TIMUR BEG. 
61 
made a sign to Ky Khusero and another amyr to quit 
the assembly. Embracing the opportunity, they im- 
mediately took horse, and following Hussyn, whom 
Timur had permitted to depart, overtook him at the 
tomb of a Mohammedan saint, whither he had sought 
sanctuary from his pursuers, and slew him on the 
spot. 
Soon afterwards, the castle to which Hussyn had 
retired being demolished, two of his sons were burnt, 
and their ashes scattered in the air. His two other 
sons fled to India, where they perished miserably. 
It is impossible to believe that Timur was not privy to 
the death of the two elder. Upon the surrender of the 
fortress, he obtained all the treasure which his former 
rival had amassed by a long course of avarice and pe- 
culation. The conqueror issued a proclamation that all 
the inhabitants of Balkh who had shut themselves up 
in the citadel with their late amyr should return to the 
old city and rebuild it. The fortifications, together with 
Hussyn’s palaces, were razed to the ground, and 
everything which had belonged to him was destroyed, 
that there might remain no memorial of a prince so 
worthless and so detested. 
Timur having made himself master of Balkh, there 
arose three candidates for the throne among the 
nobles who had joined his standard. When it 
was proposed in an assembly of the chiefs and 
amyrs that the sovereignty should be placed solely 
at the disposal of their beloved leader, Shah Moham- 
med, who was at the head of the princes of Badukh- 
shan, objected, and urged that the conquered coun- 
try should be divided into four portions, the three 
G 
