The Rashīdī History 177: CHAPTER LX. · THE KHAN'S HOLY WAR AGAINST SARIGH UIGHUR AND THE REASON FOR HIS TURNING BACK.

177

The winter was passed in the festivities and enjoyments, above described . . . The Khan's mind had always been occupied with plans for making a holy war [ghazat] and after much thought he finally decided [whom he should attack]. Between Khotan and Khitai there was a race of infidels called Sarigh Uighur, and upon these people he proceeded to make a holy war. It is a twelve days' journey from Yarkand to Khotan, and most of the stages are without cultivation or inhabitants. When the Khan reached Khotan, a change in his health became evident. The holy war is one of the supports of Islam and a plenary duty. The Khan desired to discharge this obligation towards the faith; but now that his health failed him, he was obliged to appoint certain Amirs to perform the duty for him, and having thus relieved himself of this necessity, he returned [to Yarkand]. On the homeward journey, cups of wine were brought every morning, and drinking went on all through the day, so that [the Khan and his companions] were generally unable to distinguish the light from the darkness. At the end of a few days they reached Yarkand. In the autumn of that year, the expedition against the Kirghiz took place.
Those Amirs who had been sent against the Sarigh Uighur, after spending two months in the plains between Khotan and Khitai, returned in safety, laden with plunder, but without having seen or heard anything of the infidels.