The Nāṣirī Generations 258.2
Tabakat-i-Nasiri 258.2
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258.2.1
"Among the merchants they found a few persons from the west, 'Arabian Musalmans, turban-wearers, and they were sent for ; and to the person who was the chief, and the most intelligent among the party, the Chingiz Khan related his dream. The Tazi [’Arabic]-speaking merchant said : ‘ The turban is the crown and diadem of the Arab, for head dresses of that description are the tiaras of the Arab ; and the Prophet of the Musalmans — Muhammad, the chosen one — the blessing of God be upon him ! — was a turban-wearer, and the Khalifahs of Islam are turban-wearers. The interpretation is this, that the kingdoms of Islam will come into thy possession, and the countries in which the Muhammadan faith prevails thou wilt reduce under thy sway.’ This signification chimed in with the opinion of the Chingiz Khan ; and, for this reason, his design of appropriating the territory of Islam was resolved upon.’ We return to the subject of [this] history.
258.2.2
After capturing Utrar and martyring its inhabitants, they [the Mughals] marched, from thence, towards Bukhara; and, on the first of the month of Zi-Hijjah, 616 H., induced to open them and submit, while another statement is, that the city was surprised. However this may be, its walls were razed to the ground, to make it “the Fortunate City” perhaps. The Bahadur, Ta-ir, whose name will frequently appear in the text, farther on, was sent, in advance, to summon Nur. The place submitted, it and its dependencies were bestowed as an appanage upon the Bahadur, Sahudah or Swidae, as he is also called, the inhabitants paid a year’s tribute in advance, and received security for life and property, and were not further molested. At the end of the year 616 H. [February, 1220 A.D. — not the 19th of June, 1219 A.D., as we are told in “Mongols Proper” for the year, 617 H., began on the 7th March, 1220], the Mughal hosts appeared before Bukhara, and the felt tent of the Chingiz Khan was pitched facing the citadel. There was no “several days’ siege” whatever.
258.2.3
When night set in, the Amirs commanding the troops there, Kiwak Khan, son of Hamid-i-Bur [an elder brother of the Hajib, Burak, the Kara-Khita-i, who subsequently usurped the sovereignty of Kirman, subordinate to the Mughals, after that ingrate had compassed the murder of Ghiyas-ud-Din, the Sultan’s son, and ruler of that territory], Kiwak Khan, Sunj Khan, Bughrae Khan, and Kashlu [by some Kashli, which is merely another form of the title] Khan, with 20,000—but some writers of Mughal proclivities make the number 30,000, in the same manner as they always exaggerate the numbers of the Musalmans—came out, by one of the gates, in order to make a night attack upon the invaders, but, the enemy having got word of it, they were encountered and defeated by the Mughal advance. The great men of Bukhara, consisting of ecclesiastics, doctors of the law, and distinguished persons, issued forth from the city next day [the 10th of Zi-Hijjah], at dawn, and strove, by the manifestation of submission and eloquent appeals, to make terms whereby the inhabitants might be saved from the violent blast of the invader’s wrath. The Chingiz Khan entered the city in order to view it;
258.2.4
and, when he reached the Masjid-i-Jami’, or Friday’s Masjid, beheld a great and lofty building, towards which he urged forward his horse, and rode into it, with his son, even up to the most sacred place within it—the Safrah-i-Maksurah: the place where the Imam stands when officiating—and inquired: “Is this the Sultan’s palace?” They replied: “This is the house of God.” He then dismounted from his horse, certainly not out of respect, mounted two or three steps of the pulpit, and sat down [Alfi says, Tuli ascended to the pulpit] and [according to Sharaf-ud-Din, ’Ali,] commanded his troops, saying: “There is no forage in the plain by means of which they [the people] may satiate the horses, [see ye to it].” The Fanakati, Fasih, Alfi, and others, however, relate more circumstantially, that he said to those present: “The plain [or open country outside] is destitute of grass: it behoveth that ye fill the bellies of my horses,” and, on this, they opened the granaries [of the city], and brought forth grain. The Mughals then drew their horses into the Masjid, and made the chests, in which the sections of the Kur’an—which is generally in thirty sections of sixteen pages each—and other religious books were kept, troughs for their horses to feed out of, while the books were trodden under foot;
258.2.5
and they handed the head-stalls of their horses to the ’Ulama to hold, while they themselves betook themselves to the cup [neither the wine, nor the “loving cup,” but the fermented mares’ milk cup—kurniz] and began to sing their Mughali songs. pitched their camp before the gate of that city. Kashlu Khan, the Amir-i-Akhur of Sultan Muhammad, Khwarazm Shah, whose prowess was notorious, with several other leaders of renown, made a sally from the city upon the infidels with a large force of horse and foot; but, the very first day, the Mughals completely defeated them, and a vast number of Musalmans were slain. The remainder, who were able to effect it, withdrew again within the city, but their hearts failed them, and their fortitude forsook them, and they resolved to evacuate it. Taking advantage of the darkness of the next night, and their knowledge of the country, along with their families, they fled towards the Jihun. When the day broke the Chingiz Khan, having become aware of it, despatched a large force of cavalry in pursuit, which came up with them on the banks of that river, and put the whole of them to the sword, with the exception of a very few who succeeded in crossing, and their women and children were made captive.
258.2.6
The following day the inhabitants came forth from the city, and prayed for quarter. The great men and ecclesiastics went to the camp of the Chingiz Khan, who, accompanied by his troops, immediately entered the city. He rode into the Jami’ Masjid, and, riding up to the Mihrab, alighted, and the horses of his followers were picketed within the sacred place. The chests in which the copies of the Kur-an were kept, were converted into mangers, and the holy volumes were trodden under foot by the infidels. He then ordered wine to be brought, and the singers of the city to be summoned; and, while he drank, the Mughals, both men and women, began to dance and sing, and turned the Masjid into a scene of riot and debauchery. The principal ecclesiastics and learned men of the place were compelled to act as grooms, and to attend to the horses of the infidels.
258.2.7
From the Jami’ Masjid mounting again, the Chingiz Khan rode to the Musalla-e-’Id—the place of Prayer, where the prayers appointed for Festivals are said—and, mounting the pulpit, having first caused the people to be assembled, harangued them about the killing of his envoys, and, telling them that he had been sent against them as the instrument of the Divine wrath, on account of their sovereign’s and their own misdeeds—he too was a “divine figure” also “from the north,” and, after holding forth in a similar blasphemous strain, which address was interpreted from the Mughal language into Persian by an interpreter who stood by his side, he continued: “Such property as is visible in this city need not be referred to—he had an eye to plunder notwithstanding his divine mission—but all that is concealed it behoveth ye to give up.” Much wealth was given up in consequence. As commands had been already issued that the adherents of the Khwarazmi Sultan should be expelled the city, and none should be sheltered or concealed therein, on finding that several of them had been sheltered by the people of Bukhara, he—merely desiring an excuse—gave orders for a general massacre of the inhabitants, and to set fire to the city, which was mostly built of wood; and, in the space of one day, the whole, with the exception of the great Masjid, and a few brick buildings, was consumed, in such wise that the city became the haunt of wild beasts.
258.2.8
The suburbs were then given to the flames, and the ditch of the citadel was filled up with whatever could be obtained—dead bodies of men and beasts, stones, timber, rubbish, and the like—and, in a few days, the Mughals captured it. Its governor, Kiwak Khan, with all found within the place, were put to the sword—more than 30,000 in all—including grandees and great men, the servants of the Sultan, who were treated in the most contemptuous manner, and their females and children were carried away into slavery, but babes were not spitted on lances as in these days of civilization and Christianity. After this the citadel was levelled with the ground, and not a vestige of gate, wall, or rampart, of either city or citadel remained. Kiwak Mazar, or the Tomb of Kiwak, lies a few miles to the N.E. of the present city.