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

THE SUCCESSORS OF GENGHIS KHAN
glad tidings that they had departed. In their joy and exultation, the
Sultan and all the emirs and soldiers engaged in pleasure and merry-
making and passed 2 or 3 days in folly and rejoicing. One day at
midnight the Mongol army came upon them. The Sultan was deep
in drunken sleep. Orkhan, learning of the Mongols' arrival, ran to
[the Sultan's] bedside, but as much as he called him he did not awaken.
They threw cold water on his face until he came to himself and realized
the situation. He turned to flee, ordering Orkhan not to move his
standard and to offer resistance until he had gained a little lead.
Then he departed and Orkhan, after standing firm for awhile turned
in flight; and the Mongols, thinking it was the Sultan, set out in his
pursuit. When they realized [their mistake] they returned and slew
all that they found. Meanwhile, the Sultan, having set out alone, was
moving with great haste. Accounts differ as to how he met his end.
Some say that he was sleeping at night under a tree in the Hakkar
mountains when a party of Kurds came upon him and, coveting
his clothes and horse, split open his stomach.171 Then, putting on his
garments and arms, they entered the town of Amid.172 Some of his
retinue recognized the clothes and weapons and seized the men; and
the ruler of Amid, when he had ascertained the circumstances, put
them to death. The Sultan's body was then brought to Amid and
buried there; and a dome was built over his tomb. Others say that he
gave the men his arms and garments of his own free will, taking their
coarse clothing in exchange, and began to wander through the lands
in the garb of the Sufis. However that may be, his rule now came to an
end.
As for Sultan Ghiyath al-Din, in the year 624/1226-1227, when they
were fighting the Mongols at the gates of Isfahan, he purposely
abandoned the left wing, which his brother had entrusted to him,
and made for Khuzistan by way of Luristan. The Caliph Nasir
171 This differs considerably from Juvaini's version (HWC, p. 459): "Some say that
upon arriving in the mountains of Amid he had encamped for the night in a certain
place when a party of Kurds conceived a desire to despoil him of his clothes and
stabbed him in the breast . . .." By the Hakkar mountains is meant presumably the
territory of the Hakkarl Kurds, the present-day province of Hakari, to the south of
Lake Van.
171 The present-day Diyarbakir (Diyar Bakr), the chief town of the Turkish province
of the same name.
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