The Nāṣirī Generations 256.7.6

256.7.6

Now it was that Sultan Muhammad, Khwarazm Shah, being successful in all his affairs, considered it time to throw off the yoke of the Gur Khan, to pay tribute to whom, as an infidel, he considered a blot upon his sovereignty, more especially since the insolence of the Kara-Khita-is had reached such a pitch, that their envoy, who is styled Tonshi or Tunshi — and, by some, Tushi — probably Taishi, was his title [See also page 732, and note at page 866], presumed to seat himself upon the throne along with the Sultan. He accordingly withheld the tribute for two or three years, and manifested great tardiness in paying it. At length, the Gur Khan despatched, as his envoy, his Wazir, Muhammad-i-Tae, and others, to demand payment, including all arrears. When the Kara-Khita-i envoy reached Khwarazm [the site of this famous capital has for centuries been known as Urganj-i-Kubra — at which place the Russians have erected a fortress to protect their trade routes. Khiwak, anglicized Khiva, as it appears in Col. Walker’s last map is not Khwarazm. What appears there as “Kunia Urganj,” correctly, Kuhnah — old, ancient — Urganj, is the place], the Sultan had made his preparations for an expedition into Khifchak [our author, at page 254, says the Sultan’s mother was the daughter of Kadr Khan of Khifchak — other authors style her tribe Uranian — but he does not refer, in the least, to this expedition;