Jelal hurried on alone now, and made his way into the mountains. There
he was captured by Kurds, whose work was to strip every wayfarer and
slay him. They stripped the Sultan at once and were going to kill him
when he told their chief secretly who he was, asking the man to conduct
him to the Erbil prince, Mozaffer, who would load him with benefits for
doing so; if not to conduct him to some place in the Sultan’s own
kingdom. The Kurd chose the latter and taking with him to his own
habitation the Sultan, whom he left in the care of his wife, he went
out to find horses. Meanwhile another Kurd came in, and inquired of the
woman who the Kwaresmian was, and why they had not killed him. She
replied that he was under her husband’s protection, and added, that he
was the Kwaresmian Sultan. “How know that he is telling you the truth?”
asked the Kurd. “But if he is the Sultan, he killed at the siege of
Khelat my own brother, a far better man than he is.” With that he
sprang at Jelal ud din, pierced him with his javelin, and killed him.
Aug. 15, 1231.
With Jelal ud din perished the Kwaresmian dynasty.
“Jelal ud din,” says Mohammed of Nessa, “was of medium stature. He had
a Turk face, his complexion was very dark, for his mother was from
India. He was brave to excess, calm, grave and silent, never laughing
except at the points of his lips. He spoke Turkish and Persian.” Jelal
ud din was no statesman, he had neither foresight nor wisdom; attached
to his whims he reconciled no man. Music and wine gave him most of his
pleasure. He always went to bed drunk, even at times when the Mongols
were hunting him like bloodhounds. He did not retain the affection of
his warriors, who receiving no pay had to live on the country and ruin
it. Reckless conduct estranged from him those who might have upheld
him. A wise and strong leader could have raised up and directed a
resistance which would have stopped Hulagu in his conquests. What might
have come afterwards is of course a new problem.
Soon after the death of this Sultan, Prince Mozaffer sent men to
collect his effects. They found his horse, saddle and sabre. These,
being shown to his generals, were recognized. Mozaffer then had his
corpse brought and put in a mausoleum.
In after years report ran that Jelal had been seen in various places of
Iran. A man at Ispidar gave himself out as the Sultan. The Mongol
commanders called in men who had seen Jelal ud din. The imposter was
discovered and put to death promptly. Twenty-two years after this death
of the Sultan a poor man dressed as a fakir while crossing the Oxus
spoke to the boatmen as follows: “I am Jelal ud din the Kwaresmian Shah
reported as killed by the Kurds in the mountains of Amid. It was not I
who was killed then, but my equerry. I have wandered about many years
without letting men know me.” Taken by the boatmen to an officer of the
Mongols close to that river he was tortured, but insisted till death
that he was Jelal ud din the Kwaresmian Sultan.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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