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

T.R. Whilst here messengers arrived from Rashíd summoning Iskandar to Yárkand,
and informing Hydar of the execution of his uncle and all his family, and prohibit-
ing his return to the country. They consequently marched at once to Maryol, and
arrived at its capital, Calá Shiya, in twenty-five days, and taking possession of the
fort, halted for stragglers to rejoin. The season was mid-winter, and the loss in men
and cattle from the intense cold was severe. In the early spring Iskandar with
seven hundred men set out on a foraging expedition to replenish the exhausted
supplies of the army. He plundered all the country of Rang Shigar, and after
an absence of two months returned to Maryol.
By this time the messengers sent by Hydar with presents and congratulations
to Rashíd, and an appeal to revise his decision of banishment for the sake of their
early friendship and service together, now came back with peremptory orders for the
return of Iskandar with the troops, but a strict prohibition against the return of
Hydar, or even his stay in Tibet. On this the army dispersed and took their way
back to Yárkand as best they could in small parties straggling all over the country.
Iskandar and Hydar were soon left with only fifty adherents. And with these
they set out in the ensuing winter to make their way to Badakshan by the route
of Tághdumbásh, Janác, and Sanic, and Pámir. The party was reduced to twenty-
seven men by sickness and death by the time they reached the Karákoram, which
they crossed in Sumbul=September—October. Here Iskandar with four men parted
from his companion and friend, and took the road to Yárkand; whilst Hydar with
the remaining twenty-one, following an unknown track, wandered for three days
over a desolate waste of mountains and snows, on which they shot several cutás=
wild ox (bos grunniens) of huge proportions for food, and finally arrived at Ráshgám,
a populous little valley at seven days' journey from Pámir. Here the people (who, it
would seem, were Musalmáns) welcomed the wanderers with hospitality, fed and clad
them, and forwarded them on to Badakhshán, where Hydar found shelter with the
King, Sulemán Shah, who was the son of his maternal aunt. Here he was soon
after joined by his family from Yárkand, and by Iskandar, who was at the same time
expelled the country by Rashíd.
In the autumn they all set out together by way of Kabul to join Kamrán, the
son of Bábur, at Léhore. From this Hydar proceeded to the Court of Humáyún,
and was by him equipped and sent to conquer and govern Kashmír. He entered the
country over the passes on the 22nd Rajab 948 H.=1541 A.D., and it was in its
capital that he wrote the Tárikhi Rashídí from which these details are derived.
Sáid, entitled Sultán Sáid Khan Ghází, was considered a generous, just, and
mild prince, and pious during his later years as a disciple of Khoja Kháwind Mahmúd
of the Hanáfi sect. His son and successor, Rashíd, was the child of a slave girl
who, when seven months pregnant with him by Sáid, was carried off prisoner by the
Uzbak when they invaded Andiján. Sáid recovered her and the infant when he
returned to the country by the aid of Bábur, who was his uncle's son. At this time
Mirzá Hydar's sister, Habíba Sultán Kháním, arrived in Andiján from Samarcand, and
Rashíd aged three years was in 915 H.=1509 A.D. made over to her to be educated.
At the age of thirteen years Rashíd accompanied his father in the expedition
against Mogholistán. He was on this occasion taken prisoner at Akhsí by Jánibeg,
but was recovered on his expulsion from Farghána. He was subsequently sent to
govern in Mogholistán with Mirzá Hydar as his Wazir, but returned to Káshghar on
the invasion of that region by the Kazzák and Uzbak. At eighteen years of age he
was sent with Hydar on a ghazát against the pagans of Bolor in 934 H.=1527 A.D.,
and on his return thence was sent to the government of Aksú. After six months'
stay with him there Mirza Hydar joined Sáid's expedition into Tibet as Wazir to his
son Iskandar.
On accession to the throne Rashíd Sultán allied with the Shaibán Khans, and
killed and banished all his father's faithful adherents. Mansúr twice attacked him to
recover Aksú, but was each time repulsed with loss.