The Rashīdī History 197.3

197.3

In the summer of the afore-mentioned year, they fled from Yarkand. The Khan did not send in pursuit of them, but said: "If they find some one better than I am, well and good; if not, they will return." Baba Sultan fled to Sultan Avais, and thence to Badakhshan. Here he saw that he had been deceived, and that these cowardly men had misled him for their own private ends. Repentant, he returned to Kashghar. But the Khan was unwilling [that he should remain], as shall be shortly explained. So being obliged to quit the country, he withdrew to Hindustan, where he conducted himself badly. Babar Padishah gave him Ruhtak, an important town in Hisar-Firuza, where he followed his uncommendable courses, but shortly afterwards was seized with dysentery, and died in the course of the year 937, at the age of twenty-four. In his youth he had been so spoiled by the Khan, that his masters could do nothing with him, and his studies came to naught. [Two couplets]. . . . Yet he was not devoid of natural talents, for he was a skilled archer and conversed well. At an early period he was fond of me, and we were such warm friends that we always used the same tent on journeys, and the same dwelling at court. His aunt was with me and my sister with him, on which account we were always able to associate without ceremony. Then occurred the affair of my uncle; a bitterness arose between them, and he plotted against the Khan.