Khwāja Qāẓī and āburnāAūzūn (Long) Ḥasan,[189] (brother) of Khwāja Ḥusain, were then sent to Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā to say in effect that, as he himself would place one of his servants in the country and as I was myself both a servant and (as) a son, he would attain his end most readily and easily if he entrusted the service to me. He was a mild, weak man, of few words who, without his begs, decided no opinion or compact (_aun_), action or move; they paid attention to our proposal, gave it a harsh answer and moved forward.
But the Almighty God, who, of His perfect power and without mortal aid, has ever brought my affairs to their right issue, made such things happen here that they became disgusted at having advanced (_i.e._ from Qabā), repented indeed that they had ever set out on this expedition and turned back with nothing done.
One of those things was this: Qabā has a stagnant, morass-like Water,[190] passable only by the bridge. As they were many, there was crowding on the bridge and numbers of horses and [Sidenote: Fol. 17.] camels were pushed off to perish in the water. This disaster recalling the one they had had three or four years earlier when they were badly beaten at the passage of the Chīr, they gave way to fear. Another thing was that such a murrain broke out amongst their horses that, massed together, they began to die off in bands.[191] Another was that they found in our soldiers and peasants a resolution and single-mindedness such as would not let them flinch from making offering of their lives[192] so long as there was breath and power in their bodies. Need being therefore, when one _yīghāch_ from Andijān, they sent Darwesh Muḥammad Tarkhān[193] to us; Ḥasan of Yaq'ūb went out from those in the fort; the two had an interview near the Praying Place and a sort of peace was made. This done, Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā's force retired.
Meantime Sl. Maḥmūd Khān had come along the north of the Khujand Water and laid siege to Akhsī.[194] In Akhsī was Jahāngīr Mīrzā (aet. 9) and of begs, `Alī-darwesh Beg, Mīrzā Qulī _Kūkūldāsh_, Muḥ. Bāqir Beg and Shaikh `Abdu'l-lāh, Lord of the Gate. Wais _Lāgharī_ and Mīr Ghiyās̤ T̤aghāī had been there too, but being afraid of the (Akhsī) begs had gone off to Kāsān, Wais _Lāgharī's_ district, where, he being Nāṣir Mīrzā's guardian, the Mīrzā was.[195] They went over to Sl. Maḥmūd Khān when he got near Akhsī; Mīr Ghiyās̤ entered his service; [Sidenote: Fol. 17b.] Wais _Lāgharī_ took Nāṣir Mīrzā to Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā, who entrusted him to Muh. Mazīd Tarkhān's charge. The Khān, though he fought several times near Akhsī, could not effect anything because the Akhsī begs and braves made such splendid offering of their lives. Falling sick, being tired of fighting too, he returned to his own country (_i.e._ Tāshkīnt).