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

THE SUCCESSORS OF GENGHIS KHAN
In Sistan there reigned Malik Shams al-DIn Kart.44
History of the maliks and atabegs
In Mazandaran .4S
In Diyar Bakr and Syria in the year 639/1241-1242, Saiyid Taj al-
Dln Muhammad Salaya was appointed governor of Irbil. In the same
year, Baraka Khan,46 the son of Daulat-Shah, one of the emirs of
Sultan Jalal al-Din, who commanded what was left of the defeated
army of Khwarazm, sought the hand of the daughter of Malik ' Adil,47
who was the mother of the ruler of Aleppo.48 He49 ordered the messenger
to be humiliated, and Baraka Khan gathered his army together
and invaded their territory. The army of Aleppo came out and they
fought at Manbij. The Khwarazmis beat the men of Aleppo, massacring,
looting, and carrying off prisoners. Then the rulers of Aleppo
and Hims50 attacked the Khwarazmis jointly, and neither side was
defeated. In the same year certain Khwarazmis who hadbeeninKirman
joined the rest in 'Ana. And Muhammad, the son of Baraka Khan,
came to Baghdad and was enrolled amongst the companions of
Mujahid al-DIn Ai-Beg the Davat-Dar.51 In the year 640/1242-1243
there was again a battle between the Khwarazmis and the people of
Aleppo. The Khwarazmis were defeated, abandoning their wives,
children, horses, and cattle, and the men of Aleppo obtained much
booty.52 In the year 642/1244-1245 a Mongol army again entered
44 The founder (1245-1278) of the Kart dynasty of Herat.
45 Blank in the MSS.
46 According to Nasawl (Houdas, p. 128), Baraka's father (whom he calls Daulat
Malik), a maternal uncle of Sultan Ghiyath al-DIn, was killed in a battle with the
Mongols near Zanjan some time in 1222; and Baraka, then only a young child, made
his way to Azerbaijan, where in due course he entered the service of Sultan Jalal
al-Din.
4' The Aiyubid Sultan of Egypt, al-Malik al-'Adil II (1238-1240).
48 Al-Malik al-Nasir Salah al-Din Yusuf (1236-1260).
45 Presumably al-Malik al-Nasir. It cannot, as supposed by Verkhovsky (p. 125)
be al-Malik al-'Adil, who had died in the previous year.
50 The Aiyubid Sultan of Hims was then al-Mansur Ibrahim (1239—1245).
51 Actually, the Lesser Davat-Dar or Vice-Chancellor. He was afterward to play
a considerable part in the defense of Baghdad against Hulegii. See below, p. 232;
also Boyle 1961, pp. 154 ff.
52 Rashid al-DIn does not mention their sacking of Jerusalem and subsequent
defeat of the Crusaders in a battle near Gaza (17th October, 1244).
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