DESTRUCTION OF THE KWARESMIAN EMPIRE
That immense Kara Kitai, or Black Cathay, or Black China was added to
the Mongol dominions which now were conterminous with the Kwaresmian
Empire. This Empire, begun on Seljuk ruins, was increased soon by other
lands, and in 1219 it extended from the Syr Darya or Yaxartes to the
Indus, and from Kurdistan to the great roof of the world, those immense
Pamir highlands. The sovereign at the opening of the thirteenth century
was Alai ud din Mohammed, great-great-grandson of a Turk slave named
Nush Tegin. The master of this slave was a freedman of Melik Shah the
Seljuk Sultan, and this freedman transferred Nush Tegin to his
sovereign. The slave became cupbearer to Melik Shah, and prefect of
Khwaresm at the same time by virtue of his office. In Mohammedan
history cases of Turkish slaves seizing sovereignty are frequent.
Turkish captives in Persia were highly esteemed and appeared there in
multitudes. Throughout the vast regions north and east of the Caspian
various Turk tribes fought unceasingly; each seized the children of an
enemy whenever the chance came, and sold them in the slave marts. These
children, reared in the faith of Mohammed, were trained to arms for the
greater part, and became trusted body-guards of princes. They served
also as household officials, or managers. Those of them who earned
favor gained freedom most frequently, and next the highest places at
courts, and in armies. A lucky man might be made governor, and when
fortune helped well enough he made himself sovereign.
Turkish slaves grew all-powerful in Moslem lands, till those lands were
invaded at last by Turk warriors. Persia, lowered much by Arab
conquest, recovered under Bagdad rule in some slight degree, till the
eleventh century saw it conquered again by Turk nomads from those
immense steppes north and east of the Caspian. Under the descendants of
Seljuk these fierce sons of wild herdsmen pushed their way on to the
Propontis and to Palestine; camped in Persia, and in lands lying west
of it. These self-seeking, merciless adventurers brought torture,
oppression, and brigandage to all people equally, till at last
intestine wars and social chaos put an end to Seljuk rule toward the
close of the twelfth century.
Kutb ud din Mohammed, son of the manumitted slave, Nush Tejin, and also
his successor, won the title of Kwaresmian Shah, a title used before
the Arab conquest. Atsiz, son of Kutb ud din, raised arms repeatedly
against Sindjar, the son of Melik Shah, and was forced to render
tribute to the Gurkhan. When Sindjar died (1157) Il Arslan, son of
Atsiz, seized West Khorassan; his son, Tukush, took Persian Irak from
Togrul, who fell in battle. By the death of Togrul and Sindjar, both
Persian Seljuk lines became extinct.
Tukush obtained investiture at Bagdad from the Kalif, and Persia passed
from one line of Turkish tyrants to another. Mohammed, who succeeded
his father Tukush, in 1200, seized the provinces of Balkh and Herat and
made himself lord of Khorassan. Soon after this Mazanderan and Kerman
passed under his power and direction. Mohammed now planned to shake off
the authority of the Gurkhan of Kara Kitai, to whom he, and three of
his predecessors, had paid yearly tribute. Besides he was urged to this
step by Osman, Khan of Samarkand and Transoxiana, who, being also a
vassal of the Gurkhan, endured with vexation the insolence of agents
who took the tribute in his provinces. Osman promised to recognize
Mohammed as his suzerain, and pay the same tribute that he had paid to
the Gurkhan. The Shah accepted this offer with gladness; he merely
waited for a pretext, which appeared very quickly: An official came to
receive the yearly tribute, and seated himself at the Shah’s side, the
usual place in such cases, though it seemed now that he did so somewhat
boldly. Mohammed’s pride, increased much by recent victory over
Kipchaks living north of the Caspian, would endure this no longer, so
in rage he commanded to cut down the agent and hack him to pieces.
After this act Mohammed invaded the lands of the Gurkhan immediately
(1208), but was defeated in the ensuing battle, and captured with one
of his officers. The officer had the wit to declare that the Shah,
whose person was unknown in those regions, was a slave of his. In a
short time the amount of ransom for the officer was settled; he offered
to send his slave to get the sum needed. This offer was taken and an
escort sent with the slave to protect him. Thus did Mohammed return in
servile guise to his dominions, where reports of his death had preceded
him. In Taberistan his brother, Ali Shir, had proclaimed his own rule,
and his uncle, the governor of Herat, was taking sovereign power in
that region.
The following year Mohammed and Osman, the Samarkand ruler, made a
second attack on the Gurkhan. Crossing the Syr Darya at Tenakit, they
met their opponents, commanded by Tanigu, and won a victory.
They conquered a part of the country as far as Uzkend, and instated a
governor. The news of this sudden success caused immense joy in the
Kwaresmian Empire. Embassies were sent by neighboring princes to
congratulate the victor. After his name on the shield was added “Shadow
of God upon earth.” People wished to add also “Second Alexander,” but
he preferred the name Sindjar, since the Seljuk prince Sindjar had
reigned forty-one years successfully. After his return the Shah gave
his daughter in marriage to Osman, and the Gurkhan’s lieutenant in
Samarkand was replaced by a Kwaresmian agent. Soon, however, Osman was
so dissatisfied with this agent that he gave back his allegiance to the
Gurkhan, and killed the Kwaresmians in his capital.
Mohammed, enraged at this slaughter, marched to Samarkand, stormed the
city, and for three days and nights his troops did naught else but slay
people and plunder; then he laid siege to the fortress and captured it.
Osman came out dressed in a grave shroud; a naked sword hung from his
neck down in front of him. He fell before Mohammed and begged for life
abjectly. The Shah would have spared him, but Osman’s wife, the Shah’s
daughter, rushed in and demanded the death of her husband. He had
preferred an earlier wife, the daughter of the Gurkhan, and had forced
her, the Shah’s daughter, to serve at a feast that detested and
inferior woman. Osman had to die, and with him died his whole family,
including the daughter of the Gurkhan.
Mohammed joined all Osman’s lands to the Empire, and made Samarkand a
new capital. He further increased his Empire by a part of the kingdom
of Gur, which extended from Herat to the sacred river of India, the
Ganges.
After the death, in 1205, of Shihab ud din, fourth sovereign of the Gur
line, his provinces passed under officers placed there as prefects.
When Mohammed took Balkh and Herat, Mahmud, nephew of Shihab, kept
merely Gur the special domain of the family, and even for this he was
forced to give homage to the Kwaresmian monarch. Mahmud had reigned
seven years in that reduced state when he was killed in his own palace.
Public opinion in this case held the Shah to be a murderer, and beyond
doubt with full justice.
Ali Shir, the Shah’s brother, who had proclaimed himself sovereign so
hurriedly when Mohammed was returning, disguised as a slave, from his
war against the Gurkhan, was now at the Gur capital; he declared
himself Mahmud’s successor and begged the Shah to confirm him as
vassal. Mohammed sent an officer, as it seemed, for this ceremony, but
when Ali Shir was about to put on the robe of honor sent him the
officer swept off his head with a sword stroke, and produced thereupon
the command of his master to do so. After this revolting deed the Gur
principality was joined to Mohammed’s dominion (1213).
Three years later, 1216, Mohammed won Ghazni from a Turk general once a
subject of Shihab ud din. This Turk had seized the province at the
dissolution of Gur dominion. In the archives of Ghazni the Shah came on
letters from the Kalif Nassir at Bagdad to the Gur Khans, in which he
gave warning against the Kwaresmian Shahs, and incited to attack them,
advising a junction with the Kara Kitans for that purpose.
These letters roused the Shah’s wrath to the utmost. The Kalif, Nassir,
who ascended the throne in 1180, had labored without success, though
unceasingly, to stop Kwaresmian growth and aggression. He could not
employ his own forces to this end, since he had none. The temporal
power of the Prophet’s successors had shrunk to the narrow limits of
Kuzistan and Arabian Irak. The other parts of their once vast dominions
had passed to various dynasties whose sovereigns were supposed to
receive lands in fief from the Kalif. If these sovereigns asked for
investiture it was simply for religious, or perhaps more correctly, for
political reasons.
Outside the bounds of their own little state the Abbasid Kalifs had
only two emblems of sovereignty: their names were mentioned in public
prayer throughout Islam, and were stamped on the coins of all Moslem
Commonwealths. They were not masters even in their own capital always.
When the Seljuk Empire, composed at that time of Persian Irak alone,
was destroyed by disorder under Togrul its last Sultan, the Kalif, a
man of quick mind and adventurous instincts, did much to bring on the
dissolution of the tottering state, through his intrigues, and by
calling in Tukush, the Kwaresmian monarch. He had hoped to win Persian
Irak, but when Tukush had won that great province he would cede not a
foot of it to any man. The Kalif saw himself forced to invest a new
line with the sanction of sacredness, a line which threatened Bagdad
far more than that which he had helped so industriously to ruin.
When Mohammed succeeded Tukush, Nassir roused Ghiath ud din of Gur to
oppose him. This prince, lord already of Balkh and Herat, desired all
Khorassan, and began war to win it. His death followed soon after.
Shihab ud din, the next ruler, continued the struggle but lost his
whole army, which was slaughtered and crushed in the very first battle.
When at Ghazni, Mohammed found proof of the Kalif’s intrigues, he
despatched to Nassir an envoy; through this envoy he demanded the title
of Sultan for himself; a representative in Bagdad as governor; and also
that his name be mentioned in public prayers throughout Islam. Nassir
refused these demands and expressed great surprise that Mohammed, not
content with his own immense Empire, was coveting also the capital of
the Kalif.
On receiving this answer Mohammed resolved to strip the Abbasids of the
succession, or Kalifat. To do this he must obtain first a sanctioning
fetva from Mohammedan theologians (the Ulema). So he proposed to that
body the following questions: “May a monarch whose entire glory
consists in exalting God’s word and destroying the foes of true faith,
depose a recalcitrant Kalif, and replace him by one who is deserving,
if the Kalifat belongs by right to descendants of Ali, and if the
Abbasids have usurped it, and if besides they have always omitted one
among the first duties, the duty of protecting the boundaries of Islam,
and waging sacred wars to bring unbelievers to the true faith, or, if
they will not accept the true faith, to pay tribute?”
The Ulema declared that in such cases deposition was justified. Armed
with this decision the Shah recognized Ali ul Muluk of Termed, a
descendant of Ali, as Kalif, and ordered that in public prayers the
name of Nassir be omitted. The Shah assembled an army to carry out the
sentence against Nassir.
Ogulmush, a Turk general who had subdued Persian Irak and then rendered
fealty to Mohammed, was murdered at direction of the Kalif, under whose
control a number of Assassins had been placed by their chieftain at
Alamut. In Persian Irak the name of the Shah was dropped from public
prayers, after the slaying of Ogulmush. The princes of Fars and
Azerbaidjan hastened promptly to seize upon Irak, at the instance of
Nassir. Sád, prince of Fars, was taken captive, but secured freedom by
ceding two strongholds, and promising the third of his annual income as
tribute. Euzbek of Azerbaidjan fled after defeat, and the Shah would
not pursue, as the capture of two rulers in the space of one year was
unlucky. Euzbek, on reaching home, sent envoys with presents, and
proclaimed himself a vassal. Mohammed annexed Irak to the Empire, and
moved his troops on toward Bagdad.
Nassir sent words of peace to his enemy, but those words had no
influence, and the march continued. Nassir strove to strengthen Bagdad
and defend it, while Mohammed was writing diplomas, which turned
Arabian Irak, that whole land of which Bagdad was the capital, into
military fiefs and tax-paying districts.
The Shah’s vanguard, fifteen thousand strong, advanced toward Heulvan
by the way of the mountains, and was followed soon by a second division
of the same strength. Though the time was early autumn, snow fell for
twenty days in succession, the largest tents were buried under it; men
and horses died in great numbers, both when they were marching through
those mountains and when they halted. A retreat was commanded at last
when advance was impossible. Turks and Kurds then attacked the
retreating forces so savagely that the ruin of the army was well nigh
total. This was attributed by Sunnite belief to Divine anger for that
impious attack on the person of the Kalif.
The reports of Mongol movements alarmed the Shah greatly and he
hastened homeward, first to Nishapur, and later on to Bukhara, where he
received the first envoys from Jinghis Khan, his new neighbor.
It is well to go back to the time when the Shah chose a new Kalif from
among the descendants of Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of Mohammed. In
the Moslem world there are seventy-three or more sects, varying in size
and degree of importance, but the two great divisions of Islam are the
Sunnite and Shiite, which differ mainly on the succession. Among
Sunnites the succession was from Abbas, the uncle of Mohammed the
Prophet of Islam; that is the succession which took place in history.
Among Shiites the succession which, as they think, should have taken
place, but which did not, was that through Ali, the husband of Fatima,
the daughter of Mohammed.
The Shiites of Persia thought that the day of justice had come after
six centuries of abasement and waiting, and that the headship of Islam
would be theirs through the accession of Ali ul Muluk of Termed to the
Kalifat. In their eyes the Kwaresmian Shah had become an agent of
Allah, a sacred person. His act created an immense effect throughout
Persia, and certainly no less in the capital of Islam at Bagdad, where
the Kalif Nassir called a council at once to find means of defence
against so dreadful an enemy as Shah Mohammed. After long discussion,
one sage among those assembled declared that Jinghis Khan, whose fame
was sounding then throughout Western Asia, was the man to bring the
raging Shah to his senses.
The Kalif, greatly pleased with this statement, resolved to send an
envoy, but the journey was perilous, since every road to the Mongols
lay through Shah Mohammed’s dominions. Should the envoy be taken and
his message read, the Shah, roused by resentment and anger, would spare
no man involved in the plot, least of all Kalif Nassir and his
servants. To avoid this chance, they shaved the envoy’s head and wrote
out, or branded, his commission upon it. His skull was then covered
with paint, or a mixture of some kind. The entire message to Jinghis
was fixed well in the mind of the envoy, and he set out on his journey.
After four months of hard traveling he reached Mongol headquarters,
delivered his message in words, and was admitted soon after to the Khan
of the Mongols in secret. The envoy’s head was shorn a second time and
the credentials traced with fire on his crown became visible. There was
branded in also an invitation to invade the Kwaresmian Empire, and
destroy the reigning dynasty.
Jinghis meditated over this invitation. The thought of conquering a new
Empire did not leave him, but as he had spoken not long before with its
ruler in friendship, he waited till a reason to justify attack should
present itself.
In 1216–17 in Bukhara, as mentioned already, Shah Mohammed received
three envoys from Jinghis; these men brought ingots of silver, musk,
jade and costly white robes of camels’ hair, all creations and products
of Central Asia, sent as presents to the Kwaresmian sovereign. “The
great Khan has charged us,” said the envoys, “to give this message: ‘I
salute thee! I know thy power and the great extent of thy Empire. Thy
reign is over a large part of the earth’s surface. I have the greatest
wish to live in peace with thee; I look on thee as my most cherished
son. Thou art aware that I have subdued China, and brought all Turk
nations north of it to obedience. Thou knowest that my country is
swarming with warriors; that it is a mine of wealth, and that I have no
need to covet lands of other sovereigns. I and thou have an equal
interest in favoring commerce between our subjects.’”
This message was in fact a demand on Mohammed to declare himself a
vassal, since various degrees of relationship were used among rulers in
Asia to denote corresponding degrees of submission.
The Shah summoned one of the envoys in the night-time. “Has Jinghis
Khan really conquered China?” asked he. “There is no doubt of that,”
said the envoy. “Who is this who calls me his son? How many troops has
he?” The envoy, seeing Mohammed’s excitement, replied that Mongol
forces were not to be compared with his in any case. The Shah was
calmed, and when the time came he dismissed the envoys with apparent
good feeling and friendliness. When they reached the boundary of the
Shah’s land they were safe, for wherever Jinghis Khan became sovereign
there was safety for travelers immediately, even in places where
robbery had been the rule for many ages.
Since Kara Kitai had fallen, Mohammed’s possessions reached the heart
of Central Asia, and touched the land of the Uigurs, now tributary to
Jinghis, hence commercial relations were direct and of very great
value. Soon after the Khan’s envoys had made their visit, a party of
between four and five hundred merchants from Mongolian places arrived
at Otrar on the Syr Daryá. Inaldjuk, the governor of the city, tempted
by the rich stuffs and wares which those strangers had brought with
them, imprisoned the whole party, and declared to the Shah that the men
were spies of the Mongol sovereign. The Shah gave command to slay them
in that case immediately, and Inaldjuk obeyed without waiting. When
news of this terrible slaughter was borne to Jinghis he wept with
indignation as he heard it, and went straightway to a mountain top
where he bared his head, put his girdle about his neck, and fell
prostrate. He lay there imploring Heaven for vengeance, and spent three
days and nights, it is stated, imploring and prostrate. He rose and
went down then to hurl Mongol strength at the Kwaresmian Empire.
The request of the Kalif of Islam ran parallel now with the wish of the
Mongols. But before striking the Empire, Jinghis had resolved to
extinguish Gutchluk, his old enemy, the son of Baibuga, late Taiyang of
the Naimans. Meanwhile he sent three envoys to the Shah with this
message: “Thou didst give me assurance that thou wouldst not maltreat
any merchant from my land. Thou hast broken thy word! Word breaking in
a sovereign is hideous. If I am to believe that the merchants were not
slain at Otrar by thy order, send me thy governor for punishment; if
thou wilt not send him, make ready for conflict.”
Shah Mohammed, far from giving Jinghis Khan satisfaction, or offering
it, slew Bajra, the first envoy, and singed off the beards of the other
two. If Mohammed had wished to punish or yield up Inaldjuk he could not
have done so, for the governor was a kinsman of Turkan Khatun, the
Shah’s mother, and also of many great chiefs in the Kwaresmian army.
And now it is important to explain the position of Turkan Khatun, the
unbending, savage mother of Mohammed. This woman was a daughter of
Jinkeshi, Khan of the Baijut tribe of Kankali Turks; she married
Tukush, the Kwaresmian Shah, and became then the mother of Shah
Mohammed. A large number of Kankali chiefs who were related to Turkan
followed her with their tribesmen to serve in the Kwaresmian Empire.
The influence of this relentless, strong-willed woman, and the valor of
Turkish warriors raised those chiefs to the highest rank among military
leaders; their power was enormous, since commanders of troops governed
with very wide latitude. Amid this aristocracy of fighters the power of
the sovereign was uncertain; he was forced to satisfy the ambition of
men who saw in all things their own profit only. The troops controlled
by those governors were the scourge of peaceful people; they ruined
every region which they lived in or visited.
Turkan Khatun, the head of this military faction, not only equalled her
son in authority, but often surpassed him. When two orders of different
origin appeared in any part of the Empire, the date decided which had
authority; that order was always carried out on which the date was most
recent, and the order of recent date was the order of that watchful
woman. When Mohammed won a new province he always assigned a large part
to the appanage of his mother. She employed seven secretaries at all
times, men distinguished for ability. The inscription on her decrees
was “Protectress of the world and the faith, Turkan, queen of women.”
Her device was: “God alone is my refuge.” “Lord of the world” was her
title. The following example shows clearly the character of the Shah’s
mother: She had obtained from Mohammed the elevation of Nassir ud din,
a former slave of hers, to the position of vizir, or prime minister of
the Empire; soon the Shah came to hate the man, for personal and also
other reasons. His ability was small, and his greed without limit. At
Nishapur the Shah appointed a new judge, one Sadr ud din, and forbade
him to give the vizir any presents. Friends, however, warned the judge
not to neglect this prime dignitary, so he sent Nassir ud din a sealed
purse containing four thousand gold pieces. The Shah, who was watching
both judge and vizir, caused the latter to send the purse to him. It
was sent straightway, and the seal was intact on it. The judge was
summoned, and when he appeared the Shah asked before witnesses what
gift he had made the vizir; he denied having made any, persisted in
denial, and swore by the head of his sovereign that he had not given
one coin to the minister. The Shah had the purse brought; the judge was
deprived of his dignity. The vizir was sent home without office to his
patroness.
Nassir ud din went back to the Shah’s mother. On the way he decided
every case that men brought him. On the vizir’s approach Turkan Khatun
ordered people of all ranks and classes to go forth and meet him. The
vizir grew more insolent now than he had been. The Shah sent an officer
to bring the recalcitrant minister’s head to him. When the officer came
to her capital, Turkan Khatun sent him to the vizir, who was then in
the divan and presiding. She had given the officer this order: “Salute
the vizir in the Shah’s name, and say to him: ‘I have no vizir except
thee, continue in thy functions. No man in my Empire may destroy thee,
or fail in respect to thee.’”
The officer carried out the command of the woman. Nassir ud din
exercised his authority in defiance of Mohammed; he could do so since
Turkan Khatun upheld him, and she had behind her a legion of her
murderous kinsmen. The sovereign, who had destroyed so many rulers
unsparingly, had not the power or the means to manage one insolent
upstart who defied him.
The murder of the merchants in Otrar was followed soon by such a
tempest of ruin as had never been witnessed in Asia or elsewhere. Shah
Mohammed had mustered at Samarkand a large army to move against
Gutchluk, whom he wished to bring down to subjection or destroy
altogether, but hearing that a body of Merkits was advancing through
Kankali regions lying north of Lake Aral, he marched to Jend
straightway against them, and learned upon reaching that city, that
those Merkits, being allies of Gutchluk, were hunted by Jinghis, and
that Gutchluk himself had been slain by the Mongols.
He returned swiftly to Samarkand for additional forces, and following
the tracks of both armies, found a field strewn with corpses, among
which he saw a Merkit badly wounded; from this man the Shah learned
that Jinghis had gained a great victory, and gone forward.
One day later Mohammed came up with them and formed his force
straightway to attack them. The Mongol leader (perhaps Juchi) declared
that the two states were at peace, and that he had commands to treat
the Shah’s troops with friendliness; he even offered a part of his
booty and prisoners to Mohammed. The latter refused these and answered:
“If Jinghis has ordered thee not to meet me in battle, God commands me
to fall on thy forces. I wish to inflict sure destruction on infidels
and thus earn Divine favor.”
The Mongols, forced to give battle, came very near victory. They had
put Mohammed’s left wing to flight, pierced the center where the Shah
was, and would have dispersed it, but for timely aid brought by Jelal
ud din, the Shah’s son, who rushed from the right and restored the
battle, which lasted till evening and was left undecided.
The Mongols lighted vast numbers of camp fires, and retired in the dark
with such swiftness that at daybreak they had made two days’ journey.
After this encounter the Shah knew Mongol strength very clearly. He
told intimates that he had never seen men fight as they had.
Jinghis, having ended Gutchluk and his kingdom (1218), summoned his own
family and officers to a council where they discussed war with
Mohammed, and settled everything touching this enterprise and its
management. That same autumn the Mongol conqueror began his march
westward, leaving the care of home regions to his youngest brother. He
spent all the following summer near the Upper Irtish, arranging his
immense herds of horses and cattle. The march was resumed in the
autumn, when he was joined by the prince of Almalik, the Idikut of the
Uigurs, and by Arslan, Khan of the Karluks.
Shah Mohammed was alarmed by the oncoming of this immense host of
warriors, more correctly this great group of armies, though his own
force was large, since it numbered four hundred thousand. His troops
were in some ways superior to the Mongols, but they lacked iron
discipline and blind confidence in leaders; they lacked also that
experience of hardship, fatigue and privation, that skill in desperate
fighting, which made the Mongols not merely a terror, but, at that
time, invincible. The Kwaresmian armies were defending a population to
which they were indifferent, and which they were protecting, hence
victory gave scant rewards in the best case, while the Mongols, in
attacking rich, flourishing countries, were excited by all that can
rouse human greed, or tempt wild cupidity. The disparity in leaders was
still more apparent. On the Mongol side was a chief of incomparable
genius in all that he was doing; on the other side a vacillating
sovereign with warring and wavering counsels. The Shah had been
crushing and assassinating rulers all his reign, and now he feared to
meet a man whom he had provoked by his outrages. Instead of
concentrating forces and meeting the enemy, he scattered his men among
all the cities of Transoxiana, and then withdrew and kept far from the
fields of real struggle. Some ascribed this to the advice of his
generals, others to his faith in astrologers, who declared that the
stars were unfavorable, and that no battle should be risked till they
changed their positions. It is also reported that Jinghis duped the
Shah, and made him suspect his own leaders. The following is one of the
stories:
A certain Bedr ud din of Otrar, whose father, uncle and other kinsmen
had been slain by Mohammed, declared to Jinghis that he wished to take
vengeance on the Shah, even should he lose his own soul in so doing,
and advised the Grand Khan to make use of the quarrels kept up by
Mohammed with his mother. In view of this Bedr ud din wrote a letter,
as it were, from Mohammed’s generals to Jinghis, and composed it in
this style: “We came from Turkistan to Mohammed because of his mother.
We have given him victory over many other rulers whose states have
increased the Kwaresmian Empire. Now he pays his dear mother with
ingratitude. This princess desires us to avenge her. When thou art
here, we shall be at thy orders.”
Jinghis so arranged that this letter was intercepted. The tale is, that
the Shah was deceived by it and distrusted his generals, hence
separated them each from the others, and disposed them in various
strong cities. It is more likely by far, that he and they, after
testing Mongol strength, thought it better to fight behind walls than
in the open. They thought also, no doubt, that the Mongols, after
pillaging the country and seizing many captives, would retire with
their booty.
The Shah was light-minded and ignorant. He knew not with whom he was
dealing. He had not studied the Mongols, and could not have done so; he
had no idea whatever of Jinghis Khan and could not acquire it; he knew
not the immense power of his system, and the far reaching nature of his
wishes.
Jinghis arrived at the Syr Daryá with his army, and arranged all his
troops in four great divisions. The first he fixed near Otrar and
placed two of his sons, Ogotai and Jagatai, in command of it; the
second, commanded by his eldest son, Juchi, was to act against the
other cities, from Jend to Lake Aral; the third division he directed
against Benakit on the river, south of Jend. While the three divisions
were taking these cities on the Syr Daryá, Jinghis himself moved toward
Bokhara to bar Shah Mohammed from the Transoxiana, and prevent him from
reinforcing any garrison between the two rivers.
Otrar was invested late in November, 1218. The walls had been
strengthened, and the city, with its fortress, provisioned very
carefully. The strong garrison had been increased by ten thousand
horsemen. After a siege of five months the troops and the citizens were
discouraged, and the commander thought it best to surrender, but
Inaldjuk, the governor, could not hope for his life, since he was the
man who had slain the Mongol merchants; hence, he would not hear of
surrender. He would fight, as he said, to the death, for his sovereign.
The chief of the horsemen felt differently, and led out his best troops
in the night to escape, but was captured. He and they offered then to
serve the besiegers. The Mongols inquired about conditions in the city,
and, when the chief had told what he knew, they informed him that he
and his men, being unfaithful to their master, could not be true to
another. They thereupon slew him, and all who were with him.
The city was taken that day, April, 1219, and its inhabitants driven to
the country outside, so that the captors might pillage the place in
absolute freedom. Inaldjuk, the governor, withdrew with twenty thousand
men to the fortress, and fought for two months in that stronghold. When
the Mongols burst in he had only two men left; with these he retired to
a terrace. The two men at his side fell soon after. When his arrows
were gone he hurled brickbats. The besiegers had orders to seize the
man living. He struggled like a maniac, but they caught and bound him
at last, and bore him to the camp before Samarkand. Jinghis had molten
silver poured into his ears and eyes to avenge the slaughtered
merchants. The surviving inhabitants of Otrar were spared but the
fortress was levelled.
Juchi, before marching on Jend, went to Signak and asked that the gates
be thrown open. Scarcely had the message been given when the furious
inhabitants tore Hassan Hadji, Juchi’s envoy, to pieces and called on
God’s name as they did so.
Juchi gave the order at once to attack, and forbade his men to cease
fighting till the city was captured. Fresh troops relieved those who
were wearied. After seven days of storming the Mongols burst in and
slew every soul in that city.
Juchi made a son of Hassan Hadji commandant of the ruins; then he moved
up the river and sacked every place that he visited.
As the Mongols drew near to Jend, Katluk Khan, the commandant, fled in
the night time, crossed the Syr Daryá and took the desert road for
Urgendj beyond the southern shore of the Oxus. Juchi demanded surrender
through Chin Timur his envoy. Deserted by their chief, the people were
in doubt what to do, and when Chin Timur came they wished to kill him,
but he told them of Signak, and promised to turn aside Mongol vengeance
in case they were prudent. The people then freed him, but very soon saw
the enemy under the walls, which they thought proof against every
besieger. The Mongols scaled those walls quickly, and rushed in from
all sides. No hand was raised then against them. The inhabitants were
driven to the open country and left nine days and nights there, while
the pillage continued. Excepting those who had abused Chin Timur, the
people were spared, since they had made no resistance.
Meanwhile a detachment of the army had seized Yengikend, the last town
on the river, and Juchi’s work was done on the right bank with
thoroughness.
The third division of the army moved from Otrar to the left up the
river, and attacked Benakit which was garrisoned by Kankalis. At the
end of three days the officers wished to capitulate. Their lives were
promised them, and they surrendered. The inhabitants were driven from
the city. The Turks were taken out to one side, and cut down to the
last man, with swords and other weapons. Being warriors whom the
Mongols could not trust, they were slaughtered. The artisans were
spared and divided among the Mongol army. Unskilled, young, and strong
men were taken to assist in besieging; all other people were slain
immediately.
The march was continued to Khodjend, and soon the invaders were in
front of that city, and storming it. In Khodjend, Timur Melik, a man of
great valor, commanded. He took one thousand chosen warriors to a fort
on an island far enough from either bank to be safe from stones and
arrows. The besiegers were reinforced by twenty thousand Mongols for
conflict, and fifty thousand natives of the country to carry on siege
work. These natives were employed first of all at bearing stones from a
mountain three leagues distant, and building a road from the shore to
the fortress in the river. Timur Melik meanwhile built twelve covered
barges, protected from fire with glazed earth, which was first soaked
in vinegar. Every day six of these boats went to each shore and sent
arrows, through openings, at the Mongols. Night attacks were made
suddenly and wrought much harm on the invaders.
But despite every effort Timur saw that failure would come if he stayed
there. He was met by preponderant and crushing numbers at last. So he
put men and baggage in seventy strong boats and his chosen warriors in
the twelve covered barges; and they sped down the swift river at night
by the light of many torches fixed on the boats of his flotilla. The
boats snapped a chain stretched across from one bank to the other by
Mongols near Benakit, and passed along, hunted by the enemy on both
sides.
Timur learned now that Juchi had posted a large corps of men on the two
banks, close to Jend, captured recently; he learned also that balistas
were ready and that a bridge of boats had been made near the same
place. He debarked higher up, therefore, and took to horse to avoid
capture. Pursued by the enemy, he gave battle till his baggage was
brought near him. He repeated this day after day till forced at last to
abandon the baggage. Finally, having lost all his men, he was alone and
pursued by three Mongols. He had only three arrows left, one of these
had no metal point on it; he shot that and put out an eye of the
nearest pursuer. Then he cried to the other men: “There are two arrows
still in my quiver, ye would better go back with your eyesight.” They
did so. Timur Melik made his way to Urgendj, and joined Jelal ud din,
whom he followed till the death of that sovereign.
Meanwhile Jinghis moved against Bokhara with his main forces and
arrived at that city during June of 1219. On the way he seized Nur and
Charnuk, which he pillaged; then he took from those places all stalwart
men useful in siege work. Bokhara, the great city with a garrison of
twenty thousand, was invested on all sides, and attacked by relays of
fresh warriors, who gave neither respite nor rest to it.
After some days the defenders lost hope of success and resolved to
burst through in the night time, trusting in that way to save
themselves. They fell on the Mongols unexpectedly, and scattered them,
but instead of pursuing this advantage and fighting, those escaping
defenders hastened forward. The Mongol troops rallied, and hunted the
fugitives to the river, where they cut down nearly all of them.
Next morning early, the Ulema and notables came out to give homage to
the great Mongol Khan, and open the gates to him. Jinghis rode in, and
going to the main mosque of the city entered it on horseback.
Dismounting near the minbar, or pulpit, he ascended some steps of it
and said to the people who assembled there quickly before him: “The
fields now are stripped; feed our horses in this place!”
The boxes which had been used to hold copies of the Koran were taken to
the courtyard to hold grain for Mongol horses; the sacred volumes were
thrown under the hoofs of those animals and trampled. Skins of wine
were brought into the mosque with provisions; jesters and singers of
the city were summoned, and while wild warriors were revelling in
excesses of all sorts, and shouting songs of their own land and people,
the highest chiefs of religion and doctors of law served them as
slaves, held their horses and fed them. While thus employed one great
man whispered to his neighbor: “Why not implore the Almighty to save
us?” “Be silent,” said the other, “God’s wrath is moving near us; this
is no time for beseeching. I fear to pray to the Almighty lest it
become worse with us thereby. If life is dear to thee hold their beasts
now for the Mongols, and serve them.”
From the mosque Jinghis went to the place of public prayer beyond the
city, and summoned all people to meet there. He stood in the pulpit and
inquired: “Who are the richest men in this multitude?” Two hundred and
eighty persons were presented; ninety of these had come from other
cities. The Khan commanded all those wealthy persons to draw near, and
then he spoke to them. He described the Shah’s cruelties and injustice,
which had brought on the ruin of their city: “Know,” continued he,
“that ye have committed dreadful deeds, and the great people of this
country are the worst of its criminals. Should ye ask why I speak thus,
I answer: I am Heaven’s scourge, sent to punish. Had ye not been
desperate offenders I should not be standing here now against you.”
Then he said that he required no one to deliver wealth which was above
ground, his men could discover that very easily, but he asked for
hidden treasures. The wealthy men were then forced to name their
agents, and those agents had to yield up the treasures, or be tortured.
All strong men were set to filling the moats encircling the city; even
copies of the Koran and furniture of mosques were hurled in to fill
ditches. The fortress was stormed and not a man of its defenders found
mercy.
When the fortress was taken, all its inhabitants were driven from the
city with nothing but the clothes which they had on their bodies. Then
began the great pillage. The victors slew all whom they found in any
place of hiding. At last Mongol troops were sent out to surround the
inhabitants on the plain, and divide them into parties. Deeds were done
there which baffle description. Every possible outrage was enacted
before those to whom it was most dreadful to be present, and have
eyesight. Some had strength to choose death instead of looking at those
horrors; among spectators of this kind were the chief judge of the
city, and the first Imam, who seeing the dishonor of their women rushed
to save them, and perished.
Finally the city was fired; everything wooden was consumed, nothing was
left save the main mosque, and a few brick palaces.
Jinghis Khan left the smoking ruins of Bokhara the Noble, to march on
Samarkand, which was only five days distant. He passed along the
pleasant valley of Sogd, covered at that time with beautiful fields,
orchards and gardens and with houses here and there in good number. All
inhabitants of Bokhara taken to toil in the coming siege were driven on
behind the army. Whoso grew weak on the way or too weary for marching
was cut down at once without pity.
Samarkand was one of the great commercial cities of the world. It had a
garrison which numbered forty thousand. Both the city and the citadel
had been fortified with care, and all men considered that a siege of
that place would continue for months, nay, for years perhaps.
The three other army corps appeared now, for every place on the lower
river had been taken, and Northern Transoxiana was subjected. These
divisions brought with them all captives who were young, firm and
stalwart, men who might be of service in siege work; there was an
immense host of those people arranged in groups of ten, and each ten
had a banner. Jinghis, to impose on the doomed city, paraded his
legions before it; cavalry, infantry, and at last those unfortunate
captives who had the seeming of regular warriors.
Two days were spent in examining the city defenses and outworks; on the
third morning early the Mongol conqueror sounded the onset. A host of
brave citizens made a great sally, and at first swept all before them
but not being sustained by their own troops, who feared the besiegers,
they met a dreadful disaster. The Mongols retired before the onrushing
people, who pressed forward with vigor till they fell into ambush;
being on foot they were surrounded very quickly and slaughtered before
the eyes of the many thousands looking from the walls, and the
housetops. This great defeat crushed the hopes of the citizens.
The Kankali troops being Turks believed that the Mongols would treat
them most surely as kinsmen. In fact Jinghis had promised, as they
thought, to take them to his service. Hence this great multitude, the
real strength of the city, issued forth that same day with their
leaders, their families, and their baggage, in one word, with all that
belonged to them. On the fourth day, just as the storm was to be
sounded, the chief men of the city went to the Mongol camp, where they
received satisfactory answers concerning themselves with their families
and dependents; hence they opened the gates of Samarkand to the
conqueror; but they were driven from the city save fifty thousand who
had put themselves under the protection of the cadi and the mufti.
These fifty thousand were safe-guarded, the others were all
slaughtered.
The night following the surrender, Alb Khan, a Turk general, made a
sortie from the citadel and had the fortune to break through the
Mongols, thus saving himself and those under him. At daybreak the
citadel was attacked simultaneously on all sides. That struggle lasted
till the evening, when one storming party burst in, and the stronghold
was taken. One thousand defenders took refuge in a mosque and fought
with desperation. The mosque was fired then, and all were burned to
death in it. The Kankalis who had yielded on the third day, that is the
first day of fighting, were conducted to a place beyond the city and
kept apart from others. Their horses, arms, and outfits were taken from
them, and their hair was shaved in front, Mongol fashion, as if they
were to form a part of the army. This was a trick to deceive them till
the executioners were ready. In one night the Kankalis were murdered to
the very last man.
When vast numbers of the citizens had been slaughtered a census was
made of the remnant: Thirty thousand persons of various arts,
occupations and crafts were given by Jinghis to his sons, his wives,
and his officers; thirty thousand more were reserved for siege labor;
fifty thousand, after they had paid two hundred thousand gold pieces,
were permitted to return to the city, which received Mongol
commandants. Requisitions of men were made at later periods repeatedly,
and, since few of those persons returned to their homes, Samarkand
stood ruined and unoccupied for a long time.
Jinghis Khan so disposed his forces from the first, that Shah Mohammed
could not relieve any city between the two rivers; now all those cities
were taken, and the forces defending them were slaughtered. The next
great work was to seize Shah Mohammed himself, and then slay him, and
with him his family.
Thirty thousand chosen men were employed now in chasing the Kwaresmian
ruler. Never had a sovereign been hunted like this victim of the
Mongols. He fled like a fox, or a hare; he was hunted as if he had been
a dreadful wild beast, which had killed some high or holy person, or as
if he were some outcast, who had committed a deed which might make a
whole nation shudder. But here we must say a few words concerning the
hunted man, and explain his position.