The Dabistán, or School of manners, Volume 3 (of 3): translated from the original Persian, with notes and illustrations
Religion
The Dabistán, or School of manners, Volume 3 (of 3): translated from the original Persian, with notes and illustrations
Iran -- Religion; Religions
of the other the latter then to be conducted through the camp, and
afterwards executed. Thus it was done. I remained astonished, and said
to Aglan: “There was no witness to prove the guilt of the Moghuls; as
these two men knew that death awaits them, why have they confessed? If
they had denied, they would have saved themselves.” Aghlan Herbí
replied: “Why art thou astonished? You, Tají Khan, you act in this
way, and tell lies; but, should a thousand lives be at stake, Moghuls
would not utter a lie.”
Jangis Khan raised _Oktáyí Khan_ to the rank of a _Khalif_,
“successor.”[97] _Châtayi Khan_, who was his elder brother, in a
drunken fit dashed his horse against Oktáyi Khan, and then hurried
away. When he became sober, he reflected upon the danger which would
ensue from his act, and that the foundation of the monarchy might be
destroyed in consequence of it; therefore, presenting himself as a
criminal, he said to his brother: “How could a man like me presume to
measure himself with the King, and dash his horse against him!
Therefore I am guilty, and confess my crime. Put me to death, or use
the whip against me: you are the judge.” Oktáyi replied: “A miserable
like myself, what place should he take? You are the master: what am
I?――that is, you are the elder, I the younger, brother.” Finally,
Chengháyi, presenting him nine horses, said: “I offer this as a
grateful acknowledgment that the King did not exercise his justice
towards me, and that he forgives my crime.”
When _Oktáyí Khan_ dispatched _Jermághún_, a commander of a district
furnishing ten thousand men, with an army of thirty thousand warriors,
to reduce the sultan _Jelal eddin_,[98] king of Khárazim, at the time
of the breaking up of the army, he said to one of the Omrás, who was
subordinate to Jermaghún: “The great affair of Jelal eddin in thy hand
will sufficiently occupy thee.” Finally, this Amir, having fallen upon
the Sultan Jelal-eddin in Kurdistan, destroyed him completely. The
liberality and generosity of Oktáyikán was as conspicuous as the sun.
When _Tayir Baháder_, in the year of the Hejira 625 (A. D. 1227) moved
the army of the Moghuls from _Abt´al_ to the country of _Sístán_, they
besieged the fort _Arak_; at that time the plague manifested itself
among the Moghuls, so that, at first, a pain was felt in the mouth,
then the teeth moved, and on the third day death ensued. _Malik
Sálakín_, the governor of the fort, fixed upon the stratagem that
seven hundred young men should lie in ambush: who, when they should
hear the sound of the war-drum from the eastern gate, opposite which
they were placed, were to break out from the ambush, and fall on the
back of the enemies. Conformably with this plan, in the morning the
eastern gate was opened, and the Muselmans were engaged in the
assault; but when the drum was beaten, nobody came forth from the
ambush: after three watches, a man was sent to bring intelligence from
that quarter, but he found them all dead.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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