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MARCH, 1885.]
CHINGHIZ KHAN AND HIS ANCESTORS.
there retired with 20,000 Kankali Turks towards Ghazni. When he arrived within two or three days' march of the latter town he sent to ask Ali Kharpost if he would assign him temporary quarters and grazing grounds. His request was met by an uncivil reply in these terms:-"We are Ghûris, and you are Turks. We cannot live together. Various districts have been assigned by the Saltân to the various contingents of troops, let us each remain in our own territory." This refusal to admit so near a relative of the Sultan into the town apparently outraged two of the Khwarizmian officials, namely, Shamsu'd-din of Sarakhs, who happened to be at Ghazni at the time, and Salâhu'd-din, the commander of the citadel, who conspired against the Kharpost, killed him, and seized the citadel before his Ghûrian troops were aware of matters, upon which the latter dispersed.
Amin Malik now entered Ghaznt and assumed authority there. Presently the Mongols, who had secured possession of Herat, sent a body of troops in pursuit of him by way of Bost and Tiginâbâd. Amin Malik thereupon marched against them. At his approach, feeling themselves too weak, they once more withdrew to Herat, and he went to the Shoristân (the salt desert, between Herat, Kuhistân, and Seistân). When Amin Malik marched against the Mongols he took Sherifu'd-din, the wazir, with him, and imprisoned him in the fort of Kajuran of Bost and Tiginâbâd. He left Ghazni in charge of Salahu'd-din already mentioned. Against him a movement was started by the partizans of Ali Kharpost whom he had killed as we have described, and he was assassinated. Raziu'l-Mulk, of Termed, one of the leaders of this outbreak, now assumed authority at Ghazni. Presently a larger body of Khalaj and Kankali Turks, fugitives from Khorâsân and Mawaru'n-Nahr, under the command of Saifu'd-din Aghrak, assembled at Parshawar. Raziu'l-Mulk marched against these invaders, but was defeated and killed, with the greater number of his men. He was succeeded in authority at Ghazni by his brother Umdatu'l-Mulk.
Meanwhile the partizans of the Khwârizm Shah, against whom the movement of the two
11 Tabakat-i-Nagirt, pp. 1014-1015 notes. 1 Probably situated in Tokharistan.
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brothers at Ghazni was really directed, marched against Umdatu'l-Mulk. They were headed by Azamu'l-Mulk, the hakim of Nangrahar, and Malik Sher, the hakim of Kâbul. With their Ghari troops they marched on Ghazni and after an attack of forty days captured it. Just at this time there arrived the wazir, Sherifu'd-din, who had been released from confinement by the Sulțân Jalâlu'd-din, and who went to prepare the way for him. Seven days later Jalâlu'd-din arrived in person, and was speedily joined by various leaders. Amin Malik returned with his Kankalis, and the Sultan married his daughter. Aghrak Malik came from Parshawar with his Khalaj and Kankali followers, while 'Azam Malik and the governor of Kâbul joined him with their Ghûrians. Thus Jalâlu'd-din found himself at the head of from 60,000 to 70,000 horsemen.11
We must now make a short digression. Minhaj-i-Sarâj tells us that when Chinghiz Khân had taken complete possession of the district of Samarkand, by his command Arslân, Khân of Kayalik, having 6,000 horsemen with him, being his own men, and the Juzbi Tulan, with a Mongol force, marched to the fortress of Walkh." They sat down before it for a period of eight months, and as it only had an approach in one direction, they ordered the trees to be felled in the district round, and threw them into the ravine which protected it, to make believe they would fill it up, whereas it could not have been filled in a hundred years. Presently the son of the Rais of Walkh came into the Mongol camp, and guided them along a path by which a light-armed man alone could pass, and concealed various Mongols in holes and recesses in the mountain. At length, on the fourth day, at dawn, the enemy raised a shout, and fell with their swords upon the band which guarded the gateway of the fortress until they cleared it of its defenders. They entered the place, and made a general massacre.
The Mongol leaders then proceeded to attack the fortress of Fiwar of Kadas." The siege of Fiwar lasted a considerable time, and I shall return to it presently.
During the same year, 617 A. H., i.e. 1220 A. D., for a period of eight months, the Mongols continued their devastations in various parts.
Tabakat-i-Nasirt, pp. 1004 and 1023-102.
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