When Sultan Mahummud Khorazm Shah died, Sultan Julal-ud-deen and his younger brothers returned from the island of Tas Goon in the Caspian Sea with a few adherents, Sultan Julal-ud-deen desired to distinguish himself in the field, but at the same time to avoid the fate of his father and the reproach that attended his memory; his object, therefore, was to establish his authority in Khorezm, for as yet the troops of the Moghools had not reached that country, and ninety thousand men of the Kunkuli, or his mother’s tribe, were stationed there. When, however, the sultan arrived at Khorezm, he found that only a part of the men he had depended on were his friends, and that a great portion were the reverse; he was, therefore, afraid to trust himself with them. At this time intelligence came that the Moghools had arrived in Irak; he, in consequence, despatched a messenger to his brethren, Arzlak Sultan, Go Khan, Khumarutgeen, Oghul Sahib, and Mullik Timour (whose adherents altogether amounted to ninety thousand men), to inform them of the arrival of the Moghools, and he himself proceeded by Nissa towards Shadmagh.
On his march, however, at Oostawa, he fell in with a division of the Moghool army, and a battle with them ensued, and was bravely maintained until night separated the combatants, when Sultan Julal-ud-deen, apparently having had the worst of it, proceeded to Shadmagh.
At this time Arzlak Sultan and his brethren received intimation of the advance of the Moghools, and as they could do nothing by themselves, they marched to join the sultan. On their march, however, they fell in with the same Moghool army which had fought with the sultan at Oostawa, by which they were entirely defeated and dispersed, the Moghools pursuing them.
When Sultan Julal-ud-deen arrived at Shadmagh he halted three days to collect his troops and baggage. On the third night, or the 11th Zilluj 617, he was forced, by the arrival of the Moghools, to depart, and he fled by the road of Perowan to Ghuzni, to the government of which his father had before appointed him. He had no sooner left Shadmagh than the Moghools arrived there, and finding he was gone followed him, but after five days’ journey gave up the pursuit.
On the arrival of Sultan Julal-ud-deen at Ghuzni, the soldiers of his father, Sultan Mahummud, who had been dispersed, immediately flocked to his standard; and as the city and country of Herat had been destroyed by Tooli Khan, the Ghoorians also joined Sultan Julal-ud-deen; forty thousand men also of the Kubkuli tribe also joined him from Khorezm.
In the spring, therefore, Sultan Julal-ud-deen left Ghuzni, and moved towards the town of Bazan; and when he arrived there, he was informed that Begchuk and Tumkoor, with a large army of Moghools, were besieging the castle of Walian, and that it was on the point of being reduced. The brave sultan, therefore, left his baggage, and made a forced march towards his enemies, and on meeting them immediately attacked and destroyed their advanced guard, consisting of nine thousand men. As the sultan’s force was considerable, he next forded the river of Walian, and fell upon the main body of the Moghools besieging that fort. These also were defeated; and on the approach of night fled, leaving an immense booty in the hands of the sultan and his troops. The sultan then returned to Bazan.
When Chungeez Khan heard of this exploit he was in Talikan, and, to check the sultan’s career, immediately despatched Kykoor Noyaun, with thirty thousand men, to oppose him, and prepared to follow them himself. Kykoor Noyaun with his troops, soon reached Bazan, where Sultan Julal-ud-deen was encamped, and ready to meet him. On their arrival, the armies furiously attacked each other immediately. The battle continued the whole day, and the sultan is said to have conducted himself most gallantly, but at night victory remained doubtful. Kykoor’s army, however, had suffered much from the troops of the sultan, and he found himself obliged to have recourse to stratagem. He, therefore, ordered each of his soldiers to make a figure of a man with wood and numud, or blankets, and place them in array in the rear of his camp, and the next day when the armies were drawn up to renew the fight, the troops of the sultan seeing these figures of men in the rear of the Moghools concluded another army had joined that of Kykoor, and became alarmed, and desirous to retreat. Sultan Julal-ud-deen did all in his power to prevent their retreating and to encourage them, and dismounting from his horse led them on again to meet the Moghools; and as soon as they were aware of the artifice which had been put in practice by them, they charged the Moghools, and gave them so terrible a defeat that none escaped, the two Noyauns and their domestic servants, who rejoined Chungeez Khan, excepted. The spoil taken was immense. On hearing of this disaster, Chungeez Khan immediately marched from Talikan, in Budukshan, to oppose the sultan himself.
In the mean time a quarrel had arisen in the camp of Sultan Julal-ud-deen, between Syfe-ud-deen Aghrak, one of the chief ameers of Khorezm, and Mallik Hazara, about a horse taken among the spoil, and Mullik Hazara struck the head of Syfe-ud-deen’s horse with his whip, but as the sultan did not interfere, Syfe-ud-deen being discontented, at night quitted his camp with thirty thousand men, and retired to the mountains of Sunkran, and the Kubkuli Toorkmans and the Khiljees also deserted his camp. The sultan, therefore, was extremely weakened by these defections when Chungeez Khan advanced to attack him. Chungeez Khan, on his march, was first delayed a month by the resistance of the people of Indurab in Budukshan; and after taking this town he advanced to the fort of Bamian, and in the attack of this place Mamgan or Mamusgan, the son of Chughtaie Khan, a young man greatly beloved by Chungeez Khan, was killed by an arrow from the walls. Chungeez Khan, much afflicted at the death of his grandson, when the fort was taken, ordered the whole of the inhabitants, of all descriptions, man and woman, little and great, to be put to the sword. The fort of Bamian was also destroyed, and Chungeez Khan gave it the name of Mao or Bud Maligh, i. e. ‘the Evil City’, and to this day it has not been re-peopled. This occurred in the year 618, or Eet Eel of the Turks.