The Successors of Genghis Khan - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian ...

HISTORY OF JOCHI KHAN
sons were defeated, large numbers being killed in that battle.124 Noqai's
sons with a thousand horsemen set off for the Keler and Bashghiird.
Noqai was fleeing with seventeen horsemen when he was wounded by
an Orus horse soldier in Toqta's army. He said: "I am Noqai. Take
me to Toqta, who is the Khan." The man seized his bridle and was
leading him to Toqta, when he gave up the ghost.125
Toqta returned to Batu's Sarai, which is their capital, while Noqai's
sons wandered here and there. Seeing no profit in such a life, Tiige,
his mother Chiibei, and Yailaq, the mother of Torai, said to Joge:
" It is to our advantage that we abandon strife and contention and go
to Toqta." But Joge was frightened of this idea. He killed his brother
and his father's wife and wandered about with a group of followers and
finally took refuge in a castle, the path to which was as narrow as
Sirat,126 or as the hearts of misers. Let us see what will happen to him
in the end.
Noqai had previously begun to establish friendly relations with
Abaqa Khan and Arghun Khan. In the year I27 he sent his
wife Chiibei with his son Torai and an emir called I28 to
Abaqa Khan and asked for his daughter129 in marriage. Abaqa
Khan gave his daughter to Torai, and they remained there for awhile,
after which he dismissed them kindly. And when war and strife arose
between Noqai and Toqta, he was always sending trustworthy ambassadors
to the Lord of Islam130 (may God cause him to reign forever /)
to ask for help and request that he might be a dependent of this Court.
In truth, it was an extremely excellent opportunity, but the Lord of
Islam (may God cause him to reign forever /), in his magnanimity, would
124 It was fought, according to the Egyptian authorities, at a place called Kulkanlik,
which Vernadsky (p. 188 and note 197) identifies with the Kagamliik, a small river
flowing into the Dnieper near Kremenchug.
125 According to the Egyptian authorities, the Russian soldier killed Noqai and
brought his head to Toqta expecting a reward. The Khan ordered him to be put to
death. "Obviously," comments Vernadsky (p. 189), "Tokhta was indignant that
Nogay was not given the privilege of dying without his blood being shed."
126 The bridge, according to Muslim traditions, across the infernal fire, described
as being finer than a hair and sharper than a sword.
127 Blank in all the MSS.
128 Blank in Blochet's text. Verkhovsky (p. 86) has simply " an emir."
i« "Two daughters" in Verkhovsky (p. 86).
"° That is, Ghazan.
129