900 AH._OCT.2ND. 1494 TO SEP. 21ST. 1495 AD.
53
Asfara. Our braves in the wantonness of enterprise, on the very day of arrival, took the new wall^ that was in building outside the fort. That day Sayyid Qasim, Lord of my Gate, out- stripped the rest and got in with his sword ; SI. Ahmad Tambal and Muhammad-dost Taghai got theirs in also but Sayyid Qasim won the Champion's Portion. He took it in Shahrukh- iya when I went to see my mother's brother, SI. Mahmud Khan.
{Author's note.) The Championship Portions is an ancient usage of the Mughul horde. Whoever outdistanced his tribe and got in with his own sword, took the portion at every feast and entertainment.
My guardian, Khudai-birdi Beg died in that first day's fight- ing, struck by a cross-bow arrow. As the assault was made without armour, several bare braves (yikit yilang) perished and many were wounded. One of Ibrahim Saru's cross-bowmen was an excellent shot ; his equal had never been seen ; he it was hit most of those wounded. When Asfara had been taken, he entered my service.
As the siege drew on, orders were given to construct head- strikes^ in two or three places, to run mines and to make every Fol. 31b. effort to prepare appliances for taking the fort. The siege lasted 40 days ; at last Ibrahim Sam had no resource but, through the mediation of Khwaja Moulana-i-qazi, to elect to serve me. In the month of Shawwal (June 1495 AD.) he came out, with his sword and quiver hanging from his neck, waited on me and surrendered the fort.
Khujand for a considerable time had been dependent on 'Umar Shaikh Mirza's Court (diwan) but of late had looked towards SI. Ahmad Mirza on account of the disturbance in the Farghana government during the interregnum.^ As the
1 qurghan-ning tashida yangi tam quparib sala dur. 1 understand, that what was taken was a new circumvallation in whole or in part. Such double walls are on record, Cf. Appendix A.
2 bahadurluq aulush, an actual portion of food.
3 i.e. either unmailed or actually naked.
4 The old English noun strike expresses the purpose of the sar-koh. It is " an instrument for scraping off what rises above the top " (Webster, whose example is grain in a measure). The sar-kob is an erection of earth or wood, as high as the attacked walls, and it enabled besiegers to strike off heads' appearing above the ramparts.
5 i.e. the dislocation due to 'Umar Shaikh's death.
