The Nāṣirī Generations 258.3.1

258.3.1

The young men of Bukhara, who had been spared for another purpose, were driven off with the troops towards Samrkand and Dabusah [also called Dabus and Dabust. It was a fortified town about midway between Bukhara and Samrkand], and from Bukhara the Chingiz Khan turned his face towards Samrkand. Having heard accounts of the great strength of Samrkand, which had lately been added to, the Chingiz Khan had been led to despatch bodies of troops under Juji and the Nu-yan, Alak, to subdue other places in Turkistan razm Shah, was there, on the part of that monarch, with a force of 12,000 horse; and the Mughals invested the city. On the day of the festival of the kurbān [10th of Zī-Ḥijjah — 15th February, 1220] of that same year, they took the city and fortress of Bukhārā, and expelled the whole of the inhabitants — gentle and simple, the learned and the noble, both male and female — and martyred them, and burnt and destroyed the whole of the city, and all the libraries of books; and a few persons [only] were made captive. They then turned their faces towards Samrḳand. The leader of the van of the Chingiz Khān's army, which issued from the wilds, and captured Utrār, and advanced to the gate of Bukhara and took it likewise, was a Turk whose name was Tamur-chi, the Jazbi, a man of great energy ; and, in the Mughal dialect, signifies a Hajib [Chamberlain]. On first reaching the gate of Samrkand, the Mughal forces laid an ambuscade;