As there was in me ambition for rule and desire of conquest, I did not sit at gaze when once or twice an affair had made no progress. Now I myself, thinking to make another move for [Sidenote: Fol. 56.] Andijān, went to ask The Khān's help. Over and above this, it was seven or eight years since I had seen Shāh Begīm[424] and other relations; they also were seen under the same pretext. After a few days, The Khān appointed Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥusain (_Dūghlāt_) and Ayūb _Begchīk_ and Jān-ḥasan _Bārīn_ with 7 or 8000 men to help us. With this help we started, rode light, through Khujand without a halt, left Kand-i-badām on the left and so to Nasūkh, 9 or 10 _yīghāch_ of road beyond Khujand and 3 _yīghāch_ (12-18 m.) from Kand-i-badām, there set our ladders up and took the fort. It was the melon season; one kind grown here, known as Ismā`īl Shaikhī, has a yellow rind, feels like shagreen leather, has seeds like an apple's and flesh four fingers thick. It is a wonderfully delicate melon; no other such grows thereabout. Next day the Mughūl begs represented to me, 'Our fighting men are few; to what would holding this one fort lead on?' In truth they were right; of what use was it to make that fort fast and stay there? Back once more to Khujand! (_f. Affairs of Khusrau Shāh and the Tīmūrid Mīrzās_.)[425] This year Khusrau Shāh, taking Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā with him, led his army (from Qūndūz) to Chaghānīān and with false and treacherous intent, sent this message to Ḥiṣār for Sl. Mas`ūd Mīrzā, 'Come, betake yourself to Samarkand; if [Sidenote: Fol. 56b.] Samarkand is taken, one Mīrzā may seat himself there, the other in Ḥiṣār.' Just at the time, the Mīrzā's begs and household were displeased with him, because he had shewn excessive favour to his father-in-law, Shaikh `Abdu'l-lāh _Barlās_ who from Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā had gone to him. Small district though Ḥiṣār is, the Mīrzā had made the Shaikh's allowance 1,000 _tūmāns_ of _fulūs_[426] and had given him the whole of Khutlān in which were the holdings of many of the Mīrzā's begs and household. All this Shaikh `Abdu'l-lāh had; he and his sons took also in whole and in part, the control of the Mīrzā's gate. Those angered began, one after the other, to desert to Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā.