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التاريخ اليميني 34

English (machine translation) 34

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English

34.1

When the Sultan Yamīn al-Dawla wa-Amīn al-Milla had cleared out the regions of Hind as far as places no banner of Islam had ever reached and where no sūra or verse had ever been recited, washing them clean of the filth of polytheism, dispelling from them the gloom of unbelief, and building there mosques in which God's callers stand to give the call to prayer, which is the emblem of faith, he resolved to traverse those lands to the heart of Hind, taking vengeance for God on those who deny His unity and lay their cheek and neck down in worship of rivals set up beside Him, the Exalted, and making judges over them swords forged on the pattern of Islam, tempered in the water of faith, kept in the scabbard of God's religion, and drawn by the hands of the good and righteous among God's friends. So he summoned the men, distributed money, made his certainty pure, and sought help from the One, the Helper.

34.2

And he set out with everything he had, in the dark of night, [and that was in the year 404].

34.3

He marched at the end of autumn, trusting in the mild weather in the south, but it happened, as he pushed into those lands, that snows fell the like of which had never been known before; they blocked the passes of those mountains, levelled valley floors and hills, and the face of the air grew so grim that it affected hooves and camels' feet, let alone bare heads and limbs. The highways were lost, so that right could not be told from left, nor front from back. Circumstances forced him to turn back until God should permit setting out a second time; for everything there is a fixed limit and an extended term.

34.4

The Sultan then set about renewing equipment and gear, completing provisions and supplies, and summoning the leading ghāzīs from the borders of the lands, until, when the equipment and the numbers were complete, and the necklace vied with its sisters in its unique pearl, and people had gathered like autumn cloud-wisps, spread out from every side and urged and mustered from every quarter, and spring came with its pleasant noontide rest and the mild coolness of morning and evening, he sought God's guidance about departing, and marched like the green sea lashed by whirlwinds, like a decree the fates do not avoid. The wild beasts of the earth became captive and the birds of the sky subdued; had the earth had feeling, it would have groaned from the weight of iron and the heavy tread. He drove the heroes on lean, long-necked steeds, and sent ahead of him guides to find the way through the depths of those lands, where neither does the sun rise over them, nor do the stars move straight or retrograde among them. He drove the mounts for two months between rivers of unfathomed depths and far-apart banks, and through deserts in whose expanses herds of gazelles lose their way and in whose sandy wastes flocks of sparrows are bewildered, until, when he neared his goal, he arrayed the horse in squadrons, sorted them into bands, ranged them in troops, and divided them into vanguards and detachments. He set his brother the Amīr Naṣr ibn Nāṣir al-Dīn on the right wing with the armoured warriors among the commanders and the defenders among the picked men; Arslān al-Jādhib on the left wing with the bold, manly warriors and the seasoned stallions; and he put Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ṭāʾī over the vanguard with the firebrands of the Arabs, men who never leave the saddle, sons of keen swords. In the centre he placed Altūntāsh the Chamberlain and the rest of his intimates and household slaves, men who, when they lined up, were towering mountains, and when they advanced, gushing torrents. The enemy of God, the king of Hind, got word of them, and in the suddenness of his alarm he fled to the Thakkurs around him and the leading men of his armies and his helpers, and took refuge in a mountain defile narrow of entrance, rough to penetrate, hard to climb and scale, seeking protection by holding back from open combat and guarding himself against the blow of war. He blocked the mouth between the two mountains with his elephants, which onlookers took for sprouting hills and fixed mountains. He sent the call to arms through the borders of his kingdom, rousing anyone who could carry a stone, let alone one who could string a bow or leave a mark with the sword. He drew out the delay so that he might meet [the Sultan's army] with ample strength and complete equipment, or drive God's friends to slacken out of excessive weariness or to turn away from distress of heart; and he did not know that God stands behind the believers, and that God weakens the scheming of the infidels.

34.5

When the Sultan learned of his intention to put off fighting and delay combat, he advanced on the enemy of God, Mighty and Glorious, with hearts polished by the confession of unity, gladdened by the promise and warned by the threat, and he hurled at them the calamity of the Daylamī infantry and the devils of the obedient Afghans, men like death itself, reckless of their lives, humbling the haughty eyes, or like lions driven out by hunger and wearied of returning to their cubs; they pierced the barriers as drills pierce wood or picks pierce walls, scaled the heights like ibexes, and came down from them like descending torrents. He kept them at it for days in succession, drawing [the enemy] out to open ground by the sincerity of his challenge, as fire draws oil and the magnet iron; and whenever they left those narrows, the horsemen picked them off as knights pick off pawns. They remained in this state until most of those allied to the accursed one had joined him, and most of those he called had answered him; and then he massed to come out, his back to the mountain, the elephants about him like peaks. The fighting grew earnest, the clash fierce, the battle hot, subordinate and chief became alike, and the encounter came to hand-to-hand combat: some seizing others by the collar, some pecking like partridges, and blows falling from heads down to hamstrings. Whenever the elephants were urged on to terrify and overawe and to crush with hooves and trunks, clouds of javelins rained on them, writhing like spotted serpents, gliding to the pupils of the eyes or the hollows of the throats. The infidel saw the place of Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ṭāʾī in effectiveness and his fierceness in shedding blood, so he made for him with the toughest and best-armed of those with him, until they wounded him heavily with blows on the head and battered him front and back, while he, like a stubborn horse, stood firm, not tiring of the honour of his post nor flagging in striking with his sword, freely offering his life in support of the religion and obedience to the Lord of the worlds.

34.6

The Sultan saw the infidels bearing down on him, and reinforced him with a troop of his intimates to rescue him; they brought him out to the Sultan slashed by the swords and dotted by the spearheads like letters [with their dots]. He ordered an elephant for him, on whose movement he might rest his limbs from the pain of his wounds, and it became his property, distinguishing him from the notables of his army.

34.7

The battle went on as it was until God sent the wind of victory blowing for His champions and turned the wheel of misfortune upon His enemies. The swords of truth seized them, cutting them down at every pass and bend of a valley, every entrance and cave, every trackless stretch and beacon. The elephants they had prepared as protecting fortresses were taken from them and became for them a lasting calamity. [190a] God bestowed upon the Sultan and his men spoils that washed hearts clean of the rust of envy, since all shared in the wealth they sought and were equal in the sufficiency of what was found. God conquered Nārdīn by a conquest with which He embroidered the rites of Islam, for the banner of truth had not reached it from the time of the Prophet, God bless him and grant him peace, until the time of the Sultan Yamīn al-Dawla wa-Amīn al-Milla: a glory God decreed for him by his hand, and a deed for which God granted him success and ease from Himself.

34.8

In a great idol-temple a carved stone was found whose inscription indicated that it had been built forty thousand years ago. The Sultan marvelled at the ignorance of those people, since the people of the radiant Law and of the truth sent down from heaven hold that the duration of the world is seven thousand years, and that we are in its last millennium, and all the signs of the Hour supported by the traditions are present, witnessed by the eyes' sight and the hearts' insight. He sought a ruling on it from the leading jurists and scholars, and all agreed in rejecting [what was understood from] that inscription and in declaring false such testimonies of rocks.

34.9

The Sultan returned with those great spoils behind him; the number of slaves, male and female, almost exceeded the number of the common people. The price of slaves fell so low that those in humble trades, not to mention [190b] the commoners above them, acquired a number of those fine slaves. That is the bounty of God, by which He exalted the religion and abased heresy and the heretics. Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds.

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