The Rashīdī History 99.1.8

99.1.8

In short, in the winter of that year, 934 [1528], the Khán sent me with Rashid Sultán to Balur, and in Balur I managed all the affairs of the army. Rashid Sultán was then eighteen years of age. He had no cultured men in his service, and had never had practice in conversation [kash-i-muhávala]. Those about him were all a sect of Muhammadans, who, though men in form, were but brutes in their manners, and what could he learn from the brutal ways of those people? In spite of my own want of power and capacity [istita'at], I was superior to these people, and I passed my time with Rashid Sultan. So that when we returned, some little time after, the Khan found his son quite another person, and he said several times, both before me and in my absence, to Rashid Sultán, that he was delighted [masrur] with me. I had made Rashid Sultan a son to him, in that he had won many victories with this army; and [he added] "thanks be to God, my son has come so near to being what my heart would desire him to be."