التاريخ اليميني 46.30-31

46.30

فعلم أن الرجل قد نصحه، وأنه إن خالف الحق فضحه، فسرب أثقاله وأفياله، وخزائنه وأمواله، نحو جبال تناغي كواكب الجوزاء، وآجام تواري خد الأرض عن عين السماء. وورى بوجه مقصده فلم يدر أين سار، وإلى أي الأقطار طار. أمتطى الليل أم اقتعد النهار؟!

He knew that the man had advised him well, and that if he went against the truth it would disgrace him. So he sent off his baggage and elephants, his treasuries and wealth, towards mountains that whisper to the stars of Gemini and thickets that hide the face of the earth from the eye of heaven. He concealed the direction of his goal, so that no one knew where he had gone or to which region he had flown: had he ridden the night or mounted the day?!

Chand Rai considered that Bhimpal had given him sound advice, and that danger was to be incurred by acting contrary to his suggestions. So he departed secretly with his property, elephants, and treasure, to the hill country, which was exceedingly lofty, hiding himself in the jungles which the sun could not penetrate, and concealing even the direction of his flight, so that there was no knowing whither he was gone, or whether he had sped by night or day. The object of Bhimpal in recommending the flight of Chand Rai was, that the Rai should not fall into the net of the Sultan, and thus be made a Musulman, as had happened to Bhimpal's uncle and relations, when they demanded quarter in their distress. The Sultan invested and captured the fort, notwithstanding its strength and height. Here he got plenty of supplies and booty, but he did not obtain the real object of his desire, which was to seize Chand Rai, and which he now determined to effect by proceeding in pursuit of him. Accordingly, after marching fifteen parasangs through the forest, which was so thorny that the faces of his men were scarified and bloody, and through stony tracts which battered and injured the horses' shoes, he at last came up to his enemy, shortly before midnight on the 25th of Sha'ban (6th January, 1019 A.D). They had travelled over high and low ground without any marked road, not like merchants of Hazramaut travelling at ease with their mantles around them.

46.31

وكان غرض النصيح المظلوم في تهريبه وتغريبه إشفاقه من حبالة الاقتناص، فيسام من كلمة الإسلام ما سيم أعمامه وأقاربه من قبل حين اضطروا إلى الاستئمان والاستسلام. فلما أحاط السلطان بتلك القلعة وافتتحها، على حصانة قواعدها، ومناعة مراقيها ومصاعدها، وتوسع منها في ثراء كثير، ومال على اختلاف أصنافه خطير، لم يهنه الموجود، وقد فاته الكافر المقصود، وضاقت به الأرض دون طلبه، وانتزاعه من يد مهربه، فاقتص أثره ركضا نحو خمسة عشر فرسخا بين منابت أشجار تصك الوجوه فتدميها، ومساقط [226 أ] أحجار تصدم الحوافر فتحفيها. ولحق القوم ليلة الأحد لخمس بقين من شعبان وقت العتمة، وهم يطوون مجاهل الأرض هبوطا وصعودا ولا طي التجار بحضرموت برودا.

The aim of the wronged adviser in making him flee and go far away was his fear of the snare of capture, lest [Chand Rāy] be made to take up the word of Islam as his uncles and kinsmen had been made to before, when they were forced to seek quarter and surrender. When the Sultan surrounded that fortress and conquered it, despite the strength of its foundations and the impregnability of its ascents and approaches, and gained from it great riches and wealth of every kind and of high value, what he found did not please him, since the infidel he sought had escaped him, and the earth grew narrow for him short of pursuing him and wresting him from the shelter of his flight. So he followed his tracks at a gallop some fifteen farsakhs, through growths of trees that strike faces and draw blood, and falls of stones that batter hooves and wear them down. He overtook the people on Sunday night, the twenty-fifth of Shaʿbān, at nightfall, as they were traversing the trackless land, descending and ascending, more busily than the merchants of Ḥaḍramawt fold their cloaks.