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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

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T.B.K. Yusuf Kadir, and nephew, Ali Arslân, issued from the city with an army of forty thousand men, and took the field against them.

Bocta Rashid, the champion of the infidel army, came forward for combat,

and Ali Arslân, on the side of the Faithful, advanced to meet him. Each was attended by his supporters, and as they closed in combat, the two armies joined in battle. A hard fight ensued till nightfall, when the Musalmâns were forced to retire within the city, though they sent five hundred idolators to hell, in return for a few Musalmâns of note, who left the scene of their earthly troubles for the joys and delights of Paradise.

The battle was resumed next day, under the lead of Yusuf Kadir, and with

a more decided success, for he routed the enemy with the loss of seven hundred killed and the whole of their camp, which was plundered by the victorious Musalmâns. Following up this advantage, Hasan appointed Husyûn Fyzulla, with a garrison of fifteen thousand men, to the charge of the city, and nominating Syad Jalaluddin as his minister, himself with fifty thousand men took the field in pursuit of the enemy, who had rallied and taken up a position on the Tâzghtin river. A desultory and indecisive skirmish at nightfall left the hostile armies camped opposite to each other.

Next morning, Hasan, having assembled the army, performed the prayers with

great ceremony and all solemnity, and then appointing Yilsuf Kadir to the charge of his camp went out to the battle. His heralds preceding blew their horns, and announced his royal titles and high lineage, and as he entered the field called for a champion from the other side worthy to meet the King. Jagâhi Khalkhâlû of

Machin answered the challenge, and came out against him. Both armies en smite clashed in conflict, and after a hard struggle, with success changing from side to side, the Khutan army was finally routed with great loss, and driven to retreat at Yangi Hissar. Hasan now returned triumphant to Kâshghar, and celebrated his victory by public rejoicings, feastings, and largesses to the poor. But finding the infidels were still in force at Yângi Hissâr, he raised an army of ninety thousand men and sent it, under the command of Ali Arslân, to drive the enemy out of the country.

Ali Arslan and his host found the Khutan and Machin troops, thirty thousand men, strongly posted amongst the gravelly ridges of Bocsha-socsha, and Ortang Kara in the vicinity of Yangi Hissaar. Several indecisive engagements followed with more or less encouraging success to the Musalmnn arms, and the Kashghar troops pressed closer around their enemy with each successive skirmish. Finally Jagâlû Khalkhahi, finding he could make no head against the superior numbers of his opponent, offered a rich reward in gold to any one who should devise a means of defeating and destroying Ali Arslan, whose noted bravery and impetuosity in fight had inflicted considerable loss and dispirited his men.

A poor and aged Jcrtlic = Christian priest—at this period the Nestorian church was numerously represented all over the Kashghar territory, and for two centuries later the Christians held their own, and flourished side by side with their brethren of the rival, and subsequently dominant, faith, till their persecution and suppression by the Muhammadan rulers about the middle of the fourteenth century—who was in the habit of passing from one camp to the other came forward as a candidate for the offered reward. The Machin leader took the Jalic, from his mean and poverty stricken appearance, to be a hungry vagrant merely attracted by the value of the offered prize, and was inclined to dismiss him summarily, but the man's speech impressed him in his favour, and he gave him a hearing. The Jcitlie now disclosed his scheme to attack the enemy at daybreak, when they were less on the alert and more sleepy than at any other time, and assured Jagalû Khalkhalû of success, provided he fell upon the Musalmâns at the moment they were engaged in the performance of their prayers, for they then laid aside their arms.

Accordingly, on the 10th Moharram 489 H. =1096 A.D., at dawn of day, when the army of Islam was engaged in prayer, the Machin Commander fell upon the

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