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

THE SUCCESSORS OF GENGHIS KHAN
surrounded on two sides by the River Qara-Moren. The Mongol
and Nangiyas armies together laid siege to the town and set up mangonels
and laid ladders against the walls and stationed sappers with
battering-rams at the foot of the walls. It became clear to the emirs and
army of Khitai that the town would be taken and they reflected:
"Our king is faint of heart. If we tell him, he will perish from excess of
fear and dread, and our cause will be completely lost." They concealed
[the truth from him] and, in accordance with their custom, he concerned
himself with pleasure with his wives and concubines in his
mansions and palaces. When the wives and concubines realized that the
town would be taken, they began to weep. Altan-Khan asked why
this was and they told him of the plight of the town. He did not believe
them and, going up in the wall, saw with his own eyes. When he was
certain [of the town's fate] he decided to flee. Embarking with some of
his wives upon a boat, he set off along a canal which had been made
from the Qara-Moren into the town and continues into another
province, and so departed to another town. When the Mongols and
the Nangiyas people learnt [of his flight] they sent troops after him and
besieged him in that town. He fled from thence by boat and went to
another town.128 Again they followed him and besieged him. Since
the way of escape was distant and blocked, the Mongol and Nangiyas
troops set fire to the town. Altan-Khan realized that they would
take the town. He said to his emirs and ladies: "After reigning so
long and enjoying all manner of honors I do not wish to become the
prisoner of the Mongols and die in ignominy." He dressed his qorchiIM
in his clothes and, having set him in his place on the throne, went out
and hanged himself until he died. He was then buried. In some
histories it is stated that he donned rags after the manner of the qalandars
and went into hiding, and in the History of Khitai130 it is stated
that when the town was set on fire he was burnt. Neither of these two
versions is correct. It is certain that he hanged himself and died; and
2 days later they captured the town and put to death the person whom
he had set in his place. The Nangiyas army entered the town, and the
Mongols learnt that the person they put to death was not Altan-Khan
128 This was Ts'ai-chou (the present-day Junan). See Franke, IV, p. 290.
I2« See Glossary.
130 Presumably the work on which Rashid al-Din's own History of China was based.
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