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0189 Report of a Mission to Yarkund in 1873 : vol.1
Report of a Mission to Yarkund in 1873 : vol.1 / Page 189 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000196
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( 125 )

T.B.K. his hands to Heaven and prayed " Oh God ! Of thy excellence and mercy vouchsafe victory to the Faithful, and grant that a deep sleep oppress the infidel." His prayer was answered, and a profound slumber overpowered the idolators. The Musalmâns entered the palace, took from the King's stables four hundred horses, equipped themselves with armour of his troops, slew some of them as they slept at their posts, and, collecting a store of provisions, issued from the city, and marched off to Dava Tâgh=Camel Hill, where they took up a position for war. The date of Hârûn's death is 380 H.=991 A.D.

In the morning Hârûn, enraged at the violation of his palace, moved out with an army of forty thousand men to attack the revolutionists. The fight lasted from the forenoon till sunset, and infidel blood flowed in rivers. Five thousand idolators were sent to hell, and two Musalmâns were wounded. Next day six thousand men joined the army of Islam, and, taken two by two, and three by three, were made Musalmâns. The fight was resumed next morning, and continued for seven days and nights, with a terrible loss to the infidels, whose blood flowed in torrents. The victorious army of Islam grew daily by fresh accessions, and now numbered twelve thousand men.

After some days, provisions ran short, the horses were worn out, and the men reduced to straits. The soldiers now grew discontented, and, complaining, demanded of AM Nasr how long their hardships were to endure. " That is best known to yourselves" he replied; and added—" You will see what comes from God. All will be well." That same night he took a force of ten thousand men, all Musalmâns, and set out to surprise Hârûn. As before, on arrival at the city he prayed to God for victory to the Faithful, and confusion to the idolator.

The infidels were sunk in so deep a sleep, that they knew not their hands and feet. Satuk made his way into the palace, and found Haydn sound asleep, with a lamp burning at his side, and a slave reclining thereby. He drew his sword to take his uncle's head, but was restrained by the consideration that it was unmanly to slay him in his sleep, and by the remembrance of " the claims of his salt," for, though an infidel, he had been his protector and guardian for several years. He consequently roused him by a prod on the foot with the point of his sword, and offered to spare his life on his accepting Islam.

The haughty Hârûn, in wrath at his nephew's insolence, peremptorily refused, and began to upbraid his treachery and ingratitude ; but Sâtuk cut short his reproof and his life by a single stroke of his sword, and, casting the severed head out of the window on to a dung heap, came out of the palace, and, taking possession of the city, at once proclaimed the establishment of himself as King, and of Islam as the religion of Kâshghar. On this day, it is said, by the grace of God and the blessing of his Prophet, twenty thousand converts were added to the fold of the Faithful.

Satuk warred against the infidels during the whole of his long reign, and acquired the honorable title of Gkazi=" Crescentader." His miraculous acts were many, but the two most notable were these : First, his sword, in its sheath, was like those used by other men, but when he drew it against the infidels, it lengthened to forty yards, and mowed down whole fields of them. Second, on ordinary occasions Satuk was like other men, but when he warred against infidels, and charged their ranks, long flames of fire issued from his mouth and consumed crowds of them. Other infidels, on 'seeing this terrible power, became terrified and flocked to him to be made Musalmâns.

Satuk was twelve and a half year's old when he first entered on war against the infidels. He used to fight them every summer, and spend the winter in the worship of God. By the time he was ninety-six years old he had subdued and converted to Islam all the country from the Anal Darya=Oxus, beyond Balkh and Cish or Kark, to Karakoram in the north, and everywhere established the religion of Muhammad according to his Skariat=Law.

P.   The above statement, I may here note, would seem to identify Satuk with Iylik
Khan or Iylik Mâzi, as he is usually styled, the son of the Bughra Khan who has