التاريخ اليميني 25.4

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.

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.