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0236 Report of a Mission to Yarkund in 1873 : vol.1
Report of a Mission to Yarkund in 1873 : vol.1 / Page 236 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000196
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880 H. =1475 A.D., he gave his youngest daughter, Cutlûgh Nigâr Khânim, in T.R. marriage to Umar Shekh (another son of Abii Said), his friend and ally, the Governor of Andijân. She became the mother of the celebrated Bâbur Bâdshâh, the Emperor of India, and founder of the Mughol dynasty there.

Yûnus and 'Umar Shekh, being friendly neighbours, often exchanged visits in their respective dominions. On one of these occasions 'Umar sought the aid of Yûnus to oust Ahmad from Samarcand ; but he refused on account of his marriage relations with both. Ahmad, however, being informed of the plot prepared to attack his brother, who at once called in the aid of Yûnus, and settling him at Akhsi, thus averted the menaced hostility.

'Umar now wished Yûnus to retire, but, as he refused, they fought, and Yûnus capturing his son-in-law, made peace, and restored him to his government. He then returned to Mogholistan. On this Ahmad renewed his preparations to attack 'Umar Shekh, and he again summoned Yûnus, and settled him at Marghilân. At this juncture Khoja Nasiruddin Ubedullah, a divine whose sanctity drew crowds to prostrate themselves in the dust before him, intervened and made peace between the three belligerents—Ahmad, Umar and Yûnus, in the last of whom the arbiter, to his surprise, instead of the uncouth, wild Moghol he expected to see, found a reverential devotee, an elegant Chief, and polished scholar, the compeer of the learned Ulugh Beg. He treated him with marked favour and patronage, pronounced him a good Musalmân, and, declaring his Moghol to be within the fold of the Faithful, prohibited as unlawful the custom of enslaving them as Kafir=infidels.

In Kâshghar, meanwhile, another Prince was rising into power. The widow of Sâniz, whom Dost Muhammad had taken to wife when he attacked Yarkand, became, after his death, the wife of Hydar, the brother of her first husband. She had borne Sâniz two sons, Abâbakar and Umar ; and to his brother she bore two other sons, Muhammad Husen, Gûrikan (the • father of the author here quoted), and Syad Muhammad Mirzâ. This matron, Jamâk Aghâ, favoured her first born, Abâbakar, who was a gigantic athlete, a brave soldier, and cunning hunter. These qualities made him very popular amongst the nobles, and his mother, deceiving Hydar as to the character of his ambition, secretly drew away the nobles from his court to the side of her son, and encouraged him to recover his birthright, and take the lead in the government. Abâbakar having soon collected some three thousand followers, fled to Yarkand, and, seizing the city, set up as independent ruler in succession to Sâniz Mirzâ.

His brother Umar joined him there, and they shortly set out together to annex Khutan. On the way there, however, they quarrelled, and Abâbakar, depriving his insubordinate and ambitious brother of sight, sent him back to Hydar at Kâshghar. From this, on its fall, he went to Samarcand, but returned again after some years, and died there in 921 H. = 1514 A.D.

Khutan at this time was in the possession of two brothers, Khan Nazr and Cul Nazr, the hereditary descendants of Khizr Shah, a brother of Amir Khudâdâd, who had given the place to him in the distribution of his government amongst his family. These twd brothers, in the anarchy following on the death of Syad Ali, became independent, and made repeated attempts to subdue both Yarkand and Kâshghar. Consequently Hydar did not now oppose Abâbakar in his attempt to reduce them. His first expedition failed, but in the second, which shortly followed it, whilst swearing to terms on the Kuran, a scuffle ensued regarding the possession of the book, and in the melée both brothers were seized and killed. In the midst of the confusion Abâbakar took possession of the city, and proclaimed himself King. He was for some time following this engaged in a succession of expeditions to subjugate the hill districts to the south and west of Khutan ; and, having finally secured his conquests in those quarters, he next turned his arms against Hydar at Kâshghar.

At this time Abdul Cudûs (who had killed Shekh Jamal Khar, and liberated Yûnus, for which service he had been rewarded with the rank of Amir and title of