When the people had assembled on the feast day Jelal came to the prayer and caused great rejoicing. Fearing lest he might be besieged in the city he had not returned to it when the battle was over, but had waited on the Luristan side till the enemy had vanished. The Sultan now stayed some days waiting for fugitives and rewarding chiefs of the right wing by giving the title of khan to those who were meliks. He gave high rank also to simple warriors who had deserved fame for their action in the battle. Certain cowardly generals were led through the city with veils on their faces in the manner of women.
Ghiath ud din, Jelal’s brother, had retired to the mountains and was striving to win back dominion through assistance from the Kalif. Hatred between the two brothers had been intensified by murder. Mohammed, son of Karmil, of a family illustrious in Gur, was in very high favor with Jelal who, charmed with his [[157]]manners and speech, had admitted that youth to his intimate reunions. Some days before the late battle Mohammed had taken a few men to his service from the corps under Ghiath. These men had left Jelal’s brother since no pay had been given them. One evening when Ghiath and Mohammed were at a feast given by Jelal, Ghiath asked Mohammed if he would send back his guardsmen. “They desire food,” was the answer, “and serve him who will give it.” Ghiath was roused by this statement, and the Sultan, who noted his anger, asked Mohammed to withdraw from the table. The young man obeyed, but a few moments later Ghiath went out also, entered the man’s dwelling and stabbed him. Mohammed died some days later. The Sultan grieved greatly for his favorite, and sent this message to Ghiath: “Thou hast sworn to be a friend to every friend of mine, and an enemy of my enemies, but thou hast killed my best friend without reason. Thou hast broken thy oath and agreement. I am bound to thee no longer. I will let the law do its work, if the brother of thy victim comes to me begging for justice.”
The Sultan commanded that the funeral procession move twice past the gate of the assassin. Tortured by this public punishment Ghiath took vengeance on the day of the battle by deserting. From his Kuzistan place of retirement he sent his vizir to Bagdad to declare that he had gone from his brother. He then proffered proofs that his reign had been friendly to the Kalif, while Jelal had acted with enmity, and had brought fire and sword to the suburbs of Bagdad. He begged aid of the Kalif in recovering his dominions, and promised true obedience to the heir of the Prophet.
The vizir was received with distinction, and a subsidy of thirty thousand dinars was then given him, but after the retreat of the Mongols Ghiath did not think himself safe from his brother. Jelal sent a corps of mounted warriors to follow the Mongols to the Oxus, and hurried himself to Tebriz for a season. He was playing ball with a mallet on the square of the city when he heard that his brother was returning to Ispahan. He set out at once for that city, but learning on the road that Ghiath was on his way to the land of the Assassins he changed his route quickly to follow, and ask the Alamut chief to surrender the fugitive. “Your brother,” said the chief, “is here in asylum; he is a Sultan himself [[158]]and his father was a Sultan,—we cannot surrender him, but he will not take your dominions, we guarantee that. Should he commit any act of hostility you are free to treat us as may please you.”
This statement seemed satisfactory to Jelal, and an oath added strength to it. Jelal on his part swore to give the past to oblivion, and the question was ended. But Ghiath himself went from Alamut to seek refuge in Kerman. Some days after his arrival Borak showed a wish to marry Ghiath’s mother, Beglu Aï, who had come with him. They were both in Borak’s power and resistance would have been futile. Still the princess yielded only after much resistance. Conducted to Kevashir the capital of Kerman, the mother and son had hardly arrived when two relatives of Borak proposed to assassinate that governor and install Ghiath. Ghiath rejected the offer, but Borak, hearing that his relatives had made it, tortured the two men so cruelly that they confessed to him. They were then cut to pieces in the presence of Ghiath who, confined straightway in the citadel, was strangled with a bowstring. His mother, who had rushed in at his cries, met her death in the same way. The five hundred followers who had come with him were cut down every man of them.
Borak sent the head of his victim to Ogotai Khan who received it with gladness. This gift secured Mongol friendship and Borak was confirmed in his Kerman possessions.
The Kankali Turks and the Kipchaks had been closely connected with the reigning Kwaresmian family by marriages; because of this fact, Jinghis Khan had attacked both those peoples inflexibly, and Jelal now sought their friendship with growing endeavor. After his Ispahan failure the Sultan sent to get men and aid from the Kankalis. They agreed, as it seems, with much readiness to give them. Kur Khan, one of their leaders, embarked with three hundred men on the Caspian and passed the next winter with the Sultan on the plain of Mughan, a rich pasture land in that season. It was decided that Jelal was to gain the strong fort at Derbend with its one narrow pass and retain it. By this pass alone could large armies go south of the Caucasus from Kipchak. A force of fifty thousand from the north was to aid in securing this road near the sea, while Jelal was to give the prince ruling Derbend other fiefs in payment for it. The plan failed, however. Jelal secured [[159]]now the district Gushtasfi between the rivers Kur (Cyrus) and Araxes. This land was a part of the Shirvan Shah’s kingdom, and he had given it to his son Jelal ud din Sultan Shah and sent him to Georgia to marry the daughter of Rusudan, the famous and beautiful queen of that country. Detained there perforce he was freed when Jelal took Tiflis and laid waste the country.
Jelal claimed tribute now from the Shirvan Shah for all his possessions. This was done, since Jalal’s house had succeeded the Seljuks, to whom when in power those Shirvan Shahs had paid tribute.
The unquiet ambition of Jelal had forced many people of the Caucasus to a league with the Georgians against him. An army made up from nine nations and forty thousand in number had gathered north of Arran. The Sultan marched against this army and pitched his camp at Mendur. Since his forces were greatly inferior in number to those of the enemy, Sherif ul Mulk, his vizir, advised at a council to limit all action to stopping provisions and meeting the enemy with advantage when want came. This advice enraged Jelal so seriously that he struck his vizir on the head with a writing case. “They are mere sheep; would a lion be troubled by the number of such weak little animals?” cried he, and he fined the vizir fifty thousand dinars for daring to offer such counsel.
Next day the armies were facing each other. The Sultan, to encourage his men, gave them presents, and shared with some his best horses. From the top of a hill he saw two tumans of Kipchaks who had come to give aid to the Georgians. By an officer he sent bread and salt to those Kipchaks and told them that he had saved the lives of many of their people taken captive by his father. “Will you now raise the sword to repay me with bloodshed?” asked he.