Siyar al-mutaʾakhkhirin 4.16.8

4.16.8

At last worn down by such an incessant pursuit, he retired to Goordaspoor, the native country of most of those barbarians, and where their chief had long ago built a strong castle, in which they kept their wives and families with the booty they used to make in their courses. The Imperial General blockaded it immediately; nor was the place unfurnished with provisions. But the multitudes that had successively retired thither were so considerable, and the besiegers kept so watchful a guard, that not a blade of grass, nor a grain of corn, could find its way to the fort; and the magazines within being at last emptied of their contents as the blockade drew to a length, a famine commenced its ravages amongst the besieged, who fell a eating any thing that came in their way. Asses, horses, and even oxen became food, and what is incredible, cows were devoured. Nevertheless such was the animosity of those wild beasts, and such their consciousness of what they had deserved, that not one of them would talk of a surrender. But every thing within, even to the most venerable, as well as to the most loathsome, having already been turned into food and devoured, and this having produced a bloody flux that swept them by shoals, the survivors asked for quarter, and offered to open their gates. The Imperial General ordered them to repair to an eminence, where they would see a pair of colours planted, and where they were to depose their arms and clothes, after which they might repair to his camp.