MONGOL INVASION OF CENTRAL ASIA
Tāi Yāng Khān, king of the Christian tribe of Naimans, alarmed at
the growing power of the young ruler, sent Alakush-Tekin, chief of
the Onguts, or white Tatars, an invitation to join him against the
ambitious Mongol. Alakush-Tekin immediately informed Chingiz of the
Naimans’ intentions, assuring him at the same time of his own friendly
feeling. Chingiz promptly marched against Tāi Yāng, who descended from
the Altai to the foot of the Khanggai Mountains, attended by many
allies, among whom was Tukta, king of the Merkits.[362] In the battle
which took place the Naimans were utterly routed. Among the prisoners
who fell into the hands of the Mongols was Tatatungo, the chancellor of
Tāi Yāng, who belonged to the Uïghūr tribe, and tradition attributes
to his influence the veneer of civilisation of the Mongols; and it is
certain that Chingiz caused him to instruct his sons in the language,
laws, and customs of the Uïghūrs.[363]
Tāi Yāng Khān perished in this battle, while his son Guchluk fled by
way of Bish Bālik to the country of the Gūr-Khān of Kara-Khitāy.[364]
After wandering for some time and enduring great privations, he at
length arrived at the court of the Gūr-Khān (1208). He was hospitably
received, and the Khān gave him his daughter in marriage; but the
favours showered on him did not prevent his plotting to dethrone his
benefactor. He obtained permission to enlist the remnants of the
Naiman tribe, and thus collected a considerable force; then he entered
into a league with Mohammad Shāh of Khwārazm, and `Othmān, prince
of Samarkand, who, as we have seen above, were both vassals of the
Gūr-Khān. They arranged that they should attack their Gūr-Khān suzerain
simultaneously, the one from the east and the other from the west.
The conditions determined on were that if Sultan Mohammad should be
the first to gain a victory, Almāligh, Khotan, and Kāshghar, which
were in Guchluk’s hands, should be ceded to him; but if, on the other
hand, Guchluk should win the initial success, Kara-Khitāy, as far as
Fināket, should be delivered over to him.[365] Guchluk arrived before
the Sultan, and was at first successful, but was afterwards defeated on
his way to attack Balāsāghūn, and obliged to retreat. In the meantime
the troops of Mohammad and `Othmān had entered Kara-Khitāy, and gained
a victory over the Gūr-Khān’s general, Tanigū, near the city of Tarāz.
Guchluk, taking advantage of this reverse, hurried back, surprised
the Gūr-Khān, and took him prisoner, A.H. 608 (1212). Two years
later the Gūr-Khān died, at a very advanced age. Guchluk, now firmly
established on the throne of Kara-Khitāy, reduced his new subjects to
complete obedience. He was a cruel persecutor of Islām, being himself
a Nestorian Christian until his marriage with the Gūr-Khān’s daughter,
when he became a Buddhist.[366]
Chingiz had been occupied since the overthrow of the Naimans with the
conquest of China, and “though it was reserved for his grandson to
complete the subjugation of the Celestial Empire,[367] a great part of
the northern provinces ... was added to the Mongol dominions during the
great Khān’s own lifetime.”[368]
In 1218 he despatched an army 20,000 strong, under Noyan Chebe, to
attack Guchluk Khān in Kāshghar. Hearing of their approach, Guchluk
fled, but was shortly afterwards overtaken in the mountains of
Badakhshān and put to death. He was, as we have seen, a bigot, and
especially intolerant in his dealings with Mohammedans. The Mongols
proclaimed religious liberty, and thereby ensured for themselves the
favour of the people.[369]
After the downfall of the Kara-Khitāys the possessions of Mohammad of
Khwārazm extended into the heart of Turkestān, with Samarkand as a
capital. Those of Guchluk Khān were restricted to Kāshghar, Khotan, and
Yarkand.[370]
Chingiz’s relations with his powerful neighbour in Khwārazm were long
of a peaceful and even friendly nature, but causes were at work which
altered them radically.[371] Abū-l-Ghāzi states[372] that the Caliph
Nāsir’s intense jealousy of the northern empire led him to adopt every
means in his power to weaken it, and that he invited Chingiz to attack
Sultan Mohammad. It is probable that this perfidious policy caused a
coldness between the two potentates; but the immediate cause of rupture
was an act for which the Khwāarazm Sultan was alone responsible. He
cruelly slew, at Otrār, some Mohammedan traders who had incurred
his animosity, in spite of the fact that they were travelling under
Chingiz’s protection. The avalanches which descended on the habitable
world in the twelfth century were thus set in motion by princes whose
interest required that the vast forces controlled by Chingiz should
remain pent up in their native steppes.
In A.H. 615 (1218) he set out for Otrār, determined to avenge the
insult offered by Sultan Mohammad, and on his way was joined by large
reinforcements of Karliks, Uïghūr and other Mongol tribes, eager to
share in the plunder of the West.[373] On reaching that goal he divided
his forces among his sons, and laid down for each the object of attack.
Ogdāy and Chaghatāy were to reduce Otrār; Jūjī Khān was despatched
in the direction of Jand; while two of his generals, with 5000 men,
were sent to attack Fināket and Khojend. With the remainder of his
forces Chingiz himself, accompanied by his son Tūlī, set out for
Bokhārā,[374] and arrived at that capital in A.H. 616 (1219), having
carried all before him on his march. No sooner had he appeared than the
garrison, 20,000 strong, fled towards Khwārazm, but were overtaken on
the banks of the Oxus and cut to pieces by the Mongols sent in their
pursuit. Meanwhile the shaykhs and mullās of Bokhārā sallied forth
and presented the keys of the town to Chingiz Khān, who made a formal
entry, penetrated the courtyard of the principal mosque on horseback,
and asked whether this fine building was Sultan Mohammad’s palace. On
being told that it was God’s house he dismounted, and, ascending the
pulpit, hurled the Koran beneath his horse’s feet. He next insisted
that the inhabitants should deliver up their hidden treasures. Here
his destroying hand would have been stayed had he not learnt that
some remnants of Sultan Mohammad’s garrison were still in hiding. In
order to compass their death he ordered the city, which was mainly
built of wood, to be given to the flames. His behests were obeyed, and
Bokhārā for a time ceased to exist. Chingiz, however, caused it to be
rebuilt.[375]
Meanwhile success had attended all his other army corps; and Otrār,
Jand, and Khojend, together with many other towns, submitted to the
Mongols. The sons and generals of Chingiz now joined the main body, and
their united forces together marched on Samarkand. Before the end of
the year A.H. 616 (1219) this great city, after a three days’ siege,
fell. The garrison was put to the sword, and Samarkand was given over
to reckless pillage.
It is not necessary here to record the story of the Mongol’s progress
of conquest. Khwārazm soon succumbed, and Khorāsān was overrun by his
hordes. The Sultan himself took no active part in the hopeless effort
to stay the advance of Chingiz, but fled across Khorāsān[376] to an
island in the Caspian named Ābasgūn, not far from the modern Astarābād,
where in A.H. 617 (1220) he died in utter destitution.[377] A manful
struggle to revive the glory of his house was made by Sultan Mohammad’s
heroic son Jalāl ud-Dīn, whose career forms one of the most exciting
narratives in history.[378] This last representative of the Khwārazm
Shāhs, after having boldly faced death on a hundred battlefields, was
brutally murdered in A.H. 628 (1231) by a low-born Kurd.