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SAMARKAND ONCE MORE
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The battle raged all day on the left wing; but when it grew dusk, and the enemy began to fall back, in order to pitch a camp near water, Bábar's men seized the moment of confusion, and rushed down in hot pursuit, shouting Hai! Hai! at the top of their voices, and charging with reckless fury on the retiring squadrons. The result was a total rout; the generals were captured and killed, and for a whole day the fugitives were hotly pressed.

The end of the Uzbeg domination in Mawarannahr seemed at hand. They abandoned Karshi, they were driven out of Bukhárá, they fled from Samarkand into the deserts of Turkistán. With the consent of his ally the Sháh, Bábar once more mounted the throne of Samarkand, which he had twice before filled. 'All the inhabitants of the towns of Mawarannahr, high and low, nobles and poor men, grandees and artisans, princes and peasants, alike testified their joy at the advent of the Emperor. He was received by the nobles, while the others were busy with the decoration of the city. The streets and bazars were draped with cloth and gold brocades, and drawings and pictures were hung up on every side. The Emperor entered the city in the middle of the month of Rejeb in the year 917 [October, 1511] in the midst of such pomp and splendour as no one has ever seen or heard of before or since.'[1] Never before had his dominions stretched so wide and far. From Táshkend and Sairam on the borders of the deserts of Tartary,

  1. Tarikh-i-Rashidi, 246.