The Nāṣirī Generations 138: III. SURI, SON OF MUHAMMAD.

138

From the time of the government of Amir Banji up to the present period [of Suri’s rule], nothing was found in chronicles respecting the state of the country of Ghur that could be particularly enlarged upon ; and, as the compilation of this Tabakat was completed at the sublime capital, Dihli— may its pre-eminence never decline ! — and the kingdoms of Islam were thrown into convulsion through the irruption of the Mughal infidels — the Almighty confuse them ! — and the country had become isolated, and the extreme parts disturbed and unsettled, it was impossible to copy from the history which the author had examined in the territory of Ghur. As a matter of necessity that which has been obtained from the Tarikh-i-Nasiri. and the Tarikh of Ibn-Haisam-i-Sani, together with some traditions from the priesthood of Ghur. have been [therefore] recorded ; and the author hopes that he may be forgiven by those who look into the work [for any errors or shortcoming that may be found in it].
They thus state, that Amir Suri was a great Malik, and that most part of the territory of Ghur was under his jurisdiction ; and, as in some parts of that country, such as Zawulistan, the people, both high and low, noble and ignoble, were not [yet] exalted to the excellence of Islam, they were, at that time, at continual feud one with another. When the Saffarian came out of the territory of Nimroz, and advanced to Bust and the district of Dawar, and Ya’kub, son of Lais, attacked Lakan the Lak, Amir of Aytkin-abad, which is the district of Rukhaj, the tribes of the Ghuris fortified themselves on the summits of the rocks, and remained in safety; but they used to be at constant enmity with each other — the followers of Islam and the unbelievers — so that they were in the habit of keeping up a war from kushk to kushk, and lived in a constant state of contention and strife.
Through the natural impregnability of the strong mountains which are in Ghur, others [foreigners] used not to subject them to their power; and the head of the whole of the Shansabanis of Mandesh was Amir Suri.
There are five great and lofty mountains in Ghur, respecting which the people of Ghur are agreed that they are the strongest mountains in the world. One of these is Zar-i-Margh of Mandesh, at the foot of which mountain is the kushk and capital of the Shansabanis, and they [the people of Ghur] contend that the Simurgh nourished Zal-i-Zar [Zal, the ruddy-faced], who was the father of Rustam, in that mountain. Some of the dwellers at the skirt thereof maintain, that it was in one of the years between 500 H. and 600 H., when the sound of lamentation and regret issued from that mountain, “Zal-i-Zar hath passed away.” The second mountain [range] has the name of Surkh-Ghar, and that also is in the Mandesh district, in the limits of Tajir-Koh. The third mountain is Ashuk, in the district of Timran, the size and altitude of which is greater than that of any other part of the territory of Ghur; and the district of Timran is [situated] in its hollows and [on] its sides. The fourth is the mountain range of Warani, in the valleys and on the skirts of which are the territories of Dawar and Walisht, and the kasr of Kajuran. The fifth is the mountain of Ro’en, in the central part of Ghur, of immense strength and altitude; and they have stated that the fifth mountain [range] is the Faj [defile, pass] of Khaesar, the length, extent, and loftiness of which is beyond the bounds of conjecture, conception, and understanding. In the year 590 H., one half of the trunk of an ebony tree was found at the summit of it, more than one thousand mans in weight; and no one was able to conceive how, or in what manner, it could have been brought, or have fallen there.