The Rashīdī History 163: CHAPTER XLVIII. · THE CONQUEST OF KASHGHAR.
The Tarikh-i-Rashidi (Elias, Ross) 163
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CHAPTER XLVIII. · THE CONQUEST OF KASHGHAR.
163.1
Having taken the citadel of Yangi-Hisar, in the manner above described, the Khan turned his attention to [the reduction of] Kashghar. On the third day he learnt that the garrison of Kashghar had abandoned their citadel and, taking their horses, had fled to whatever place each thought safest for himself. The Khan's noble mind being thus, in the most satisfactory manner, set at rest with regard to Kashghar, he placed the foot of success in the stirrup of victory, and drew his reins towards Yarkand, confident of success and triumph. He sent Khwaja Ali Bahadur in advance [Verses] . . . The first stage from Yangi-Hisar is Satlik, and here the Khan pitched his camp. [On the same day] news came that Mirza Aba Bakr, having given over Yarkand to the charge of his son Jahangir Mirza, had retired to Khotan. [On hearing this news] the Khan hastened still more, and on reaching Kizil heard that Jahangir Mirza also had fled, and that Khwaja Ali Bahadur had entered Yarkand. At the end of Rajab of the year 920, the Khan made his triumphant entry into the town of Yarkand, and with the splendour of his glittering sword, he allayed the dust of tyranny and enmity [etc.] .... Before [his army] entered the town, he sent on Amir Daim Ali and Beg Muhammad to occupy Khotan; he also despatched in pursuit of Mirza Aba Bakr, seven brave generals — namely, Kara Kulak Mirza, Háji Mirza, Sultán Ali Mirza, Nazar Mirza, Mir Kambar, Mirza Ali Taghái and Beg Kuli Makrit.
163.2
These seven generals started in pursuit with the greatest eagerness. This affair having been attended to, the Khán issued a general order that every one might go and plunder wherever he liked. And every man in the army who cared for pillage and booty, immediately hastened out [to take advantage of the permission]. Only a few of the Amirs, who held plundering to be derogatory, remained in attendance on the Khán. Having settled this matter also, the victorious Khán mounted the throne of the town. He then went up to the citadel [ark] within which were many lofty buildings, containing, each of them, rooms and upper-apartments and battlements, so numerous as to astound the beholder. And these buildings were filled with cloths, chintzes, carpets, porcelain, cuirasses, horse-trappings, saddles, bows and other things useful to man. All these things had been seized by Mirza Aba Bakr, or procured by whatever means he chose to employ, and had been hidden away by him, so that no one might know of their existence. Of such as remained over, Mirza Jahángir had destroyed and wasted as much as he was able; and on his departure had sanctioned a general pillage, which, until the arrival of Khwája Ali Bahádur, was carried on by the whole population — each taking what he could. When Khwája Ali Bahadur entered the town, he, likewise, devoted himself to pillage. Seven days later the Khan arrived, and he too gave his men permission to plunder right and left.
163.3
Everything in the way of money, as well as the valuable cloths and stuffs, had been carried off, but the houses were still full [of other things]. Two months after the flight of Mirza Aba Bakr, there were still great quantities of cuirasses and the like, lying about the houses and passages, that no one had cared to carry away. [Five couplets]. . . . Thus, all that Mirza Aba Bakr had, in the course of forty-eight years, amassed with infinite toil, and guarded with savage miserliness, he was finally obliged, with a thousand heart-rendings, to abandon ; while the Khán, with one stroke of his pen, gave it all over to a general sack, and during two months the dust thereof rose to the sky. [Verses]. . . . At the end of two months, every man returned safely — laden with plunder from different directions — and presented the Khán with tribute [pishkash] according to the quantity of booty he had taken. But the Khan, in order to win the hearts of his people, divided the property up into shares [suyurghal] in accordance with the old Moghul custom, and distributed it among his soldiers. I remember distinctly that some of the Amirs who had come from Karánghutágh, presented, besides arms [alát] and vases, an Andiján man of gold-dust. Now an Andiján man is sixty-four chdrik and a chdrik is 400 miskál. From this the extent of the rest of the booty may be conceived.