Baghrakhán came to Bukhárá and Fáík returned to meet him, and became enrolled in the number of his special officers, and showed himself active in increasing his troops and followers, and vied with him (in activity) and for several years there existed much assured friendship and sincerity between them. And when Bagrakhán became settled upon the throne Fáík requested permission to go to Balkh, in order that he might collect the taxes of those provinces and discover the means of supply for the Treasury, and that he might cause his* name to be inserted in the public prayers, and strike coin in his name, as a sign of his sovereignty over those provinces. And, with this excuse, he procured leave of absence, and came towards Balkh. And Núh, having ascertained his strength, came out, and, passing the Jihún, arrived at Amul-Shatt (i. e., the banks of the river). And many of the slaves and servants of the opposite party fell over to him there, and the others became confused and dispirited. And when they received intelligence of his arrival they became glad and joyful, and it seemed to them that fresh life and new happiness would result to them from his resi­dence, and, having separated themselves from the neighbourhood of the army, attached themselves to him, until (at length) the whole of the army concurred, and Núh conferred the office of Vizír upon Abú-Alí-Balami, and committed unto him the administration of his sovereignty in those pos­sessions. But he, in the regulation and the arrangement of this matter, displayed much confu­sion and want of sense, and was unequal to the task of guiding and ordering this business, at a time when the whole country was in the grasp of the enemy, and a great army had assembled, and he had not the means either of resisting them or coming to an agreement with them. Núh therefore summoned Abd-Allah-Ibn-Azíz from Khwarazm again, and placed him upon the chief seat of office in the kingdom, but, through the renewed rising of the constellations of contention and the commencement of the season of strife, Núh wrote letters to Abu-Ali-Simjúr, at Máwar­annahr, and entreated his assistance and the fulfil­ment of the duty of generosity, and implored his aid, in averting the peril of the jewel of the State. But he, in this matter, completely deceived Núh, by his lying words and his treacherous ways, and, under pretence of increasing the army and aug­menting his forces, he suffered the opportunity to pass away. Then he went from Nishapúr to Sarakhs, and from that place, after a long stay, he went to Merú, to await the arrival of Baghrakhan, and expecting the fulfilment of that stipulation which existed between them, with respect to the division of the kingdom of Núh. And all the officers of Abú-Alí employed their utmost exer­tions in settling this plan and in accomplishing this thought, and in arranging this proposal, and they appeared to incline to this opinion— that the royal house of Sámán had changed, and that the days of its prosperity and the period of its reign had passed away, and that the prevalence of its decline and the proofs of its weakness appeared at every glance of the eye, and that at every look new dissensions and fresh weaknesses appeared. And the wise have said, of old, “To abet the weak is to weaken yourself.”* Since the period of prosperity has passed away and the turn of adver­sity had arrived, to help and to associate with Núh would be the cause of humiliation and the fruitful origin of misfortune. And when Núh came to Amul Shatt he sent a person to Abú-Alí, and said, “Our expectation hath exceeded all bounds, and the matter hath reached its utmost point, the enemy hath become victorious, and the house hath passed away from our hands. It is time that thou shouldst display some zeal in the duty of preserv­ing it, and in fulfilling the obligations which you owe; and there are no means of preserving our empire, and maintaining the rights of our fore­fathers and predecessors, except by thy aid and assistance.” And out of all the letters which were upon this subject, from His Highness Núh to Abú-Alí, there is one passage which was composed by Abu-Ali-Damagháni, as follows: “Since the State hath great need of support, when it is evi­dent that some persons are designing to disturb the foundations of its buttresses, therefore the State hath recourse to thy power for help, in the name of Heaven.” But Abú-Alí, according to his usual vile habits and worthless disposition, persisted in his hardness of heart, and, throwing away all thought of future consequences, cast aside all self-respect and shame, and exhibited nothing but impudence and wickedness, and preferred requests most unusual, and claims most uncom­mendable, and requested that his titles, as men­tioned in the public prayers (Khutbah) should be higher than those of the predecessors of His Highness Núh, and requested that they should introduce the prayer at the beginning of his pecu­liar titles, between his name and his surname, and that they should describe him as deputy of the Commander of the Faithful, which title is the peculiar designation of the family of Sámán, and is one by which no other of the kings of the earth have been described. And the Prince Núh received all these pretensions with favourable replies, And one of the servants of Núh, a man an Aristotle in mind, had come to Abú-Alí, on a message. He heard this kind of demand, and saw his iniquity and obstinacy in these discussions, and he said, “This King, Núh, is at present so con­fused by distress, that if thou should’st demand of him that he should acknowledge thee as sovereign he would not care. However after to-day there is to-morrow, the affairs of fortune are ever changing. Do thou, therefore, so be and so speak that the people of the earth may be pleased with thee, and may speak well of thy name.” The eyes of those who were present at this interview were filled with tears, at the utterance of this speech and at the severe fortune of the Prince, and their hearts were roasted in the fire of this calamity. But Abú-Alí was still bent upon and carried away by that blindness and folly, and doubtless it was God alone who, without favour from man, satisfactorily settled the affairs of Prince Núh, and rendered his opponents hated and despised, and replaced him upon a settled throne, and in the royal dignity, and made the envy and malice of his enemies to be the cause of their own humiliation and disgrace. Thus, when anything is difficult, God knows how to set it right.