The Rashīdī History 234.4

234.4

As Rashid Sultán rode up to the door of the house, my uncle came forward, his vest rent open, his beard torn, his black turban thrown upon the ground, and on his shoulders black felt [two couplets], . . . uttering moans and laments. Rashid Sultán [immediately] ordered his men to seize him, which they did from either side, and let fall upon his Musulmán neck, a non-Musulmán sword—severing his head from his body. Ali Sayyid, likewise, who has been mentioned in several places, attained the degree of martyr. Having murdered these two unfortunates, he dismounted and advanced to the head of his father's tomb. Thence, he went and paid a visit of condolence to the ladies of the haram. Meanwhile, he sent Mirza Ali Taghái to Káshghar to put to death my uncle's children, Husain Mansur, son of Sayyid Muhammad Mirzá, and Sultán Muhammad Mirzá, son of Mirzá Abá Bakr, and also the son of Sayyid Mahmud; none of these three had attained the age of twenty. He spared no act of insult or violence [towards those who were left alive—namely, the wives and families of my uncle]. Thus were my uncle's faithful and devoted services to Rashid Sultan, rewarded with murder and violence, and those solemn oaths and binding compacts which they had mutually sworn to, consumed like blood-money. [Couplet]. . . It is a practice among [some] nations to do honour to their dead, by sacrificing the choicest of their flocks and the best of their cattle.