The Rashīdī History 113: CHAPTER IX. · FLIGHT OF MY FATHER MUHAMMAD HUSAIN KURKAN FROM BEFORE SHAHI BEG KHAN INTO KHORASAN; WITH SOME INCIDENTAL BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.
The Tarikh-i-Rashidi (Elias, Ross) 113
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CHAPTER IX. · FLIGHT OF MY FATHER MUHAMMAD HUSAIN KURKAN FROM BEFORE SHAHI BEG KHAN INTO KHORASAN; WITH SOME INCIDENTAL BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.
113.1
It has been related above, how Kunduz submitted without resistance, on the advent of the victorious army of Mahmud Sultan; also how I, after being confined in prison by Khusrau Sháh for a year, obtained my release, went and joined my father, and together with all the members of my family, proceeded to Shahr-i-Sabz, which Sháhi Beg Khan had given to my father [together with its dependencies]. In the beginning of Sagittarius, Sháhi Beg Khan marched on Khwarizm. All the heads of the Moghuls, whether Sultáns or Amirs, together with their train, were dwelling among the Uzbegs, and fear and apprehension continually occupied their hearts. In the meanwhile, Mahmud Sultán, who had always been a defender of the Moghuls, died in Kunduz, whereat all the Moghuls, and especially my father, were much afflicted and saddened. For Mahmud Sultan had borne him such love, and had bestowed so much kindness on him, that if ever one of Sháhi Beg Khán's nobles wrote a letter of cruelty or violence upon the tablet of the imagination concerning my father, he would draw a line through it with the pen of his protection; or else would erase this writing from the tablet of the rancorous heart of the evil-minded man, with the penknife of punishment. In fact, he recognised it as his duty to side with my father in all things. His death was a source of great uneasiness to the Moghuls in general, and to my father in particular.
113.2
But Sháhi Beg Khán said privately to Amir Ján Vafá, who was an intimate friend of my father, that he would on no account whatever leave Khwárizm until he had reduced it, and it was clear that the siege would be a very protracted one:—"There are, at the present moment, about 30,000 Moghuls among our Uzbegs. So long as any of the Moghul chiefs remain, these men will continue to serve them, and never enter our service. If a favourable occasion presents itself, they will do to us that which we did to them. The first among them is Muhammad Husain Kurkán; I think of him all day, but feel that to kill him would be like killing one of the Kháns—an act that would obliterate all the kindnesses I have ever shown the Kháns. Hence, it will be best for you to announce to him my intention, so that he may rise up with all speed and escape while he has yet a foot [to walk upon], and no longer tempt his fate. For after his departure, I must make all the other Moghul Amirs feel the blood-drinking scimitar." Amir Ján Vafá immediately sent a messenger, who reached my father at the hour of midday prayer, and by the time of afternoon prayer my father, having chosen me from among his children to accompany him, together with sixteen of his servants, fled towards Khorásán. This event remains fixed in my mind like a dream or a fantasy. In those days Sultán Said Khán was also in Samarkand. Three days after [our flight] he fled to Moghulistán; but this story has been told above.
113.3
Of those children whom my father left behind him in Shahr-i-Sabz, the eldest was Habiba Sultán Khánish; Sháhi Beg Khán kept her in his haram at Táshkand, where he also kept Aisha Sultán Khánim, the daughter of Sultán Mahmud Khán, and who is nowadays better known as Moghul Khánim. After a while he married her, with various ceremonies, to Abdullah Khán, son of Mahmud Sultán. [2.] Next in age was Gauhar Sháh Begum, whom Amir Ján Vafá obtained, in marriage, for his own son Amir Yár, in return for having carried the message to my father. [3.] I come next. I accompanied my father. [4.] Another was Muhammad Sháh, whom one of my father's relations had taken after my father into Khorásán. [5.] The youngest of all was Abdulláh Mirza, who has been mentioned above, as having accompanied his mother, Sultánim Begum. I shall tell his life in these pages. In short, we left Shahr-i-Sabz, and, passing one night on the road, reached, at the close of [the second] day, the banks of the River Amuya; the cold was very severe and we only succeeded in crossing with great difficulty; without entering Balkh, we went on to Khorásán.
113.4
Those were the last days of the life and reign of Mirzá Sultán Husain, who was a grandson of Mirzá Jahángir, son of Amir Timur. None of his ancestors, as far back as Amir Timur, had attained to sovereignty. Mirzá Sultán Husain, however, had, after many years of struggles and hardships, won Khorásán at the point of the sword, and during forty-eight years, while firmly established on the throne of Herat, he governed the four quarters of Khorásán. He encouraged all the arts and crafts of the world to such a degree that in every separate profession he produced an unsurpassed master. Having reached this point, I meditated and felt that I ought to write something concerning these lords of revelation and masters of manifestation, who lived at this time. And though I did not, with my lack of capacity, seem fit for the task, yet strange to say, I could not see my way to omit recording one or two circumstances in relation to these men. In any case I will make a beginning, in the hope that, with the aid of existing memoirs [tazkira] which shall supplement the deficiencies of my humble reed, it may prove worthy of the perusal of the clear-sighted. As it does not lie in my power to write a separate book in memory of these men, I have in this Epitome only devoted a few lines to some of them, in order to satisfy my mind and to calm my inner man. [Quatrain]. . . .