التاريخ اليميني 25.2-7

25.2

ودارت رحى الطعان والضراب، طاحنة كل ندب شجاع، وقرم مطاع. وامتدت الوقعة من طفولة النهار إلى كهولة الطفل ، حتى اكتست الأرض لون الشقائق من دماء الطلى والعواتق. وكادت تدور للكفار دائرة لو لا أن الله أعان السلطان على حملة في خواص غلمانه، كسعت [163 أ] أدبارهم، ومحت عن مقاماتهم آثارهم، وأغنمه ثلاثين فيلا كأشخاص القصور، بل كأمواج البحور. وأقبل أولياؤه يحسونهم أنى يثقفونهم من بطون الأودية والشعاب، وظهور الفيافي والهضاب، واقتفى السلطان بنفسه أثره بين تلك المهارب متنجزا وعد الله في نصرة دينه، وتل كل ذي نفاق وشقاق لجبينه، فأفضى به الطلب إلى بهيم نغر أحصن قلعة بنيت على حرف طود رفيع، خلال ماء منيع.

The millstone of thrusting and striking turned, grinding every eager brave and every obeyed chief. The battle lasted from the infancy of the day to the maturity of the evening, until the earth put on the colour of anemones from the blood of necks and shoulders. Fortune was about to turn in favour of the infidels, had not God aided the Sultan in a charge with his elite slave-guards, which struck [163a] their rears and wiped their traces from their positions. God gave him as spoils thirty elephants like the forms of palaces, nay like the waves of the seas. His men set about mowing them down wherever they caught them, in the bottoms of valleys and ravines and on the backs of deserts and hills. The Sultan himself followed his track among those places of flight, seeking fulfilment of God's promise to aid His religion and to throw every hypocrite and schismatic on his forehead, until the pursuit brought him to Bhīmnagar, the most strongly fortified castle, built on the edge of a lofty mountain in the midst of impassable water.

The Sultan, contrary to the disposition of man, which induces him to prefer a soft to a hard couch, and the splendour of the cheeks of pomegranate-bosomed girls to well-tempered sword blades, was so offended at the standard which Satan had raised in Hind, that he determined on another holy expedition to that land. On the last day of Rabi'u-l-akhir of the same year, the Sultan prayed God for the accomplishment of his wishes. When he had reached as far as the river of Waihind, he was met by Brahmanpal, the son of Andpal, at the head of a valiant array, with white swords, blue spears, yellow coats of mail, and ash-coloured elephants. Fight opened its crooked teeth, attacks were frequent like flaming meteors, arrows fell like rain from bows, and the grinding-stone of slaughter revolved, crushing the bold and the powerful. The battle lasted from morning till evening, and the infidels were near gaining the victory, had not God aided by sending the slaves of the household to attack the enemy in rear, and put them to flight. The victors obtained thirty large elephants, and slew the vanquished wherever they were found in jungles, passes, plains, and hills.

The Sultan himself joined in the pursuit, and went after them as far as the fort called Bhímnagar, which is very strong, situated on the promontory of a lofty hill, in the midst of impassable waters. The kings of Hind, the chiefs of that country, and rich devotees, used to amass their treasures and precious jewels, and send them time after time to be presented to the large idol that they might receive a reward for their good deeds and draw near to their God. So the Sultan advanced near to this crow's fruit, and this accumulation of years, which had attained such an amount that the backs of camels would not carry it, nor vessels contain it, nor writers hands record it, nor the imagination of an arithmetician conceive it.
The Sultan brought his forces under the fort and surrounded it, and prepared to attack the garrison vigorously, boldly, and wisely. When the defenders saw the hills covered with the armies of plunderers, and the arrows ascending towards them like flaming sparks of fire, great fear came upon them, and, calling out for mercy, they opened the gates, and fell on the earth, like sparrows before a hawk, or rain before lightning. Thus did God grant an easy conquest of this fort to the Sultan, and bestowed on him as plunder the products of mines and seas, the ornaments of heads and breasts, to his heart's content. The Sultan entered the fort with Abu Nasr Ahmad bin Muhammad Farighuni, the ruler of Juzjan, and all his own private attendants, and appointed his two chief chamberlains, Altuntash and Asightigin, to take charge of the treasures of gold and silver and all the valuable property, while he himself took charge of the jewels. The treasures were laden on the backs of as many camels as they could procure, and the officers carried away the rest. The stamped coin amounted to seventy thousand thousand royal dirhams, and the gold and silver ingots amounted to seven hundred thousand four hundred mans in weight, besides wearing apparel and fine cloths of Sus, respecting which old men said they never remembered to have seen any so fine, soft, and embroidered. Among the booty was a house of white silver, like to the houses of rich men, the length of which was thirty yards and the breadth fifteen. It could be taken to pieces and put together again. And there was a canopy, made of the fine linen of Rum, forty yards long and twenty broad, supported on two golden and two silver poles, which had been cast in moulds.
The Sultan appointed one of his most confidential servants to the charge of the fort and the property in it. After this he returned to Ghazna in triumph; and, on his arrival there, he ordered the court-yard of his palace to be covered with a carpet, on which he displayed jewels and unbored pearls and rubies, shining like sparks, or like wine congealed with ice, and emeralds like fresh sprigs of myrtle, and diamonds in size and weight like pomegranates. Then ambassadors from foreign countries, including the envoy from Taghan Khan, king of Turkistan, assembled to see the wealth which they had never yet even read of in books of the ancients, and which had never been accumulated by kings of Persia or of Rum, or even by Karun, who had only to express a wish and God granted it.

25.3

وقد كان ملوك الهند وأعيان أهلها [وجماعات النساك من ذوي الأملاك بها] يدخرونها مخزنة للصنم الأعظم، فينقلون إليها قرنا بعد قرن من أنواع الذخائر وأعلاق الجواهر، ما تخف أوزانه وتثقل عند السوم قيمه وأثمانه، عبادة- بزعمهم- لما يفيدهم الحسنى، ويقربهم إلى الله زلفى. فصادف السلطان منها تمرة الغراب، وزبدة الأحقاب، ما لا تقله ظهور الأجمال ، ولا تسعه أوعية الأحمال، ولا تنسخه أيدي الكتاب، ولا يدركه فكر الحساب. فحشر عليها جنوده، وضرب حواليها بنوده، وانبرى لقتال مستحفظيها بقلب جرئ، وأنف حمي، وعزم ذكي، وبطش [163 ب] قوي، ورأي بالصواب وري.

The kings of Hind and its notables [and the companies of ascetics who held property there] had kept it as a treasury for the greatest idol, and generation after generation they had brought to it kinds of treasures and precious jewels, light in weight but heavy in value and price when appraised, as an act of worship — so they claimed — for what would bring them good and draw them near to God. There the Sultan came upon the crow's date and the cream of the ages: what the backs of camels could not carry, nor the vessels of loads contain, nor the hands of scribes record, nor the thought of reckoners comprehend. He mustered his troops against it, planted his standards around it, and set about fighting its guardians with a bold heart, a proud nose, a keen resolve, a strong grip [163b] and an opinion that kindled rightly.

25.4

ولما رأى القوم غصص تلك الجبال بمغاوير الجنود، وتطاير النبال صعدا كشرر الوقود، استفزهم الرعب والوجل، وألوى بأحلامهم الخوف والوهل، فتخيلت أبصارهم تلك الرتوق فتوقا، وهاتيك السدود فروجا، والسكور بثوقا. وسحرتهم دولة السلطان، فهرتهم كلاب الإدبار والخذلان، وأعيتهم وجوه الأمن والأمان إلا من جانب الاستئمان، فتنادوا جميعا بشعار السلطان، وفتحوا باب القلعة، وجعلوا يتساقطون على الأرض للأمان كالعصافير أخرجتها البواشق، والغيوث جاد بها الغيوم البوارق. وفتح الله تلك القلعة على السلطان فتحا يسيرا، وأتاه من لدنه صنعا كبيرا، وأغنمه مل ء منفرج النفوس من بنات المعادن والبحور، وزاينات القمم والنحور.

When those people saw those mountains choked with raiding troops and the arrows flying upward like sparks of a fire, terror and dread overwhelmed them and fear and panic carried off their wits, so that their eyes imagined those closed places to be breaches, those barriers to be gaps, and those dams to be bursts. The Sultan's fortune bewitched them, the dogs of retreat and abandonment howled at them, and every way to safety and security failed them except the path of seeking quarter. So they all cried out together the Sultan's battle-cry, opened the castle gate, and began to drop to the ground for quarter like sparrows driven out by sparrowhawks, or rains poured forth by lightning-flashing clouds. God opened that castle to the Sultan with an easy conquest, granted him from Himself a great work, and gave him as spoils what filled the expanse of souls, of the daughters of mines and seas and the adornments of heads and throats.

25.5

ودخلها مع والي الجوزجان أبي نصر أحمد بن محمد الفريغوني وسائر خاصته، ووكل حاجبيه الكبيرين: التونتاش وآسغ تكين بخزائن العين والورق، وسائر ذوات الأخطار والقيم، وتوكل بنفسه بخزانة الجوهر، فنقل منها ما أقلته ظهور جماله ، واستحمل سائرها أعيان [164 أ] رجاله. وكان مبلغ المنقول من الورق سبعين ألف ألف درهم شاهية، ومن الذهبيات والفضيات سبعمائة ألف وأربعمائة من وزنا، ومن أصناف الثياب التسترية، والدبابيج السوسية ما أنطق مشايخ الزمان، والطاعنين في الأسنان أنه لا عهد لهم بأمثالها صنعة ، وتفويفا ، وتوريقا وتلطيفا. وفي جملة الموجود بيت من الفضة البيضاء كفاء بيوت الأغنياء طوله ثلاثون ذراعا في عرض خمسة عشر ذراعا صفائح مضروبة مهيأة للطي والنشر، والنصب والحط. وشراع من ديباج الروم أربعون ذراعا في عرض عشرين ذراعا، بقائمتين من ذهب، وأخريين من سبيكة فضة.

He entered it together with the governor of al-Jūzjān, Abū Naṣr Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Farīghūnī, and the rest of his intimates, and he put his two senior chamberlains, Altūntāsh and Āsightigin, in charge of the treasuries of gold and silver and of all the other objects of rank and value, while he himself took charge of the treasury of jewels. He carried off from it as much as the backs of his camels could bear, and had the leading men [164a] of his troops carry the rest. The amount of silver removed came to seventy million Shāhī dirhams, and of gold and silver vessels seven hundred thousand four hundred mann in weight; and of the various kinds of Tustarī cloths and Sūsī brocades so much that the elders of the age and those advanced in years declared that they had never known their like in workmanship, striping, floral patterning and fineness. Among what was found was a house of pure silver, the equal of the houses of the wealthy, thirty cubits long and fifteen cubits wide, made of beaten plates fitted to be folded and unfolded, set up and taken down; and a canopy of Byzantine brocade, forty cubits long and twenty cubits wide, with two poles of gold and two others of cast silver.

25.6

ووكل السلطان بتلك القلعة من ثقاته من يراعيها، ويؤدي أمانة الاستحفاظ فيها.

The Sultan placed in charge of that fortress some of his trusted men to watch over it and to discharge faithfully the trust of guarding it.

25.7

وكر عائدا إلى غزنة في ضمان النصر والإظهار، وقران اليسر واليسار. ولما مست عصاه جانب القرار بها، أمر بساحة داره ففرشت بتلك الجواهر، فمن درر كالنجوم الثواقب، قد سلمت عن أيدي الثواقب، ومن يواقيت كالجمر قبل الخمود، أو الخمر بعد الجمود، ومن زبرجد كأطراف الآس نضارة، أو ورق الأقحوان غضارة، ومن قطاع الماس كمثاقيل الرمان في المقادير [164 ب] والأوزان. واجتمعت وفود الأطراف على إدراك ما لم يرو في كتب الأولين اجتماع مثله لأحد من صناديد القروم، وملوك العجم والروم. وحضر ذلك المشهد رسل طغان خان ملك الترك أخي أيلك، فرأوا ما لم تره العيون، ولم تبلغه الظنون، ولم يملكه قارون، صنع الله الذي أمره إذا أراد شيئا أن يقول له كن فيكون .

He turned back to Ghazna under the warrant of victory and triumph, in the company of ease and wealth. When his staff touched the ground of rest there, he ordered the courtyard of his palace to be spread with those jewels: pearls like piercing stars, which had escaped the hands of the piercers; rubies like embers before they die down, or wine after it has congealed; emeralds like the tips of myrtle in freshness, or chamomile leaves in lushness; and pieces of diamond like pomegranates in size [164b] and weight. Delegations from the outlying lands gathered to behold what the books of the ancients do not record having been gathered for any of the mightiest chiefs, or the kings of the Persians and the Byzantines. Present at that spectacle were the envoys of Ṭughān Khān, king of the Turks and brother of Ilek, and they saw what eyes had never seen, what conjecture had never reached, and what Qārūn had never possessed: the handiwork of God, whose command, when He wills a thing, is but to say to it "Be", and it is.