Indian Antiquary Vol 13

SR No.: 032505
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 492
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 22 MB

Page 231

JULY, 1884.7
CHINGHIZ KHÅN AND HIS ANCESTORS.
201
the Sultan Muhammad, from affection for his mother, and by our means he has conquered several kingdoms, which he has appropriated. Notwithstanding this he is ill-disposed towards the Khatun, and repays her with ingratitude. She desires that we should avenge her. We are only waiting for your arrival, and we are at your disposal." It was arranged that this letter should be intercepted. The Sultan was misled by the stratagem, and becoming suspicious of his generals, determined to scatter them. It is possible also that Muhammad did not expect that Chinghiz Khan was going to make a permanent settlement, but only a temporary raid. At all events, instead of concentrating his forces, when he heard of the enemy's approach he scactered them in the various towns of Transoxiana and Khud. rezm." Leaving the greater portion of them in Turkestan and Mavera-an-nehr he sent 20,000 men to Gbair Khân at Otrar, 10,000 to Benaket under Kutlugh Khan, Ashtiaru-u'd. din Kushli and his chancellor, Akhra Ali, surnamed Inandsh Khân. He retained 30,000 men at Bukhara under the command of Khamid Tanigu and other generals. He placed 10,000 under the command of his chamberlain Thujan. juk, and the generals Azu'd-din, Husamu'd-din, Masaud, &c., as a garrison in Samarkand, committed the defence of Termed to the Sijistan forces of Fakhru'd-din Hasan, Sarrakhs to Muhammad Khan, Balkh to his nephews and their father, Jend to Agru Pehluwan, Jilan to Dagheljuk Malik, Kender to Berthaishi, Yargand to Aslebeh Khân." He himself retired to Samarkand. Chinghiz Khan with his forces having reached Taras, crossed over the mountains, and then divided his army into several sections, one of which, under his eldest son, Juchi, with the Ulus Bede," he sent to secure the country on the lower Jazartes. Juchi first assailed Sighnak, whose site is not well ascertained. Klaproth puts it, I don't know on what authority, on the Muskan, a tributary flowing into the Jazartes on the right." Sherif-u'd-din speaks of Sighnak and Sabran, as two frontier towns of Turkestan,
and says Sighnak was situated 24 miles from Otrar, while the biographical work entitled Tabakat-al-hanefiyet of Kesevi, speaks of it as being the town of Yassi." It was not inpossibly on the site now named Kuk Chaganak, and placed in Colonel Walker's map on the Sihun or Jaxartes between the Aris and the Bugan, two tributaries of the Jaxartes, north of Otrar and south of Turkestan. In order to avoid bloodshed, Juchi, on nearing Sighnak, sent thither Hasan, the Haji, or pilgrim, who had long followed the steps of Chinghiz as a merchant, and was numbered among his officers. He urged upon the inhabitants the prudence of surrendering, and promised them their lives and property if they did so. But meanwhile the rabble in the bazar, who probably looked upon him as a faithless Musal. mån to give such advice, fell on him with the cries Alla akbar, massacred him, and slut the gates of the town. Juchi, on hearing of this was enraged, he pressed the attack unceasingly, and in the course of a week captured it. It was taken in an hour, says Abulghazi, and 10,000 Musalmans were massacred to revenge the death of Hasan."Mirkhond tells us that all the officers and soldiers, together with the chief men and half the citizens, were put to death. As they needed the town as a base the Mongols did not raze the town, and Juchi ont of respect for the memory of Easan Haji, had a splendid mausoleum built, on the best site in the place, and ordered funeral rites of the most elaborate kind to be performed over him. He was of the sect of the Safais. Hasan's son was given command of what remained of Sighnak." The fate of Sigbnak overawed the neighbouring towns. Uzkend, called Usekan in the Yuanshi-lei-pen, determined to surrender. Mirkhond says that when Juchi was two days' march off, the inhabitants in spite of the governor, sent their submission, whereupon he left the place with the garrison, and retired to Tonkat or Fenaket. Thereupon Juchi treated the people well, merely levying a contribution of provisions, and moved on. This Uzkend had clearly nothing to do with the famous fortress
0 D'Ohnson, vol. I, p. 218. 1 Erdmann's Temudechin, pp. 367 and 368.
Le. the Uighurs.
Nouv. Journ. Asiat. tome XII, p. 285, note. * I.e. Turkestan.
Abulghazi, pp. 112 and 113 ; D'Ohsson, vol. I, p. 221; Erdmann, PP. 371 and 372.
De la Croix, History of Genghis Khan, pp. 173 and 176.
Abulghazi, p. 113; D'Oheson, vol. I p. 222; Erdmann, p. 372.
Gaubil, p. 32. "De la Croix.