Page image — the source of record
Machine transcription
35
immense confidence to the Afghan troops and greatly discouraged their enemies. The Turkish general, on hearing the news of this disaster, immediately called a halt and enclosed his camp with strong entrenchments. Ashraff, on approaching nearer, once more made an effort to evade the war and to persuade the Turks that he had no ill-feeling towards them and that the war between the two Muslim countries was unlawful and ruinous to both of them. At the same time his private emmissaries were actively employed in disseminating these ideas in the Turkish army and in winning over to his side the Kurdish regiment, who were staunch Muslims. Not content with this, Ashraff decided to send a second deputation of Ulamas, who were venerable for their age as well as character, to the Turkish camp, who called upon them to desist from a war of aggression on a Muslim State. The speech of one of these deputies made a great impression on the Turkish soldiery, and Ahmad Pasha, seeing this, interrupted him by saying, "I have come here by the express command of my sovereign, who is not only a temporal monarch, but the true successor of the Caliphs, and con-
Roughly two thirds of characters agree with a modern printed edition of the same text. Much of the disagreement is editorial, not misreading. Treat the transcription as a finding aid and read the page image before quoting. How this was measured.