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

BEGINNING OF THE HISTORY OF OGETEI QA.'AN
succeeded by his son Zahir. He in turn died in 628/1230-1231, and
al-Mustansir bi'llah was set upon [the throne of] the Caliphate.
History of the sultans
In 'Iraq143 and Adharbaijan, Sultan Jalal-al-DIn reigned supreme.
In the beginning of 625/1227-1228, returning from Isfahan, he came
to Tabriz and set out for Georgia. And since the Sultan of Rum and
the maliks of Syria and Armenia and all that region were alarmed at
his power and ascendancy, they all rose up to repel him and gathered
together in one place with an army of Georgians, Armenians, Alans,'44
Sarir,'4? Lakz,146 Qipchaq, Svan,14? Abkhaz,148 and Chanet.14" The
Sultan encamped near them at Mindor.150 He was embarrassed by
the great numbers of the enemy's horsemen and consulted the vizier
Yulduzchi and the other dignitaries. Yulduzchi said: "Since our men
are not one hundredth of theirs in number, the best course is for us to
pass through Mindor and remove and withhold the water and timber
from them so that they may languish from hunger and thirst and their
horses grow weak. We can then give battle when we see fit." The Sultan
was annoyed at these words. He hurled a pencase at the vizier's
head and said: "They are a flock of sheep. Does the lion complain
of the size of the flock?" For that treachery Yulduzchi forfeited 50,000
dinars. The Sultan went on: "Though the case is hard, we must
fight with our trust in God." The next day they drew up their lines,
and the hostile army thought the Sultan in the midst of his troops to be
a mountain in a plain. He ascended a hill in order to observe them and
descried the standards of the Qipchaq with twenty thousand men.
He sent Qpshqar to them with a loaf and a little salt and reminded
143 That is, 'Iraq-i 'Ajam, Persian 'Iraq or Central Persia.
144 The Ossetes.
145 The Avars of Daghestan. See Hudud, p. 447.
146 The present-day Lezghians in Daghestan. See Hudud, pp. 411 and 455.
147 This people still survives in modern Georgia along the Upper Ingur. See Allen,
pp. 27-28.
148 "The Abkhaz on the Black Sea coast in the extreme northwest of Georgia are now
citizens of the Abkhazian A. S. S. R.
149 That is, the Chan or Laz, who still inhabit the southeastern shores of the Black
Sea between Trebizond and Batum. See Allen, pp. 54-56.
150 Mindori near Lori in what is now Soviet Armenia. According to the Georgian
Chronicle, the battle was fought at Bolnisi.
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