The Rashīdī History 135.6

135.6

When the Uzbeg Sultans who were assembled in Samarkand heard this news, they were suddenly filled with terror and fled, scattered and dismayed, to different parts of Turkistan. Now when the Emperor arrived in Bokhara, he sent back the auxiliaries of Shah Ismail, after praising them for their services and bestowing upon them adequate rewards, while he himself, victorious and covered with glory, proceeded to Samarkand. All the inhabitants of the towns of Mâvara-un-Nahr, high and low, nobles and poor men, grandees and artizans, princes and peasants — alike testified their joy at the advent of the Emperor. He was received by the nobles, while the other classes were busy with the decoration of the town. The streets and the bazaars were draped with cloth and gold brocades, and drawings and pictures were hung up on every side. The Emperor entered the city in the middle of the month of Rajab in the year 917, in the midst of such pomp and splendour as no one has ever seen or heard of, before or since. The angels cried aloud: "Enter with peace," and the people exclaimed: "Praise be to God, Lord of the Universe." The people of Mâvara-un-Nahr, especially the inhabitants of Samarkand, had for years been longing for him to come, that the shadow of his protection might be cast upon them.