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

Mahmúd 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 Aksú, where Ahmad died in the ensuing winter 909 H.=1503 A.D.

Mahmúd after this, not being able to live in peace with his son and successor,
Mansúr, retired to Mogholistán, and after five years of very varied troubles amongst
the nomads there, returned to Táshkand to seek a government from Sháhibeg. But
the rising conqueror, anticipating trouble from this rightful heir to the Government,
killed him and all his family on the bank of the Khujánd river in 914 H.=1508-9
A.D.; and the date is commemorated in the chronogram Lábi daryáe Khujand="bank
of the Khujánd river."

Ahmad, after he had quitted his father at Syrám, as before mentioned, returned
to Mogholistán, 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 Arlát family, exterminated the Jaráis and other
nobles, and drove out the Cáleji tribe into the Kalmák 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 Úzbak and Kalmák secured order
throughout the wide extent of Mogholistán, 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 Mogholistán, Alaja set out against
Abábakar at Káshghar. On his approach Abábakar, provisioning both Káshghar
and Yangi Hissár, retired to Yárkand, and there shut himself up in its fort. Alaja,
after some resistance, took Yangi Hissár, and on its fall, Káshghar surrendering, he
wintered there. Early next spring he marched against Yárkand, but failing to take
the place, plundered the suburbs, and pursued the fugitive peasantry into the hills
on the west.

On this Abábakar issued from Yárkand, 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 Káshghar to Mogholistán.
It was a year after his return from this campaign that Ahmad, leaving his eldest son,
Mansúr, to govern the Moghol, took his younger sons, Sáid and Bábájáe, with him
to the aid of his brother against Sháhibeg, as has been mentioned.

Ahmad, or Alaja Khan, left seventeen sons of whom Mansúr, the eldest, succeed-
ed to the government. Iskandar died soon after his father, and finally Sáid returned
from his exile, and divided the country with Mansúr. On the death of the father,
however, all the sons quarrelled over the division of his territory, and Abábakar,
seizing the opportunity of their discord, attacked and took Aksú, from which Mansúr
had retired to Kúsán; whence, now on the fall of his capital, he fled to Mogholistán.
Abábakar plundered Aksú, and, destroying its fortifications and houses, transported
the population to Úsh Turfán, whither also he transferred the government; and,
leaving a garrison in support, returned by way of Káshghar to his capital laden with
the treasures amassed by Ahmad during a reign of twenty-five years.

Mansúr, meanwhile, fought his brothers Khalil and Sáid for the government of
the Moghol, whilst their uncle, Mahmúd, unable to check the disorder or bring the
brothers to reason, left the country for Táshkand, where, with all his family and
followers, he was killed, as before related. Mansúr ultimately succeeded in recovering
Kúsán and Aksú from his brothers Ayman and Bábájáe, who, on the decline of
Abábakar's rule, had taken possession of, restored, and re-peopled those ancient seats.
And in 912 H.=1506 A.D., at Aksú, he met and made peace with Sáid, who,
having seized Káshghar from Abábakar, 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 Khámil on
the Khita border to Andiján through the length of the land without fear or care for
provisions, finding hotels at every stage on the road.