The Nāṣirī Generations 123: V. SULTAN TAKISH, SON OF I-YAL-ARSALAN.
Tabakat-i-Nasiri 123
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V. SULTAN TAKISH, SON OF I-YAL-ARSALAN.
123.1
Sultan Takish was a very great monarch, and was endowed with considerable attainments, capacity, and understanding, and was a proficient in the science of music. When he ascended the throne he brought under his sway the different tracts of the territory of Khwarazm, and likewise some parts of Khurasan, either by force of arms or by peaceful means. He entered into union with the Khan of Kifchak, who was named Akran [or Ikran], and married the daughter of that ruler. That lady acquired great celebrity in the world, and rose to great eminence, more particularly during the reign of her son, Sultan Muhammad, Khwarazm Shah. She was a woman of great firmness of character, very impetuous, and of imperious temperament; and, during the reign of her son, she had the title of Khudawandah-i-Jahan [Princess of the Universe]. So great was her spirit, her haughtiness, and her resentment, when roused, that, on one occasion, she became enraged with her husband, Sultan Takish, on account of a female slave with whom he had formed a connexion, and followed him to the bath, and closed the door of the hot bath upon him, so that the Sultan very nearly perished. Information of the circumstance was conveyed to a party of the great nobles, and a number of lords and chiefs arrived, broke open the door of the hot bath, and took Sultan Takish out. He had been reduced to a state of lividness, and one of his eyes had been nearly destroyed.
123.2
Sultan Takish was a wise and sagacious monarch; and, with respect to his witticisms, they relate that on a certain occasion a necessitous person wrote to him a statement of his affairs, saying: — “If thou givest me one hundred dinars, what difference will it make to the amount of thy treasures?” The Sultan, with his own hand, wrote at the head of the statement, “One hundred dinars;” and this reply, in the opinion of men of learning and talent, was exceedingly clever. On another occasion a person wrote to him, saying: — “In being a Musalman I am thy brother: give me a portion of thy treasures.” The Sultan commanded that ten dinars of gold should be presented to him. When that gift reached the indigent person, he wrote another communication to the Sultan, saying: — “I am thy brother; and yet, with all the treasures that thou possessest, not more than ten dinars of gold do I obtain?” The Sultan wrote in reply: — “If the rest of my brethren should demand their shares also, thou wouldst not have received even this much.” May the Almighty have mercy on him! Sultan Takish reduced a half of Khurasan under his sway by force, and the Maliks [kings] of Mazandaran acknowledged his superiority. He also subdued a part of the territory of ’Irak; and Sultan Tughril, of ’Irak, who was the nephew of Sultan Sanjar, fell a captive into his hands.
123.3
Hostilities arose between him and the Court of the Khalifah on account of some of the territories of ’Irak, and Ibn-ul-Kassab, who was the Wazir of the Dar-ul-Khilafat, entered 'Irak [with an army] to repel Sultan Takish; but he was defeated, and retired to Baghdad again. This disloyalty towards the Khalifah was a disaster to the empire of Takish, as Maulana Zahir-ud-Din, Faryabi, says in the following strophe:— Oh, Shah! since ’Ajam, by the sword, to thee has been consign’d, Towards Mustafa’s place of repose, an army send. Then lay the Ka’bah desolate, and a fan bring, And like unto useless atoms, to the winds the dust of the Haram send. Within the Ka’bah the drapery crumbleth away: place it in thy treasury. And, for the Prophet’s tomb, two or three ells of matting send. When thou shalt have a perfect infidel become, rush on Yasrib, And, then, the Khalifah’s head to Khita send.” Although Sultan Takish had entered into a treaty with the Sultans of Ghur, nevertheless, through the hostility of [the Court of] Baghdad, Ibn-ur-Rabbi’ came from Baghdad into the territories of Ghur and Ghaznin; and, on another occasion, Ibn-ul-Khatib came to the Court of Firuzkoh, and one Friday read the Khutbah, and, whilst reading it, he made use of these words in the presence of Sultan Ghiyas-ud-Din, Muhammad-i-Sam:—“Ayyahu-l-Ghiyas al-Mustaghas min ul Takish ut-taghi ul-baghi.” “Hail! prop of defence against Takish the traitor and the rebel!”
123.4
At the time of Ibn-ul-Khatib’s returning to Baghdad the father of the author, Maulana Saraj-ud-Din-i-Minhaj, was despatched to the Court of Baghdad along with him, and, on the confines of Mukran, the Maulana was martyred. This intimation arrived from the Court of the Khalifah, Un-Nasir-ud-Din Ullah, about it, saying:—“Furthermore, Saraj-i-Minhaj perished in an affray on the road: the Almighty recompense him!” Sultan Takish-i-Khwarazm Shah was in firm alliance with Khita; and trustworthy persons have stated that Sultan Takish had enjoined his son, Sultan ’Ala-ud-Din, Muhammad, never to quarrel or embroil himself with Khita, if he desired to preserve the safety of his dominions; and it turned out as this wise monarch had said. They also relate, with respect to this subject, that the Sultan often used to say that there would be two judgment-days—one, that time which Almighty God has ordained; and the other, that which would happen when he should be removed from this world, through his son’s bad faith towards the infidels [of Chin]. Sultan Takish reigned for many years, and died.