National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

V.B. During the next fifty years the States of Bukhárá and Samarcand were contest-
ed by Gorkhán of the Uighúr country on the east, and Khwárizmsháh of the Khiva
on the west.
Khwárizm or Khivá was given in fief by Malik Sháh Saljuk to his General,
Nushtakin Garcha, who was succeeded in 491 H.=1097 A.D. by his son, Muhammad
Kutubuddin. He ruled thirty years, and assumed the title of Khwáhrizm Sháh, and
in 521 H.=1127 A.D. was succeeded by his son Atsiz. He rebelled against Sultan
Sanjar, and in the anarchy thus produced Gorkhán seized Máwaránahar, and made
the Khwárizm Sháh tributary as stated above. Atsiz died at Koshán or Khaboshán
in 551 H.=1156 A.D., and his son, Arslán Khan, who succeeded, continued the
tribute to Gorkhán. He died in 560 H.=1164 A.D.
The succession was now contested between Takish, the eldest son, and Sultán-
takin, the younger nominated one. Civil war continued for ten years, when by the
aid of Gorkhán, on the promise of continued tribute, Takish was established on the
throne of Khwáhrizm. He died on the 10th Ramazán 596 H.=1199 A.D., and left
an empire nearly equal to that of the Sámáni and Saljúki to his son, Muhammad
Kutubuddin Khwáhrizm Shah. He continued the tribute to Gorkhán, and with the
aid of the Uighúr defeated Shahábuddin, King of Ghor, and on his death annexed
Ghor, Herat, and Sistán in 612 H.=1205 A.D. He next subdued Irán, and in
616 H.=1209 A.D., proud in the consciousness of his strength, refused the tribute to
Gorkhán, and invaded Bukhárá. He defeated the Uighúr army and captured Atrar,
whence he returned to Khwáhrizm.
On this Gorkhán, now ninety-two years of age, at once took the field, recovered
Atrar and other places, and set seige to Samarcand. Meanwhile Kutubuddin Khwáh-
rizmshàh hurried back, and a fight ensued with the Uighúr army at Banákat, in
620 H.=1213 A.D., but the action was indecisive and both armies retired. In this
battle Gorkhán was opposed by Koshluk Khán, the son of Tayúng Khán, Náyman,
who now turned traitor to his patron and benefactor, and revolted against him.
R.S. This Koshluk, chief of the Náyman tribe of Christians, was a Budhist, but his
wife was a Christian. He had been forced to flee from Beshbáligh by the hostility
of Changíz, and coming to the westward found an asylum with Gorkhán, who
received him well, and attached him to himself as an ally, and strengthened the
connection by giving him his daughter in marriage. When Khwáhrizmshah, elated
by his successes in Iráe, refused the tribute to Gorkhán and invaded Bukhárá, he
entered into a plot with Koshluk to divide the Uighúr empire by a simultaneous
attack from the east and west. The agreement come to was that if Khwáhrizm Shah
were first successful, he should have the country up to Káshghar and Khutan, but
that if Koshluk first succeeded, he should take the country up to Banákat on the
Syhon or Jaxartes river as his share.
Khwáhrizm Sháh, from his vicinity, was first in the field, and took the country
up to Atrar, as before mentioned. And he now recovered the place after the battle at
Banákat, from which Gorkhán retreated in disorderly haste to his capital, where, on
arrival, he found the gates closed against him. He besieged Balásághún for sixteen
days, and, then taking it, gave the city up to plunder and massacre for three days,
during which, it is said, forty-seven thousand souls perished.
Koshluk following up now appeared on the scene of riot and bloodshed. He soon
routed the demoralized army, and captured Gorkhán, whom he consigned to an honor-
able captivity, in which he died two years later aged ninety-five. He next attacked
Almáligh (Almáláligh), and killed its ruler, and then for successive years campaigned
Káshghar and Khutan, and spread devastation and famine over the land. He was a
Budhist, and his wife a Christian, and each proselytized to his or her own creed, and
every where persecuted the Muhammadan. At Khutan, an ancient and most flourish-
ing seat of the creed of his adoption, Koshluk took an ample revenge upon the hostile
creed for the destruction its professors had wrought upon the temples and monasteries
of the place, and requited the massacres and persecutions of their monks and priests at
the hands of Yúsuf Kádir and his Arab allies by like reprisals. He assembled three