of Sudaq, where an immense quantity of merchandise, garments, and costly furs of marten, beaver, and squirrel was stockpiled. The Kipchaks thereupon sought refuge in the lands of the Rus, who were Christians, and agreed with them to fight the Tatars (1). Yet when the two sides met, the Tatars dealt them an exceedingly brutal defeat (2).

The invaders then marched toward Bulghar (3) around the year 620 AH; when they had finished laying all of it waste, they returned (4) to their king, Chinggis Khan—may Allah curse him and them. Such were the deeds of that western raiding party.

In the same year Chinggis Khan had sent one detachment to Termez, which it captured (5), and another to Farghana, which it likewise subdued. He then equipped yet another army for Khurasan: they besieged Balkh, whose inhabitants made terms, as did many other towns. When they reached Talaqan (6), however, its fortress proved impregnable. They blockaded it for six months without success, whereupon they wrote to Chinggis Khan. He came in person, laid siege for another four months, finally stormed it by force, and slaughtered every soul inside—high and low alike (7).

Next they advanced on Marw with Chinggis Khan himself (8), who had encamped outside the city with nearly two hundred thousand fighting men—Arabs and others. A ferocious battle ensued (9) until the Muslims were broken—inna lillahi wa-inna ilayhi rajiʿun. The Tatars then invested the city for five days, enticed its deputy governor out by deceit, and treacherously killed him along with the townsfolk, plundering their property, seizing them as captives (10), and subjecting them to every sort of torture (11),

so that in a single day (12) they slew seven hundred thousand human beings. They then marched on Nishapur and treated it as they had treated Marw (13). From there they proceeded to Tus, where they massacred the inhabitants and destroyed the shrine of ʿAli ibn Musa al-Rida (14).