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

BEGINNING OF THE HISTORY OF QUBILAI QA AN
message: "We, the princes and emirs, having taken, counsel together,
have set up Qubilai Qa'an as Qa'an." They feasted all that day^ and
when night fell Durchi made off in flight. Learning of this they sent
messengers after him: theyamchis42 seized him and brought him back.
They questioned him, using threats, and he confessed the whole story
from beginning to end of the rebellion and the thoughts they had
harbored. They imprisoned him and, setting Abishqa, the son of
Biiri, the son of Mo'etuken, over his grandfather's ulus, dispatched him
together with his younger brother Narin-Qadan. On the border of the
Tangqut country they were met by the envoys of Ariq Boke with a
large force of men, who seized them and brought them before him. They
were imprisoned and kept in custody, while the messengers of
Qubilai Qa'an were sent back.
During that summer they sent many messengers to each other, but
agreement could not be achieved. Then they put out reports to the
effect that Hulegii Khan, Berke, and the other princes had arrived and
that Ariq Boke had become Qa'an upon their advice and with their
support. They continued to spread such rumors until autumn came
around, when Ar'iq Boke gave an army to Jumqur, the eldest son of
Hulegii Khan, and Qarachar, the son of Udur, together with several
other princes and sent them to make war on Qubilai Qa'an. The van
of the Qa'an's army was led by Yesiingge and Narin-Qadan. They
met and joined battle in the land of ,43 The army of Ariq Boke
was defeated, and Jumqur and Qarachar with some few others escaped
and got away. As for Ariq Boke and his army, they took fright and
scattered in disorder, having first put to death the two princes that had
been imprisoned and the hundred envoys.
They went into the Qiirqiz country.44 It had been the custom to
bring the food and drink for Qara-Qprum on wagons from Khitai.
Qubilai Qa'an banned this traffic and there occurred a great dearth
and famine in that region. Ariq Boke was at his wit's end and said:
"The best thing is for Alghu, the son of Baidar, the son of Chaghatai,
who has long been in attendance on the throne and has learnt the way
42 See Glossary.
43 BASYKY or BABBKY. Apparently identical with the place-name mentioned
above, p. 209.
44 See above, p. 214, note 69.
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