The Nāṣirī Generations 62: III. SULTAN ALB-ARSALAN-I-GHAZI, SON OF DA’UD-I-JAGHAR BEG.
Tabakat-i-Nasiri 62
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III. SULTAN ALB-ARSALAN-I-GHAZI, SON OF DA’UD-I-JAGHAR BEG.
62.1
He ascended the throne of Khurasan after Da’ud, in the year 451 H., and the territories of Khurasan, ’Ajam, with the whole of ’Irak, Khwarazm, Tabaristan, Kirman, Pars, and Sistan he brought under his sway. He also led an army into Turkistan and Turan, and the Maliks of Turkistan, and the Afrasiyabi Amirs, submitted to his authority. The vastness of his forces, the immensity of his war-material, and the military resources of his empire, attained to such extent, that the intellect of the geometrician would remain in the labyrinth of helplessness, in an attempt to compute the quantity : as a poet—in all probability the Hakim Sana’i—who, after Alb-Arsalan’s decease, composed a dirge, says of him, in the following strophe:— “Thou sawest the head of Alb-Arsalan elevated to the sublimity of the seventh heaven; Come to Marw that thou mayest see the body of Alb-Arsalan buried in the dust. Attended neither by train or guards, nor the moon-faced, dimple-chinned; Nor the steed press’d by his thighs, nor the reins within his grasp
62.2
When Alb-Arsalan ascended the throne, he despatched ambassadors to the Court of Ghaznin, and entered into the strongest terms of friendship and amity with Sultan Ibrahim and did not interfere with the Ghaznin dominions. He occupied himself in holy wars against Turkistan and Rum, and in securing possession of the territories of 'Irak and Misr; and, influenced by the sense of pure faith and belief, he began to render services to the Court of the Lord of the Faithful, Al-Ka’im. He was distinguished upon several occasions with honorary dresses from the Khalifah’s Court, and the lieutenancy of the capital, Baghdad, was conferred upon him.
62.3
The writer and author of this Tabaqat, Minhaj-i-Saraj, Al-Jurjani, intimates that, in the year 613 H., he was at the Court of Sijistan, and in that capital there was an Imam [Patriarch], the teacher of the doctors in wisdom and philosophy, and the asylum of the learned of the time whom they called Imam Rashid-ud-Din-i-’Abd-ul-Majid. I heard him, when speaking of the magnificence and majesty of Alb-Arsalan, state, that that monarch, in the year 453 or 454 H., had undertaken the subjugation of the territory of Turkistan. When he reached the frontiers of Kash-ghar and Balasaghun, messengers followed him thither, bringing intelligence that the Lord of the Faithful, the Khalifah Al-Ka’im B’illah had sustained a great misfortune—that an action had taken place between him and the Christians of Rum, and that the troops of Islam had been overthrown; and further, that the Khalifah himself had been taken prisoner, and had been immured within the walls of a fortress, situated in the lofty mountains of the territory of Anbar and the Jazirah [Mesopotamia] on the frontiers of the empire of Rum. The fortress in question is situated on a high hill, or mountain, on the bank of the river Furat [Euphrates]. Alb-Arsalan, with a force of 180,000 horse, all brave and veteran soldiers, returned with the utmost expedition, in order to release the Lord of the Faithful, and revenge the defeat of the army of Islam.
62.4
He pushed on with such speed, and made such long marches, that in the space of sixteen or seventeen days—God knows the truth of the statement—he appeared at the foot of the walls of that fortress, which was situated on the bank of the Furat, from Balasaghun. Adopting such means of procedure as the occasion demanded, he called upon the governor of that fortress to embrace the Muhammadan faith, and caused him to be ennobled with the robe of Islam; and, with the aid of Almighty God, he released the Khalifah from confinement. He accompanied the Khalifah's sacred cavalcade to the precincts of the capital of Islam, and then solicited permission to return [to his own dominions]. Having obtained it, at the time of taking leave, Alb-Arsalan dismounted from his horse, and honoured his imperial lips by placing them to the hoof of the animal which bore the Lord of the Faithful, and kissed it. On this occasion, in return for these signal services rendered by him, during all this time, to the Court of Islam, he received this much commendation and esteem, that the Lord of the Faithful, Al-Ka’im Bi-amr-’ullah, thus expressed himself: — “Thou hast saved the servants of God from slaughter, and the country from destruction.” Let those who read these words calmly ponder in their minds between the extent of the services of Alb-Arsalan-i-Ghazi. and on the sublime fortitude and high resolve expressed in the words of the Lord of the Faithful, and what amount of eulogium every one of them conveyed.
62.5
Alb-Arsalan’s reign extended over a period of fourteen years. He ascended the throne in the year 451 H., and in the month of Safar, 465 H., he was martyred. May the Almighty again raise up their pure souls with like glory, and reserve them to Himself in Paradise above !