The Nāṣirī Generations 270: ACCOUNT OF THE RETURN OF THE CHINGIZ KHAN TOWARDS TURKISTAN, AND HIS DEPARTURE TO HELL.

270

Trustworthy persons have related that the Chingiz Khan, at the time when he came into Khurasan, was sixty-five years old, a man of tall stature, of vigorous build, robust in body, the hair on his face scanty and turned white, with cats' eyes, possessed of great energy, discernment, genius, and understanding, awe-striking, a butcher, just, resolute, an overthrower of enemies, intrepid, sanguinary, and cruel. The fact that there were astonishing things in several respects concerning him is sufficiently clear and apparent to all intelligent persons. In the first place, he was an adept in magic and deception, and some of the devils were his friends. Every now and again he used to fall into a trance, and, in that state of insensibility, all sorts of things used to proceed from his tongue, and that state of trance used to be similar to that [previously mentioned], which had happened to him at the outset of his rise and the devils who had power over him foretold his victories. The tunic and clothes, which he had on, and wore on the first occasion, were placed in a trunk, and sealed up; and he was wont to take them about with him. Whenever this inspiration came over him, every circumstance—victories, undertakings, indication of enemies, defeat, and the reduction of countries—anything which he might desire, would all be uttered by his tongue. A person used to take the whole down in writing and enclose it in a bag, and place a seal upon it; and, when the Chingiz Khan came to his senses again, they used to read his utterances over to him one by one; and according to these he would act, and, more or less, indeed, the whole used to come true.
Besides this, he was well acquainted with the art of divination by means of the shoulder-bones of sheep; and he used continually to place shoulder-blades on the fire, and burn them, and in this manner he would discover the signs of the shoulder-blades, contrary to the shoulder-blade diviners of the ’Ajami countries who inspect the shoulder-blade itself. The Chingiz Khan moreover in [the administration of] justice was such that, throughout his whole camp, it was impossible for any person to take up a fallen whip from the ground except he were the owner of it ; and, throughout his whole army, no one could give indication of [the existence of] lying and theft. If any woman that they [the Mughals] took in all Khurasan and the land of ’Ajam had a husband, no living being would form a connexion with her ; and, if an infidel [a Mughal] set his eyes upon a woman who had a husband, he would [first] slay the husband of the woman, and then would form a connexion with her. It used to be impossible for falsehood to be spoken, and this fact is clear.