The Nāṣirī Generations 267.4

267.4

Amir Habashi-i-Nezah-war agreed with him that he would become tributary to the Mughals; and came down from the fortress and paid homage to him, and returned to it again. The subsidy which he had assented to, Habashi-i-Nezah-war apportioned among the people of Tulak, and enforced its payment rigorously. This Habashi-i-Nezah-war, in his younger days, in the beginning of the reign of Sultan Muhammad, Khwarazm Shah, was a common man, a Nishapuri, and a maker of sacks; and, in Khurasan and Khwarazm, there never has been one so skilled in the use of the lance as he. This has been heard oftentimes from his own lips, — “If, upon occasion, I should lie down on my back upon the ground, and take a staff in my hand, I would defend myself against four men with spears.” In short, he was a very excellent man, and his good works were many, and his charities countless. At this time, however, through his having apportioned this subsidy among them, the whole Tulaki people decried him, and considered themselves oppressed in the collecting of it. One of the clever, of that time, composed a verse, and, as it is witty, it has been here inserted in order that it may come under the observation of the sovereign of Islam, and that the people of the Tulak district may be remembered with an invocation. The Khwajah, and Imam, Jamal-ud-Din, the Khazinchi—on whom be the Almighty’s mercy!—says: