التاريخ اليميني 34.5

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.