prisoners, whom they then mutilated—cutting off their limbs one by one. Each time a victim cried out, they roared with laughter—may Allah grant us safety. Truly, every sort of beast with the vilest temperament had been gathered among them.

Ibn Wāṣil (1) said: “I counted the dead in Merv; they were seven hundred thousand.”

In the year 618 AH, Khwarazm-Shah met Tului ibn Genghis Khan in battle. The Tatars were routed and Tului was slain. When the news reached his father, he went mad with fury, donned his armor, and advanced at full speed. Khwarazm-Shah confronted him in Shawwal of that same year, charged the very heart of Genghis Khan’s host, and tore it apart. The enemy would have been completely routed had an ambush not fallen upon the Muslims, breaking their ranks. They captured Jalal al-Din’s son, and he himself retreated to the Indus. There his womenfolk drowned, and he escaped with some four thousand men—barefoot and destitute—hiding in the mountains and reeds and living by plunder.

A king of India attacked him, but Jalal al-Din loosed an arrow that pierced the king’s heart. The monarch fell, his army scattered, and Jalal al-Din seized the spoils and survived. He made for Sistan, where he had stored up treasure, and spent it on his troops.

Ibn Wāṣil (2) adds: “Jalal al-Din engaged them at Kabul and defeated them, but half his army deserted after a fitna arose. Genghis Khan then surprised him. Bewildered, Jalal al-Din headed for the Indus but found no boats large enough. Genghis pressed him hard, and they fought for three days, thousands falling on both sides. At last boats arrived and they crossed, while the Tatars descended upon Ghazna and sacked it.”

I remark: All this was unfolding while the armies of Egypt and Syria were locked in a standoff with the Franks at Damietta; the matter was grave indeed.

Then came the year 619 AH, and the kings of India banded together against Jalal al-Din because of the harm he had caused them.