Untitled

120 f NOTES ON THE SECOND DISCOURSE
The 6nly other mention,, of Rafi'i of ftishapur
i
occurs in the
Majmafitl-Fucahd) from which it appears that he vyis a contemporary of
'
,Sultan Mahmu'd of Ghazna (A.H. 388-421 A.D. <
; 998-1030).
i
,
XV. The Vengeance of Sultan 'Ala'u'd-Din Husayn
'
Jahan-suz. t ,
(Text, p. 29*; Persian notes, pp. 1569.)
, By "those two Kings, the Prince-martyr and the Laudable Monarch"
are meant Qutbu'd-Din Muhammad ibn 'Izzu'd-Din Husayn Maliku'l-
Jibdl and his brother Sayfu'd-Din Siiri, the brothers of Sultan 'Ala'u'd-
Din Husyyn. Qutbu'd-Din, whose capital was Fi'riiz-kuh, had quarrelled
with his brothers and gone to Ghazna, where Bahramshah at first
treated him as an honoured guest, but subsequently, his suspicion being
aroused by intriguers, poisoned him. Sayfu'd-Din on hearing this
marched on Ghazna with a large army. Bahramshah fled to India, and
Sayfu'd-Din occupied the 'city, took possession of the throne, and soon
disbanded a great part of his army. On the approach of winter, when the
roads to Ghiir were'blocked with snow and the arrival of reinforcements
was impossible, Bahramshah, at the instigation of his subjects, suddenly
returned to Ghazna, took captive Sayfu'd-Din and his followers, and put
them to death in the year A.H. 544 (A.D 1149-1150).
Sultan 'Ala'u'd-Din Husayn, furious at the loss of a second brother,
sent a threatening quatrain 1 to the Chief Judge of Ghazna, and,
assembling a large army from Ghur and Gharjistan, marched on Ghazna
and proceeded to make good his threats. Having thrice defeated
Bahramshah and compelled him again to retire to India, he occVip^ed
Ghazna, and for seven days and it nights gave up to slaughter, pillage
and destruction. He killed the men, took captive the women and
children, and caused the bodies of all the Kings of Ghazna, except those
of Sultan Mahmud, Mas'ud and Ibrahim, to be exhumed and burned.
During the seven days of massacre and pillage he was drinking anil
making merry in the Royal Palace of Ghazna, and at the end of this
period, when he put a stop to the slaughter, he ordered his minstrels to
sing some rather fine and spirited verses which he had composed for the
occasion 2 . After spending another week in mourning ,for his brothers, he
returned to Ghur with their effects, destroying ott his way all the fine
buildings erected by Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna. Orvreaching Firuz-kiih
he composed another fine but arrogant piece of poetry 3 which he bade
his minstrels sing. These events Ux>k place in A.H. 545 (A.D. i"i5o-i),
the year of his accession to the throne, or in the following yeir. Two or
three years later, in A.H. 547 (A.D. 1152-3), he was fcims&lf defeated and
taken prisoner at Awba near Herat, by Sultan S/anjar the Saljtiq, together
with our author, who refers to this event in Anecdote XXXI.
The chief authority for the history of the Kings of Ghdr is the
Tabaqdt-i-Ndsiri of the Qadi Minhaju'd-Din 'Uthman ibn Siraju'd-Din
Muhammad, who was their contemporary (born 589/1193 a/id su&vived
the* year 658/1260). This valuable history has been published in the
Bibliotheca Indica Series, but the late Major H. G. Raverty's English
1
Persian notes, p. 157, 11. 7-8.
3
Ibid., 1.
p. 158, ii
1.
p. 159, 2.
i
\
2 Ibid., p. 157, 1. 18 p. 158, 1. 5.
'