So, in the summer of 1219, the Mongol army set out on a campaign against Khorezm.
According to the treaty of 1218, Genghis Khan demanded warriors and 1000 armourers from the Tangut kingdom of Xi Xia. The gunsmiths were provided to him, as part of his troops they went on the Western campaign, but the Tanguts refused to give their soldiers. After the defeat of Khorezm, this will become a pretext for Genghis Khan for a new war and the final destruction of the kingdom of Xi Xia.
In the fall of 1219, the Mongols entered the territory of Khorezm, where their army was divided. The main forces, led by Chinggis, with whom his best commander Subedei was, marched quickly through the Kyzyl-Kum desert to Bukhara, located far to the west. The corps of the sons of Chinggis - Chagatai and Ogedei, was sent to Otrar. Jochi along the eastern bank of the Syr Darya went to the cities of Sygnak and Dzhendu. A 5,000-strong detachment later separated from his corps, which went to Benacat, and then to Khojand.
Siege of Otrar
Otrar was defended by Kayar Khan, who in 1218 captured the Mongol caravan and killed the merchants, appropriating their goods. He did not expect mercy, and therefore, in the hope of a miracle, he held out for 5 months.
No miracle happened, no help came, and the Mongols rushed into the city. Ata-Melik Juveini in his work “Genghis Khan. The story of the conqueror of the world described the last battle of Kayar Khan:
“The Mongol army entered the fortress, and he took refuge on the roof … And, since the soldiers were ordered to capture him and not subject him to death in battle, then, obeying the order, they could not kill him. The wives and maidens began to hand him bricks from the palace walls, and when they ran out, he was surrounded by the Mongols. And after he tried many tricks and launched many attacks and laid many people, he fell into a trap of captivity and was tightly bound and bound with heavy chains."
Kayar Khan was apparently a bad man, but he fought, albeit forcedly, like a hero. He was taken to Genghis Khan, who ordered that his eyes and ears be flooded with silver.
The city and the fortress of people who violated the laws of hospitality, according to Mongolian customs, were destroyed. The surviving artisans, interpreters and merchants were taken prisoner. The youngest and strongest of the remaining men were assigned to hashar, the rest were killed. The slaves of the hashar had to go with the Mongols to other cities, serve as porters, laborers, during the assault they were driven to the walls in front of the Mongols, forcing them to take flying arrows and stones, blows of spears and swords for them.
Genghis Khan near Bukhara
Genghis Khan went to Bukhara, cutting off the retreating Khorezmshah from the main forces.
In January 1220 his youngest son Tolui went to the city of Zarnuk, which surrendered without a fight. Its inhabitants were taken out to the steppe, where officials conducted an inspection, taking the most powerful men to hashar for the siege of Bukhara, the rest were allowed to return to the city. Also, the city of Nur was surrendered to Subudey without a fight. The inhabitants of Genghis Khan who came up later arranged a solemn meeting. According to Rashid ad-Din, the contented conqueror asked:
"How big is the lodge established by the Sultan in Nura?"
He was told: "One thousand five hundred dinars." He commanded: "Give this amount in cash, and besides this (you) will not be harmed." They gave what they asked for, and got rid of the beating and robbery."
In February 1220, the army of Chinggis approached Bukhara and laid siege to the city, which was defended by 20 thousand soldiers.
An-Nasawi in his work "Biography of Sultan Jelal ad-Din Mankburna" reports that the Mongols stormed Bukhara continuously - day and night. When the commander of the garrison Amir-Akhur Kushlu realized that the city was doomed, at the head of the cavalry detachment, he rushed into the last attack, and the Mongols who did not expect such a thing ran in front of them:
“If the Muslims accompanied one attack with another, throwing them back as if with a kick in the back and getting involved in the battle, they would have put the Tatars to flight. But … they were content with only their own salvation. When the Tatars saw that their goal was (only) deliverance, they rushed after them, began to block their escape routes and pursued them to the banks of the Jeyhun. Of these, only Inanj Khan with a small detachment escaped. Most of this army perished."
Bukhara, on the next day, opened the gates to the Mongols, but the fortress of this city still held on.
In Bukhara, the attention of Chinggis was attracted by the cathedral mosque, which he took for the ruler's palace. According to Ibn al-Athir, “the chests with the copies of the Koran were turned into a horse manger, the wineskins with wine were piled into the mosques and the city singers were forced to appear so that they would sing and dance. The Mongols sang according to the rules of their singing, and noble persons (cities), sayyids, imams, ulema and sheikhs, stood instead of grooms at the hitching posts with horses."
He further states:
“He (Chingis) said to the inhabitants of Bukhara:“I demand from you those silver bars that the Khorezmshah sold you. They belong to me and were taken from my people (meaning the property of a caravan plundered in Otrar). Now you have them.” Then he ordered (the inhabitants of Bukhara) to leave the city. They left, deprived of their property. None of them had anything left but the clothes on him. The infidels entered the city and began to rob and kill anyone they found … The infidels set fire to the city, madrasah, mosques and tortured people in every possible way, coveting money.
Juvaini says this about the storming of the Bukhara fortress:
“The male population of Bukhara was driven to military operations against the fortress, catapults were installed on both sides, bows were drawn, stones and arrows fell, oil was poured from vessels with oil. They fought in this way for days. In the end, the garrison found itself in a hopeless situation: the moat was leveled to the ground with stones and (killed) animals. The Mongols, with the help of the people of the Bukhara Hashar, set fire to the gates of the citadel. Khans, noble persons (of their) time and persons close to the Sultan, who had never set foot on the ground in grandeur, turned into prisoners … The Kangly Mongols were left alive only by lot; more than thirty thousand men were killed, and women and children were taken away. When the city was cleared of the rebellious, and the walls were leveled to the ground, the entire population of the city was expelled into the steppe, and the young people to the hashar of Samarkand and Dabusia … One man managed to escape from Bukhara after it was captured and get to Khorasan. He was asked about the fate of the city, he replied: "They came, they attacked, they burned, they killed, they plundered and they left."
Jochi Corps Actions
The troops of the eldest son of Chinggis, Jochi, first approached the city of Sugnak, located on the banks of the Syr Darya. Here the townspeople killed the ambassador sent to them, and therefore, taking the city, the Mongols killed all its inhabitants - to the last person. In April 1220 Jochi approached Jendu. This city did not put up resistance, and therefore the Mongols limited themselves to plunder: the inhabitants were taken out of the walls for 9 days: so that, on the one hand, they did not interfere with the invaders digging into their things, and on the other hand, to protect them from spontaneous violence from the soldiers.
After that, a detachment of Jebe separated from the Juchi corps, which went to Fergana, arousing great concern of the Khorezmshah and forcing him to further diffuse his forces.
It was after this, seeing the enemy troops both in the west (Genghis Khan) and in the east (Jebe), that Muhammad II left Samarkand.
Siege of Khojand
Fierce resistance to the Mongols of Alag-noyon was put up by the emir of the city of Khojend Timur-melik. In advance, he built a fortress between the two branches at the fork in the Syr Darya, where he moved after capturing the city with a thousand of the best soldiers. It was not possible to take this fortress right away, and the Mongols drove 50 thousand captives into hashar from the vicinity of this city and Otrar. The Mongols were originally 5 thousand people, later their number increased to 20 thousand.
The slaves of the khashar carried stones from the mountains with which they tried to block the river, and Timur-melik, on 12 boats he built, completely covered with felt coated with clay and vinegar, tried to prevent them, and at night he made sorties ashore, inflicting quite tangible losses on the Mongols. When it became completely impossible to hold on, he with the remaining people on 70 ships went to Dzhendu, continuously fighting with the Mongols who were chasing him along the river bank. Here Timur-melik was met by the warriors of Jochi-khan, who built a pontoon bridge and installed throwing guns and crossbows on it. Timur-melik was forced to land his people on the bank of Barchanlygkent and move along the coast. So, all the time attacked by the superior forces of the Mongols, he walked for several more days, the wagon train with food and equipment was captured by the Mongols almost immediately, the detachment suffered heavy losses. In the end, Timur-melik was left alone, he was pursued by three Mongols, of the three arrows that still remained, one did not have a tip. Blinding one of the Mongols with this arrow, Timur invited the others to turn back, saying that he was sorry to waste the last arrows on them. The Mongols did not doubt the accuracy of the famous enemy, and returned to their detachment. And Timur-melik safely reached Khorezm, again fought with the Mongols of Jochi, expelling them from Yangikent, and went to Shahristan to Jelal ad-Din.
Fall of Samarkand
At that time in the capital of Khorezm, Samarkand, there were about 110 thousand soldiers, as well as 20 "marvelous" elephants. However, other sources reduce the number of Samarkand soldiers to 50 thousand.
Now the troops of Genghis Khan (from Bukhara), Chagatai (from Otrar) approached the walls of the city from three sides, Jebe led the forward detachments of the army that was besieging Khojand.
From these troops, detachments were later allocated to search and pursue Mohammed II and monitor the actions of his heir, Jalal ad-Din, in order to prevent his connection with the Khorezmshah.
Ibn al-Athir reports that part of the soldiers and volunteer townspeople went outside the walls of the city and fought with the Mongols, who, with a false retreat, lured them into an ambush and killed everyone.
“When the inhabitants and soldiers (who remained in the city) saw this, they lost heart and death became obvious to them. The warriors, who were Turks, declared: "We are from the same clan, and they will not kill us." They asked for mercy, and the (infidels) agreed to spare them. Then they opened the gates of the city, and the inhabitants could not stop them."
(Ibn al-Athir, Complete Collection of History.)
The fate of the traitors was miserable. The Mongols ordered them to surrender their weapons and horses, and then “they began to chop them down with swords and killed every last one, taking away their property, riding animals and women” (Ibn al-Athir).
Then the Mongols ordered all residents of Samarkand to leave the city, announcing that everyone who remained in it would be killed.
“Entering the city, they plundered it and burned the cathedral mosque, and left the rest as it was. They raped girls and subjected people to all kinds of torture, demanding money. They killed those who were not suitable for theft in captivity. All this happened in Muharram, six hundred and seventeenth year."
(Ibn al-Athir.)
And here is the testimony of Rashid ad-Din:
“When the city and the fortress were equal in destruction, the Mongols killed many emirs and warriors, the next day they counted the rest. Of this number, one thousand artisans were allocated, and in addition, the same number was assigned to hashar. The rest were saved by the fact that for obtaining permission to return to the city they were obliged to pay two hundred thousand dinars. Genghis Khan … part of those intended for hashar took with him to Khorasan, and part of them sent with his sons to Khorezm. After that, he demanded hashar several times in a row. Of these hashars, few survived, as a result of which that country was completely depopulated."
The Chinese pilgrim Chiang Chun wrote later that earlier the population of Samarkand was about 400 thousand people, after the defeat of the city by Genghis Khan, about 50 thousand remained alive.
Remaining at Samarkand, Genghis Khan sent his son Tolui to Khorasan, giving him command of an army of 70 thousand people. A little later, at the beginning of 1221, his other sons - Jochi, Chagaty and Ogedei, at the head of an army of 50,000, were sent to Gurganj (Urgench), the siege of which lasted 7 months.
Death of Khorezmshah Mohammed II
And what was the Khorezmshah doing at that time? An-Nasawi reports:
“When the message about this sad event reached the Sultan, it caused him anxiety and saddened him, his heart was completely weakened and his hands dropped. He crossed Jeyhun (Amu Darya) in a miserable state, having lost hope to protect the region of Maverannahr … seven thousand people from (the troops) of his nephews left him and fled to the Tatars. The ruler of Kunduz Ala ad-Din arrived to help Genghis Khan, announcing his enmity with the Sultan. Emir Makh Rui, one of the noble people of Balkh, also passed to him … They told him (Genghis Khan) what fear the Sultan experienced, and informed him how he lost heart - he equipped two leaders for the campaign: Jebe Noyan and Syubete Bahadur (Subedeya) with thirty thousand (warriors). They crossed the river, heading for Khorasan, and scoured the country."
The order given to them by Genghis Khan has been preserved:
“By the power of God the Great, until you take him (Muhammad) in your hands, do not return. If he … will seek refuge in strong mountains and gloomy caves or hide from the eyes of people, like a peri, then you must, like a flying wind, rush through his regions. Anyone who comes out in obedience, show affection, establish a government and a ruler … Everyone who submits, let him be pardoned, and everyone who does not submit will perish."
The third tumen was commanded by Tukadjar (Genghis's son-in-law). Some authors report that Tukadzhar was defeated by Timur-melik and died, others that he was recalled by Genghis Khan, who was angry with him for plundering cities that had previously expressed obedience to Subedei and Jebe. Chinggis allegedly sentenced his son-in-law to death, but then replaced it with demotion.
So, the pursuit was continued by Subadey and Jebe, who in May 1220 captured Balkh without a fight. In the Ilal fortress (Mazandaran territory), after a 4-month siege, they captured Muhammad's mother (who preferred Mongol captivity to escape to her unloved grandson Jelal ad-Din) and his harem.
The eunuch Badr ad-din Hilal reports on the further life of Terken-khatyn:
"Her situation in captivity became so disastrous that she more than once came to the dinner table of Genghis Khan and brought something from there, and this food was enough for her for several days."
The "dogs" of Genghis Khan, not knowing defeat, went like a whirlwind across Iran, but they could not overtake Muhammad. First, he fled to Rey, from there - to the Farrazin fortress, where his son Rukn ad-Din Gurshanchi was at his disposal, who had an entire army of 30 thousand people. The Tumens of Subedei and Jebe at that time acted separately, and Muhammad had a chance to defeat each of them in turn. Instead, at the first news of the Mongols' approach, he retreated to the mountain fortress Karun. From there he immediately went to another fortress - Ser-Chakhan, and then took refuge on one of the islands of the Caspian Sea, where, having transferred power to Jelal ad-Din, and died - either in December 1220, or in February 1221.
Hike of the "iron dogs" of Genghis Khan
And Subadei and Jebe continued their fantastic raid. Having defeated the Georgian army, through the Derbent passage, they went through the lands of the Lezgins to the possessions of the Alans and Polovtsy, alternately defeating them.
Pursuing the Polovtsians, they looked into the Crimea, where they took Surozh. Then there was the battle near the Kalki River, very famous in our country, in which the Russian squads first met with the Mongolian tumens.
Subadey and Dzhebe defeated the combined troops of the Polovtsians and Russian princes, but, on the way back, were defeated in the Volga Bulgaria - at the end of 1223 or the beginning of 1224.
The Arab historian Ibn al-Athir claims that the Bulgars succeeded, having lured the Mongols into an ambush, surrounded them, and inflicted heavy losses. Only about 4 thousand soldiers returned to Desht-i-Kypchak and joined forces with Jochi.
This was the only defeat of Subedei, who, however, very soon paid off with the Bulgars. In 1229 he defeated their army on the Ural River, in 1232 he captured the southern part of their state, in 1236 he finally defeated them.
The last Khorezmshah Jelal ad-Din and his war with the Mongols will be discussed in the next article.
