Account of the Capture of Kasdár.

When the Sultán’s mind was at rest from the quarter of the Turks, and had chaunted respecting their condition the verse “ Their power is great between them, if it is united, but their hearts are di­vided,” (Kurán), and had testified, in those events, the veracity of the fortunate miracle of the verse, “We have sent between them enmity and hatred for ever;” so that the trace of the (external) enmity of the two brothers was plucked up by his firm bravery; he determined to march towards Kasdár, in order that the vain pride of the Prince of that country, which he had long endured with self-restraint, might be stripped off from his intel­lect by the (sharp) snuff (or sneezing powder) of the sword, and that the demon of darkness, who had displayed masterful and rebellious (inclina­tions) by intercepting money, might be confined in the bottle* of victory, by the tingling of Indian scimitars; and that his fine cliffs and commanding mountains, which were the motives of his rage, and the cause of his ambition, might be marked like a withered branch by his sweetly-sounding drum­stick, and might be given, as stirred-up dust, to the wind. He commanded the army to move from Ghúzna, by way of Bost, so that a report was spread that his intention was to attack Herát; but a turning took him to the territory of Kasdár. And the Prince of that country was disturbed from the couch of sleep before the shining of the eastern flames of the sun, by the heavy forces of the Sultán around his castle, and was conscious of death be­fore him, and ran out to seek his patronage, and threw himself at the hoofs of the Sultán’s horse, and took upon himself five hundred packets of a thousand dirams which were due. Part he paid in ready money, but the Sultán demanded the re­mainder with reproaches, and seized fifteen yoke of elephants, which he had stored up for times and seasons of war, and compelled him to pay dutiful submission and obedience, and to engage that he would facilitate the collection of the revenue, and settle the payment of the imposts. And thus he gave the signal to display his banners anew, and with the fulfilment of his wishes, and completion of his happiness, set forward to Gházna.