The Rashīdī History 234.3

234.3

My uncle sent forward the grandees to meet him, and made every preparation for a royal and dignified reception. "But," he said, "it is not proper that he should make his entry on the last day of the month and of the year, and on a Wednesday. To-night he had better remain in the suburbs, and to-morrow, Thursday, the first of Moharram, and the beginning of the year 940, he should enter the town." This plan was decided upon and the Amirs went forward. But Mirza Ali Taghái went privately, and said to [Rashid Sultán]:—"As the Khán's honour is in my keeping, I feel it my duty to tell him of a scheme now being laid, which was proposed to myself and the Amirs by Sayyid Muhammad Mirzá. I would lay it before you now, in order that timely measures may be taken to check it. The promise he exacted from us was, that as soon as Rashid Sultán arrived, we should lay him by his father's side, and that we should set upon the throne of the Khanate, Iskandar Sultán, who is in Tibet." Such lies as these he not only invented, but impressed in such a way [on Rashid Sultán] that [the latter] saw no good reason for doubting him. On the morning of Thursday, the first of Moharram 940, Rashid Sultán set out towards his father's tomb. My uncle, clothed in mourning, [two couplets] . . . was seated by the [late] Khán's grave.