When Tooli Khan marched to Khorasan, Toghachar Goor Kan with ten thousand men proceeded to Nishapoor. Mujdul Moolk Kafi, Omr Raji, and other chiefs being there, they made every preparation to oppose the Moghools, and among the rest they placed three thousand engines for shooting arrows,* and three hundred engines for throwing stones* on the walls. On Wednesday, in the month of Rumzan, the Moghools arrived and the siege began, and was maintained without intermission for three days; and on the Friday of that week, Toghachar Goor Kan was killed by an arrow shot from the bastion Karakosh.
It is related by Ameer Khojundi, that he was the younger brother of Kurachar Noyaun, and the son-in-law of Chungeez Khan.
After Toghachar Goor Kan was killed, the Moghool chief Noorkar Noyaun divided his army, and half their force marched in the direction of Subzwar; the remainder continued the siege, and after three days’ hard fighting, Nishapoor was taken in the middle of the day, and it is said that seventy thousand men were killed on the occasion of its capture.
The half of this army that had remained then proceeded to Toos, and taking several cities on the road, massacred all the inhabitants.
Tooli Khan after this marched to Men, and on his route, collected from the towns which had submitted to him, as Sirkhosh, Abewurd, &c., seventy thousand archers. When the Moghools arrived near Men, after destroying certain forts and castles on the road, four hundred Moghool horse who preceded the army, advanced up to the gates of the city. The same morning twelve thousand Turks of the Suljook tribe, who had separated from their horde, also advanced to the gates of the city for plunder, and as the Turks and Moghools did not recognize each other, they fought, and the Toorkmans being defeated, the Moghools pursued them to their tents and killed a great number, and those that escaped the Moghools, threw themselves into the Men rood, or river, and were all drowned, and their cattle and sheep fell into the hands of the Moghools.
The next day, which was the 1st of Mohurrum 618, Tooli Khan, with five hundred horse, arrived at the Feroze gate of Men, and encamped there after examining the defences of the city, and six days were spent by him in the same manner.
Mookhbir ul Moolk the chief of Men, had separated from Sultan Mahummud at one of the islands in the Caspian sea, and had assumed the government of the city, and being the son of a woman of the zenana of Sultan Mahummud, who had been consigned to his nominal father when she was with child, he consequently considered himself a very great man.
On the seventh day, the Moghools being all assembled, they encamped round the gates of Men and commenced their attack. The garrison made some vigorous sallies, but without effect; the Moghools surrounded the city so closely, that it became impossible any one should escape.
The next night, also, the Moghools kept strict watch that no one should escape; and as Mokhbir ul Moolk saw there was no hope of defending the city, and no resource but submission, he despatched one of the chiefs of Men, named Jumal-ud-deen, to Tooli Khan, with presents of great value, to beg quarter; and having received a flattering answer, he next proceeded to Tooli Khan himself.
On his arrival, Tooli Khan required him to give a statement of the condition of the city and the wealth it contained, and Mokbir ul Moolk having answered his inquiries, by naming two hundred of the richest inhabitants, the Moghools took possession of the city, and destroyed the defences, and the whole of the people were expelled, and, with the exception of four hundred artizans, and a few boys and girls made slaves, the remaining population, men, women, and children, were put to the sword. It is related that Azuddin Nisabi, with other writers, were employed sixteen days in counting the dead bodies.* When the Moghools had finished their bloody work, Tooli Khan made Ameer Zeauddeen Ali (a religious man, who had been spared, from the sanctity of his life), governor of the city, and Barmas darogah, and leaving a number of strangers with them, marched towards Nishapoor. After the Moghools had departed, all those persons who had secreted themselves in holes and corners came out, and about five thousand people assembled at Men. At this time a body of Moghools, who were following the army, arrived, and demanded their share of the unfortunate people of Men: those people, therefore, who had escaped before, were now slain.
About this time also news arrived that Puhlwan Aboobukir Dewan and Shums-ud-deen Mahummud had caused some disturbance at Sirkhus; Ameer Zea-ud-deen, therefore, with a detachment, marched thither; and Barmas, with some artisans of Men, encamped outside the town, being about to proceed to Bokhara. The remainder of the people, conceiving he was about to flee from the city from fear of Mahummud Khorazm Shah, rebelled; and Barmas sent men into the town, and put to death the ringleaders, and then proceeded to Bokhara.
Zea-ud-deen, after this, returned to Men, and rebuilt the walls of the town, and a number of people assembled round him. At this time Kostgeen, a servant of Sultan Mahummud Shah, arrived with a large force, and commenced the siege of Men. Ameer Zea-ud-deen, finding he could not defend the city, retired with the Moghools to Maraghah. Kostgeen, therefore, took possession of Men, and began to rebuild it: the people of the city, however, sent a letter to Zea-ud-deen, inviting him to return; and he did so, and encamped at the gate of Men. Kostgeen, however, hearing of his arrival, despatched a party to seize him; and knowing his safety depended on his destruction, put him to death. A few days after, a party of two hundred horse proceeding to Keeko, a detachment moved on to Nuksheb, and again informed Toormai and Kubai, ameers of Chungeez, of what had happened at Men; and in a few days five thousand men were despatched to Men, under two chiefs named Toormai and Akmulik, who took the city, and put to death all those who remained in it. Akmulik was left in charge with a detachment, and Toormai returned to Nuksheb.
Tooli Khan in the mean time marched with his army and engines towards Nishapoor, and notwitstanding the city is built of stone, all the stones in the neighbourhood were collected, to be employed in battering it; and a harvest of stones was showered on the city, the tenth part of which did not take effect. The people of the city, seeing the Moghools a different people from what they expected to find them, and that they had several thousand engines casting arrows continually on the walls, and three hundred battering engines, besides naphtha and other implements of attack, began to despair of success in opposing the Moghools, and they despatched the kazi, Rokn-ud-deen Ali, the son of Ibrahim Moghunni, to Tooli Khan, to offer their submission and tribute. Tooli Khan, however, refused to receive either; and he returned, and on Tuesday, the 12th Suffer, the siege re<-?>commenced, and continued till Friday, when the walls of the town were broken down in many places, and the water in the ditch drawn off. The siege, however, continued with great vigour, but the garrison still defended themselves with such courage that the Moghools could only establish themselves at the foot of the wall, and a sortie was made from the Patan gate. That day until night, the Moghools succeeded in clearing the walls of their defenders; and on the night of Saturday, the Moghools obtained possession of the walls, and entered the town, where they commenced to plunder and murder the inhabitants. The chief object, however, of their search was Mokhbir ul Moolk, who was at last found in a mine, and in order that they might sooner kill him he gave them every abusive term he could apply to them: they therefore put him to death, and the whole of the inhabitants were driven into the fields and then slaughtered, in revenge for the death of Toghachar Goor Kan, the son-in-law of Chungeez Khan; the city was destroyed, and its site ploughed up, and it is said not even a cat or a dog was left alive, and moreover that the daughters of Chungeez Khan, who were in the Moghool camp, with their servants, entered the city and killed all the people they could lay hands on, in revenge for the death of their brother. Some few artisans, about forty, were however spared, and sent to Turkistan. The fortifications and all the respectable buildings were levelled with the ground, and the ground sown with barley. It is stated in the histories of Khorasan, that the killed at Nishapoor were so numerous that it took twelve days to count them.