal, and they must leave off fighting. So they separate and go back to their homes to eat their food, after which they return to the fight until afternoon prayer-time, when the women will again come on the scene and make peace, which endures till sunrise, every one having returned to his own house. Sometimes it happens that no pacification is brought about, in which case they fortify and watch their houses all through the night with the utmost vigilance. In this way do they spend the whole of their lives.
As plains and pasture grounds are scarce, the people can keep but few cattle. They own a small number of sheep and goats from whose wool they make clothes, and cows which furnish them with milk and butter; beyond these they have nothing [in the way of flocks]. The tribe of each separate valley speaks a different language [to that of its neighbours], and no one tribe knows the language of another. On account of being continually at war, few of them have seen any other village than their own. In Balur there are beautiful gardens and an abundance of fruits, especially of pomegranates, which are excellent and most plentiful. There is one kind of pomegranate which is peculiar to Baluristán. Its seeds are white and very transparent; it is also sweet, pure, and full-flavoured. Honey is also abundant.
To resume: we passed that winter in Baluristán and fought many bloody [sab] battles, in which victory was on our side. In the spring we returned in safety, laden with spoil, and came to Sárigh Chupán, where a fifth of the booty was set apart; and a fifth amounted to more than a thousand [loads].
In the early part of the spring of 934 we rejoined the Khán. In the summer following, Sultán Nigár Khánim, whom I have had occasion to mention so frequently in this book, died of a hæmorrhage. I discovered the date in [the word] “khuldash.”