DEAR SON, WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU? 87
that this dedicated servant and all the nobles, servants, warriors, and
groups of Muslims are well and safe. We are striving to institute order
and organization here. We bring to your luminous opinion the news
that after traveling across deserts and lethal jungles, we reached the
edge of the polity of Sind, and we haye camped next to the river which
is known as Mehran .... At the moment we are resting in the shade of
a fort which boasts that it was built by the Roman Alexander (Iskandar
Rumi} himself. Yet I am confidant in the mercy of the Great God.^15The ornate phrasing of the letter is stylistically distinct from the
narrative voice of Chachnama, as is the replication of the salutations.
Qasim goes on to detail the forts that have been conquered so far and
to declare that they have "built mosques at the places of worship of
the unbelievers and introducedjnto those mosques caretakers who can
call people to prayer and proclaim the greatness of God."^16 After this
strident note of hegemony over idolaters, Qasim lays out the possibili-
ties of an ally in the land of unbelievers who might be able to help the
Muslims in their campaign:
There is a noble who rules to the north of Mehran, near Cambay
(iazira bahr-e kumbah ast}, and his name is Basami Rasal. His son is
one of the notables in Dahar's court, and many kings of Hind and
Sind have promised their fealty to him. He has approached us in
hopes that we will make a truce with him. We await your guidance
as we are awaiting results of that negotiation. If it works, we will have
the means to cross this river.17The letter lays out a competing vision for Qasim's campaign,
asserting Muslim dominance but recognizing that the task is impos-
sible without assistance from non-Muslims. The letter ends with an-
other plea for God's mercy. Re-produced formally in Chachnama, this
letter is a model of the epistolary genre, applying the techniques of
narration, with honorifics, invocations from history, as well as direct
citation from the Qur'an. At the end of the epistle is the critical part
of the letter, where the possibility of an alliance is discussed and ad-
vice is requested.
Qasim's letter is immediately followed by Hajjaj's reply, which is
the longest epistle in Chachnama. The first part of it reads as follows: