Kush Timur led the forces of Bagdad which were twenty thousand in number. A pigeon was sent to Mozaffar who was prince then in Erbil with an order to attack the Sultan’s rear guard and bar retreat to him. Since Jelal’s forces were small he sent a message to Kush Timur saying that he had not come as an enemy; he desired the good-will of the Kalif whose aid was to him indispensable in that great struggle with the enemy who menaced all Islam. If the Kalif would act and agree with him he, the Sultan, could be the safe-guard of Persia.
Kush Timur’s single answer was to range his men in order of [[150]]battle. Jelal, forced to fight with an enemy greatly superior, put a part of his small army in ambush; he charged thrice after that with a troop of five hundred and fled, as it were, in disorder. The enemy followed, fell into the trap, and were attacked on both flanks with great fury. Kush Timur was cut down in the struggle; his army was broken and then pursued to the gates of the capital.
Jelal after winning this victory captured Dakuka (1225), and sacked it. Next he moved against Takrit, and learning that Mozaffar, the Prince of Erbil, was approaching with an army, and had gone ahead with a small force to surprise and take him, he set out with a handful of heroes and captured Mozaffar, whom he freed afterward on his promise to return to his own lands and stay in them.
Jelal dropped all his plans against Bagdad; Azerbaidjan was the place which now lured him. Marching first to Meraga he fell to clearing away the ruins, but left that task quickly on hearing that Togan Taissi, his uncle on the mother’s side, and also his brother-in-law, was moving from Azerbaidjan to take Hamadan and the neighboring districts, the investiture of which had been given him by the Kalif. Togan had spent the whole winter in Arran and on his journey through Azerbaidjan he pillaged that country a second time.
Jelal arrived about midnight near the camp ground of Togan, around which were gathered vast numbers of sheep, mules, horses, asses, and cattle.
When this Turk general, who thought that the Sultan was then in Dakuka, saw his troops after daybreak, and knew by the regal umbrella that Jelal himself was there with them, he was so disconcerted that he forgot every idea save the single one of winning favor. He sent his wife, Jelal’s sister, to make peace if possible. She made it and Togan thereupon ranged his troops with the Sultan’s and under his banners; after that they returned to Meraga.
Euzbeg, who was ruler in Azerbaidjan, had gone from Tebriz to Gandja the capital of Arran. In spite of the dangers which threatened his country he passed his time drinking, leaving all cares of State to his consort, a daughter of Sultan Togrul, the last Seljuk ruler in Irak. She had remained in Tebriz, and Jelal, who was eager to win that famed city, laid siege to it. After five days of fighting and just as he was ready to storm it, the inhabitants [[151]]asked to surrender. The Sultan reproached them with murdering, a year earlier, certain warriors of his father, and sending their heads to the Mongols. They assured him that not they but their ruler had to answer for that; they had been powerless to stop him.
The Sultan accepted this statement and spared them. They begged him to guarantee Euzbeg’s wife the possession of Khoï, and a few other places. Jelal consented, and sent an escort to convey her to Khoï.
When Jelal had taken Tebriz he stayed for some days in that city. Meanwhile his men seized the neighboring districts. Then he set out on an expedition against Georgia (1226).
Since Euzbeg was neglectful and indolent the Georgians made raids into Arran and Azerbaidjan; they ravaged Erzerum also, and later on Shirvan. They had scourged the Moslems of these regions severely. Eager for vengeance Jelal had no sooner made himself master at the Caspian than he declared war on the Georgians, who sent back this answer: “We have measured our strength with the Mongol, who took all his lands from thy father and destroyed him. He was a man of more courage and power than art thou. Those Mongols who killed him met us, and ended by fleeing.”