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Sykes' History of Persia Vol 2 (pdf) - Heritage Institute

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1<br />

58<br />

HISTORY OF PERSIA CHAP.<br />

shot at the hero, but held him up to his sons as a model<br />

in valour.<br />

Chengiz detached two units to pursue Jalal-u-Din,<br />

but they failed to discover him. They then attempted<br />

to take Multan, but the heat drove them <strong>of</strong>f,<br />

and after<br />

ravaging far and wide they rejoined the main army which<br />

was returning to Tartary.<br />

In the spring <strong>of</strong> the following year the city <strong>of</strong> Ghazna<br />

was destroyed for military reasons, and at the same time<br />

a force was despatched to annihilate Herat, which had<br />

rebelled upon hearing <strong>of</strong> the success <strong>of</strong> Jalal-u-Din near<br />

Bamian. On this occasion the resistance <strong>of</strong>fered was<br />

desperate, but after a siege <strong>of</strong> six months and seventeen<br />

days the city fell, and it is said that more than a million<br />

and a half <strong>of</strong> its inhabitants an incredible number were<br />

massacred. A short time afterwards a body <strong>of</strong> troops<br />

was sent back to the ruins <strong>of</strong> the city<br />

to search for<br />

survivors, who were killed to the number <strong>of</strong> two<br />

thousand.<br />

The Return to Tartary <strong>of</strong> Chengiz Khan. Before marching<br />

north from India Chengiz Khan ordered the prisoners<br />

to clean a large quantity<br />

<strong>of</strong> rice for the army, and, after<br />

they had done it,<br />

massacred them all. He then in the first<br />

instance decided to return to Tartary by way <strong>of</strong> Tibet,<br />

but on realizing the difficulties <strong>of</strong> the route cancelled these<br />

orders, recrossed the Hindu Kush, and proceeded to<br />

Bokhara, where he received instruction in the tenets <strong>of</strong><br />

the Moslem religion and ordered the Khutba to be read in<br />

his name. He remained inactive in Central Asia for<br />

over a year and then moved slowly back to his own<br />

country, which he reached in A.D. 1225.<br />

The Devastation <strong>of</strong> Western and North-Western <strong>Persia</strong>.<br />

We must now turn to the armies <strong>of</strong> Chebe and Subutay,<br />

which had captured Rei and had pursued Mohamed<br />

to the Caspian Sea. Kum was their next objective ;<br />

Hamadan was spared in the first instance, but Zenjan<br />

and Kazvin were treated in the awful Mongol fashion.<br />

Tabriz was spared<br />

in return for a large<br />

sum <strong>of</strong> money,<br />

and the Mongols proceeded to the plain <strong>of</strong> Moghan,<br />

near the south-west corner <strong>of</strong> the Caspian. Contrary to

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