The Nāṣirī Generations 287.4.8

287.4.8

“How long shall my crystal tears on the amber [like] face, To the emerald spheres the coral hue impart? Since like unto smoke from Kumari wood are my sighs, It would not be astonishing were ye distilling rose-water, O tears! In disposition, neither am I vicious, nor is evil found in me; Why then am I a captive on the Safhed mount? I am not the Si-murgh, nor is this the mountain of Kaf— For ever pleasing to the parrot captivity will not be. Minhaj—The Straight Road—is best on the open highway: The straight road he findeth not, through restraint the fortress within.” The intermediate [portion of the] poem, and the entire copy of it, is not in existence, and hence it is thus abridged. May the Almighty preserve the Nasiri dominion to the utmost bounds of possibility! I now return to the subject of the history. In the territory of the Mulahidah there are one hundred and five forts—seventy forts in the Kuhistan territory, and thirty-five in the hilly tract of 'Irak, which they call Alamut. After the Mughal forces had occupied their territory some time, and a great number of captives of that sect had been slaughtered, the Maulana of the Mulahidah, 'Ala-ud-Din, Mahmud, son of Jalal-ud-Din, Hasan-i-Nau Musalman, was assassinated by one among his personal slaves, in the fortress of Lanbah-Sar, and the son of Ala-ud-Din, Mahmud, came out of that stronghold and proceeded to the Mughal camp.