* * * * * * * *

“The defenders of Gazna made frequent sallies on the besiegers, several times destroyed their works, and broke above a hundred of their battering-rams; but one night, after an obstinate engage­ment in which Oktay fought in person to encourage his soldiers, who began to be intimidated, one side of the city walls fell down, and, filling up the ditch, a great number of Mungls easily entered sword in hand. The governor, seeing all lost, at the head of his bravest soldiers, charged among the thickest of his enemies, where he and his followers were slain. However, Gazna was not entirely ruined, nor did all the inhabitants perish; for after the pillage had lasted four or five hours, Oktay ordered it to cease, and taxed the people who were left alive at a certain rate to redeem themselves and the city. This prince continued here till the whole province was reduced, and then went to rejoin his father in Tartary.

“Meantime, Jagatay having entered Kermán, the ancient Kura-mania of Persia, took by degrees all the cities in that province. After he had reduced Tíz, one of the first cities, with some other places which he destroyed, he proceeded to Kalánjer, a country bordering on Hindustan, where, intending to pass the winter, the soldiers by the help of their slaves built houses, cultivated gardens, and kept flocks of sheep, as if they intended to make a settlement; but when the scorching winds began to blow, to which they were not accustomed, almost all of them fell sick, while the greater part of those who lived became so weak and languid that they were not fit for service. By this distemper the country of Fárs, or Párs, which is the proper Persia, and that part of Khúzestán which belonged to Kayasoddín, Sultán Jaláloddín's younger brother, escaped for this time the invasion of the Mungls. Jagatay, by removing his troops from one place to another, gradually restored them to health; and finding the slaves which the soldiers had taken were a burthen, ordered the throats of the greater part of them to be cut. Then having committed the care of the conquered countries to one of his lieutenants, he, pursuant to his father's orders, directed his course to Bálkh, where the general rendezvous was appointed.”

The account of Rampoldi, in his Annali Musulmani, differs much from others, and contains many improbabilities, notwithstanding that he quotes Mírkhond and translates D'Herbelot; yet, as it is founded in some portions on independent Arabic sources, it presents some passages worthy of translation:—

* * * *

“In the tract of country between Kábul and the Indus, according to the account of Kara Tchelebi, the Tartars, after the manner of locusts, had spread desolation and extermination with ineffable rapidity, and inflicted such damage, that six centuries were not able to repair it. * * *

* * * *

“The Sultán was prevented making his last desperate charge by his nephew Malek Agiasch, who said, ‘Beware how you precipitate yourself rashly upon those who so surpass you in numbers, lest you be accused of madness, as one who deals a blow upon the edge of a razor.’ * * * The hundred thousand Tartars did not cease to discharge at him a million of arrows, but were not able to hit him. When he had passed the greatest current of the stream, he was obliged to go much further in order to find a ford, as the banks of the Indus were nearly everywhere very steep. He saved himself finally at the ford of Kaitoul. * * Only seven soldiers out of the three hundred* who had dared to follow, unwilling to abandon the unhappy prince, escaped to the opposite bank: the rest being either slain by arrows or drowned in the river. Among the latter was his nephew, Malek al Agiasch. * * *

“Oktay took Gazna by assault after a siege of four months. It was burnt and destroyed to the very foundation, after about two hundred thousand persons had been inhumanly massacred.

* * * * *

“The Sultán having composed an army out of these refugees, thought of obtaining for himself an asylum, and a principality at the same time, beyond the Ganges, because the whole country which extended on both banks of the Indus had been successively sub­dued by Jengiz, who had made himself master of Multán, Lahor, Jenghapúr, Dehli, and Agra, compelling the freedmen of Scheab-e'ddin of Gaur, who had possessed themselves of those places within the last fifteen years, to flee from their abodes and abandon their estates, or at least to repair to some lofty castles, which by their situation were judged to be impregnable, at least for many years. * * *

“The troops of Jenghiz triumphantly overran in this year (1223) the whole country, from the Ganges and Indus to the Caspian Sea, and from the Sihoun to the Euphrates. * * Jenghiz returning from India, closed the warlike achievements of this year by taking Khandaar.

* * * * *

“Scarcely had Jelale'ddin Mankberni learnt that Jenghiz had crossed the Sihoun with the greater part of his Mongols, and had taken the road of Tartary, when he repassed the Indus and entered Persia, through the provinces of Kaboul, Gazna, and Kandaar, and immediately occupied Mekran, Sejestan, and Farsestan, ex­pelling everywhere the few Mongols who had remained to protect those conquests. * * * While the Sultán was engaged in recovering his dominions in Persia, his brother Tatar Shah was extending his conquests in Hindustan, where in a short time he conquered and expelled every Mongol who dared to show his face.”

D'Ohsson observes that neither the date nor the place of action on the Sind is known. “'Aláu-d dín says it took place in the month of Rajab (August), but Muhammad of Nessa says the 22nd of Shaw-wál (9th December), which appears more exact. Nowhere do we find any precise indication of the place which was the theatre of this event.”

Price says the action at Barwán took place probably in the spring of 618 A.H. (1221 A.D.), in which D'Ohsson concurs; and that the action on the Indus took place in Rajab of that year, or September, 1221, but he is disposed to place it a year later. But there is no reason to doubt that it took place in 1221 A.D., and as the action of Parwán certainly occurred in the spring of that year, it would be much too late to defer the action on the Indus till December, for the retreat to the Sind was nearly instantaneous after the action at Parwán. Independent of which, the march from Ghazní to the Sind would have been impracticable in December, and the passage of the river would have been no such very gallant feat in that month, when the river was at its lowest. Besides, what becomes of the proverb which is said to have celebrated the occasion: “Marvels occur in Rajab.” And although it is highly improbable that the event did give occasion to the proverb, inasmuch as it is in Arabic— a language spoken by no class of people concerned in the transac­tion—yet an old proverb may have been made applicable to the event, and as it is quoted by an author nearly contemporary, we may be sure that Rajab and no other was the month in which the achieve­ment was performed.

The crossing of the Indus in the same fashion had been accom­plished four years before by Shamsu-d dín Altamsh, when in pursuit of Násiru-d dín Kubácha, and though he succeeded in reaching the opposite bank with a few followers, many were drowned in the attempt. The credit which has been given in later years to Mahá-rájá Ranjít Sing for the same feat, was not so well earned, because he caused his cavalry and infantry to ford the Indus where the bottom is rocky and shingly, and where the stream was not more than knee deep, though the current was so rapid as to make the footing insecure. Many men and horses certainly were lost, but Ranjít Sing himself crossed on an elephant.

Respecting the place where the Sultán crossed the Indus there is much doubt. Hammer, however, sees no difficulty, reproving D'Ohs-son for not knowing that it was at the ford of Kaitul, quoting for his authority D'Herbelot, who calls it Caitool, quoting for his authority Muhammad of Nessa. But the question is where is Kaitul or Caitool?