[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Foreign](https://indike.org/pramana/inf) › [Islamic world](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl) › [Arabic](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar) › [History](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh) › [التاريخ اليميني](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini) › [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt) › 46 # التاريخ اليميني 46 English (machine translation) 46 - **Language:** English ### [46.1](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.1) When the Sultan Yamīn al-Dawla wa-Amīn al-Milla had finished the affair of Khwārazm, which had been joined, like one of its sisters, to the rest of his realms adorned with the marks of his rule and streaked with the colours of his justice and care, he decided to seal the page of the year with the stamp of completion, resting the mounts and riders and turning over in his heart the plan of a raid. So he turned to Bust, like the sun that has inclined to the north and passed the point of the equinox, the world there \[being\] like the borders of silk cloaks, or the ten-verse markers of Qurʾāns, or necklaces on throats, or the breasts of maidens come of age. He administered its affairs and deliberated over what would best protect it, until God permitted him to return to Ghazna, raising clouds of thought about a raid that would confirm the inimitability of the Qurʾān in what it contains of the promise of God the Bountiful to make His religion, restored through the lord of mankind, master of desert and town, Muḥammad, crown of creation and lamp in the darkness, God bless him and grant him peace, and his family, the choicest of the noble and righteous, prevail over all religion, even if souls be vexed, cheeks abased, and noses rubbed in the dust. ### [46.2](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.2) And after the distance had grown far for him and for the helpers of God's religion marching under his banner by the light of his guidance, since Hind had been pared away at \[219b\] its extremities and edges by captive-taking and plunder, and its plains and ravines had been taken from their masters, nothing remained but what the heart of Qashmīr concealed, before which lay wastes deaf to every eerie sound and whistle, in which the very envoys of the winds lose their way except with a guide. ### [46.3](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.3) It happened that some twenty thousand volunteer warriors gathered to him from the nearest lands of Transoxiana to its farthest borders, having laid their swords upon their shoulders, seeking reward for holy war, volunteering in the cause of God for martyrdom. They sought the hand of Paradise with the dowry of their souls, and bargained for forgiveness with the edges of their broad swords. The Sultan stirred their mobilisation, and their cries of "God is greatest" roused the souls of the Muslims. His judgement required that he advance with them to Qanūj, which had defeated the kings of the past except Kushtāsb, according to what the Magians claim—he being the champion among his peers and, by their claim, the king of kings in his time. So he set out, though between Ghazna, the seat of the kingdom, and the territory of Qanūj lay a journey of three months at the pace of long-necked mounts and black camels. ### [46.4](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.4) He sought his Lord's guidance and set out, forsaking sleep and rest, taking with him those of the helpers of God's religion and the supporters of God's right who were present—men who plunged into the jaws of death out of longing for the felicity of martyrdom and eagerness for the promised good reward and more. He crossed the waters of the Sīḥūn, the Jaylam, the Chandrāha, the Īrāya, the Bayt Hurz and the Shataldar, safe among the safe. These are rivers whose depths are beyond description and whose banks are inaccessible to rafts; some of them submerge the withers of elephants, so how much more the shoulders of horses! And they roll heavy rocks along, so how much more light riding beasts and mounts! This was God's doing for one who was loyal to Him and risked his life in the continual pursuit of His good pleasure. ### [46.5](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.5) He set foot in no kingdom of those kingdoms but an envoy came to him, laying down the cheek of obedience and offering in service the utmost of capability, until Janki ibn Samhī, lord of the pass of Qashmīr, came to him, knowing that he was God's emissary, whom nothing satisfies but Islam accepted or the sword notched \[in battle\]. He declared his servitude with ready good fortune and undertook to guide him the rest of the way. He began to march before him as a guide, crossing valley after valley. Whenever midnight came, the beating of drums announced the march, and God's friends mounted the backs of their horses, enduring the toil of galloping and travelling until the sun of the next day inclined toward setting, until he reached the river Jūn on the twentieth of Rajab in the year 409. ### [46.6](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.6) He continued conquering strongholds and fortresses built on the peaks of mountains and the edges of summits, so high that long necks ached whenever the eyes gazed up at them, until he came face to face with the fortress of Baran in the province of Hardab, who was one of the Rāys—that is, kings in the language of Hind. He looked out over the land and saw it surging with the helpers of God's right, marked with helmets above them and angels around them. His foot slipped, and he feared that his blood would be made lawful; so he decided to shield himself from God's might by Islam, now that its blades had been drawn and its banners unfurled with the fringes of punishment. He came down with about ten thousand men proclaiming the creed of Islam and freeing themselves from the allegiance of idols. God fulfilled His promise and in His grace granted good fortune to them and to him. ### [46.7](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.7) Then his swift march carried him on to the fortress of Kulchand, who was one of the chiefs of the devils and the notables of those accursed ones. He presumed upon kings with unyielding might and looked at the champions with a disdainful glance. He had spent most of his life in unbelief, and through the awe of his kingship and the breadth of his power had been spared the trouble of using his swords and spears. No one had attacked him without turning back from him in fetters, his resolve undone. \[He had\] a mighty position, great wealth, strong men and a multitude of elephants, secure strongholds and fortresses, and a kingdom guarded from the ambitions of men and from the aims of weakness and breach. When he saw that the Sultan had set out against him and had bent his full effort to fighting him, he drew up his elephants and horses behind thickets so dense that, were single needles thrown into them, the ground would shield itself from them with the leaves of thorns and trees. The Sultan set some of his army's vanguard against him, and they rushed upon them, piercing those jungles as combs pierce the roots of hair—or rather as awls pierce the holes of leather straps. ### [46.8](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.8) A path presented itself to the Sultan from above the said fortress, and its people were struck only by the green sea \[of the army\], by "God is greatest," and by swords that leave nothing and spare nothing. They stood firm for the fight, seeking death, and urged one another to die, fighting desperately, while the swords took them from above and in front and carved them between flesh and bone. Their charges followed one upon another like the joints of a spear-shaft, and their blows came in succession like pouring rain; yet it is God, who sent down iron with its mighty power, who, if He wills, makes it cut, and if He wills, makes it rebound and fail. ### [46.9](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.9) Thus the swords of Hind: their edges glance off, / and at times they cut the cord on which the necklaces hang. ### [46.10](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.10) If they wound God's friends, it is for the reward of martyrdom and the recompense of the hereafter; and if they glance off, it is to display \[His\] miraculous power and to manifest an admonition, so that it may be known that judgement belongs to God over everyone forsaken and protected, guarded and broken. ### [46.11](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.11) The forsaken ones kept whispering among themselves, having seen their own swords glance off while the swords of the people of truth cut into them, their charges feeble while the charges of the people of religion came first and second: "These are not of the race of men nor of the throngs of humankind. Alas! The stroke of iron cuts even into mountains, yet it makes no cut in these heroes." When the form of their tyranny appeared to them in the shape of defeat, they urged one another to plunge into the swollen waters behind them, thinking these would shield them from the force of vengeance and protect them from the cup of death. Do they not see that unbelief does not guide its path, and that God destroys by His many what His few bring to life! No wonder, then, that the sheets of water joined the blades of the multitude: they were slain and taken captive in great numbers, and they were drowned and then made to enter the Fire. The number of the slain and the drowned may well have exceeded fifty thousand, who became food for vultures and hyenas and sustenance for crocodiles and fish. ### [46.12](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.12) Kulchand took his dagger, killed his wife with it, then turned and made himself follow her with it. God granted the Sultan as spoils one hundred and eighty-five huge elephants, in addition to everything else that fell under the rule of plunder, of God's great blessings and His abundant portions. ### [46.13](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.13) When those wars had laid down their burdens and the spoils had undone their buttons for him, he turned his rein toward the bank of the city that bears the name of the place of worship, namely Mahrat al-Hind, to view its buildings, which its people claim to be the work of jinn rather than of men: marvels of foundations and roofs, wonders of middles and edges. He saw what runs contrary to custom, and whose reporters would need witnesses, nay, eyewitness sight. A city whose wall was built of solid rock, with two gates opening from it onto the water that surrounds it, its buildings set upon lofty hills to protect them from the harm of floods and the raids of the sky's rains. On its two sides stood a thousand palaces, like the other buildings in solidity, containing idol-temples whose joints were fitted together with nails flush with the surfaces of the masonry, hiding the grooves behind them out of sight. In the centre of the city was an idol-temple that matched its sisters or surpassed them, and kept pace with its peers, nay, was more finely wrought; neither scribes with the pens of the inkwell nor painters with the tips of their brushes could achieve its like in beauty and adornment, and in carvings that dazzle the eyes with their brilliance. \[222 b\] ### [46.14](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.14) Among what the Sultan wrote was that if anyone wished to build the equal of such buildings, he would be unable to do so though he spent a hundred thousand thousand dirhams over a period of two hundred years at the hands of accomplished workmen and magician-like masters. ### [46.15](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.15) Among the idols were five of red gold, beaten, standing five cubits high in the air. Into the two eyes of one of them two rubies had been set; had their like been offered to the Sultan, he would have bought them for fifty thousand dinars, thinking it cheap, and would have made no stipulation of liability or warranty. On another was a piece of blue ruby more lustrous than limpid water and radiant splendour, weighing four hundred and fifty mithqāls. The two feet of one of the said idols weighed four thousand four hundred mithqāls. ### [46.16](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.16) The total of gold obtained from the bodies of the standing figures was ninety-eight thousand three hundred mithqāls. The silver ones exceeded two hundred pieces, which could not be weighed until they were broken up and placed on the pans of the scales. Then the Sultan gave orders concerning the rest of the idol-temples, and they were struck with naphtha and fire, and their roofs were made places for feet to tread. ### [46.17](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.17) Then he pressed onward, making for Qanauj, having drawn an omen \[223 a\] for himself from its misreading as "futūḥ" (conquests), and counting it a favour granted by God. He left the bulk of the army behind him, to tempt Rājaypāl, its king, to stand firm because of the lightness of the press, and to make the prospect of flight seem shameful to him before the encounter; for the amīrs of Hind, for all the stoutness of their necks and the strength of their resources and followers, were obedient to the Rāy of Qanauj, glorying in his station and beguiled by the grandeur of his standing. He passed no fortress among the fortresses of those regions without levelling it to the ground and offering its people Islam or the sword, and he took captives, plunder and desirable riches beyond what the fingers of reckoning could count. ### [46.18](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.18) On the eighth of Shaʿbān he reached Qanauj, which Rājaypāl had abandoned on hearing of his advance—the abandonment of one who sees no disgrace in flight and counts no infamy in it as shame. The Sultan crossed the water called the Gang, whose worth and nobility the Hindus extol, and whose source they believe to be the spring of eternity in heaven. If one of them dies and is burned, they scatter \[his ashes\] with his bones in it, and think it a purification for his sins. Sometimes an ascetic comes to it from afar and drowns himself in it, believing that this will save him, whereas in this world it destroys him, and in the next it will roast him in fire and disgrace him, and then neither let him die nor live. ### [46.19](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.19) The Sultan \[223 b\] then went through the fortresses of Qanauj, and they proved to be seven, set on the said water like the swollen sea. In them were nearly ten thousand idol-temples, which the polytheists claim have been handed down for two hundred thousand to three hundred thousand years—a lie and a falsehood, a sinful saying, a departure from the paths of guidance and an act of unbelief. According to their antiquity was their worship of them and their tearful pleading with them in prayer. Most of their people had fled from them for fear of widowhood and orphanhood and of the punishment that would befall their deaf and dumb gods; so some escaped, rescued by their flight, and some stayed, destroyed by their staying, neither their earth nor their heaven saving them from the swords of truth. He conquered them all in a single day, then gave them over to the men of his army to plunder freely and lawfully, and to take turns subduing and humbling them. ### [46.20](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.20) From there he galloped to the fortress of Munj, known as the fortress of the Brahmins, an untamed tribe of rebels who never desist from mischief in those lands. They stood firm for the clash like ascending demons and rebellious devils of smokeless fire, until, when steadfastness failed them and escape was beyond them, and they knew they had no strength against the Muslims and that their blood would without doubt be shed, they flung themselves from the chambers of the walls and the battlements of the buildings onto the points of spears and the edges of swords, making light of their souls and lives and submitting to the decree of God that had been ordained. Inevitably the swords gave the earth their blood to drink and fed the vultures their limbs. Thus are the fates like in-laws: whoever asks for their hand finds no refusal, and they find no escape from marrying him. ### [46.21](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.21) Immediately after that he set out toward the fortress of Āsī, whose lord, known as Chandbāl Bhūr, was one of the fangs of the Hindus and masters of armies. He had ever possessed strength in rule and abundance in possessions; the Rāy of Qanauj had opposed him as a rival and drawn out war with him, fighting and battling, but achieved nothing beyond wearying his own men and retreating in failure. This fortress was surrounded by thickets, dense like the manes of steeds and intertwined like the hair of mourners. Among them the snakes do not answer the charmers, and there the full moon gives no light to night travellers. It was encircled by moats of deep excavation and wide circuit, encircling it as Taurus encircles the Pleiades, so that there is no opening from them and no turning aside for it beyond them. ### [46.22](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.22) When the said \[ruler\] perceived the Sultan advancing on him with the stars of his state and the mounts of his host, excess of fear robbed him of his heart; he felt his pulse, and it was the tail of a mouse. He saw death opening wide its mouth, and could do nothing but turn his back on it. He ordered his fortress to be uprooted from its foundations and rendered ruinous for \[224 b\] anyone who should presently seek to occupy it. ### [46.23](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.23) \[The Sultan\] followed his tracks with the demons among his supporters, plundering and taking spoils, killing and taking captives, until the unbelievers knew that it was they who were the losers. ### [46.24](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.24) The forsaken one had thought that his helpers were the bold warriors of the cavalry troops, the defenders of the grey steeds and the archers of the battalions, until he saw the Sultan's army among those mountain passes, and their traces left by lances, cutting swords and bows that rained like clouds; then he knew that the stroke of one who plays differs from the stroke of a vengeful victor, and that the bow of the cotton-carder is not the bow of the archer. When the Sultan had settled the affair of Jandbāl and made him taste an incurable malady in his flight, he turned upon Chand Rāy—one of the great men of Hind, in the fortress of Sharwa—who supposed that the poet meant him when he said: ### [46.25](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.25) I sneezed with a lofty nose, and my hands / reached the Pleiades while I sat, not standing ### [46.26](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.26) He had carried himself so \[high\] that he would not yield his halter to another, nor grow accustomed to any habit but self-exaltation. ### [46.27](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.27) In days gone by there had been skirmishes between him and Barūjībāl in which they contended over the very threads of their necks; these lasted until they had cut down men and wiped out heroes, champion after champion. Then the game of war between them came to a standstill, and they were compelled to make a truce and hold back from one another, to spare blood and safeguard their borders. ### [46.28](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.28) Barūjībāl asked him for his daughter's hand for his son Bhīmpāl, to make their friendship lasting, remove division, ward off mischief and keep the swords in their scabbards. He sent his son to him on the understanding that the marriage contract would be concluded, with the condition of intertwining in kinship and sharing in house and fortune. But when the son-in-law came into his hands, he put him under thong and fetter and demanded of him compensation for what he had lost at his father's hands. Barūjībāl was unable to attack his fortress, break open his stronghold and rescue his son from the bondage of his ordeal. Yet the contention between them never ceased until the Sultan's banners appeared over those frontiers, and God's favour to him was revealed in one aim \[after another\]. As for Barūjībāl, he joined Bhūjadīw—one of those who took pride in the strength of their fortresses, the ruggedness of their approaches and the roughness of their heights—to save his life and, as he claimed, to make himself hard to reach for whoever might intend to follow his tracks. As for Chand Rāy, he prepared to resist and gathered his forces to hold out, proud of the solidity of his fortress—though had he stood firm, he would have uprooted it—and presuming on his impregnability—though had he stayed, he would have wrenched him away. ### [46.29](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.29) Bhīmpāl sent him word: "Maḥmūd is not of the kind of the great men of the Hindus and the commanders of their black men. Safety from one like him is to be seized as a prize, and armies are put to flight by his father's name alone. We have seen those stronger than you in authority and higher in hill unable to withstand a single stroke of his blades, or match a single mountain of his troops. If you want disgrace, then go ahead; or if you want deliverance, then conceal your whereabouts as best you can." ### [46.30](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.30) He knew that the man had advised him well, and that if he went against the truth it would disgrace him. So he sent off his baggage and elephants, his treasuries and wealth, towards mountains that whisper to the stars of Gemini and thickets that hide the face of the earth from the eye of heaven. He concealed the direction of his goal, so that no one knew where he had gone or to which region he had flown: had he ridden the night or mounted the day?! ### [46.31](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.31) The aim of the wronged adviser in making him flee and go far away was his fear of the snare of capture, lest \[Chand Rāy\] be made to take up the word of Islam as his uncles and kinsmen had been made to before, when they were forced to seek quarter and surrender. When the Sultan surrounded that fortress and conquered it, despite the strength of its foundations and the impregnability of its ascents and approaches, and gained from it great riches and wealth of every kind and of high value, what he found did not please him, since the infidel he sought had escaped him, and the earth grew narrow for him short of pursuing him and wresting him from the shelter of his flight. So he followed his tracks at a gallop some fifteen farsakhs, through growths of trees that strike faces and draw blood, and falls of stones that batter hooves and wear them down. He overtook the people on Sunday night, the twenty-fifth of Shaʿbān, at nightfall, as they were traversing the trackless land, descending and ascending, more busily than the merchants of Ḥaḍramawt fold their cloaks. ### [46.32](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.32) He called upon the champions of Islam, the sons of prayer and fasting, to pursue them and to don the garment of darkness in hunting them down, trusting in God, the helper of His religion, who decrees the weakening of unbelief. How many were slain there before the heat of iron touched them, and how many captives were bound before the hand of binding! As for the wealth, it lay as a veil before lives and a shield before the edge of weapons and the burning of wounds, and no heed was paid to it, or until souls were satisfied upon the obstinate infidels, the worshippers of the sun and fire. ### [46.33](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.33) The Sultan's men kept following up what the forsaken ones had abandoned for three days in succession, taking it as booty and lawful spoils after the infidels had amassed it unlawfully. As for the elephants, some were overpowered, some driven back, and some came of their own accord to Sultan Maḥmūd, a kindness from God Most High, who grants him spoils of wealth, even driving to him beasts of elephants. No wonder they were named Khudāy-āward ("God-brought"), in thanks to God for inspiring what can only be restrained with goads, and can only be taken in the pastures by deceiving stratagems, to come willingly, abandon the idols and serve religion and Islam. How well he spoke who said: ### [46.34](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.34) Say to the Amīr: you are so served that / the elephant has come to you as a slave ### [46.35](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.35) Glory to Him who gathered in him the virtues, / near and far ### [46.36](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.36) Were he to touch the flanks of the stars, / they would run in quartile aspect as good fortune ### [46.37](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46.37) Or were he to travel the horizon of the sky, / it would sprout blossoms and roses. What was recovered from the treasuries of the fleeing fugitive, in gold and silver, reddish rubies and white unique pearls, amounted to nearly three million dirhams. As for the captives, the witness to their great number and abundant supply is that the price bid for one of them was between two and ten dirhams. That is God's bounty, which He stored up for the days of the Sultan Yamīn al-Dawla wa-Amīn al-Milla, and He is the One able to give him full reward on the Day when the reckoning is held. Praise be to God, the best of the worshipped and praised, and to Him be thanks for gladdening the eye of Muḥammad, God bless him and grant him peace, with Maḥmūd. ## Translations (2) - [Tárikh Yamíní (extracts)](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-elliot.17) — Henry Miers Elliot & John Dowson 1869, English - [The Kitab-i-Yamini](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-reynolds.50.1.5) — James Reynolds 1858, English ## Linked texts (1) - [التاريخ اليميني](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini.46.1) — Abū Naṣr Muḥammad al-ʿUtbī, Arabic --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.isl.ar.tarikh.yamini~en-mt.46) · Pramāṇa