shooting for a time, seemed likely to make a stand (tukhtaghandlk). Some-one, shouting to his men, came forward towards me, dismounted and was for adjusting his arrow, but he could do nothing because we moved on without stay. He remounted and rode off; it may have been Shah Beg himself. During the fight Piri Beg Turkman and 4 or 5 of his brethren turned their faces from the foe and, turban in hand,1 came over to us.
(Author's note on Piri Beg.) This Piri Beg was one of those Turkmans who came [into Heri] with the Turkman Begs led by 'Abdu'1-baqi Mirza and Murad Beg, after Shah Isma'Il vanquished the Bayandar sultans and seized the 'Iraq countries.2
Our right was the first to overcome the foe ; it made him hurry off. Its extreme point had gone pricking (sdnjilib) 3 as far as where I have now laid out a garden. Our left extended as far as the great tree-tangled 4 irrigation-channels, a good way below Baba Hasan Abdal. Muqlm was opposite it, its numbers very small compared with his. God brought it right! Between it and Muqlm were three or four of the tree-tangled water-channels going on to Qandahar ; 5 it held the crossing-place and allowed no passage; small body though it was, it made splendid stand and kept its ground. Ha'wSchI Tarkhan6 slashed away in the water with Tlngrl-blrdi and Qambar-i-'all. Qambar-i-'all was wounded ; an arrow stuck in Qasim Beg's forehead ; another struck Ghurl Barlds above the eyebrow and came out above his cheek.7
We meantime, after putting our adversary to flight, had crossed those same channels towards the naze of Murghan-koh (Birds'-hill). Some-one on a grey tipiichaq was going backwards and forwards irresolutely along the hill-skirt, while we
1 in sign of submission.
2 f. 176. It was in 908 ah. [1502 AD.j.
3 This word seems to be from sanjmaq, to prick or stab; and here to have the military sense ot prick, viz. riding forth. The Second Pers. trs. (217 f. 144*) translates it by ghauta khurda raft, went tasting a plunge under water (215 f. 170; Muh. SAirazi's lith. ed. p. 133). Erskine (p. 228), as his Persian source dictates, makes the men sink into the soft ground ; de Courteille varies much (ii, 21).
* Ar. akhmail, so translated under the known presence of trees ; it may also imply soft ground (Lane p. 813 col. b) but soft ground does not suit the purpose of ariqs (channels), the carrying on of water to the town.
5 The S.A.W. map is useful here.
6 That he had a following may be inferred.
7 Hai. MS. qachar; Ilminsky, p. 268 ; and both Pers. trss. rukhsar or rukhsara (f. 25 and note to q&char).
