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240
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(SEPTEMBER, 1899.
of the perfidy of which he was guilty, concurred with the base advice of the vazirs that the remainder of the saiyids and foreigners should be put to death ; and by one wrong order uprooted the foundation of the lives of so many thousand foreigners and poor people and descendants of the chief of the Prophets.
RAJA Rustam, who had the title of Nizam-ul-Mulk, and salar Hamzah who was Mushirul-Mulk, being in agreement with one another, assembled a countless force of Musalmans and Hindûs and proceeded towards the fort of Châkan which was the place of residence of the foreigners. At that time nearly 1,200 saiyids of pare descent from the city of the Prophet Muhammad and the holy martyrs, 'Alt and Imâm Husain, together with 1,000 other foreigners -- pious and abstinent followers of Islâm - resided in that fortress.
When the Dakkhani wazirs arrived in the neighbourhood of the dwelling-place of those poor foreigners and heard their numbers they saw that a peaceable policy was advisable, so they offered them safe conduct (amán), and with delading and strongly-expressed oaths allayed the fears of those foreigners of good disposition, and invited a number of them to a friendly conference; and those simple-minded people placed such reliance on the false oaths that from the fastness of the fortress they stepped into the desert of death and opened on their own faces the door of annihilation, till the whole of them bad fallen into the month of the crocodile of misfortune and the net of affliction. But on that day the wazirs clothed the saiyids and foreignere from head to foot and sent them to their homes. On the next day when the son rose ir the east the Dakkhani amirs arranged a great feast and summoned those saiyids and foreigners from their dwellings under the pretence of an entertainment; but they had concealed nearly two or three thousand armed men in appointed places, so that when they found an opportunity they might put the guests to the sword. All tbe unfortunate saiyids and foreigners, at the proposal of the treacherous amirs, put away their arms and came into the place of slaughter; and the amirs, inventing a new way of entertaining guests, seated their dear guests with the greatest ceremony; and every now and then, on pretence of food, took & number of them aside to the place which was their place of sacrifioe, and there entertained them with the water of the sword of tyranny and the sharbat of destruction, so that about 1,200 saiyids of pure lineage and nearly 1,000 other foreigners from seven to seventeen years of age were put to the sword, and all of them at that entertainment were made to taste the sharbat of death.
Since the occurrence at Karbala and the tyranny of the shameless Zaid, at no time have such misfortunes been inflicted on the servants of God. The perpetrators of it will doubtless receive retribution on the day of judgment. In this world happened to them what happened, as is related. Those two maleficent sardárs in that same season were seized with leprosy, the worst of infirmities and diseases, and their sons used to swagger through the streets of the bázár, and how much more so their daughters!
Enmity between Sultan 'Ald-ud-Din and Sultan Mahmad Khilji. Whilst the Dakhani amirs had been oppressing the saiyids and foreigners in the manner related, Jalal Khan, grandson of Saiyid Jalal Bukhari, with his son Sikandar Khan, who had been specially distinguished and exalted on account of his education and beneficence, had with them two or three thousand well trained and experienced cavalry, but as they counted them. selves among the number of the foreigners they feared to present themselves at court lest they should meet with the same fate as their compatriots. Their enemies used to prevent their having an opportunity of speech, so that they were counted as rebels and infidels, and their traducers made the fact of their not presenting themselves at court to seem like a proof of the accusation; and used to say: - "The truth or falsehood of the matter will be settled by summoning them if they come, all doubts will be set at rest, but if not they should be driven away; for once the fire of sedition waxes high it cannot easily be extinguished.
"The fountain-head may be stopped with a spade;
But when it is full, it cannot be crossed on an elephant."
