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0240 Report of a Mission to Yarkund in 1873 : vol.1
Report of a Mission to Yarkund in 1873 : vol.1 / Page 240 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000196
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( 164 )

Mahmûd and Ahmad, but retained nearly all their troops in his own service. The. T.R. brothers, with the wreck of their army and a few adherents who still clung to them, retired to Aksû, where Ahmad died in the ensuing winter 909 H.=1503 A.D.

Mahmûd after this, not being able to live in peace with his son and successor, Mansûr, retired to Mogholistan, and after five years of very varied troubles amongst the nomads there, returned to Tâshkand to seek a government from Shahibeg. But the rising conqueror, anticipating trouble from this rightful heir to the Government, killed him and all his family on the bank of the Khujgnd river in 914. H. =1508-9 A.D. ; and the date is commemorated in the chronogram h bi dzryde Khujand="bank of the Khujând river."

Ahmad, after he had quitted his father at Syrâm, as before mentioned, returned to Mogholistan, and spent ten years in reducing the tribes to subjection ; and he and his sons ruled there independently from 900 to 948 H.=1494 to 1541A.D. During the first two years he destroyed the Arlât family, exterminated the Jarâs and other nobles, and drove out the Câloji tribe into the Kalmtk territory. His terrible slaughters gained him the name of Alaja, or " the slayer," by which he is known in history. His successes against the Kazzak and Uzbak and Kalmâk secured order throughout the wide extent of Mogholistan, and protected the country over a length of seven or eight months' journey from external invaders.

In 905 H. =1499 A.D., having thus settled Mogholisttan, Alaja set out against Ababakar at Kashghar. On his approach Abg.bakar, provisioning both Kashghar and Yangi Hissar, retired to Yarkand, and there shut himself up in its fort. Alaja, after some resistance, took Yangi Hiss6r, and on its fall, Kishghar surrendering, he wintered there. Early next spring he marched against Yârkand, but failing to take the place, plundered the suburbs, and pursued the fugitive peasantry into the hills on the west.

On this AMbakar issued from Yarkand, and occupying the pass conducting out of the hills, there lay in wait for the enemy. He surprised and defeated Ahmad, recovered the booty taken by his troops, and drove him on from Kashghar to Mogholistin. It was a year after his return from this campaign that Ahmad, leaving his eldest son, Mansûr, to govern the Moghol, took his younger sons, Said and Babajâc, with him to the aid of his brother against Shâhibeg, as has been mentioned.

Ahmad, or Alaja Khan, left seventeen sons of whom Mansiir, the eldest, succeeded to the government. Iskandar died soon after his father, and finally Said returned from his exile, and divided the country with Mansûr. On the death of the father, however, all the sons quarrelled over the division of his territory, and Ababakar, seizing the opportunity of their discord, attacked and took Aksû, from which Mansur had retired to Kûsin; whence, now on the fall of his capital, he fled to Mogholistân. Ababakar plundered Aksû, and, destroying its fortifications and houses, transported the population to Ush Turfân, whither also he transferred the government; and, leaving a garrison in support, returned by way of Kashghar to his capital laden with ,the treasures amassed by Ahmad during a reign of twenty-five years.

Mansûr, meanwhile, fought his brothers Khalil and Sâfd for the government of the Moghol, whilst their uncle, Mahmûd, unable to check the disorder or bring the brothers to reason, left the country for Tashkand, where, with all his family and followers, he was killed, as before related. Mansûr ultimately succeeded in recovering Kûsân and Aksû from his brothers Ayman and Bbajc, who, on the decline of Abâbakar's rule, had taken possession of, restored, and re-peopled those ancient seats. And in 912 H. =1506 A.D., at Aksû, he met and made peace with Said, who, having seized Kishghar from Ababakar, now shared the country with him, and acknowledged his rights as elder brother, and " coined and prayed " in his name. They reigned in peace for twenty years, during which the country flourished, and order was so securely established that travellers journeyed singly from Khamil on the Khita border to Andijaa.n through the length of the land without fear or care for provisions, finding hotels at every stage on the road.