Their subjects who preferred a sedentary existence, so long as they were obedient and orderly, were left in tranquil occupation of their homes, and were even encouraged by their nomad lords to repair the damage suffered by their cities in war. Ruin doubtless fell on many great centres of population, such as Herāt;[387] but in Persia and Transoxiana there was no systematic obliteration of organised society,[388] no reversion to the nomadic level. The case in Mongolia and Kāshgharia was different. Less than a century prior to the rise of the Mongols these countries had been occupied by the Uīghūrs, who were a race which had attained a certain degree of development, and evinced it by preferring a settled existence in towns. Their successors, the Kara-Khitāy, though less civilised, seem also to have affected urban life. In these countries, however, during the Chaghatāy period, no new towns sprang up, while those already in being fell into a state of ruin.
“Amidst the terrible ravages committed by the Mongolians,” writes Vambéry,[389] “the science of theology and its votaries alone continued to flourish. In the days of the earlier Chaghatāy Khāns the mullās of Turkestān had enjoyed a certain amount of protection, thanks partly to the principle of religious toleration, and partly to the superstitious awe in which every class of the priesthood was held; and in almost every town there was some one or other holy man to whom the Moslems had recourse in the day of peril. The spiritual teachers thus became at the same time secular protectors, and from this time forward we find the Sadr-i-sharī`at (heads of the religious bodies) and chief magistrates, and in general all men of remarkable piety, attaining an influence in the towns of Transoxiana unknown in the rest of Islām; an influence which maintains itself to this day, though the land has been for centuries governed by Musulman princes. The seats of spiritual authority were filled by regular dynasties of learned men of certain families, as though they had been thrones.”
It appears that about the year A.H. 721 (1321) a final division of the Chaghatāy Khānate took place. The two branches established were the Khāns of Transoxiana and those of Jatah, or Moghūlistan;[390] but each had other provinces in its possession. As for the history of the western branch, it is only necessary to mention that during the fifty years of their rule, which continued until Tīmūr made himself master of the country, we find no less than fifteen Khāns recorded—some of them strangers in blood to the Chaghatāy line—and long periods of anarchy.[391]
Leaving, then, this confused chapter of Central Asian history, we will pass to the rise of the mightiest of her conquerors.
CHAPTER XXIV
Tīmūr, the Great Amīr
In the year A.H. 733 Kazān Khān[392] mounted the throne of the western Chaghatāy family. He is described by his contemporaries as a cruel and tyrannical villain, who inspired so general a terror that when his nobles were summoned to a Kurultāy, or general assembly, they made their wills before leaving their homes.[393] To such a pitch did the dissatisfaction of his nobles rise, that in the year A.H. 746 (1345) they banded together under the leadership of a certain Amīr Kazghan, and broke into open revolt. The Khān at once set out with his troops to crush them. In the first encounter[394] he gained the upper hand, and Amīr Kazghan lost an eye from an arrow shot by the Khān himself. The conqueror thereupon retired to Karshī; but, owing to the severity of the winter, most of his horses and transport cattle perished. Amīr Kazghan, hearing of the Khān’s misfortunes, took courage and, in the following year, A.H. 747 (1346), attacked Karshī. The fortune of war on this occasion veered towards his side. He defeated and slew the tyrant, becoming thus master of Transoxiana and Turkestān. He next assumed the rôle of king-maker, and placed on the throne one of the descendants of Ogdāy,[395] named Dānishmandja,[396] whom, however, he put to death two years later, setting up in his place Bayān Kulī, a Chaghatāy by descent, A.H. 749 (1348). For ten years this prince sat upon the throne of the Chaghatāy Khāns, but he governed in name only, for all the affairs of the state were directed by the skilful hand of Amīr Kazghan, who made himself loved and respected by his prudence and equity.
In A.H. 759 (1357) this worthy chief was murdered while hunting in the vicinity of Kunduz, to the deep regret of the people.
His son `Abdullah was universally recognised as the successor to Amīr Kazghan’s peculiar office of Prime Minister. The residence of the Khāns—in fact the capital of the western branch of Chaghatāys—had lately been Sālī Sarāy, but was transferred to Samarkand, owing, we are told, to `Abdullah’s great love for that town. Thither he carried his puppet, Bayān Kulī; but, falling in love with the Khān’s wife, he put the ill-starred husband to death, and set up in his stead Tīmūr Shāh Oghlān, A.H. 759 (1357). The nobles were deeply incensed at this arbitrary and cruel deed, and, with the intent of avenging their prince’s death, one of their number, named Bayān Seldūz, raised an army and marched on Samarkand. On his way thither he was joined by Hāji Birlās[397] in Kesh,[398] and the united forces administered a crushing defeat to `Abdullah, who fled across the Oxus to Andarāb, where he remained in obscurity till his death. The family and partisans of Amīr Kazghan were now scattered far and wide, and the government of Transoxiana passed into the hands of Bayān Seldūz[399] and Hāji Birlās. The former, however, was a hopeless drunkard, and utterly unfit to rule in times so charged with storm. The western Chaghatāy states were parcelled out among a host of prominent nobles, whose rivalries plunged the country into the throes of civil war; and the town of Kesh, with its immediate dependencies, was all that Hāji Birlās could call his own.
At this period the chief of Jatah, or Moghūlistan, was Tūghluk Tīmūr Khān.[400] Perceiving the state of disruption into which the kingdom of Transoxiana had lapsed, he resolved to take up the fallen sceptre. Gathering round him a large army, he set out from Kāshghar for the Khojend River, A.H. 761 (1360). After crossing it he was joined by Amīr Bāyazīd Jalā´ir, and they proceeded together in the direction of Shahr-i-Sabz. Hāji Birlās, hearing of the Khān’s approach, attempted to organise resistance; but, at the last moment, he deemed discretion the better part of valour, and fled towards Khorāsān ere the two armies had come into conflict.