The Nāṣirī Generations 268.9

268.9

The warning [here conveyed] is, that it behoveth not a man, in any case, to be passive in the matter of his own safety, particularly when in a place he may be holding parley with a foe, or be in the company of an enemy; and he should see to his own preservation for some useful purpose, and not be without a weapon: for the rest, the protection of the Most High God is sufficient to preserve whom He wills. Trustworthy persons have related that two hundred and eighty men of note and heads of families, valiant men, fell captive into the hands of the Mughals [upon this occasion] ; and, such a disaster having befallen the people of Islam, there was not a dwelling [in the place] in which there was not mourning. On the occurrence of this misfortune the Mughal Nu-ins employed emissaries to propose that they [the people of the fort of Saif-rud] should ransom their own people; but Malik Kutb-ud-Din, Husain, did not consent. When the Mughals understood that, on this occasion, the people of the fortress would not take the bait of treachery, they, on the following day, bound all the Musalmans who had become captive — ten and fifteen together — and killed them with sword-wounds, stones, and knives, until they made martyrs of the whole of them.