حبیب السیر 5.4

5.4

Khalaf retired into the fort of Tak, which, in strength and inaccessibility, was the envy of the arch of the turquoise-coloured sky. The Sultan having fixed his standard of victory outside the fort, his troops in one day cut down so many trees that they filled up the ditch of the fort, and made it level with the ground. Picked troops of the Sultan had tied up their girdles for the demolition of the fort, when Khalaf, reduced to the extremity of despair, craved quarter, and Yaminu-d daula having put back the sword of vengeance into its scabbard, Khalaf ran out of the fort, and threw himself on the ground before the horse of Mahmud, and rubbing his white beard on the horse's hoof, he called him by the title of Sultan. Yaminu-d daula was so excessively pleased with this appellation, that he spared Khalaf's life, and insisted always on the word Sultan forming part of his title. Yaminu-d daula having brought into the court of confiscation all the treasures and hidden valuables of Khalaf, sent him to one of the forts of Juzjan, and the life of Khalaf terminated, as has been before delineated, in the prison assigned to him by Mahmud.