The Nāṣirī Generations 62.3

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.