The Nāṣirī Generations 147: XII. MALIK SHIHAB-UD-DIN, MUHAMMAD, [KHARNAK,] SON OF AL-HUSAIN, MALIK OF MADIN OF GHUR.

147

Malik Shihab-ud-Din, Muhammad, Kharnak, was the brother of the Sultans; and the district of Madin, which was his territory, and is a tract of country on one of the confines of Ghur, had been assigned to him by the mutual consent of his brothers, after the decease of their father. He had two sons, one of whom was Malik Nasir-ud-Din, Husain, whom they placed upon the throne, at the capital, Firuz-koh, during the absence of Sultan ’Ala-ud-Din, Husain, in Khurasan, and his attendance at the Court of Sultan Sanjar, an account of whom will be hereafter recorded. The second son was Malik Saif-ud-Din, Suri, who, after his father’s death, succeeded him in the possession of the district of Madin. This Malik Saif-ud-Din, Suri, had three children, one a daughter, and two sons, and the daughter was older than the sons. She was married to the holy warrior and martyr, Sultan Mu’izz-ud-Din, Muhammad-i-Sam; and by her that conquering Sultan likewise had a daughter who died a maid, and whose tomb is at the capital city, Ghaznin.
Of those two sons of Malik Saif-ud-Din, Suri, one was Malik Shihab-ud-Din, ’Ali, of Madin, who was martyred by the Turks of Khwarazm during the period of their domination. The second son was Malik Nasir-ud-Din, Abu-Bikr; and the writer of this book, in the year 618 H., waited upon him in the territory of Kaziw [or Gaziw] and Timran, and witnessed numerous marks of urbanity and generosity from him. At that period the author had espoused a daughter of one of the great men and a kinsman of his own. That was in the period of his first manhood, and in that same year in which Chingiz Khan, the accursed, crossed the Jihun into Khurasan, and was bent upon marching to Ghaznin. In short, the author memorialized Malik Nasir-ud-Din, Abu-Bikr, for a horse, and, in verse, represented the matter of his marriage with one of his own kinswomen for that Malik’s information. In reply to that versified narrative, he composed this quatrain, and with his own august hand wrote it on the back of the story, and put it into the author’s hands:—
“God willing, affliction will have departed from thy heart, And that pearl of great price will have been by thee bored. The horse thou hast solicited of me requires no apology. With the horse, much more apology might be made.”
Malik Nasir-ud-Din, Abu-Bikr, sent his humble servant a dun-coloured horse of three years’ old, ready saddled and caparisoned—the Almighty reward him for it!
That Malik-zadah, after the calamities which befell Ghaznin and Ghur, came to the city of Dihli, and presented himself at the Court of the august Sultan, Shams-ud-Dunya wa ud-Din [I-yal-timish], and was received by him with honour and kindness, and, from the Maliks and other nobles, he received deference and respect.
Malik Nasir-ud-Din, Abu-Bikr, died at the city of Dihli in the year 620 H.