The Rashīdī History 128.1

128.1

I HAVE mentioned that I arrived at Kala-i-Zafar just eighteen days after the Khan's departure for Kabul. Mirza Khan was living there in exceedingly straitened circumstances, being without provisions and surrounded by the scheming natives of Badakhshan. The Tangi Bala, in which are situated the strongest places of the Hazara, had been annexed to Kashghar, as will be mentioned below. The flat country of Badakhshan, the most fertile and prosperous part of that state, was under the control of the Uzbeg; while the rest [of the land] from fear of the Uzbeg had [been abandoned and had] become a waste. What yet remained over from the panther of the mountains of enmity, on the one hand, and from the crocodile of the river of tyranny, on the other, (that is to say, the Uzbeg and the Kashghari) had passed to Shah Bazi-ud-Din, the Chiragh Kush, who, having been brought from Sistan to Badakhshan, had been appointed king [of this portion]. He had introduced the religion of the Mulahidas, and outdid the oppression of his two tyrannical predecessors. Mirza Khan, as a Musulman, was much harassed [by these infidels] and had scarcely the necessaries of life. That winter was passed in suffering.