The Rashīdī History 124.3

124.3

That year, 914, proved one of disaster for the Sultans of the day in general, and of massacre for the Moghul Khakans in particular. When God willed that all my uncles, aunts, and cousins should be carried off in different directions and murdered, I was the weakest and youngest of the family. The strangest part of it all is that they were, everyone, at a great distance [from Sháhi Beg Khán], as has been mentioned above, but being helpless, nay, having no alternative, they came and threw themselves into calamity and were murdered; while I escaped, though in the town of Bokhara, in the middle of the ocean of Sháhi Beg Khan's dominions. Since the decree of the will of the Almighty had not been issued for my destruction, but for my preservation, Sháhi Beg Khan, with all his boasting and power, was not able to touch one hair of the head of that helpless little child whom he wished to kill. (Thanks be to God, the Lord of Heaven and Earth, the Possessor of Might, Majesty, and Power.) The details [of my escape] are briefly as follows: at the above date, my father went to Khorásán and was put to death by Sháhi Beg Khan, who also sent an emissary to Bokhdrá to kill me. And although this was an act that would have been distasteful to Ubaid Ullah Khan, it was quite impossible for him to disobey the orders of Sháhi Beg Khán. He handed me over to the emissary, with instructions to throw me into the river Amu, that I might join those others who had been drowned in the ocean of divine mercy.