Sad and grieved enough we were! His bier and corpse were carried to Ghaznī where they laid him in front of the gate of the Sult̤ān’s garden (rauza).

Dost Beg had been a very good brave (yīkīt) and he was still rising in rank as a beg. Before he was made a beg, he did excellent things several times as one of the household. One time was at Rabāt̤-i-zauraq,[1444] one yīghāch from Andijān when Sl. Aḥmad Taṃbal attacked me at night (908 AH.). I, with 10 to 15 men, by making a stand, had forced his gallopers back; when we reached his centre, he made a stand with as many as 100 men; there were then three men with me, i.e. there were four counting myself. Nāṣir’s Dost (i.e. Dost Beg) was one of the three; another was Mīrzā Qulī Kūkūldāsh; Karīm-dād Turkmān was the other. I was just in my jība[1445]; Taṃbal and another were standing like gate-wards in front of his array; I came face to face with Taṃbal, shot an arrow striking his helm; shot another aiming at the attachment of his shield;[1446] they shot one through my leg (būtūm); Taṃbal chopped at my head. It was wonderful! The (under)-cap of my helm was on my head; not a thread of it was cut, but on the head itself was a very bad wound. Of other help came none; no-one was left with me; of necessity I brought myself to gallop back. Dost Beg had been a little in my rear; (Taṃbal) on leaving me alone, chopped at him.[1447]

Fol. 234b.Again, when we were getting out of Akhsī [908 AH.],[1448] Dost Beg chopped away at Bāqī Ḥīz[1449] who, although people called him Ḥīz, was a mighty master of the sword. Dost Beg was one of the eight left with me after we were out of Akhsī; he was the third they unhorsed.

Again, after he had become a beg, when Sīūnjuk Khān (Aūzbeg), arriving with the (Aūzbeg) sult̤āns before Tāshkīnt, besieged Aḥmad-i-qāsim [Kohbur] in it [918 AH.],[1450] Dost Beg passed through them and entered the town. During the siege he risked his honoured life splendidly, but Aḥmad-i-qāsim, without a word to this honoured man,[1451] flung out of the town and got away. Dost Beg for his own part got the better of the Khān and sult̤āns and made his way well out of Tāshkīnt.

Later on when Sherīm T̤aghāī, Mazīd and their adherents were in rebellion,[1452] he came swiftly up from Ghaznī with two or three hundred men, met three or four hundred effective braves sent out by those same Mughūls to meet him, unhorsed a mass of them near Sherūkān(?), cut off and brought in a number of heads.

Again, his men were first over the ramparts at the fort of Bajaur (925 AH.). At Parhāla, again, he advanced, beat Hātī, put him to flight, and won Parhāla.

After Dost Beg’s death, I bestowed his district on his younger brother Nāṣir’s Mīrīm.[1453]

(v. Various incidents.)

(April 9th) On Friday the 8th of the second Rabī‘, the walled-town was left for the Chār-bāgh.

(April 13th) On Tuesday the 12th there arrived in Kābul the honoured Sult̤ānīm Begīm, Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā’s eldest daughter, the mother of Muḥammad Sult̤ān Mīrzā. During those throneless times,[1454] she had settled down in Khwārizm where Yīlī-pārsFol. 235. Sult̤ān’s younger brother Aīsān-qulī Sl. took her daughter. The Bāgh-i-khilwat was assigned her for her seat. When she had settled down and I went to see her in that garden, out of respect and courtesy to her, she being as my honoured elder sister, I bent the knee. She also bent the knee. We both advancing, saw one another mid-way. We always observed the same ceremony afterwards.