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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

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T. R. Gurikan, and granted the government of the Doghiat tribe in Andijân, but who had since rebelled and fled the country) was a refugee with Hydar, who had given him his daughter, A;ha Sultan Khanim, in marriage; and he now sent him against Abâbakar who was plundering Yangi Hissar. The successful young soldier, however, quickly defeated him, and Cudûs, with three hundred men, fled to Badakhshân. Here he joined Sultan Mahmûd, who gave him the government of Kundûz, where he was subsequently killed in a border skirmish with the Kator infidels.

After the defeat and flight of Cudus, Hydar issued with an army of thirty thousand men to oppose the advance of Abâbakar, but was driven back with great loss. In this extremity he sent urgent appeals for succour to his maternal uncle, Yûnus, who, hastily collecting fifteen thousand Moghol, hurried to the aid of his tributary protegé. On his approach Abâbakar called in his plundering parties and retired to his capital; and Hydar, now joined by Yûnus, followed to besiege him in. Yarkand.

Abâbakar, however, nothing daunted by their advance, made a vigorous sally from the city, and put them all to flight in the greatest disorder and haste. Hydar, with only two or three attendants who could keep pace with him, reached Kâshghar without drawing rein in twenty-four hours, whilst the panic struck Moghol fled without ever turning to look behind them. Abâbakar, proud of his success, lavished rewards on his soldiers ; and Hydar, disgusted, was only too glad to get rid of the rabble who now deserted him ; whilst Yiinus, full of wrath, took his way back to Mogholistan vowing condign vengeance.

He returned the following year, 885 H.=1480 A.D. with sixty thousand Moghol, and joining Hydar and bis new levy of thirty thousand men at Kâshghar, they marched together to Yarkand, and completely invested the city. Abâbakar, in face of the odds against him, confined himself to the defence of his capital, for which he had only five thousand men, including three thousand tried veterans ; and he employed them to the best advantage, and with an unlooked for success in his sallies.

Each of his horsemen was accompanied by an archer, and a s'vorded shield-bearer on each side. As they neared the enemy, and their horse came to the charge, the bowmen shot their arrows, whilst the shield-bearers capered and tumbled, and, rattling their shields, performed wild antics to frighten the adversary's horse ; and with such success that many of their riders were thrown and at once beheaded. In this manner Abâbakar's skirmishers advanced against the besiegers, and, a sudden panic seizing the Moghol, they broke and fled in utter disorder. The efforts of Yûnus failing to rally them, he was forced to follow, and retired with his discomfited host to Aksû, where he wintered with his family and army. Hydar meanwhile was pursued by Abâbakar, and hastily collecting five thousand families, abandoned his capital and joined Yûnus. On this Kâshghar fell into the hands of the victor, and thousands of its people, fleeing from the vengeance of his soldiery, emigrated to Andijân.

On the first occasion of Yûnus coming to Kâshghar to aid Sânfz against Hydar and Dost Muhammad, he married Shah Begum, the daughter of Shah Sultan Muhammad, the King of Badakhshan. She bore him two sons and two daughters, namely, Mahmûd, born 868 H.=1465 A.D., and Ahmad, and Niga.r Khânim and Daulat Khanim. During his stay at Aksû this winter after the defeat at Yarkand, Hydar, having lost Kâshghar and anxious to secure Aksû for himself, detached the youthful Ahmad from his father on the promise of giving him the place so soon as he recovered his own government ; and they both rebelled and seized one of the two forts the place contained.

On this Yûnus summoned his eldest son, Mahmûd, who, during his absence ruled in Mogholistan, to come to his aid. He arrived in seventeen days with thirty thousand Moghol, and they then besieged the rebellious Hydar. After forty days, during which Ahmad repenting of his folly had effected his escape and gained the pardon of his parent, Hydar, finding himself deserted and hard pressed for food, surrendered unconditionally. Yûnus generously pardoned his treachery, and, on his departure in the spring, took him to Mogholistan, and there attached his son, Muhammad