When Samarkand was taken the second time, `Alī-sher Beg [Sidenote: Fol. 87.] was alive. We exchanged letters once; on the back of mine to him I wrote one of my Turkī couplets. Before his reply reached me, separations (_tafarqa_) and disturbances (_ghūghā_) had happened.[550] Mullā Binā'ī had been taken into Shaibāq Khān's service when the latter took possession of Samarkand; he stayed with him until a few days after I took the place, when he came into the town to me. Qāsim Beg had his suspicions about him and consequently dismissed him towards Shahr-i-sabz but, as he was a man of parts, and as no fault of his came to light, I had him fetched back. He constantly presented me with odes (_qaṣīda u ghazal_). He brought me a song in the Nawā mode composed to my name and at the same time the following quatrain;—[551] No grain (_ghala_) have I by which I can be fed (_noshīd_); No rhyme of grain (_mallah_, nankeen) wherewith I can be clad (_poshīd_); The man who lacks both food and clothes, In art or science where can he compete (_koshīd_)? In those days of respite, I had written one or two couplets but had not completed an ode. As an answer to Mullā Binā'ī I made up and set this poor little Turkī quatrain;—[552] As is the wish of your heart, so shall it be (_būlghūsīdūr_); For gift and stipend both an order shall be made (_buyurūlghūsīdūr_); I know the grain and its rhyme you write of; The garments, you, your house, the corn shall fill (_tūlghūsīdūr_). The Mullā in return wrote and presented a quatrain to me in [Sidenote: Fol. 87b.] which for his refrain, he took a rhyme to (the _tūlghūsīdūr_ of) my last line and chose another rhyme;— Mīrzā-of-mine, the Lord of sea and land shall be (_yīr būlghūsīdūr_); His art and skill, world o'er, the evening tale shall be (_samar būlghūsīdūr_); If gifts like these reward one rhyming (_or_ pointless) word; For words of sense, what guerdon will there be (_nilār būlghūsīdūr_)? Abū'l-barka, known as _Farāqi_ (Parted), who just then had come to Samarkand from Shahr-i-sabz, said Binā'ī ought to have rhymed. He made this verse;— Into Time's wrong to you quest shall be made (_sūrūlghūsīdūr_); Your wish the Sulṯān's grace from Time shall ask (_qūlghūsīdūr_); O Ganymede! our cups, ne'er filled as yet, In this new Age, brimmed-up, filled full shall be (_tūlghūsīdūr_). Though this winter our affairs were in a very good way and Shaibāq Khān's were on the wane, one or two occurrences were somewhat of a disservice; (1) the Merv men who had taken Qarā-kūl, could not be persuaded to stay there and it went back into the hands of the Aūzbegs; (2) Shaibāq Khān besieged Ibrāhīm Tarkhān's younger brother, Aḥmad in Dabūsī, stormed the place and made a general massacre of its inhabitants before the army we were collecting was ready to march.