Ogdāy and Chaghatāy were to reduce Otrār; Jūjī Khān was despatched in the direction of Jand; while two of his generals, with 5000 men, were sent to attack Fināket and Khojend. With the remainder of his forces Chingiz himself, accompanied by his son Tūlī, set out for Bokhārā,[374] and arrived at that capital in A.H. 616 (1219), having carried all before him on his march. No sooner had he appeared than the garrison, 20,000 strong, fled towards Khwārazm, but were overtaken on the banks of the Oxus and cut to pieces by the Mongols sent in their pursuit. Meanwhile the shaykhs and mullās of Bokhārā sallied forth and presented the keys of the town to Chingiz Khān, who made a formal entry, penetrated the courtyard of the principal mosque on horseback, and asked whether this fine building was Sultan Mohammad’s palace. On being told that it was God’s house he dismounted, and, ascending the pulpit, hurled the Koran beneath his horse’s feet. He next insisted that the inhabitants should deliver up their hidden treasures. Here his destroying hand would have been stayed had he not learnt that some remnants of Sultan Mohammad’s garrison were still in hiding. In order to compass their death he ordered the city, which was mainly built of wood, to be given to the flames. His behests were obeyed, and Bokhārā for a time ceased to exist. Chingiz, however, caused it to be rebuilt.[375]
Meanwhile success had attended all his other army corps; and Otrār, Jand, and Khojend, together with many other towns, submitted to the Mongols. The sons and generals of Chingiz now joined the main body, and their united forces together marched on Samarkand. Before the end of the year A.H. 616 (1219) this great city, after a three days’ siege, fell. The garrison was put to the sword, and Samarkand was given over to reckless pillage.
It is not necessary here to record the story of the Mongol’s progress of conquest. Khwārazm soon succumbed, and Khorāsān was overrun by his hordes. The Sultan himself took no active part in the hopeless effort to stay the advance of Chingiz, but fled across Khorāsān[376] to an island in the Caspian named Ābasgūn, not far from the modern Astarābād, where in A.H. 617 (1220) he died in utter destitution.[377] A manful struggle to revive the glory of his house was made by Sultan Mohammad’s heroic son Jalāl ud-Dīn, whose career forms one of the most exciting narratives in history.[378] This last representative of the Khwārazm Shāhs, after having boldly faced death on a hundred battlefields, was brutally murdered in A.H. 628 (1231) by a low-born Kurd.