Kurguz being dead, Sherif had a chance now to prove himself, and he did so; he engaged to collect four thousand balishes due, as he stated, from Mazanderan and Khorassan. This Sherif, destined to death by Kurguz very recently, was the son of a porter of Kwaresm. He became page to the governor of the country, who chose him because of his personal beauty. When Chin Timur was commanded to enter Khorassan and assist Chormagun in that country he wanted a secretary. No man wished that office because the incumbent must act against Moslems, and the issue of the enterprise seemed doubtful. The governor of Kwaresm, whose feelings had cooled toward Sherif, who by that time had lost youthful freshness and was acting only as secretary, gave him to Chin Timur. Sherif had learned the Mongol language already and, being the only man able to interpret, all business passed through his hands and he became greatly important. When Argun went as governor to Khorassan many agents of Turakina, the regent, went with him. These he left in the province to gather the imposts and taxes, going himself into Azerbaidjan and to Irak to rescue those countries from Mongol commanders, who acted as if the whole conquest had been made by them only, and for their sole personal profit. At Tebriz he received envoys from Rūm and from Syria, who implored his protection. He sent men to those countries to gather tribute. All this time Sherif, who had received from Argun perfect liberty of action, wrested taxes from people with unparalleled audacity and harshness. Each collector was bound and instructed to spare no man. To extort from the victims all that was humanly possible, armed warriors of the garrison were quartered in houses; people were seized and imprisoned, kept without food or even water, nay more, they were tortured. Moslem ulemas, exempt from all tribute to Mongols and hitherto treated respectfully, came to ask mercy for themselves and for others. Widows and orphans, exempt by the laws of Jinghis and Mohammed, came to implore simple justice. These people were treated with the utmost contempt, and were flouted by Sherif’s assistants. Men pledged at Tebriz their own children, and sometimes they sold them to find means to pay taxes. One collector on entering a house where a dead man was laid out for burial, and finding no other property to seize, had the shroud stripped from the body, and took it.