التاريخ اليميني 46.31

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.

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.