The Nāṣirī Generations 258.8
Tabakat-i-Nasiri 258.8
- Language
- English
258.8.1
In Safar, 620 H. [March, 1223, A.D.], Jabah [Yamah] and Swidae [Sahudah] advanced to Maraghah, which territory, at that time, was ruled by a female sovereign — I have no space for much detail — who held her court in a fortress named Ru-in-dujz, three farsakhs or leagues from Maraghah. Although she was unprovided with the means of efficient resistance, and almost destitute of troops, the people defended Maraghah for a week, when it was captured, and the people massacred, and all their property destroyed or burnt. After the capture of Maraghah, the Mughals moved towards Ardabil [Ardibil of the maps], but, as the fame of its ruler, Muzaffar-ud-Din, Gargari, for valour was sufficiently known, the Mughals gave up the idea of assailing it, and they thought it advisable to retire. On the way back, intimation reached Jabah [Yamah] and Swidae [Sahudah] of resistance in another quarter. In the spring of this same year, 620 H., another attempt, but a feeble one, was made to make a stand against the invaders. It must be remembered, however, that Sultan Jalal-ud-Din had been overthrown on the banks of the Sind some time — about a year or more — before this, that he was now in the tracts east of that river — the present Panjab, and Sindh — and that there was no supreme head to direct an efficient resistance : there was no combination.
258.8.2
Jamal-ud-Din, Abiah, one of the confidential officers of the late Sultan, and who held the Intendancy of ’Irak during his reign, assembled a number of followers, whom the pro-Mughal historians, of course, style "rogues and vagabonds," to oppose the enemy ; and the people of Hamadan also rose, slew the Mughal Shahnah, or Intendant — not a "governor" — located there, and openly threw off the Mughal yoke. They then seized the Sayyid, ’Ala-ud-Daulah, before referred to, for submitting to those infidels in the first place, and shut him up in the fortress of Kurbat — or Gurbat. On this Jabah [Yamah] re-entered ’Irak, and moved towards Hamadan again, against Jamal-ud-Din; and all offers of submission [if made], on his part, were rejected, and Jamal-ud-Din was attacked, defeated, and slain. Hamadan, nevertheless, refused to open its gates, and resisted bravely for three days, when the Fakih [the Muhammadan Law-officer, a theologian], who was the Peshwa, or spiritual guide of the Hamadanis, and the prime mover in all this resistance, was killed ; and the Mughals succeeded in gaining an entrance into the place by means of a secret passage, which this very Fakih had had excavated from his own house to the hills adjoining the city. The usual scene of slaughter, plunder, and devastation ensued.
258.8.3
After the capture of Hamadan, the Mughals set out towards Tabriz, at which place, at that time, one of the chief ’Ulama, Shams-ud-Din, ’Usman, the Tughrae, a man of great learning and wisdom, was residing — the Ata-Bak, Yuz-Bak, the ruler, having retired to Khue — who, in counsel with the chief men, sent presents and supplies to the Mughals, and tendered submission, and, among other things, a vessel filled with mercurial ointment, which, he thought, "might be very valuable and useful to the Mughals in freeing their persons from certain troublesome parasites, as they had come from a long distance." This so struck the Mughals, who met his agents with the presents at Mahmudabad, and at once proceeded to examine and count them, as a proof of his good wishes and intentions for their welfare, that they then and there turned back, and contented themselves with sending an Intendant to Tabriz, along with the bearer of the presents, as Shams-ud-Din had requested. The Mughals now marched to Khue, and Salmas, plundering, devastating, and slaughtering, and then proceeded to Nakhjuan, Barda’, and Bailakan. This last-mentioned place was summoned to submit, and its people were desirous of so doing, but, in a tumult which arose, the Mughal emissary was killed, upon which the Mughals stormed the place, violated all the women, and then made a general massacre of the inhabitants. After this feat of brutality, they advanced to Ganjah, which submitted.
258.8.4
At Ganjah intimation reached the Mughal Nu-yans that an army of Gurjis were on the way to attack them, and they moved from thence to meet them. With 5000 men—probably double the number—Jabah [Yamah] placed himself in ambush, while Swidae [Sahudah], with the main army, was sent forward to oppose the Gurjis; but they treated him so roughly that he had to beat a retreat in considerable disorder, pursued by the Gurjis. The latter, however, took to plundering the effects of the Mughals, and, while thus occupied, and their ranks broken, Jabah [Yamah] fell upon them unawares from the ambuscade with his fresh troops; and Swidae [Sahudah] soon after succeeded in rallying his army, and also attacked the Gurjis. They, in their turn, had to retire with the loss, it is said, in Alfi and Rauzat-us-Safa, of 30,000 men, but 3000 may be nearer the truth. The defeated Gurjis effected a junction at Taflis with Malik Da-ud, their ruler, who had there assembled an army to resist the invaders. The Mughals, however, had sufficient experience of Gurji prowess, for the difficult nature of their country was made the plea for not further molesting them; and the Mughal leaders turned aside towards the territory of Shirwan. On reaching Shamakhf.
258.8.5
they proceeded at once to fill the ditch with everything they could get hold of, dead bodies of horses, asses, bullocks, cows, and even sheep included, captured it, violated the females, massacred its inhabitants, and destroyed the place, and Shirwan was reduced to the same state of desolation as other countries they had passed through. Having carried slaughter, devastation, and ruin—this is “an afflatus of architecture” possibly—from the frontier of Mawara-un-Nahr to the Kaukasas, the Mughal leaders now prepared to carry out the plan of returning by the Dasht-i-Kibchak into Mughalistan, and rejoining the Chingiz Khan, by taking the route of the Dar-band or Barrier—the Bab-ul-Abwab, or Gate of Gates, of the ’Arabs, known to the classical writers as the Caspian Gates—but, as they were totally unacquainted with the route, the Mughals had recourse to treacherous stratagem, at which they were such adepts. They despatched an agent to the Shirwan Shah, as the ruler of that territory was styled, who had shut himself up in his strongest fortress, saying: “We do not intend to molest your territory any more; send unto us here some persons that we may enter into a compact together for the future, and then we will depart towards another direction.” The Shirwan Shah was so delighted at the idea of getting rid of these sanguinary barbarians that he was thrown off his guard completely, and despatched ten persons of note to their camp.
258.8.6
Arrived there, the Mughals at once struck off the head of one of them in order to terrify the others, and told them that, if they guided them to the Dar-band, and conducted them through and beyond it safely, they should be set free, and, if not, that they should be sent to join their comrade. These helpless creatures could do no other; so they guided them; and the Mughals, having passed beyond the Barrier, entered the territory of the Alan, a feat which no army had been able to accomplish, without guides, since the time of Alexander. The Alanians assembled in great numbers to resist the invaders, and combined with the tribes of Kibchak [respecting the name Khifchak see note at page 877, para, five] for that purpose, and occupied the route in the front of the Mughals, prepared to resist their passage. The Mughals perceived they were in great danger, and again had recourse to a treacherous stratagem devised by Swidae [Sahudah]. They sent secretly to the Khifchak tribes, saying: “You and we are both Turks [here is farther proof respecting what I have said in my note on the descent of the Turks of the uruks of Tattar and Mughal. See last para. of that note, page 900] of one and the same stock, and all kinsmen together [and as they were Naguz, vul. “Nogays,” this was really true, certain ethnological philosophers notwithstanding. See note to page 888, para. two], while the Alanian are aliens and foreigners.
258.8.7
Let us enter into a covenant that we will be the friends of each others’ friends and foes of each others’ foes, and, whatever you may desire to have in the shape of money or goods, we will furnish you with, provided you give no aid to the Alanian, and leave us to deal with them.” Jabah [Yamah] and Swidae [Sahudah] accordingly sent many things from among the plunder the Mughals had brought with them, and money likewise. This induced the Khifchak tribes to withdraw, and they went away, upon which the Mughals fell upon the Alanian, slaughtered great numbers of them, ravaged their country, and got out of their difficulties. Then, according to their usual custom, breaking the pledges they had given the Khifchaks, they made a forced march, fell upon them unawares in their own territory, slew, and dispersed them. The Khifchaks fled to the territory of the Rus [Russians], while the Mughals halted in the iishlak or winter quarters of the Khifchaks, which they appropriated, and therein they passed the winter of 620-21 H. [A.D. 1223-24].