The Nāṣirī Generations 253.2

253.2

The Muhammadan writers make continual mention of the Turks and infidels of Mawara-un-Nahr and Turkistan, from the time that the first ’Arab — Hakam, son of ’Umr, in the Khilafat of Mu’awiyah, drank of the waters of the Amuyah, and ’Abd-ullah, son of Ziyad, was the first to cross it, but those writers give no consecutive accounts of the Afrasiyabi Maliks until they come down to the year 367 H. It must also be borne in mind that the name of Afrasiyab does not occur in the Turkish traditions, although the ’Ajamis style him “the Turk.” The first person with whom most Muhammadan writers begin this dynasty is the Bughra Khan, [No. IV. in this account] whose Musalman name was Abu-Musa-i-Harun, and his title, Shihab-ud-Daulah, and who, in 380 H., defeated Mardawanj, the general of the Samani forces, near Samrkand. Although this Bughra Khan, “the Turk,” is said to have been the son of Suliman — whom some also style by the title of the I-lak Khan — son of the I-lak Khan, the meaning of which will be presently given, they do not include these two personages, among those rulers, although the latter, probably, brought the dynasty into greater notice, and splendour.