CHAPTER VII
FLIGHT AND DEATH OF MOHAMMED
While the Mongols were ruining Northern Transoxiana Mohammed held aloof from every action, and was discouraged so deeply that his weakness affected all people of the Empire. While fortifying Samarkand he passed by the moat one day, and made this remark: “The Mongols are so many that they could fill this moat with their horsewhips.” When Jinghis had captured the northern line beyond the Oxus, Mohammed moved southward by way of Naksheb, telling all people to care for themselves, since his troops could not protect them. The diversity of opinions among his commanders and ministers increased his hesitation. The best warriors declared that Transoxiana was lost, but that Khorassan and Irak must be guarded; that troops must be concentrated, a general levy enforced, and the Amu Darya be defended at all costs. Others advised to fall back upon Ghazni, and there meet the Mongols; if beaten the Shah might retire beyond the Indus. This being the most timid course Mohammed favored and chose it; but, joined at Balkh by Amad ul mulk, the vizir, he altered that plan at the instance of Amad, who was prime minister of Rokn ud din, the Shah’s son who held Persian Irak as an appanage, and had sent Amad to his father hoping thus to be rid of him.
The position of Amad was of this sort: He wished to be near Shah Mohammed, his protector, and he was drawn toward his birthplace, the home of his family; so he persuaded the Shah to change plans and go to Persian Irak, where he would find men and means to force back the Mongols. Jelal ud din, the best son of Mohammed, in fact the only brave man in the family, was opposed to both projects; he would not talk of retreat, he would stop the invasion at the Oxus. “If thou retire to Irak,” said he, “give me thy forces. I will drive back the Mongols, and liberate the Empire.” Every discussion, however, was fruitless; the Shah treated all his son’s reasons as folly. “Success,” said Mohammed, “is fixed from eternity, defeat is averted by a change in the stars, and not otherwise.”
Before he left his position at Balkh Mohammed sent men to Pendjde, a point north of Termed, to collect information of the enemy’s movements. Tidings came quickly that Bokhara had been captured, that Samarkand had surrendered. Delaying his journey no longer, the Shah started off in hot haste through Khorassan. Most of the troops who went with him were Turks whose chiefs were his mother’s adherents and kinsmen; these formed a plot very quickly to kill him. Forewarned of their treachery, Mohammed left his tent during night hours; next morning it was seen to be riddled with arrows. His fears increased greatly, and he hastened on till he reached Nishap, where he halted, thinking that the Mongols would not cross the river Oxus in any case.
From Samarkand Jinghis despatched Chepé with ten thousand, Subotai with a second ten thousand, and Tuguchar with a third corps of similar numbers. The order given these was to ride with all speed to the camp of the Shah. If they found him at the head of large forces to wait till reinforcements came up to them; if he had few, to attack and secure him; if fleeing, to pursue, and with Heaven’s help take and keep him; to spare cities which yielded; to ruin utterly those which resisted.
The pursuing Mongols swept through Khorassan untiringly. This splendid province had four famous cities: Balkh, Herat, Merv and Nishapur. Besides these there were others of considerable, though minor, importance. When the Mongols were near Balkh that city sent forth a deputation with presents and submission. A Mongol governor was placed in it. Zaveh closed its gates and refused all supplies; unwilling to lose time there at siege work the Mongols pressed forward, but since people mounted the walls then, and stood beating drums and abusing them, they turned and attacked that foolish city which reviled them. They stormed the place, put to the sword every man in it, and burned what they had not the power to take with them.
On and on rode the Mongols. People met on the way to Nishapur were seized and put to torture till they told what they knew of the fleeing Mohammed. Cities were summoned to surrender; those that surrendered were spared and received new commandants. If cities which resisted were weak, they were stormed; if strong, they were left till a later occasion, since the work then on hand was to capture Mohammed.
When the Shah learned that the enemy had entered Khorassan he left Nishapur with a small escort under pretext of hunting. Consternation filled that place when the truth grew apparent. After the Shah deserted the city the vizir with the mufti and the cadi ruled, pending the arrival of a governor, who was on the way from Urgendj, the Kwaresmian capital. This man died when three days from the end of his journey; his household officials kept his death secret lest the escort might seize all his movable property. One of the regents went forth as if to meet him, and brought in his treasure. The escort, one thousand in number, would not stay in the city, but went in search of Mohammed. Next day those men, when nine miles from Nishapur, were met by a new host of Mongols who attacked very quickly and cut them to pieces.
The city was summoned to open its gates and the three regents gave answer as follows: “When Shah Mohammed is captured, Nishapur will surrender.” The first Mongol party that demanded provisions received them and vanished. Day after day new bodies rushed up to the city, received what they asked for and rode away swiftly. At last Chepé came and commanded the vizir, the mufti and cadi to appear at headquarters. Three supposititious men were sent out to meet him with gifts and provisions. The general gave these men the Khan’s proclamation in Uigur characters, and this was its import: “O commandants, officials and people! Know ye that Heaven has given me the Empire of the earth, both the east and the west of it. Those who submit will be spared; woe to those who resist, they will be slaughtered with their children, and wives and dependents. Give provisions to all troops that come, and think not to meet water with fire, or to trust in your walls, or the numbers of those who defend them. If ye try to escape utter ruin will seize you.”
The three bodies of Mongols, ten thousand each which were speeding on now in pursuit of Mohammed were rushing toward Irak. Subotai passed through Damegan and Simnan, and crossed the Kumus River. Chepé Noyon, who had gone by Mazanderan, rejoined Subotai at Rayi. This place they took by surprise, and then sacked it.
From Nishapur Mohammed hastened on to Kazvin, where his son Rokn ud din had an army; there he took counsel with the leaders of that army which was thirty thousand in number, and sent for Hezerasp, prince of Lur, who advised a retreat across the mountain chain lying between Fars and Lur. The Shah wished to stay in Irak and increase his defense there; he had just stated that wish when news came that Rayi had been taken and plundered. Chiefs and princes fled straightway on hearing this. Each went his own road, and the whole army vanished immediately, so great was the terror inspired by the onrushing Mongols.
The Shah fled for safety to his sons in Karun. On the way Mongol forces were in sight and almost caught him, unwittingly. They sent arrows at the fleeing man though not knowing who he was and wounded the horse which he was riding, but the beast held out and bore him safely to the fortress. Next morning he fled farther along the road lying westward toward Bagdad. Barely had he ridden away when the Mongols, who knew now whose horse they had wounded, rushed in, thinking to seize the hunted man surely. They attacked the fort furiously at first, but learning soon that the Shah had escaped they hurried after him. On the way they met men who professed to be guides dismissed by Mohammed; from these men they heard that he was fleeing to Bagdad. They took the guides then and rushed forward, but the Shah was on a new road at that time. The Mongols soon saw that they had lost his trail, and were tricked, so they cut down the guides and returned to Karun.
Mohammed had fled to Serdjihan, a strong place northeast of Kazvin on a mountain. Seven days he remained there; he then fled to Gilan, and next to Mazanderan, where he appeared stripped of property and almost unattended. The Mongols had preceded him, having sacked two towns already, Amol the capital, and Astrabad a place of much commerce. “Where am I to find safety from Mongols? Is there no spot on earth where I can be free of them?” Such was the cry of Mohammed. “Go to some little island in the Caspian, that will be the safest place!” said some of his friends. This advice pleased Shah Mohammed, so he stopped in a village on the seashore, intending to follow it. He prayed five times each day in the mosque, had the Koran read to him and promised God tearfully that justice would reign in his Empire as never on earth up to that day, should power ever come to him a second time.
While Mohammed was thus engaged in that village, Mongols appeared on a sudden. They were guided by Rokn ud din, a small prince of that region. This man’s uncle and cousin had been killed by Shah Mohammed, who seized their lands in the days of his insolence and his greedy ambition. Rokn ud din’s hatred had sent him as a guide to the Mongols, and thus he recovered his family inheritance. The Shah had barely time to spring into a boat and push out from shore when his enemies were upon him. Enraged at the loss of their victim, many horsemen sprang after the boat, but they failed to reach it and were drowned in the Caspian.
Mohammed, who was suffering gravely from pleurisy and weakness, declared as he sailed from the shore, that after reigning over many kingdoms and lands he lacked even a few ells of earth for a resting place. The fallen man reached a small island and was childishly joyous at finding a safe place of refuge. His house was a tent with little in it, but the people of the coast brought him food, and whatever else might be pleasing to the monarch, as they thought. In return Mohammed gave them brevets of office, or titles to land which they wrote themselves frequently, since he had sent most of his small suite to bring his sons to him. Later on, when Jelal ud din had regained some part of his possessions he honored all gages of this kind.
The Shah’s illness increased, and he lost hope of recovery. His sons came and then he withdrew from Oslag the inheritance. “Save Jelal ud din there is none of you who can recover the Empire,” declared Mohammed. The failing monarch took his own sabre which he girded on Jelal ud din, and commanded the younger brothers to show him obedience. Mohammed breathed his last some days later, January 10, 1221, and was buried on that island. There was no cloth for a shroud, so he was buried in another man’s shirt. His funeral was small and the ceremony scant at his burial. Such was the end which Jinghis gave a great sovereign who, till his attack on the Kalif of Islam, ruled over a vast country and found success everywhere save in the struggles with his mother.
Before crossing the Oxus, Mohammed directed Turkan Khatun, who governed Urgendj, the modern Khiva, to retire to Mazanderan and live there in the mountains, taking with her his harem. Jinghis, informed clearly of the quarrels between the Shah and his mother, sent Danishmend, his chancellor, to that relentless, harsh woman, and this was his message: “Thy son is ungrateful, I know that. If thou agree with me I will not touch Kwaresm, which thou art ruling. I will give thee, moreover, Khorassan when I win it. Send a trusty man, he will hear this assurance from my own lips directly.”
Turkan Khatun gave no answer, but left Kwaresm as soon as she heard that her son had fled westward. Before going, however, she put to death all the princes whom the Shah had despoiled and imprisoned; among these were both sons of Togrul, the last Seljuk sultan of Irak; the Balkh prince and his son, the sovereign of Termed; the prince of Bamian; the Vakhsh prince, the two sons of the lord of Signak, and the two sons of Mahmud, last prince of Gur. She had all these men thrown into the Oxus and drowned, sparing only Omar, Khan of Yazer, who could be of use on her journey, since he knew all the roads which led to his own land and birthplace. In fact he served the woman well, till they were near Yazer, when his head was cut off at her order, as she had no further use for him.
When Mohammed had fled to Mazanderan he directed his mother, as we have seen, to live in Ilak, the best stronghold in all that great region of mountain. Later on Subotai, who was hunting Mohammed, left a body of men to invest that strong fortress. As Ilak was in a rainy, damp climate no reservoirs had been made for dry periods; while the place was invested that happened which came to pass rarely, a dry season. After a blockade of some months drought forced a surrender. But just after the Mongols had taken possession, the sky was covered densely with clouds which brought a great rainfall.
Turkan Khatun and the harem were taken to the camp of Jinghis, who was before Talekan at that time and besieging it. She was held captive there strictly. All the sons of Mohammed found in the harem were put to death promptly. Two of his daughters were given to Jagatai, who made one of them his concubine, and gave the other as a present to his manager; a third was given as wife to the chancellor, Danishmend. The widow of Osman, Khan of Samarkand, she who had insisted on the execution of her husband, and was the daughter of the Gurkhan, was given in marriage to a dyer, but by another account she was given to Juchi, who had by her afterward several children. Turkan Khatun, the strong, brutal woman, was taken to Kara Kurum, the Mongol capital, where she died eight years later. Just before she was captured a eunuch had urged her to find refuge with Jelal ud din, her own grandson, who was near by, he declared, with a numerous army. Turkan replied that captivity of any kind was sweeter to her than salvation at his hand. Such was the hate which she felt toward her grandson. Nassir ud din, the vizir who had defied Shah Mohammed, was put to death at Talekan with a number of others.
Mohammed’s three elder sons made their way to Mangishlak by the Caspian and thence to Urgendj, the Kwaresmian capital. Since the flight of their grandmother the capital had been without rule; in her haste she had left no governor there. Seventy thousand men gathered round the three princes immediately. The commanders, being Kankali Turks, were dissatisfied that Jelal ud din had succeeded his father; they feared his strong will and plotted to kill him. The new Shah saw very clearly that his one chance of safety was flight, and he seized that chance quickly. With three hundred warriors under Timur Melik, that Khodjend commandant who had escaped through the Mongol investment, he fled across the desert to Nessa.
After the capture of Samarkand Jinghis stationed his troops between that place and Naksheb where they spent the spring of 1221 and also the summer. Toward autumn his forces were reorganized thoroughly. Having rested they were strong and now ready for action. The return of Mohammed’s sons at Urgendj and the gathering of forces there roused the Khan’s vigilance, so he despatched thither an army at once under his sons, Juchi, Jagatai and Ogotai. To cut off retreat toward the Indus he formed a cordon on the southern rim of the desert; a part of this cordon was already near Nessa when Jelal ud din and his party arrived there. He attacked this line of men valiantly, forced it to flight and pushed on without stopping. This was the first victory won over Mongols in the Kwaresmian Empire. The two younger brothers, hearing of the advance on Urgendj, set out three days later, but failed of such fortune as their brother, and perished near Nessa. Their heads fixed on lances were borne through Khorassan.
When the Mongol troops arrived before Urgendj, Juchi, who was in command, sent to the capital a summons to surrender, informing the people that his father had given him the city and that he did not wish to injure it in any way. As no attention was paid to this summons the siege was begun at once. The Mongols endeavored to divert the waters of the Oxus above the town, but with no success, for the workmen were killed by the garrison. Quarrels between Juchi and Jagatai impeded siege work very greatly. Jinghis, angered by this delay, placed Ogotai in command. Juchi was enraged at being thus superseded by a younger brother, but he could not withdraw. The siege lasted seven months and gained great renown through the desperate defense made by citizens. After the general assault which decided the fate of the city the people continued resistance with fury; driven from one street they fought in the next. Women and even children took part in these struggles, which continued seven days and nights without ceasing. At last the inhabitants asked to capitulate. “We have felt thy wrath,” declared they to the Mongol commander, “thy time has come now to show favor.” “How!” exclaimed Ogotai. “They mention our wrath, they who have slain so many of our army? We have felt their wrath very heavily and now we will show them what ours is!”
He ordered all the inhabitants to go forth from the city and wait on the plain; the artisans were to group themselves separately. These artisans were spared, but were sent to Mongolia. Some of them fearing such an exile, joined with the people and waited. Except artisans no one was spared unless youthful women, and also children; all were cut down by Ogotai, without mercy.
After this slaughter the Mongols plundered Urgendj of everything which had value. Then they opened the sluices of the Oxus and flooded the city; those who were hidden there perished. In other places some persons saved themselves always, but here, those who escaped Mongol fury and hid themselves were drowned by the water let in on them.
Jinghis camped that summer on the rich Naksheb steppes, where his vast herds of horses found rest and good pasture. In the autumn a new and great campaign was begun by the siege laid to Termed. This city, on the north or right bank of the Oxus, refused to surrender and was taken by storm on the tenth day of action. All the inhabitants were driven beyond the suburbs and massacred; a certain old woman stopped the sword above her head and promised a rare pearl if they spared her. When they asked for the treasure, she answered, “I have swallowed it.” They ripped her body open and found the costly pearl in her stomach. Thinking that others might have swallowed jewels in like fashion, Jinghis commanded to rip bodies open thenceforward.
The Mongol Khan passed the next winter between Balkh and the Badakshan boundary, subduing, ravaging, destroying all cities of note, and every place of distinction or value. Before the winter had ended that whole region north of the Oxus was ruined, and was a horror to look upon. In spring he crossed the river at a ford and was met by a Balkh deputation with gifts and submission. Humility brought that rich famous place no salvation. Jinghis, who knew that Jelal ud din, the new sovereign, was at Ghazni with an army, would not leave a strong fortress behind him. Under pretext of making a census he directed the people in Balkh to assemble outside near the suburbs. They went forth and were slaughtered most brutally; the city was pillaged, then burned, and all its defenses demolished.
The time of terror came next to Nusrat i kuh in the Talekan district. This place, strong by position, by its works, and its garrison, defended itself for six months with immense strength, and successfully. Prisoners in large numbers were forced to fight in the front lines of investment. Those who turned back were cut down without mercy by the Mongols behind them. A huge earth mound was reared and catapults placed on it; with these the besiegers battered the interior of the fortress. At last the brave garrison made a great sally on foot and on horseback; the horsemen escaped to the mountains, but the foot forces were like wild beasts at bay; they fought till the enemy had slain every man of them. The Mongols then burst into the city; they spared no living soul in it and left not one stone on another.
While the Khan’s army was destroying Nusrat i kuh, Tului returned to his father after wasting Khorassan, the richest and most beautiful part of the Empire. When Tului had set out for this work of destruction Khorassan had been already ravaged by Subotai and by Chepé, who did the work only in part as they rushed along hunting Mohammed. These two chiefs left a commandant in each place which yielded. After they had passed, and when news came of victories won, as men said, by Mohammed, people hitherto terrified recovered their courage. For instance, the chief of militia in Tus killed the Mongol commandant and sent his head to Nishapur, the next city, as a trophy; but this chief suffered soon after for his levity and rashness. A strange captain came with a detachment to Tus, put nearly all native troops to the sword, and forced the Tus citizens to destroy their defenses.
When Tului received the command in 1220 to march on Khorassan he sent forward ten thousand men, under Togachar, as a vanguard. This body went on toward Nessa and when approaching that city a part of it met with resistance. Belgush, its commander, fell in the action which followed. Togachar, to avenge the death of Belgush, besieged Nessa. Shah Mohammed, when fleeing, had sent an official to advise Nessa people: “The Mongols,” said he, “will abandon the Empire when they have plundered it, so flee to the desert, or to mountainous regions, unless ye wish to rebuild the old fortress, which was razed by my father.” They rebuilt the old fortress.
Togachar attacked Nessa, using twenty catapults handled by captives, who, whenever they fell back, were massacred by Mongols behind them. On the sixteenth day at dawn a breach in the wall was effected; the Mongols burst through and drove out the inhabitants. On the plain near Nessa some were forced to bind others; when the hands of each man were bound behind his back the Mongols slaughtered all who were there, seventy thousand in number.
The ancient city of Meru, or Merv, renowned in Persian story, and still more in Sanscrit poems, was the first place attacked by Tului with the main army. It was one of the four ruling cities, and the one which Melik Shah and Sindjar, the Seljuk Sultans, had favored. It stood on a broad, fertile plain through which flowed the Murghab, or Bird, River. When Mohammed fled from Jinghis he directed Merv troops and officials to retire on Meraga, a neighboring fortress. “All people who remain must receive Mongol troops with submission,” this was his order. Mohammed’s fear, not his counsel, remained in that city. His governor, Behai ul Mulk, did not think Meraga strong and found elsewhere a refuge; some chiefs returned to Merv, others fled to distant places. The new governor, a man of no value, declared for submission, and so did the mufti, but the judge and descendants of the Prophet demanded resistance. The governor lost his place soon and was followed in office by a former incumbent named Mojir ul Mulk, who managed Merv matters till Tului appeared with a force seventy thousand in number, made up in some part of captives. Next day he surrounded the outworks and within a week’s time his whole army had inclosed that doomed city, February, 1221.
The besieged made two sorties from different sides, but were hurled back each time with great violence. The assailants then passed the whole night near the ramparts, so that no living soul might escape them. Mojir ul Mulk sent a venerable Imam next morning to visit headquarters. This holy man brought back such mild words and fair speeches, that the governor himself went to visit the camp, bearing with him rich presents. Tului promised him the office of governor, and the lives of all citizens. He gave him a rich robe of honor and spoke of the governor’s friends and adherents: “I desire to attach them to my person,” said he, “and confer on them fiefs and high office.” The governor sent for his friends and adherents. When Tului had all these men in his power he bound them. He bound Mojir ul Mulk also and forced him to name the richest Merv citizens. A list was drawn up of two hundred great merchants and men of much property, who were sent to the Mongols with four hundred artisans. After this the troops entered the city and drove out the people. The command had been given that each man must go forth with his family and all he had of most value. The multitude spent four whole days marching out of the city.
Tului mounted a gilded throne on a plain near the suburbs and had the war chiefs brought first to his presence. That done he commanded to hew off their heads in presence of the immense wailing multitude of people, for whom no better lot was in waiting.
Men, women, and children were torn from one another never to meet in this life after that day. The whole place was filled with groans, shrieks and wild terror; the people were given in groups to divisions of the army whose office it was to cut them down to the last without pity or exception. Only four hundred artisans were set aside and some boys and girls intended for servitude. Wealthy persons were tortured unsparingly till they told where their treasures were hidden; when the treasures were found these men were slaughtered as well as the others. The city was plundered to the utmost; the tomb of the Sultan, Sindjar, was pillaged; the walls of the ancient city and the fortress were made level with the country about them.
Before he left that city of carnage and terror Tului appointed a governor, one of the inhabitants whom he had spared for some reason, and then he joined a Mongol commandant to that man. When the army had marched away to destroy Nishapur, about five hundred persons crept forth from underground places of hiding, but short was the breathing space given them. Mongol troops following Tului wished also a share in the bloodshed. Halting outside the dark ruins, they asked that these ill-fated people bring wheat to their camp ground. The unfortunates were sent and were slaughtered.
This corps cut down every man whom it met in the wake of Tului.
Nishapur stood twelve days’ journey distant from Merv and in attacking it Tului was preparing to avenge Togachar, his sister’s husband, killed at Nessa. The Nishapur people had done what they could to the harm of the Mongols, and had prepared to defend themselves with all the strength of their souls and their bodies. They had mounted three thousand ballistas on the walls, and five hundred catapults.
The siege was begun by laying waste the whole province, of which Nishapur was the capital. Three thousand ballistas, three hundred catapults, seven hundred machines to throw pots of burning naphtha, and four thousand ladders were among the siege implements. At sight of these, and of the vast multitude of savage warriors surrounding their city, the leaders felt courage go from them.
A deputation of notables, with the chief judge of Khorassan, went to offer Tului submission, and an annual tribute.
Tului refused every offer and held the judge captive. Next morning he rode round the walls and roused his troops to the greatest endeavor. They attacked all sides at once, fighting that day and the night following. In the morning the moats were full; in the walls were seventy breaches; ten thousand Mongols had entered. New assailants rushed in from every side, and there were desperate encounters at many points. Before that day had ended the city was occupied. The assailants took terrible vengeance. Togachar’s widow, one of Jinghis Khan’s daughters, rushed in herself with ten thousand warriors who cut down all before them. The slaughter continued four days without ceasing. The Mongols destroyed every living thing; even the cats and dogs in the city were killed by them (April, 1221).
Tului had heard that in the destruction of Merv many persons had saved their lives by lying down among corpses, so now he ordained that all heads be cut from the bodies; of these three pyramids were constructed, one of men’s heads, a second from heads of women, and a third of children’s heads. Fifteen days did destruction of the city continue; the place disappeared altogether, and the Mongols sowed barley on the site of it. Of the inhabitants only a few hundred men were left living; these were skilled artisans. Lest some should find refuge in underground places, troops were left near the ruins to slay all who might creep out later on into daylight.
The Mongol army marched now against Herat, the last city left in Khorassan. The governor, who had slain the envoy sent by Tului to summon the place to surrender, exhorted all men to fight desperately, to fight to the death. The struggle continued eight days, and Herat fought with immense resolution and fury; on that day the governor fell, and a small party sprang up which declared for submission. Tului knowing this state of mind in the city, promised to spare the people, if they would submit to him straightway. The offer was accepted. He spared all the citizens, excepting twelve thousand devoted to Jelal ud din, the new sovereign, and appointed a Mohammedan governor, with a Mongol commandant to help him.
Eight days later Tului received from Talekan a command to go to his father.
While Tului was ruining Khorassan, a small group of Turkmans, Khankalis, who were living near Merv, fearing the Mongols, moved westward, and after some wandering in Asia Minor, settled at last near Angora under Ertogrul their tribe chieftain. They numbered in those days four hundred and forty families. These Turkmans formed the nucleus of the Ottoman Empire, so famous in history until our day.
After he had destroyed Talekan, Jinghis held his summer camp for a time in the neighboring mountains. His sons, Jagatai and Ogotai, returned from Urgendj and other ruined places on the Oxus. Juchi went north of Lake Aral and in deep and unquenchable anger began to establish the monarchy of Kipchak, known later as the Golden Horde, and never again saw his father. Jinghis learning, toward the autumn of 1221, that Jelal ud din had large forces in Ghazni, directed his march toward that city to crush him.
The great Khan was detained a whole month at Kerduan, a firm fortress, but he destroyed it at last, with all its defenders. He crossed the Hindu Kush after that and besieged Bamian, where he lost one grandson stricken dead by an arrow; this was Moatagan, son of Jagatai. To avenge this death Bamian was stormed promptly, and taken. Jinghis would not have it in another way. The command was given to leave nothing alive, and take no booty of any kind. Every living creature had to die, and every thing of value was broken or burned. Bamian was renamed Mobalig (the city of woe), and the region about it was turned to a desert. A hundred years later it contained no inhabitants.
Just after this destruction came the news of Jelal ud din’s victory over a Mongol division, commanded by Kutuku, who had been protecting the Khan’s operations and those of Tului on the south side. This victory was gained at Peruan, not far from the Bamian boundary. It brought more harm to the victor, however, than profit, for it caused a sudden rupture between his commanders, some of whom deserted and led away many warriors. With reduced ranks he was forced to fall back upon Ghazni, and thence farther south when he heard that Jinghis was advancing rapidly to avenge the defeat of Kutuku, his general.
The Mongol army reached Ghazni fifteen days after its opponent had retreated. Jinghis left a governor in the city, and flew toward the Indus with all the speed possible to horses when men are sitting on them and urging them to the utmost. But this time the great Mongol had to do with a man of more mettle than he had met in his warfaring thus far. Jelal ud din had gathered in forces from all sides; he sent urgent messages to the chiefs who had left him, but, though willing to return, they had no chance to do so at that day. Jinghis was between them and their leader.
The Mongols urged forward their horses with the energy of madmen. The great task was to stop the young Shah from crossing the Indus with his army and his harem—his wives and children were all with him. Time was in this case preëminent in value. The Mongols pressed Jelal ud din savagely, but he was, as ever, unterrified. Just before reaching the Indus he fell at night on the rear of his enemy’s vanguard, and cut it down to a man very nearly.
On reaching the river there was no time to cross, so the Shah ranged his army for battle. The left wing was covered by a mountain, which ended sheer in the river. The mountain could not be turned, and could not be crossed, as the Shah thought; it protected the left from flank attack also; the Indus protected the right from flank movements, and Jelal ud din could be met straight in front only. His army was thirty thousand, while that of his enemy was many times larger.
And now began the unequal and desperate encounter. The Shah’s right wing, to which he sent reinforcements repeatedly, repulsed the left wing of the Mongols, and he himself broke Jinghis Khan’s center. For a time the Mongol conqueror was in personal peril, since a horse was killed under him in the struggle. Jelal ud din would have held his own, and perhaps won a victory, had not Bela Noyon been sent with ten thousand picked men to pass the mountain at all costs. Over cliffs and on the edge of abysses the Mongols crept carefully, pushing forward till at last they were in the rear of the weakened left wing and the center which, attacked from rear and front, were pierced through and forced out of contact with each other.
Rallying seven thousand men around him Jelal ud din made a desperate charge on the line of his enemy, which gave way for some distance, then he turned quickly, sprang on a fresh horse, threw off his armor and spurring to the Indus leaped from a bank given variously as from twenty to sixty feet higher than the plain of the water. His shield was at his shoulder, and his standard in his hand. Jinghis, who spurred to the river bank swiftly and gazed at his fleeing opponent, cried: “How could Shah Mohammed be the father of this man!”
The eldest son of Jelal ud din was a lad of eight years. He with his brothers were tossed into the Indus and drowned like superfluous puppies. Jinghis disposed of the harem and treasures as pleased him.
Jelal ud din vanished then for a time from the conflict to appear later on in various struggles till weakness, treachery and death put an end to him. Mongol generals crossed the river and pursued, but returned after fruitless endeavors.
Jinghis marched up the right bank of the Indus in the spring of 1222, and sent his son Ogotai to take Ghazni and destroy it. Here, as in most other places, the inhabitants were sent from the city, as it were to be counted, but were slaughtered most brutally; none were spared except artisans. An army corps was sent also to ruin Herat, the one city left in Khorassan. Herat had risen in revolt on hearing of the Peruan triumph over Mongols; the people had had such action in view since the time of surrender, and had stored away arms and supplies under pretext that they were for Mongol use should the need come.
Not far from Herat was the Kaliun fortress, known later on as Nerretu. To reach this strong place men had to pass single file on the high, narrow ridge of a mountain which resembled the back of a colossal hog of the razor-back species. The place was beyond reach of arrows, or of stones sent by catapults. Though they had attacked Kaliun twice, the Mongols had failed in their efforts to take it. The Kaliun men, fearing lest they might come a third time, and impress Herat people, had planned to involve that strong and wealthy city, which would then have one cause with them. They sent letters to the Mongol governors ruling in Herat stating: “We are ready to surrender, but fear Mongol rigor; we beg for a written safe-conduct.”
The governors answered that they would give such a letter, and advised the petitioners to visit the city and come to them. This was all that the other men needed; so seventy strong warriors went down from Kaliun, disguised as simple huxters; they had arms covered up in the packs which they carried. They entered the city, each man by himself, combined later on and slew both the governors. Herat rose immediately, and killed every partisan of the Mongols.
In addition to his own men the Mongol commander led now fifty thousand impressed from conquered places. A siege followed soon and a desperate resistance. Six months and seventeen days did it last till the fall of the city. The sword was turned then on all save the choice youth of both sexes. For one week the Mongols slew, pillaged, burned, ruined. It was said that one million six hundred thousand people perished in the conflict and subsequent slaughter. Jinghis received the richest of the plunder, and with it went several thousands of youthful captives.
When Herat was destroyed the commander went back to the main army; somewhat later troops were sent to capture all who might have escaped and appeared in the ruins; they found about two thousand. These they slew, and then returned to those who had sent them.
Sixteen persons took refuge on a steep mountain peak, and when they saw no Mongols coming back, they went down to Herat. A few others came also and joined them. There was then a new population, forty persons in number. Their only refuge was the chief mosque of the city.
After its terrible ruin, Merv had been repeopled to some extent, but later five thousand Mongols were sent to that city and they slaughtered all whom they found in it. When these five thousand had done their work thoroughly a commandant, Ak Melik, was left with the order to kill all who might reappear in the ruins. This man did his best to find people and slay them. He sent muezzins to summon to prayer from the minarets. Whenever a Moslem crept out of his hiding place and entered the mosque he was seized and his life taken. Forty-one days did Ak Melik lurk there and wait for more people. The survivors were few when he left the ruins. Merv remained a sad desert till the days of Shah Ruk, son of Tamerlane.
Jinghis cut down on the banks of the Indus all who had been faithful to Jelal ud din, the new Shah, and now he destroyed all who had deserted that sovereign and been foolishly treacherous. On deserting Jelal ud din, Agrak had gone with Azam to Bekerhar. After a visit there he set out for Peshawur, and from the first halting place sent back this message: “Let not my mortal enemy remain in thy country.” This enemy was Nuh Jaudar, the chief of five or six thousand Kolluj families. Azam sent back this answer: “Never has there been among Moslems such need as there now is not to quarrel.” And taking an escort of fifty, Azam followed to make peace between Agrak and Jaudar. He could not move Agrak or persuade him; they ate together and also drank wine; Agrak’s brain grew excited, he mounted, took one hundred men and rode to the camp of the Kollujes. Jaudar thinking that Agrak wished peace rode forth with his son to greet him. On seeing his enemy Agrak drew his sabre as if to strike, and was cut down by Jaudar’s men the next moment. When Agrak’s adherents heard that their leader had been slain they thought that Jaudar and Azam had plotted his ruin, and right away they slew Azam. Then they attacked Jaudar’s camp, where they massacred him and his children. Soon after this they encountered the Gur men and killed a great number. As a close to this tragic insanity of action a corps of mounted Mongols fell upon all and slew them indiscriminately; a small remnant fled in various directions.
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