At length, after a reign of thirty-eight years, the good Imām Kulī Khān felt himself unequal to the task of governing, and sought the repose which is the ideal of all true Musulmans. He summoned his brother Nāzir Mohammad from Balkh and surrendered his realm to him.[456] Then, taking a pilgrim’s staff, he set out for Medīna, where he died in the odour of sanctity, leaving traces of his munificence which have endured to the present day. His successor (1642) found it impossible to secure a place in his people’s affections. He was immensely rich, and endeavoured to win public regard by his largesses; but Bokhārā sighed for the good times of old Imām Kulī Khān, and the popular feeling found vent in a revolt which raged in the northern provinces. Nāzir Mohammad sent his son `Abd el-`Azīz to quell it, but the faithless prince placed himself at the head of the rebels and marched on Bokhārā. The unhappy father fled to Balkh, leaving his capital at his unnatural foe’s mercy, and `Abd el-`Azīz took up the fallen sceptre (1647). Nāzir Mohammad, in despair, divided the rest of his realms among his sons who had remained faithful to him--the fourth, Subhān Kulī Khān, receiving in fief the country round the ford of Khwāja Sālū on the Upper Oxus. But his old age was still embittered by his children’s contests for supremacy. Worn out at last by the unequal struggle, he resolved to spend the brief remainder of his days in the sacred soil of Medīna, and died, broken-hearted, on his pilgrimage thither.[457] His death served only to increase the hostility between his sons. Subhān Kulī Khān, who had established himself at Balkh, became a thorn in the side of his brother `Abd el-`Azīz of Bokhārā. A third brother, Kāsim Mohammad,[458] was despatched with an army to reduce him to submission; but he was defeated, and driven to take refuge at Hisār, and peace was restored on the masterful Subhān Kulī Khān being recognised as heir to the throne. Hardly had the clouds of civil war been dissipated ere Bokhārā became the prey of foreign invasion (1663). Khiva had long been a province of the southern Khānate, but its prince, Abū-l-Ghāzi, a man whose life had been one long romance, determined to throw off the hated yoke. He drove the Bokhārans from the Lower Oxus, and carried the war into the enemy’s camp. Defeated with great slaughter by `Abd el-`Azīz near Kerminé, he escaped with a grievous wound by swimming across the great river. Nothing daunted, he soon took the field again, and carried his ravages to the very gates of Bokhārā.