National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

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T.R. closed against him, he consented to retire on the surrender of the family   Saniz,

whose widow, Jamak Agha, he forthwith married, and whose sons, Ababakar and 'Umar, and a daughter, Khan Sultan Khanim, he sent off to Aksû ; whilst he himself turned off to plunder Kashghar during the temporary absence of Hydar atYangi Hissar.

Dost Muhammad was seventeen years old when he succeeded his father at Aksû, and was supposed to be mad from his eccentricities, the most noted of which was his assumption of the character of a darvesh with the name Shams Abdul. He added the title Abdal to the names of all his courtiers and public officers, and insisted on their being so addressed in all official correspondence or business.

His treacherous conduct now at Kashghar estranged Hydar from his interests, and sent him over to the side of Yûnus ; whilst Ababakar, to whom he had given his sister, Husn Nigar Khanim, in marriage, terrified by his violent bursts of temper, fled to his uncle at Kashghar; and Dost, to be rid of him entirely, sent his bride after him. Following this the mad youth insisted on marrying one of his late father's widows. His desire was, prohibited by the clergy as unlawful, but he executed seven of them in turn, and then an eighth was found willing to perform the ceremony on the grounds that such a connexion was lawful only to such an infidel. Dost Muhammad was seized with a violent colic on the nuptial night with his step-mother, and died six days later, aged twenty-four years, in 873 H. =1468 A. D., having reigned seven years. The date of his death is told in the chronogram ao khûk murd=

that pig died."

In the disorder following, his son, Kabak Sultan Oghlan, fled to Jalish and

Turfan ; and Yinus, waiting his opportunity on the frontier, came down and seized Aksû. But his nomads again deserted him to join Kabak, and he was forced to

.return to Mogholistan. Here, on the Ayla river, he was attacked by Ama Sanji

Tayshi, the Kalmak Chief, and, being defeated with great slaughter of his Moghol, was compelled to retreat to Karatoci on the River Syhon. His camp here, whilst Yûnus had crossed the frozen river on a hunting excursion, was surprised by Birûj Oghlan, son of Jani Beg, son of Abilkhyr, who with his marauding Uzbak took shelter from the inclemency of the weather in the Ikargah tents with the Moghol women and old men. Yûnus on receiving intelligence of this hurried back, and, surrounding the enemy, attacked and slew most of them with their leader, only a few escaping back to the steppe.

Shortly after this, in the spring, Yûnus moved to Tashkand, where Shekh Jamul Khar was Governor on the part of Samarcand, which, with Hissar, Kundiz and Badakhshan, on the death of Abi Said in Irac, had fallen to his son, Sultan Ahmad ; whilst Hari and Khurasan had passed to Husen Mirza ; and Farghana with Andijan to 'Umar Shekh, the son of Abd. Said ; to each of whom Yûnus subsequently allied himself by giving a daughter in marriage.

On his arrival now at Tashkand, in 875 H. =1470 A.D., Shekh Jamal seized Yûnus, and, imprisoning him, gave his wife to Khoja Kalan ; but she and her maids set upon and killed him with bodkins and needles the first time he presumed to enter her chamber. A year later Abdul Cudis, the nephew of Karim Birdi, Doghlat, killed Shekh Jamul, liberated Yûnus, and presented him with his persecutor's head. His Moghols now gathered round their King, and excused their perfidy in delivering him up to Jamal as the result of his bringing them to city life, which to them was worse than prison. Ydnus admitted his error, and returned with them to Mogholistin, where he ruled many years in peace ; Hydar at Kâshghar being his tributary. On his return this time to Mogholistan, Kabak was killed at Turfan by his nobles, and his head brought to Yûnus as a token of friendship ; but he punished the bearers, and reproved the nobles for slaying their Prince, even though a rebel. After he had killed Bûrtij Oghlan at Karatoci, Yûnus sent his eldest daughter, Mihr Nigar Khanim, as wife to Sultan Ahmad, the son of Abû Said, to cement the friendship and maintain the alliance his father had initiated between the long estranged Moghol and Chaghtay. And now on his establishment in the government of Mogholistan,

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