The Rashīdī History 97: CHAPTER LXVIII. · CONCERNING THE LAUDABLE VIRTUES AND RARE ATTAINMENTS OF SULTAN SAID KHAN.

The Tarikh-i-Rashidi (Elias, Ross) 97

Language: English

CHAPTER LXVIII. · CONCERNING THE LAUDABLE VIRTUES AND RARE ATTAINMENTS OF SULTAN SAID KHAN.

97.1

Sultan Said Khan was a noble, happy, and prosperous prince, and was adorned with acquirements and good qualities. He was nearly forty-eight years of age when he went to take up his abode in the dwellings of God's mercy. His conduct of life was irreproachable. His conversation was both graceful and eloquent, whether in Turki or in Persian, and when he showed favour to any one, he used to blush before speaking. He was always gay, open-hearted, generous and affectionate. For example, a certain Maksud Ali had struck the Khan in the left shoulder with an arrow, in some battle; [so severe was the wound] that the Khan suffered from it for two years and nearly died of it. During the time of his suffering, some men captured Maksud Ali, so that the Khan might wreak his vengeance upon him. But when he was brought before the Khan, he treated him kindly, and though he had only one garment by him, gave it him. He also took him into his own society, and made him his companion, saying: "I was vexed, but thou art welcome [tukh amadi]," and they continued good friends the rest of their lives. He performed many similar acts of generosity, several of which will be found recorded in Part II. His liberality reached a high degree of perfection. I was twenty-four years in his service. Such was his munificence that his household supplies were sometimes quite exhausted, and the royal larder was some days so empty, that he would go and take his meals in the haram.

97.2

For the same reason his expenditure exceeded the revenue of the State. He was also greatly distinguished for his bravery. I was present at an attack which was led by him in person, and have described it in Part II. Moreover, I never saw his equal as an archer, among all the Moghul, Uzbeg, or Chaghatai Ilva, either before or since. I have myself seen him shoot seven or eight arrows in succession, without missing his mark. When hunting deer, hares, or game birds, he would never fail to hit them with his arrow. And in the battles he fought against the Kirghiz and others in Moghulistan, he became celebrated for the way he discharged his shafts into their midst. Generosity such as his I have seldom seen. On one occasion, an assassin came and sought to take his life, but not finding an opportunity, stole a horse from the Khan's stable and rode off. He was captured on the road, with the horse, and brought back. The prisoner said to the Khan: "I came on a mission [dava], but could find no opportunity of carrying it out, so I said: I will take a horse from the Khan's stables, then I shall at any rate have done something." The Khan's men all wished to kill him, but the Khan said to me: "Hand him over to your servants that they may take care of him, and do with him whatever you tell them." When the people had dispersed the Khan said to me: "As a thankoffering to God for having preserved me from that man, give him the horse he stole from me.

97.3

Then tell your men to let him secretly out of the camp, so that when he returns to his fellows they may not look upon him with contempt. Thus the poor man will, in a measure, have executed his mission." Further, I never saw a more accurate reader than the Khan. However faulty the orthography might be, he would read off verse or prose without hesitating, in such a way that listeners might suppose he knew it by heart. He wrote Naskh Talik excellently, and his spelling in Turki and Persian was faultless. He also composed letters [insha] well in Turki: other people could only have composed them with great difficulty and application. I have rarely met with such power and capability in writing verse [shir]. He never said poems by heart, but in assemblies and social gatherings, if any collection of odes [divan] that was at hand was opened, and he was given any metre and rhyme, he would extemporise a poem. If he repeated a poem once or twice, everybody could remember it; but he was not pleased if any one made a copy of it. I have remembered, and here reproduce, some of the extempore poems which the Khan recited in the assemblies. [Turki verses.] I only once knew him make verses in Persian. He performed on the *tM2, and the sihtara, and the chartara, and the ghachak, but best of all on the chartara. He had a sound knowledge of bone-cutting, and was skilled in making arrows.