The Rashīdī History 30.2

30.2

Feeling the reality and importance of the advantages he had just secured, Amir Timur again set out with two thousand men; and when he arrived at Kuhlagha, the people of Kesh and the districts round about, fleeing from the army of Jatah, kept coming to him in detachments, with offers to serve him if he would protect them. Out of the two thousand men Amir Timur had brought with him, he selected three hundred as his own special bodyguard. With these he advanced, commanding the rest to stay behind. He then sent on two hundred of these men, under the Amirs Sulaimán Barlás, Jháku Barlás, Bahrám Jaláir, Jaláluddin Barlás, Saifuddin and Yultimur, to Kesh, telling them to divide into four squadrons, and ordering every man to suspend from either side of his horse, a large leafy branch, in order that much dust might be raised and so cause the governor of Kesh, if he saw them, to beat a retreat. They carried out his orders exactly, so that when they entered the plains of Kesh, the governor, frightened at the sight of so much dust, took to flight, and they entered the town, where they occupied themselves with the appointment of officers and the like. Thus the boundless favour of God descended in such a manner upon this king, that by means of sparks of fire he was able to put an army to flight, and with dust to conquer a town. [Verse] : The evil eye was distant from him, for greater successes than these it is impossible to conceive.