_ 175 _ Thus, it was that they deprived the island of Ormuz of water and devastated, killing and looting as much as they could, its dependencies and possessions. Among other things, they entered Qišm, which is close to Ormuz.(A) Some of those who were there, in order to offer resistance, found their way to the battlefields of the Holy War. The rose tree of the garden of Muhammad’s descendants, the cypress of the martyr’s lake, Sayyid Zayn al-Millat wa’l-Din Muhammad, was then at Qišm. Throughout his life he had devoted himself to putting into practice the meaning of the sentence: ‘A thousand swordstrokes are easier to bear than death in bed.’ He had always aspired to the martyr’s cup in the battles of the Holy War. At the moment when the accursed infidels lit the light of sedition, the essence of his Hashemite being throbbed with religious fervour. He himself, his son and his followers conformed to the verse: ‘Carry the fight into the path of Allah, as He deserves.’(B) Having shown against the enemy an unequalled (A) On the attack on Qišm compare our document with the Portuguese accounts of Castanheda, II/73 and 74, pp. 378-380 and de Barros, II/2-5, p.76. (B) Koran, Sura XXII, verse 78 (the author, quoting from memory, wrote fi sabil Allah instead of fi’llah.
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