in accordance with the Bedouin custom. When Sultan Maḥmūd ibn Subuktigīn crossed the Oxus into Transoxiana, he found the head of the Seljuk clan a man of formidable power. He sought to win him over and deceived him until he came into his presence, whereupon he arrested him. Maḥmūd then consulted the emirs: some advised drowning their chieftains, others recommended cutting off their thumbs so that they could no longer draw the bow. In the end they agreed to disperse the Seljuks throughout the provinces and levy a land-tax upon them, so they were disciplined and humbled. Two thousand men of the Kharkāhū (1) faction detached themselves and made their way to Kirmān (2), whose ruler at the time was a son (3) of Bahāʾ al-Dawla ibn ʿAḍud al-Dawla ibn Būyah. He received them kindly, but before long—shortly after 400 AH (4)—he died. The Seljuks then headed for Isfahan and encamped outside the city. Its lord was ʿAlāʾ al-Dawla (5) ibn Kākūyah, who was eager to enlist them. Yet Sultan Maḥmūd wrote commanding him to fight them, and a pitched battle (6) ensued. The Seljuks then moved on to Azerbaijan, while their kinsmen who were in Khurāsān withdrew to Khwārazm and its mountain regions. The sultan dispatched an army that harassed them for roughly two years, after which Maḥmūd himself marched against them, shattered their forces, and scattered them. He died soon after, and his son Masʿūd (7) took the throne.

Those who had settled in Azerbaijan rallied together, and a thousand horsemen came to Masʿūd, who enrolled them in his service. He then coaxed the rest, and they accepted his authority. But he became pre-occupied with the war in India, for they