[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Dark Ages](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages) › [Delhi Sultanate (1206–1526)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.sultanate) › [Ṭabaqāt-i Nāṣirī](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.sultanate.tabaqat-i-nasiri) › [Tabakat-i-Nasiri](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.sultanate.tabaqat-i-nasiri~en-raverty) › 257.1 # The Nāṣirī Generations 257.1 Tabakat-i-Nasiri 257.1 - **Language:** English ### [257.1.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.sultanate.tabaqat-i-nasiri~en-raverty.257.1.1) \[The author begins here by mentioning the sayings of the Prophet, Muhammad, with respect to the portents betokening the end of the world, that they would be observed about the year 610 H. ; but, as the world has not yet terminated, I need merely refer to them with respect to the Ghuri Sultan Mu’izz-ud-Din, Muhammad, son of Baha-ud-Din, Sam, whose assassination is considered by the author to be the first of those signs.\] The martyrdom of the Sultan-i-Ghazi, Mu’izz-ud-Din, Muhammad-i-Sam — may he rest in peace ! — happened in the year 602 H. ; and he was the monarch who became the last of the just Sultans, and the last of the conquering Badshahs. His sovereignty was a barrier against the troubles of the end of the world, and the appearance of the portents of the judgment-day. According to the indication of these sayings \[of the Prophet, Muhammad\], in the same year in which that victorious Badshah was martyred, the gates of sedition, war, and tumult, were opened, and, in this same year, the Chingiz Khan, the Mughal, rose up in the kingdoms of Chin and Tamghaj, and commenced to rebel ; and in all books it is written that the first signs of the end of time are the outbreak of the Turks. A number of trustworthy persons, on whose statements reliance may be placed, have related on this wise, that the name of the father of this Chingiz Khan, the accursed, was the Tattar, Tamur-chi, and that he was the Mihtar \[Chief\] of the Mughal tribes, and ruler over his people. ### [257.1.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.sultanate.tabaqat-i-nasiri~en-raverty.257.1.2) On one occasion, whilst following the chase, a bird, the name of which is Tughril, fell into his hands and his surname \[thereby\] became Tughrul-Tigin. No one, at any time previous, has shown that that bird has fallen into the hands of a sovereign ; and they held him in veneration, in consequence. Among the tribes of Mughal was another Turk of importance, a ruler and leader, and greatly venerated ; and the whole of the tribes of Mughals were under the rule of these two persons. They, and all that people were subject to the family of the Altun Khan of Tamghaj, and paid tribute to that dynasty ; but among them \[the Mughals\] depravity, robbery, and adultery, greatly prevailed ; and, both in their words and deeds, save lying, iniquity, robbery, and adultery, naught went on. All the tracts of \[inhabited by\] the Turk tribes, at the hand of their iniquity and sedition, were reduced to misery ; and, for these reasons and acts, they \[the Mughals\] were wont to be treated with great contempt by the Court of the Altun Khan, and much money and a great number of horses used to be demanded of them \[as tribute\]. When the father of the Chingiz Khan went to hell, and the chieftainship devolved on the Chingiz Khan he began to act contumaciously and disobediently, and broke out into rebellion. An army from the forces of the Altun Khan was nominated to lay waste and exterminate the Mughal tribes ; and the greater number of them were put to the sword, in such wise, that but a few of them remained. ### [257.1.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.sultanate.tabaqat-i-nasiri~en-raverty.257.1.3) The remnant of them that escaped the sword gathered together and left their own territory, and proceeded towards the north of Turkistan, and sought shelter in a situation so strong that, from any direction, it had no road leading into it with the exception of a single Pass. The whole of that tract was girt about with massive mountains, and that place and pasture-land they call Kalur-an. They also say that in the midst of those pastures there is a spring of considerable size, the name of which is Balik-Chak ; and, in these pastures, they took up their abode, and dwelt there for a long period. In the course of time, their offspring and progeny multiplied greatly : and among that body a great number of men reached manhood. They all assembled and took counsel together, saying: “What was the cause of our downfall and of our being plundered and ravaged, and from whence arose our being made captive and being slain ? ” All made admission \[saying\]: “ These calamities and misfortunes have arisen through our great misconduct ; and it is necessary that we abstain from thus acting, in order that Almighty God may grant us assistance, and that we may take our revenge upon the forces of the Altun Khan.” ### [257.1.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.sultanate.tabaqat-i-nasiri~en-raverty.257.1.4) Certainly, to carry out this intention, a firm ruler is necessary and I-ghur Turks, and the escape of the two fugitives into the fastnesses of Irganah-Kun, with the affairs of the Chingiz Khan at the time when he assumed sovereignty, and the title just mentioned was assigned to him. I will therefore now give a brief account of Tamur-chi from the death of his father up to this period, in order to make our author’s account intelligible. I brought my account of the Mughal I-mak to a close with the death of the Bahadur Yassuka, in 562 H. \[A.D. 1166-67\], who usually resided at a place styled Dilun-Yilduk, at which period the different tribes composing the I-maks of Tatar and Mughal were ruled by no less a number than seventy-one different chiefs, independent of each other. Every two or three families had separate localities, and feuds and conflicts went on continually among them. ### [257.1.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.sultanate.tabaqat-i-nasiri~en-raverty.257.1.5) Tamur-chi, or Tamur-chin — the n being nasal — was thirteen years old at the time of his father’s death, having been born on the 20th of Zi-Ka’dah, 549 H. \[27th January, old style, A.D. 1154\], about which some recent writers appear to be in great doubt \[neither the Persian “Raschid” nor any other of the “Persians” says he was born in 1155\] and uncertainty; and his brothers were still younger. About the same time, the hereditary lieutenant or deputy, Sughu-Jijan, whose care and counsel would have been so useful to young Tamur-chi, also died, and Sughu-Jijan’s son, the Nu-yan, Karachar — the great ancestor of Amir Timur — was young and inexperienced. This is the “tutor” appointed for him according to Des Guignes! Of the 40,000 families of the Nairun sept of the Mughals over whom his father ruled, and his own kinsmen and dependents, numbers now began to desert him and go over to the Tanjiuts, until not more than a third remained under his chieftainship. ### [257.1.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.sultanate.tabaqat-i-nasiri~en-raverty.257.1.6) He endured many hardships and dangers until he reached the age of thirty, when fortune began again to smile upon him for a time, when, in 579 H. \[A.D. 1183\], the Nairuns began to return to their allegiance, and Tamur-chi succeeded in bringing some other Mughal tribes under his sway. In 584 H. \[A.D. 1187-88\] he became a captive in the hands of Turkutae or Turghutae Kariltuk, the Badshah, as he is styled, \[great grandson of Hamanjca, see note, page 895\] of the Tanjiut Mughals, who was descended, in the fifth degree, from Kaidu Khan, the fourth chief of the Bu-zanjar dynasty, which see, and to whom the other Nairuns attached themselves when they deserted Tamur-chi, and against a confederacy headed by whom the latter was struggling. ### [257.1.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.sultanate.tabaqat-i-nasiri~en-raverty.257.1.7) It was not customary in those days among the tribes of Turkish descent to put captives at once to death, and so Tamur-chi had a do-shakhah \[a sort of portable pillory, described as a block of wood with two horns, hence the term. It may, in those days, have been formed out of two pieces of crooked wood, but what was used in after-years, and continues to be used still, consists of two flat boards with a hollow for the neck, a drawing of which may be seen in Astley’s and other Collections\] fastened round his neck, and thus was he detained in captivity. The Fanakati, Abu-Suliman-i-Da’ud, who finished his History, and dedicated it to the ninth of the Mughal sovereigns of Iran \[what would he have said had he been styled a “Mongol”?\], 287 years before the “saga-loving” writer who has been much quoted lately, Ssanang Setzen, was born, gives the following particulars of Tamur-chi’s escape, which several other historians also relate. Finding an opportunity, Tamur-chi made his escape from the Tanjiuts, taking his do-shakhah along with him, and concealed himself in a lake in the neighbourhood of their camp, in such wise, that, of his person, nothing save his nose could be seen. A party of Tanjiuts was sent in search of him, and among them there chanced to be a Suldus \[also written Sulduz\], named Surghan or Surghan Shirah, the tents of whose family happened to be pitched near that part, when, suddenly, his eye fell upon the fugitive’s nose. ### [257.1.8](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.sultanate.tabaqat-i-nasiri~en-raverty.257.1.8) He made a sign to him secretly — but how Tamur-chi managed to see, and notice this sign, with his head under water, the chronicler sayeth not — that he should conceal his head, still more — but this must have been as difficult to do as to see, considering that only his nose was out of the water. He then said to the party, '‘Do you make search in some other directions : I will take care of this part myself,” and thus he managed to disperse them. As soon as night set in, Surghan Shirah took Tamur-shi out of the water, removed the doshdhlah from round his neck, and brought him to his tent, and concealed him in a cart, under a load of pashm — the fine wool or hair with which goats and several other animals are provided by nature in the cold regions of Central Asia ; but, as the party had discovered some trace of Tamur-chi thereabout, and as Surghan Shirah’s dwelling was near by, they began to suspect that Tamur-chi must be hidden somewhere by him. They accordingly made search, and even tried the load of pashm by piercing it with spits in various directions, and wounded him slightly in several places, but did not discover him. After they had departed, disappointed in their search, Surghan Shirah mounted Tamur-shi on his own bay mare with a black mane, supplied him with a little flesh, a roasting-spit, a bow and arrows, and everything required for a journey, but some say he did not give him any tinder-box or means of obtaining fire. ### [257.1.9](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.sultanate.tabaqat-i-nasiri~en-raverty.257.1.9) The mother of Tamur-chi, and his wives, had given him up for dead, when he arrived in his yurat on the bay mare with the black mane, from which time the Mughals held such an animal in great veneration. His son, Tuli, was a child at the time, and, for some days before, had been continually saying that his father was coming mounted on a certain coloured mare. This event happened in 587 H. \[a.d. 1191\]. The descendants of this Surghan Shirah subsequently rose to high rank in the service of the Chingiz Khan and his sons, and, from him, the famous Amir Chaupan was descended. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.sultanate.tabaqat-i-nasiri~en-raverty.257.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.sultanate.tabaqat-i-nasiri~en-raverty.257.1) · Pramāṇa