The Nāṣirī Generations 244.9.3

244.9.3

and of the populace of the city—the higher, middle, and lower classes—so many men bearing arms, both on horseback and on foot went forth, that, from the Shahr-i-Nau [new city] of Gilukhari to within the city where was the Royal Kasr, twenty lines of men, one behind the other—like the avenue of a pleasure-garden with the branches entwined—placed shoulder to shoulder, stood row after row. Truly you might say—It is the last great day, the time of the general resurrection, the hour of perturbation, the rendering of account of good and evil—through the experience, energy, control, and lieutenancy of Ulugh Khan-i-A’zam — God perpetuate his good fortune! The arrangement of the lines, the assignment of the place of every one of the Amirs, Maliks, Grandees, and Sadrs, with their followings and dependants, the disposition of the standards and banners, the donning of arms, the preservation of every one’s rank, which Ulugh Khan-i-A’zam directed, he himself saw to, by moving from one end of the lines to the other, placing every one in the place which had been assigned to him. That concourse of people presented such a tremendous appearance, that the ear of the heavens, at the din of the tymbals and kettle-drums, the cries of the trumpeting elephants, the neighings of the prancing horses, and the vociferations of the people, became deaf, and the eye of the malicious and envious blind.