The Nāṣirī Generations 263.2.6

263.2.6

At this show of resistance, Tuli, next day, attacked the place in person, at the head of 22,000 Mughals—but the Rauzat-us-Safa says, an army in numbers beyond all computation—and inflicted great slaughter on the defenders; and, in this manner, from morn to eve, for a period of twenty-two days, the fighting went on. The Tarikh-i-Jahan-gir, Habib-us-Siyar, and Jahan-Kushae, say the fighting only lasted for seven days, and that on the eighth the Majir-ul-Mulk sent to beg for quarter, but this statement is much the same as that of the 400 horsemen slaughtering 12,000 Turkman soldiers and 70,000 of their people. In the meantime, the vast population of Marw became reduced to great straits, and began to say among themselves, that there was no hope of resisting the Mughals. Besides this, many persons from Balkh, Samrkand, Bukhara, Khwarazm, and other places captured by the Mughals, had taken shelter in Marw; and these fugitives persuaded the Marwazis that the city must surely be captured at last, and that it was better to seek an accommodation, and thus prevent the shedding of torrents of Musalman blood. On the twenty-third day, therefore, the Majir-ul-Mulk was prevailed upon to despatch the Imam, Jamal-ud-Din, the chief ecclesiastic, who, attended by a body of the priesthood, came out of Marw, and sought the presence of Tuli Khan.