The Nāṣirī Generations 51: VIII. TUGHRIL, AL-MAL’UN, OR THE EXECRATED.

51

Tughril was one of Mahmud’s slaves, and was endowed with great intrepidity and valour. During the reign of Sultan Maudud, he left Ghaznin, and went into Khurasan, and entered the service of the Saljuks. He remained there for a considerable time, and made himself acquainted with their mode of warfare; and returned to Ghaznin again in the reign of ’Abd-ur-Rashid. He seized ’Abd-ur-Rashid, and slew him, along with eleven other princes, and usurped the throne of Ghaznin, and reigned over the country for a period of forty days, during which he practised great injustice and tyranny.
They inquired of him, saying: “Whence didst thou acquire ambition to reign?” He replied: “At the time that ’Abd-ur-Rashid was sending me forth to do battle against Alb-Arsalan and Da’ud, and was giving me my instructions, and had placed his hand in mine terror had overcome him to that degree, that I could hear his very bones rattling from the state of trembling he was in. I knew that this pusillanimous man was incapable of sovereignty, and the ambition of reigning entered my heart.”
After forty days of his rule had expired, a Turk named Nush-Tigin, a Silah-dar, or armour-bearer, who happened to be standing behind Tughril, entered into an agreement with another, his friend, and they slew Tughril upon the throne itself; after which they brought out his head, and fixed it upon a pole, and had it paraded round the city; so that the people became free from anxiety and care.