[3] Mohammed of Nessa. Nessavi means of Nassa and applies specially to the historian. [↑]
CHAPTER X
CONDITION OF PERSIA IN 1254, WHEN HULAGU CAME TO CONQUER AND TO SLAUGHTER
Sad was the fate of the people in Rūm through disunion, stupidity and thoughtlessness. After Jelal ud din lost his life in the mountains his warriors dispersed and were finished by land tillers, by Kurds, and by Beduins. The Mongols fell straightway to ravaging Amid, Erzerum and Mayafarkin. After a siege of five days they captured Sarad, two days’ journey from Mardin, and east of it, and though the city had surrendered they slaughtered its inhabitants to the number of fifteen thousand, as is stated. Tanza met the same fate as also did Mardin, whose sovereign took refuge in the fortress. The district of Nisibin was changed to a desert, though the city itself was not taken by the Mongols who, entering the country of Sinjar sacked El Khabur and Araban. One division of them took the road to Mosul and hastened to pillage El Munassa, on the road between Mosul and Nisibin. The people of that place and the flat country around it took refuge in a building near the middle of the city where all save desirable women were massacred. A man of that region being hidden in a house looked out through a cranny and saw what was happening and afterward told Ibn al Athir, the historian. “Each time the Mongols slew some one they shouted ‘La illahi.’ This massacre finished, they pillaged the place and departed leading away the women selected. I saw them,” said the hidden man, “rejoicing on horseback. They laughed, sang songs in their language and shouted while mocking the Moslems.”
Another Mongol division marched on Bitlis. Some of the people fled to the mountains, others took refuge in the citadel. The Mongols set fire to the city and burned it. They stormed Balri, a fortified place in the region of Khelat, and slaughtered [[173]]all the inhabitants. The large city of Andjish met a similar destruction.
A third Mongol force now laid siege to Meraga. This city surrendered on condition that the lives of all citizens be respected. The Mongols gave a promise to spare them, but notwithstanding this promise they slew a great number. They sacked Azerbaidjan, passed into Erbil, attacked Kurds and Turkmans, slaying every one whom they could reach with a weapon. They took fire and sword to all places, and committed atrocities without parallel.
Mozaffer, prince of Erbil, assembled his troops with great speed and got aid from Mosul. The Mongols withdrew then and marched on Dakuka. The prince thought it best not to pursue them.
During those two months which followed the death of Jelal ud din and the scattering of his army, the Mongols pillaged all lands between the Euphrates and Tigris; Diarbekr, Khelat and Erbil, without finding a single armed warrior to oppose them. The princes of those petty states hid away carefully, and the people were stupefied so great was the terror which had seized upon mankind. Deeds were done in that period which beggar belief. For example a lone Mongol horseman rode into a populous village and fell to cutting down people; no man had the courage to defend himself.
Another time a Mongol without weapons wished to hew off the head of a prisoner whom he had taken; he commanded the man to lie down and wait for him. The Mongol went off for a sabre, came back and killed the unfortunate, who was waiting obediently. Still a new tale from a third man: “I was on the road with seventeen comrades when a Mongol on horseback rode up to us, and commanded that each man tie the hands of another. My comrades thought it best to obey. ‘This man,’ said I to them, ‘is alone, let us kill him.’ ‘We are too much afraid,’ said they. ‘But he will kill us. Let us kill him, God may then save us.’ No man of them had the courage to do this. I killed him then with a knife thrust, and we fled and in that manner saved ourselves from other Mongols.” These cases are but three out of thousands.