The Rashīdī History 17: THE EARLY HISTORY OF TUGHLUK TIMUR.
The Tarikh-i-Rashidi (Elias, Ross) 17
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THE EARLY HISTORY OF TUGHLUK TIMUR.
17.1
I HAVE heard from trustworthy Moghul sources (and my father and my uncle used also to relate) that Isan Bugha Khan, the father of Tughluk Timur Khan, had for his favourite wife a certain Satilmish Khatun; while he had also another wife whose name was Manlik. Now the Khan had no children, and Satilmish Khatun was barren. The Khan, on a certain occasion, went on an expedition with his army. According to an old Moghul custom, the favourite wife has the allotment and disposal of a man's wives, keeping back or giving him whichever of them she pleases. Satilmish Khatun learnt that Manlik was with child by the Khan, and, being envious, gave her in marriage to Dukhtui Sharawal, who was one of the great Amirs. When the Khan returned from his expedition he asked after Manlik. Satilmish Khatun replied: "I have given her away to some one." The Khan then said: "But she was with child by me," and he was very wroth; but as this was a usual practice among the Moghuls, he said nothing.
17.2
Soon after this, Isan Bugha Khan died, and there was no Khan left of the tribe of Moghul. Every man acted for himself, and ruin and disorder began to creep in among the people. Amir Bulaji Dughlat, an ancestor of the humble narrator, determined on discovering a Khan, and restoring order to the State; so he sent a certain Tash Timur to find Dukhtui Sharawal, and to obtain what information he could, concerning Manlik and her child; telling Tash Timur that if it were a boy, he was to steal the child away and bring it back with him. Tash Timur replied: "It is a very long and tedious expedition, and fitting preparations for the journey must be made. I beg of you to supply me with six hundred goats, that we may first drink their milk and then kill and eat them, one by one." Amir Bulaji complied with his wishes and supplied him with all that was necessary. Tash Timur then set out. He journeyed for a long while in Moghulistan, and by the time he came upon the party of Dukhtui Sharawal, there was but one goat remaining, and that was a brown one [kahud]. On his inquiring after Manlik and her child, they replied that she had borne a son, and that she had a second son by Dukhtui Sharawal; the name of the Khan's son was Tughluk Timur, and the name of the son of Sharawal was Inchumalik. Finally Tash Timur succeeded in carrying off Tughluk Timur, and returned to the Amir with him.
17.3
Bulaji belonged to Aksu. When Chaghatai Khan apportioned his kingdom, he gave Mangalai Suyah to Urtubu, who was the grandfather of Amir Bulaji. Mangalai Suyah is the equivalent of Aftab Rui, or "sun-faced." It is bounded on the east by Kusan and Tarbugur; on the west by Sam, Gaz and Jakishman, which are situated on the confines of Farghana; on the north by Issigh Kul, and on the south by Jorjan and Sarigh-Uighur. This territory is called Mangalai Suyah, and it was subject to Amir Bulaji. In his time it contained many large towns, the most important of which were Kashghar, Khotan, Yarkand, Kasan, Akhsiket, Andijan, Aksu, At-Bashi and Kusan. From all these towns, Amir Bulaji the Kara-Khitais, the Arabs, the Chinese, or even the Buddhists of India may have had a hand in inventing a name for the country in ancient times—if ancient the name is; but this last point is also one on which Mirza Haidar fails to enlighten us.
17.4
The late Dr. Terrien de Lacouperie, who did me the kindness to look into the term, with a view to finding a solution, suggested the similarity of a name variously written in the historical records of Szema Tsien—Su Hiai, Sui Yeh, and Su Yep, which was that of a state that has been identified with Yarkand. It lay, at any rate, to the east of Farghana, was not Kashghar, and was connected with Ku She, which was perhaps the modern Kuchar. My attention has also been directed towards the ancient Indian word Suriya, for the sun, but this could hardly have been combined with the common Turki word Mangalai, while it is unlikely that it could have been corrupted by losing its most distinctive letter. My impression is that Mirza Haidar's name is something comparatively modern, and is rather a laudatory term for the region in question, than a term applying to any particular district or town. In the seventh century the name of Su-Yeh (unconnected with Mangalai or any other word) was used by the Chinese pilgrim, Hiuen Tsang, according to Julien, Beal, and other commentators, for a town on the upper waters of the Chu, then the capital of certain Turki Khans; though Mr. Watters affirms that the name in Hiuen Tsang should be read, not Su-Yeh, but Su-Sa or Su-She. This place, as will be shown later (see note, pp. 361-3), was most probably the same as Bala-Sakun.
17.5
If so it was situated some distance to the north of Farghana, and would therefore not fall within the region described by Mirza Haidar as Mangalai Suyah. There is, moreover, a difference in date between Hiuen Tsang and Mirza Haidar of some nine hundred years, and the latter nowhere implies that he is employing an ancient term. Su-Yeh or Su-Sa was, in fact, applied by the Chinese writers to a different locality, though, strangely enough, in the syllable Su it has a certain degree of connection with a part of our author's province—that is, with Kashghar. Su-li was an ancient name for Kashghar, and Hiuen Tsang tells us: "From the town of the Su-Yeh river as far [west] as the Ki Shwang Na country, the land is called Su-li, and the people are called by the same name" (Beal's Si Yu Ki). Ki Shwang Na is usually identified with Kesh, in Mavara-un-Nahr, and if that be correct it would mean that most of Western Turkistan and a great part of Mavara-un-Nahr went, in the seventh century, by the same name as the city (and perhaps district) of Kashghar, though the latter place stood altogether apart from the tract of country between the Chu and Kesh. Thus, whether it is in any way possible, that Hiuen Tsang's Su-Yeh, Su-Sa, or Su-li can be connected with Mirza Haidar's Suyah must remain extremely doubtful. If Mr. Watters' reading of Su-Sa instead of Su-Yeh is the right one, such a suggestion could not hold good. (See China Rev., as below.)
17.6
A curious passage, it may be noted here, occurs in the Geographical Dictionary of the Arab author Yakut, as translated by Thonnelier. He writes: "Farghanah .... confinant avec le Turkestan du cote du district de Haital, lequel fait face au soleil levant, a droite du voyageur qui se rend au pays des Turks." This passage would be too obscure, in any case, to throw light on the question at issue. It is remarkable only as an instance, in this particular region, of regarding a certain tract, or province, as "facing the sun." With regard to the limits given for Mangalai Suyah, the only boundary that the author defines by names that appear to be unknown at the present day, is the western one. Sam, Gaz (or the two may be read together as Sam-gaz) and Jashman are indeed subject to some variants, but however read, I can find no place to answer to any of them on the western confines of Farghana, unless it be a small town, or village, marked on Ritter and Oetzel's map of 1841, as Sam Seirak, and placed on the Angren, tributary of the Syr, about midway between he received the surname [lakab] of Kuk Uchgu, which is now borne by all his descendants.
17.7
As they neared Aksu, they fell in with a party of merchants, and while they were crossing a pass, the Khan [Tughluk Timur] fell down a fissure in the ice. Tash Timur, at this, raised a loud cry for help, but he could make no one hear him, for the caravan had crossed the pass and had arrived at a halting ground. Tash Timur went to one of the merchants, whose name was Begjik, and told him what had befallen the Khan; the merchant communicated this to some of his companions, and several of them set out with Tash Timur to the place where the Khan had disappeared. Begjik descended into the chasm and found the Khan uninjured, and then and there formed a friendly agreement with him. After that, by way of precaution, he said apologetically to the Khan: "If you go up first they will not pull me up at all; let me go first and they must perforce pull you up after." Again, proffering many apologies, he called out to them to throw down the rope, which they did, and he went up first, and afterwards they pulled up the Khan. All then went on to Aksu. Amir Bulaji raised Tughluk Timur to the rank of Khakan, and in course of time he ruled not only the whole of Moghulistan, but also much of the country of Chaghatai, as shall be related hereafter.