The Rashīdī History 107: CHAPTER IV. · EPITOMISED ACCOUNT OF THE MARTYRDOM OF SULTAN MAHMUD KHAN AND HIS CHILDREN.

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On the death of Sultdn Ahmad Khdn, Sultdn Mahmud Khdn resigned to his brother's children all the country and people that had belonged to their father, from the frontier of Khitdi to the confines of Kdshghar, viz. : Turfdn, Chdlish, Kúchah [Kuchar], Aksu and Uch [Ush-Turfdn], while he himself withdrew, with those few of his own people who yet remained, to the deserts of Moghulistdn. There he spent five years, during which time nothing of importance happened to him. At length those same base men who had caused the night shadows of ruin to overcloud the dawn of the Khdn's reign, filled his mind with evil suggestions, saying : "Shahi Beg Khdn will treat you kindly, but even if he does not, he will at least allow us to return to this corner of corners." My uncle used to relate that one day after the death of Aldcha Khdn, he was at the court of Sultdn Mahmud Khdn in Aksu, where the Khdn, being friendly and talkative, asked him : "Is the position of scullion in Tashkand better than that of king in Aksu?" My uncle replied : "Verily it is, if the scullion is allowed to perform his office." At these words the Khdn was very wroth.
In short, these base men succeeded in bringing the Khdn to Farghdna. When news of this reached Shdhi Beg Khdn, he was in Uldng-zddagdn. He at once despatched a party of men to find him. These men were coming in exactly the opposite direction to the Khdn, whom they met and slew, together with his five young sons, at Khojand. To commemorate the date of their martyrdom the chronogram "Lab-i-Daryd-i-Khojand" = 914, was devised. (This matter I will also speak of elsewhere.)
Sultdn Mahmud Khdn had six sons, five of whom suffered death with their father. His eldest son was Sultdn Muhammad Sultdn. When the Khdn was setting out from Moghulistdn, in the hope of being well treated by Shdhi Beg Khdn, Sultdn Muhammad Sultdn had done his utmost to dissuade his father from going, but his words being of no avail, he separated from his father and stayed behind in Moghulistdn. From circumstances which, God willing, will be related in the First Part [Tdrikh-i-Asl], he was not able to remain in Moghulistdn, but went in dire distress to Baranduk Khán and Kásim Khán in the Dasht-i-Kipchák. His followers, hoping that Sháhi Beg Khán had received Sultán Mahmud Khán well, led him by a wrong road and brought him to Táshkand, where the Uzbeg sent him to join his father. He left one son, whose name was Sháh Muhammad Sultán. His history will be given in my notice of the Khán.