Oripov’s dramatic dastan “Sohibqiron”

The excerpt has three scenes. In the first, as Temur sits having his hair cut in Samarkand, he opens his heart to the barber: he tells how as a youth near Xo‘ja Ilg‘or he lived like a poet, had the words “strength lies in justice” engraved on his sword and saved his life in a mountain cave in hard years. Then the shackled Amir Husayn is brought in; Temur has his shackles removed, recalls that they grew up together and says that, because Husayn did not look after his army in the battle by the Syr Darya, many soldiers perished – his own deeds caught up with him. In the second scene Temur advises his sons and grandsons about state affairs, spies and military tricks (lighting campfires, tying brooms to horses to raise dust); the Rum sultan Boyazid sends an insulting letter and challenges him, and Temur sends the spy Buqalamun and bids farewell to his wife Bibixonim. In the third scene near Angora Temur, relying on himself rather than astrologers, directs the battle while playing chess; the enemy army is beaten and Boyazid is captured. Temur orders his bound hands and feet untied and says that no king should suffer such a misfortune.