The Nāṣirī Generations 263.3.1

263.3.1

By the generality of writers it is said, that some 300 or 400 victims fell to the share of each Mughal butcher; and, although the number seems incredible, when we consider that the people of other cities were fugitives at Marw, and that the inhabitants of the towns and villages near had taken shelter within the walls, it is doubtless correct. The Sayyid, 'Izz-ud-Din of Nisa, and a number of clerks, were occupied during thirteen days and nights in recording the number of the slain, and the number, without accounting such as it was impossible to recognize, belonging to the city and neighbouring villages alone, it is said, amounted to a little over 1,300,000 souls. See page 281. After this, the walls and defences of this great city, after it had been thoroughly sacked, were demolished, and in such wise “that scarce a trace of it was left; and for a period of two hundred and nine years its desolation was such that its site did not afford sufficient shade for a wild beast,” after which, in 812 H., through the favour of Sultan Shah-Rukh, the son of Amir Timur, the Gurgan, the city was rebuilt.