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Tabakat-i-Nasiri 279 - **Language:** English ### ACCOUNT OF THE DEATH OF UKTAE, SON OF THE CHINGIZ KHAN. ### [279.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.sultanate.tabaqat-i-nasiri~en-raverty.279.1) A tradition to this effect had been handed down from the ancients — May God reward them! — that, when the outbreak of the Turks should arise, and the narrow-eyed should seize upon the universe, and they should devastate the countries of ’Ajam and kingdoms of I-ran, whenever an army of them should reach Lohor, the dominion of that race would begin to decline, and the power of the infidels to diminish, pose. Such being the case, when the reinforcements despatched by the Ka’an joined him, the Juzbi, Tulkulu, was enabled to resume the offensive; and the Khita-is, having been beaten in the open field, took shelter within the walls of the capital, which was soon after closely invested, by the Mughals on one side, and the Maha-Chinis on the other. ### [279.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.sultanate.tabaqat-i-nasiri~en-raverty.279.2) For some time the Khita-i commanders concealed the position of affairs from the Altan Khan; but, at length, the true state of the case having reached him through some of the ladies of his haram, as it appeared certain that the place must soon fall, he determined to go out on the walls and see for himself. He found that the report was too true, and resolved to fly; and, having embarked, with his wives and other females of his family, his personal attendants and household slaves, on board vessels, by means of the canal which had been cut from the Kara-Mur-an, and brought into the midst of the capital, Tamking, he made his escape. He was again pursued by the Mughals, upon which he fled to another city, and was again followed. At length he reached a third city, but the Mughals, like fate, still pursued him. At last, when they had succeeded in investing the third city, which is called Baltae—in the Tarikh-i-Jahan-gir, and had set it on fire on all sides, the Altan Khan summoned his chief men around him, and, telling them that he could not bear the idea of falling into the hands of the enemy, placed the diadem on the brow of one of his Korchis, or guards, caused him to don the royal robes, and seated him in his own seat upon the throne. He then went out from among them, and hung himself to a tree. He was found in this position, taken down, and buried. ### [279.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.sultanate.tabaqat-i-nasiri~en-raverty.279.3) There is considerable discrepancy respecting the fate of the last Altan Khan. Some say that he donned the dress of an ascetic, and was never heard of more; others again assert, that, when the city of Baltae was taken, he fled and disappeared; and some say that he fled to a fortress on the frontiers of his territory, and, having caused a funeral pyre to be prepared, when the Mughals attacked the place, mounted it with his wife and child, fired it, and perished. The Khita-is, however, affirm that, when the Mughals set fire to the city of Baltae in all directions, the Altan Khan perished in the flames; but the previous statement is notorious that he hung himself to a tree, and, two days after he left the Korchi disguised in his robes, the Mughals captured the city. This event happened in Jamadi-ul-Awwal, the fifth month of 631 H., about March, 1233 A.D. Thus fell the empire of the Altan Khans, and thus perished the last ruler of the thirty-six dynasties which had reigned over Khita. From the time of the investment of his capital, and his flight from city to city, two years passed away; and, after the Altan Khan's death, the whole of his dominions, by degrees, were reduced under the sway of the Mughals. ### [279.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.sultanate.tabaqat-i-nasiri~en-raverty.279.4) Uktae Ka’an, after reaching his own urdu, on his return from the campaign in Khitae, founded a kasr or castellated palace \[see note page 331, where kasr is described\] near Kara-Kuram, and “they style it Karsht.” It was not called “Ordu Balik,” neither was it “the great city,” nor “a celebrated city,” nor “had he fixed his court” there. It was a kasr \[whatever it might subsequently have become\], and it was surrounded by tents of felt, for the Mughals, be it remembered, did not dwell in houses. In course of time some of the Princes and great Amirs began to erect dwellings for themselves; and, as I At the time that the writer of these words, Minhaj-i-Saraj—May God direct him aright!—was about seven years old, he used to come to the presence of the eminent teacher and Imam, ’Ali, the Ghaznawi—on whom be peace! — for the purpose of acquiring the Kur'an by heart; and, from him, he heard the tradition, namely, that "A number of trustworthy persons have related, on this wise, from the Imam, Jamal-ud-Din, the Bustaji — on whom be peace! — that, whilst he filled the seat in the pulpit \[of the masjid-i-jami'\] in the city of Bukhara, during the reign of Uktae, he would often say in the sermon: 'Oh God! speedily transport a Mughal army to Lohor that they may reach it;'" and the sense of this became manifest when the Mughal army took Lohor in the month of Jamadi-ul-Awwal, in the year 639 H. ### [279.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.sultanate.tabaqat-i-nasiri~en-raverty.279.5) A number of narrators among the merchants and traders of Khurasan and Mawara-un-Nahr \[subsequently\] stated, that Uktae died, and was removed from the world, on the second day after the capture of Lohor. After the death of Uktae, the Mughal tribes drew the sword upon each other several times, and the accursed chief men \[among them\] generally, and for the most part, went to hell; and division arose among their tribes. The brother’s sons of the Chingiz Khan, who are the sons of B^, Tail E^n’s chief aatun, whom the Chingiz Tn^Sr. gave \[in marriage\] to the Nu-yin, Ghati, or Mirghati, the Ura-ut, after his dream referred to in the account of his wives and concubines, used to come every year from Khitae to see her sister, and banquets used to be given in her honour, and the cups to circulate. In the thirteenth year of Uktae’s reign, according to her usual custom, Anfkah \[often written Abi^ah\] Blgi arrived, and the usual entertainments were given, and she, with her son, who held the high office of Bawarchi—that is to say, a Comptroller of the Royal Kitchen, and one of the Intendants of the Purveyor’s Department \[in India, bawardii now signifies a cooJi\ supplied the Ka’an with his favourite beverage, and he drank deeply. He soon went off to sleep, and never woke again; consequently, some of the Amirs and Kliatuns began to reproach Ani^ah Bigi and her son, and vowed they had administered poison to the Ka’an. ### [279.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.sultanate.tabaqat-i-nasiri~en-raverty.279.6) The Nu-yin Iljidae \[ilchikdae, nephew of the Qiingiz Man, of Hirat atrocities\], who held the office of Kokal-tashj and was an Amir held in great veneration among the Jalair tribe, when he heard these words, scouted the idea of such a thing, and said: ‘‘What insensate words are these? when ye all know to what excess the Ka’an used to drink, and when ye know, too, that his fate only has overtaken him. It behoveth that no such words as these should be again uttered.” The bones of tJktae Ka’an, and his hirzik, or kuruk, signifying a place enclosed and prohibited from access, lie in a mountain range exceedingly lofty, called Buldan Ka-ir, which is always covered with snow, two days’ journey from Ardish, and which, in more recent times, they style Yakah Wandur; and from those mountains issue the rivers Yasun Mur-an, Tarkan, and tJsun, which fall into the river of Ardish, in the vicinity of which river the Chapar tribe take up their ki^ldks or winter stations. ### [279.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.sultanate.tabaqat-i-nasiri~en-raverty.279.7) The author of the Moztgols Frojfer” p. 725, quoting some foreign translation of Persian writers, evidently derived from a source similar to that whence I draw information, but probably misunderstood in the original, says “Abika had been married to a dyer on the borders of China,” after the Chingiz Man’s deaik--2iXi exceeding high position truly for Uktae’s chief Matun to “envy” because the other “had married so well—and went every year with her son, who was dressed as a cupbearer to pay her respects at the court,” etc. The errors here are plainly disclosed from the above account. The same writer, quoting some other foreign translation of Persian histories, says, “Ogotai Khan was buried in the valley of Kinien, i. e. another name for the Imperial cemetery, whose site we have already described sub voce, Jmgis Khan but it so happens that they were totally different places. ■Qktae promulgated a code of his own, which, under the name of tzlrah—o. Turkish word signifying, institute, system, code, etc.—was, like the ydsd of his father, observed among the Mughal people. In 633 H. new regulations were promulgated respecting taxes on cattle, and on grain for the poor, and other matters for which I have no space here. U-Tigin, went to the presence of the Altun Khan of Chin and Chaghatae, and his sons, commenced acting in a refractory manner; and a great number were killed by the hands of each other — God's curse upon them! ### [279.8](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.sultanate.tabaqat-i-nasiri~en-raverty.279.8) The reign of Uktae, son of the Chingiz Khan, extended over a period of nine years; and, after his decease, for a period of one year and a half, no one of that cursed seed ascended the throne. It is the custom among the Mughals that when a sovereign among them dies another should not mount the throne for one year and a half; and this period they call three years — one year and half of days and one year and half of nights. When the reign of Uktae came to an end, his wife, Turakinah Khatun, ruled over the Mughal empire for a period of four years, and during this time she displayed woman's ways, such as proceed from deficiency of intellect, and excess of sensuality. The Mughal grandees took cognizance of that conduct, and sought a firm ruler. They sent Turakinah Khatun to join Uktae, and raised his son \[Kyuk\] to the throne of sovereignty; but God knows the truth. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.sultanate.tabaqat-i-nasiri~en-raverty.279](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.sultanate.tabaqat-i-nasiri~en-raverty.279) · Pramāṇa