#mingburnu

JALAL AL-DIN RAIDING INDIA, 1222-1224

Chinggis Khan and Jalal al-Din Mingburnu, 1222

For all that you can say on Chinggis Khan, he respected acts of courage and daring escapes, having undertaken many of his own in his own difficult youth. After his forces defeated the Khwarezmian army under Jalal al-Din Mingburnu on the Indus River in 1222, Mingburnu rushed his horse off the cliff and into the water. Mongol archers made to pick him off, but Chinggis Khan himself stopped them, according to the Persian chronicler Juvaini (writing about 30 years later).

In the image above, the quote comes from the Russian translation of Juvaini. The more accessible English translation from J.A Boyle is a bit more restrained:

"From excess of astonishment he [Chinggis Khan] put his hand to his mouth and ket saying to his sons, "such a son must a father have!"" (Juvaini/Boyle, i, 134)

To further illustrate the sentiment, Juvaini then cites some verses of the Shahnama:

"When Isfandiyar gazed behind him, he descried him on the dry land on the far side of the stream.

He said: 'call not this being a man-he is a raging elephant endued with pomp and splendour.'

So he spoke, and gazed thitherwards where Rustam went seeking his way." (Juvaini/Boyle, i, 134-135)

Jalal al-Din escapes, and would continue to fight for another ten years (though mainly against other Muslims and the Kingdom of Georgia). Despite his respect for his adversary's deed, when Jalal al-Din's wives and children were captured after the battle, the sons, even those who infants, were killed. Those of his army who also sought to swim the Indus drowned or were sunk by Mongol arrows. Mingburnu's horse survived the jump, and he brought it with him for the rest of its life, treating it with respect and never riding it again.

JALAL AL-DIN IN BATTLE WITH THE MONGOLS AT PARWAN, 1221

After Mongol prince Shigi Qutuqu began to withdraw during the battle of Parwan, Khwarezm-shah Jalal al-Din Mingburnu ordered his men to mount up and pursue. But Shigi Qutuqu pulled them into a feigned retreat, for he quickly had his Mongol army turned about and counterattack Jalal al-Din's advancing troops. This stopped the momentum of Jalal al-Din's army, and according to one of our main sources for the battle, this nearly caused Jalal's army to rout as 500 Khwarezmian troops were slain in quick order. Fortunately for them, Jalal al-Din's personal courage once again turned the tide: in Juvaini's account, Jalal al-Din personally led a new charge which rallied his troops, and caused them to chase the Mongols from the field.

Unfortunately for Jalal al-Din, in victory he found defeat for his resistance. His generals began to fight over the loot from Shigi Qutuqu's army, and despite Jalal al-Din's efforts to rein them in, the effort was fruitless. In short order, Ighraq, commander of the Khalaj and Turkmen in Jalal al-Din's army, abandoned the Khwarezmian cause. At the same time, Chinggis Khan himself was calling back all his forces to bring his full weight against Jalal al-Din's now halved-force. Jalal sought to wtihdrawal through India, but his army was caught and destroyed at the Indus River in November 1221. Though Jalal al-Din escaped (famously riding his horse off a cliff into the Indus River!) and lived to continue to be a nuisance to the Mongols, the defeat at the Indus marked the high point of his resistance to the Mongols.

I talk about Mongol heavy cavalry in the war against Khwarezm in my latest video: