التاريخ اليميني 25.1

25.1

After the Sultan Yamīn al-Dawla wa-Amīn al-Milla had won the two conquests and struck the sparks of the two successes, he turned aside to Ghazna to rest and to devote himself to thanking God for the blessings granted. He stayed there, sharpening his resolve for another campaign by which the bounds of Islam would be raised, the cheeks of the idols rubbed in the dust, and the banners of Satan reversed, along with the saddle he had bound for seduction and the rope he had stretched for error. For the loftiness of his ambition imposed on him what runs contrary [162b] to human nature: finding the soft bed rough, preferring thorns to the bedstring, choosing the clash of spearheads and lances over the plucking of the third and second strings of the lute, and favouring the edges of keen white swords over the cheeks of white-skinned, full-breasted maidens. All this was for glory he would build, renown he would acquire, might he would possess, and striving by and in which he would draw near to God. When the month of Rabīʿ al-Ākhir of the year mentioned had passed, he sought God's guidance in completing what he intended and saddling what he had undertaken to bridle, and set out trusting in God, who had so often fed him with His help [and made His works known to him]. When his march brought him to the bank of Wayhind, Brahmanpāl son of Āndpāl met him with armies surging with black men, in white blades and blue spears, shining coats of mail and dusky elephants. War bared its crooked fangs, and charges followed one another as the gleaming meteors fall and as the driving clouds are hurled along.