The Rashīdī History 162.8

162.8

(2) It is many months before a seed of cotton is ready to be made into a robe for a huri, or a shroud for a corpse. (3) It is many days before a handful of wool from the back of a sheep, becomes a zealot's shirt or a donkey's halter. . . . . However this may be, Mirzá Abú Bakr having mustered his army, marched with it to a point two farsákhs distant from Yárkand; thence he detached, and sent in advance, some picked men, who fell in with Khwája Ali Bahádur at Kizil, as has been told above. [Thus we see] that the man who was brought before the Khán at Yángi-Hisár during the siege operations, and who had been tortured to death, spoke the truth. He had deserted at the time when Mirzá Abú Bakr, having led his army two farsákhs out of Yárkand, sent forward the advance guard. The man had reported exactly what he had witnessed.