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0208 Report of a Mission to Yarkund in 1873 : vol.1
Report of a Mission to Yarkund in 1873 : vol.1 / Page 208 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000196
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( 140 )

After a brief repose there, he again, at the end of 604 H. =1207-8 A.D., took the R. S. field, and went against Koshluk and Tocta Begi in Awrish, and on the way received the submission of the Awrat, who acted as guides to the biding place of the fugitive Chiefs. Tocta Begi was killed in the fight at Arwish, but Koshluk again escaped by flight, and found refuge with Gorkhan, Chief of the Kara Khitay, and ruler of Turkistan, who received him well, and gave him his daughter to wife. After this victory Changiz received the submission of Arslan Khan, the El or " Chief" of the Carhic tribe, and of Aydy Olt, the Chief Of the Uighûr, whom he treated with great favour, and to whom he gave one of his daughters in marriage. Following this he sent envoys to demand the submission of Altân Khan, the King of Khita. The King refused, and Changiz marched against him, defeated his army with terrible slaughter, sacked and destroyed many cities, and pursued the King—in those days the Kings of Khita were always called Altan Khan, just as they were afterwards called Ayming Khan—to Khanbaligh or Chunkad, the Cambalay of Marco Polo.

On the approach of the invader, At Khan sued for peace, and sent his daughter to him as wife. Changiz accepted her and turned back, but Align Khan, leaving his son with a strong army in Khanbaligh, removed his Court to Taming, which he made his capital. This city had been built by his father on a very wide river, and was protected by three lines of fortified walls one inside the other, and was adorned by handsome palaces, and gardens in which were produced the fruits of both hot and cold climates.

At this time, however, the Kart Khitay, who had revolted and seized some Khita territory, submitted to Changiz and sought his aid, and he consequently sent an army with them against Khanbaligh. The King's son fled to Taming, and the city, reduced by famine and siege, was taken and plundered of an immense treasure. Altai). Khan poisoned himself, and Changiz, after a campaign of two years, conquered most of Khitâ, and leaving strong garrisons in Tughnr and its frontiers returned to hisYizrt or " country seat" at Shaman Gara=" The Shaman's home."

The Nayman country now revolted, and Changiz sent an army, provided with carts, to subdue and settle it. It marched to the Kara Moran river in Mogholistan, and there came up with the enemy under Codo, the brother of Tocta Begi. He was slain and his son taken prisoner. The youth was a noted archer, and displayed his skill before Jtiji, who having seen him put one arrow on the other at a mark, interceded with his father to spare the life of so skilful a bowman. Changiz, however, refused, and with the lad's death the ruling family of Makrit became extinct, 613 H.= 1216 A.D. At this time the Comat tribe on the Khita frontier having revolted were also subjugated.

Whilst this force was operating against the Makrit on the Cûmkichik=" Little P. Sands" on the east of Mogholistan, another force was hunting to the death Koshluk, and settling the country of Kashghar and Khutan up to the Syhon on its west, as has been before related. And this brings us back to the course of our narrative of events.

About this period then, with the submission of Aydy Cût of Balasaghûn and Arslan Khan of Almaligh on the north, and with the death of Koshluk and the annexation of Kashghar and Khutan on the south of the Tianshan, the territory of Changiz extended from the east borders of the desert of Gobi to the west slopes of Tianshan mountains, where it marched with the frontiers of Mawaranahar, ruled by Khwahrizm Shah, and included the whole of Mogholistan proper.

The anarchy prevailing in this region just prior to the Moghol invasion had led T.N. Sultan Muhammad Kutubuddin Khwahrizm Shah to meditate the conquest of Khita, but the fame of the conquering Changiz caused him to restrain his ambition, and instead thereof he sent a friendly mission to the conqueror of the east to spy out the land.

On the return of this embassy, one of its members, Syad Bahauddin, related to the author of the Tabeati Nlsiri, the work from which I am quoting, at Tolak of Ghor in the year of the Mughol invasion of Khorasan, 617 H. = 1220 A.D., that as the mission approached the capital of Tamghaj (Changiz was at the time prose-

   

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