He had many concubines and mistresses. His most honoured concubine (_mu`atabar ghūma_) was Zuhra Begī Āghā; she was taken in his father's life-time and became the mother of one son and one daughter. He had many mistresses and, as has been said, two of his daughters were by two of them. _h. His amirs._ Khusrau Shāh was of the Turkistānī Qīpchāqs. He had been in the intimate service of the Tarkhān begs, indeed had been a catamite. Later on he became a retainer of Mazīd Beg (Tarkhān) _Arghūn_ who favoured him in all things. He was favoured by Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā on account of services done by him when, after the `Irāq disaster, he joined the Mīrzā on his way to Khurāsān. He waxed very great in his latter days; his retainers, under Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā, were a clear five or six thousand. Not only Badakhshān but the whole country from the Amū to the Hindū-kush Mountains depended on him and he devoured its whole revenue (_darobast yīr īdī_). His open table was good, so too his open hand; though he was a rough getter,[257] what he got, he spent liberally. He waxed exceeding great after Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā's death, in whose sons' time his retainers approached 20,000. Although he prayed and abstained from forbidden aliments, yet was he black-souled and vicious, [Sidenote: Fol. 29.] dunder-headed and senseless, disloyal and a traitor to his salt. For the sake of this fleeting, five-days world,[258] he blinded one of his benefactor's sons and murdered another. A sinner before God, reprobate to His creatures, he has earned curse and execration till the very verge of Resurrection. For this world's sake he did his evil deeds and yet, with lands so broad and with such hosts of armed retainers, he had not pluck to stand up to a hen. An account of him will come into this history. Pīr-i-muḥammad _Aīlchī-būghā[259] Qūchīn_ was another. In Hazārāspī's fight[260] he got in one challenge with his fists in Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā's presence at the Gate of Balkh. He was a brave man, continuously serving the Mīrzā (Maḥmūd) and guiding him by his counsel. Out of rivalry to Khusrau Shāh, he made a night-attack when the Mīrzā was besieging Qūndūz, on Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā, with few men, without arming[261] and without plan; he could do nothing; what was there he could do against such and so large a force? He was pursued, threw himself into the river and was drowned. Ayūb (_Begchīk Mughūl_)[262] was another. He had served in Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā's Khurāsān Cadet Corps, a brave man, Bāīsunghar Mīrzā's guardian. He was choice in dress and food; a jester and talkative, nicknamed Impudence, perhaps because the Mīrzā called him so. [Sidenote: Fol. 29b.]