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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

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T.B.K.   He, consequently, sent Yûsuf Kadir back as envoy to the Imam Nasiruddin at

Madayn for assistance in a Ghazât = crescentade," and meanwhile with his army of sixty thousand men, amongst whom were many Arab adventurers and Persian mercenaries, laid siege to the city. After five months of skirmishing and blockade the garrison, pressed for food, came out with all their force to drive off the enemy and raise the siege. They were cut off from the city, defeated with great loss, and pursued across the Kosan river, whilst Hasan, taking possession of Kashghar, received the submission of the people, and made them anew publicly profess Islam.

Hasan now re-established the Shariat in all its severity, prohibited the use of wine,

and flesh of dog, ass, and swine as unlawful ; levied a ruinous contribution for his army, and, after a complete plunder of the city, mounted the throne as King. Il aving thus settled and secured the city, he assembled his army and marched against the infidels who had taken post at Yangi Hissar up to which point they held the country. After some severe engagements, he drove them out of the town on to the Cayrghaghitagh or Cayraghitagh, a ridge of sand hills close to the south. In a subsequent engagement with Jagald Khalkhalii beyond this ridge, Hasan Bughra Khan and three hundred of his warriors were cut off from their supports, and slain to a man. As most of them were men of rank and note from Tabriz, the village in the vicinity was called, in commemoration of the slaughter, Tabrizi, or as

it is locally pronunced Tawiz. This disaster is dated Wednesday, 414 Muharram, H.

Bibi Chah Miryam Khanim, who accompanied the King on this campaign, now entered the field to avenge her husband's death. But she was quickly put to flight and pursued into the sandy desert, where she was overtaken and killed four days

P. later. Her grave is marked by a lonely unpretending shrine, in connection with which is a poor monastery and alms-house, far away from habitation, on the borders of the sandy desert, thirty-six miles to the south-east of Yangi Hissar, and sixteen miles south of Ordam Padshah. Half a mile to the south of the shrine, which is called Mazar Hazrat Begum, are the indistinctly traceable ruins of a town, said to have been the city of Nucta Rashid. It presents nothing to view but the outlines of the foundations of rampart walls, and bastions, now mostly buried by the drifting sands. Here and there, where the sands have been swept away by the winds, the surface is strewed with fragments of pottery and glass, and occasionally coins are found amongst the débrie.

   T.B.K.   Husen Bughra Khan, the brother of Hasan, now made a desperate effort to
retrieve the day. But Nucta Rashid, elated by his successes, fought with an equal fury, and Husen was killed not far from the spot where his brother fell. His army was routed with terrible slaughter, and pursued to Kashghar, which again fell into the hands of the Khutan Chiefs.

The two brothers, Hasan and Husen, were buried in one grave on the field of their martyrdom, and the spot is marked by the shrines and attached monastery of Chûcham or Khojam Padshah three miles west by south of Yangi Hissar, amidst the ruins of a vast cemetery.

Shortly after this, Yûsuf Kadir, who had been sent to Madayn for aid, returned with an army of twenty-four thousand men, and accompanied by Syad Alauddin. As he crossed the Andijan Pass, or Tirik Dawan, the infidels, abandoning the city, retired to Chin Shahr—called also Ilchi and Khutan—and Yûsuf Kadir, taking possession of Kashghar, mounted the throne as King. He added to his Arab force by the levy of a fresh army at the capital, and set out to conquer Khutan. His campaign proved successful, and Islam was now for the first time established in this flourishing seat of Budhism. Jagalû Khalkhalti was killed in the course of the campaign near Cûmab or Gûma, and his country subdued and annexed to Kashghar, after a war, from first to last, of twenty-four years.

   P.   Such is a brief sketch of the history of the Bughra Khan family in the Kash-
ghar territory, and whilst it gives an insight into their own ambitious designs under the tutelage of their Muhammadan preceptors, it, at the same time, conveys n