التاريخ اليميني 23.1

23.1

News had reached the Sultan Yamīn al-Dawla wa-Amīn al-Milla of the state of the governor of Multan, Abū al-Futūḥ: the wickedness of his creed, the corruption of his inner disposition, the filth of his belief, the ugliness of his heresy, and his summoning the people of his land to the like of his opinion. He took offence on behalf of religion at leaving him alone despite the enormity of his evil and the hideousness of his affair. He sought guidance of God, the Chooser, in his intent, to bring him to repentance and to give precedence to God's judgement in falling upon him. He ordered the outlying forces gathered, the skirts tucked up, and horses massed upon horses. There joined him those volunteers of the Muslims for whom God had sealed good works and whom He had honoured from eternity with one of the two best things. He set out with them toward Multan when spring surged with the torrents of the rain-stars and the rivers overflowed with surplus moisture, and the Sīḥūn and its sister rivers were impassable to their riders and their courses hard for their people. So the Sultan asked Andpāl, the great one of Hind, to grant him passage through his kingdom to his destination; but he refused and rebelled, pride seized him in his baseness, and he declined and held firm.