The Nāṣirī Generations 158.12

158.12

Sultan Mahmud was a sovereign of very great good qualities, and his alms, donations, and honorary robes, to a large amount, were received by all classes of the people; but, as the decree of fate had [now] come, the motives of its advent began to appear. Having, at the request of Sultan Muhammad, Khwarazm Shah, seized the latter’s brother, ’Ali Shah, and imprisoned him, ’Ali Shah’s servants, followers, and dependents, consisting of ’Irakis, Khurasanis, Khwarazmis, and Turks, in great numbers, together with his mother, his son, and his women, along with him, the whole of them agreed together with one accord, and several times, by means of each of the most notable among them, sent messages, secretly, to Sultan Mahmud, saying: “The reliance we have in the Sultan is, that as we have all come and sought refuge with his Highness, in the service of our master, ’Ali Shah, and have thrown ourselves under the shadow of the Sultan’s power and protection, it behoveth he should not deliver us up into the hands of the enemy, for to seize and make captive of those who have sought one’s protection will not turn out fortunate, otherwise we will make sacrifice of ourselves, and let it not be that the Sultan should be in dread of his life from us.”