Bukhara under Mongols and Temurids
From the very beginning of his conquest
of Central Asia, Chinghiz-khan attached great importance
to the strategic location of Bukhara, as it was situated
on the main road linking the cities of Khorezm —
housing the Khorez-mshah's military forces —
and the blooming oases of Maverannakhr — which
appeared to be the center of war operations. The Khorezmshah
had burdened the population of these regions with
high levies and tax-collectors enforced the tyranny.
The fortifications of urban centers were poorly built
to stand wartime conditions, and provisions were slender.
The central authority had nearly lost control over
its uncoordinated troops due to insufficient communication
between military units. To isolate main regions of
Maverannakhr and prevent the Khorezmshah from sending
reinforcements, Chingiz-khan made his way towards
Bukhara. Main force of the Mongolian army, including
Tuluy, Chingiz-khan's younger son and a talented strategist,
took part in the offensive against Bukhara. Breaking
commonly-held maxims on the best time to begin a spring-summer
campaign, Chingiz-khan came towards Bukhara from Otrar
in January, directly through the steppe (Kyzyl-kum).
The arrival of a large Mongolian army near Bukhara
took Khorezmshah Mukhammad and his military commanders
completely unaware early in February 1220 A.D.
According to modern sources, the garrison of Bukhara
consisted of 12,000 riders. The defenders of the city
knew the uselessness of defending such an enormous
city with a comparatively small army. There was obviously
no hope of the Khorezmshah's support. The local garrison
had fought and broken through the ranks of the Mongols
some days later, but the majority of the warriors
were killed in action when the Mongols pursued them.
Abandoned by the army, the citizens, under leadership
of the clergy and nobility, decided to surrender.
Nevertheless, about 400 defenders from the remainder
of the Turkic garrison defended the citadel of Bukhara
for two more days, displaying examples of great courage,
until they were killed to the last man.
“The Congregational Mosque had been entered
and sacked by Mongols, copies of the Koran were scattered
all over the mosque yard, and chests where these copies
were stored, had been utilized to feed Mongols' horses.
Imams, sheikhs, seyids, ulems and mudjta-khids were
forced to work as grooms in stables. Chingiz-khan
ordered that lists be made of rich men, 280 men (190
citizens and some foreigners who were sheltered in
Bukhara). They were obliged to give the conquerors
all their riches. Some men from among the citizens
were appointed to seek and collect riches throughout
the city”.
Then, consistent with an established Mongolian tradition,
all citizens were exiled and Bukhara underwent cruel
plunder. An awful fire began, so that almost nothing
survived. Plundering of mosques, cruel treatment of
prisoners of war, and public violation of women led
a number of clergymen and nobles to take up arms to
protect their compatriots, but they were swiftly killed.
Amongst the insurgents were famous people like Rukh
ad-Din Imam-zade, a famous Sufi, along with his son,
Kaziy Sadr ad-Din khan; Sadr Madj ad-Din Mas'ud; and
many others. It is a fact that representatives of
the Sufi orders encouraged the people to fierce resistance
more zealously than anybody else.
The Mongols had taken a large number of young Bukharan's
citizens to use them during sieges of Samarkand and
other cities. Craftsmen, young women, and children
were taken into slavery by the Mongolian princes and
warriors. Bukhara had been razed to the ground «as
though it did not exist yesterday», wrote Ibn
al-Asir.
The consequences of this conquest were awful: decrease
of population; thousands of cities and villages destroyed
never to revive; return to slavery from a feudal society;
total destruction of the economy. In terms of territory,
Maverannakhr and Bukhara became part of the Chagatay
ulus (Chagatay was the third of Chingiz-khan's son).
The first ruler of the city was Buka, whom Chingiz-khan
appointed to this position. However, under the High
Khan Ugedey, tax-farmer Makhmud Yalavach Khorezmi
gained absolute power. According to Djuveyni's saying,
the country recovered from the Mongolian devastation
thanks to the beneficial reign of Makhmud Yalavach
and his son Masudbek. Bukhara rose to its heyday,
such that none of the Muslim cities could compete
with it in population, riches, or high level of scientific
development.
There is no doubt that such large-scale development
of Bukhara, recorded in a source dated 1260 (i.e.
40 years after the Mongolian invasion), was actually
a slow, difficult process implemented through merciless
exploitation of urban and rural populations. Bukhara
remained a large trading and economic center and,
from that time, the most important route from West
to East through which a huge flow of looted valuables,
trophies, and slaves were transported. The city's
population increased on account of refugees, people
from ravaged rural locations or destroyed urban centers,
and families of clergy.
Makhmud Yalavach applied great efforts to safeguard
new initiatives in trade and economic activities and
to protect them from subsequent extortion by the Mongolian
army through taxation. On the other hand, the surviving
merchant class, representatives of big and small feudal
aristocracy, and of the clergy vied to be in the Mongol's
service to save their property and certain social
privileges. This resulted in an extremely painful
situation with the majority of the working people
doubly burdened with taxes and requisitions. Craftsmen
in the cities and farmers who paid both land and poll
taxes were in an utterly desperate state. The agricultural
system, resting on extortion, burdened the people
with taxes which were impossible to bear.
The above factors caused the uprising that broke out
in 1238 in several locations of Bukhara, under leadership
of Makhmud Tara-bi. The center of the insurgency was
the village of Tarab, now identified with remains
of Tarab-tepa, an old city situated 22 km west of
Bukhara. (It is also the location of a tomb of a saint6,
and the savana (tomb) of Khodja Tarab, a heroic insurgent,
is in the eastern section of this old city.)
According to data from sources, Makhmud Tarabi was
a craftsmen who manufactured sieves. At the same time,
he was famous as a physician who cured patients through
communication with spirits. Farmers and craftsmen
held their secret meetings discussing their hard life
under the yoke of the Mongols and the local landlords
who served the invaders. In Bukhara, Makhmud Tarabi
won the support of many people. One of these people
was a Sufi theologian of noble origin, Shamsuddin
Makh-bubi. This religious practitioner was famous
throughout the city, particularly for his world-view
which differed sharply from that of the elite clergy.
The uprising supported by all the working people of
Bukhara and its localities, seemed at first to succeed.
The Mongolian troops sent to suppress it were routed
with losses up to 10,000 soldiers. The insurgents,
however, lost two of their leaders in action so that
they lost their next battle. The uprising was suppressed
with cruelty, and it was only the arrival of Makhmud
Yalavach that prevented the razing of Bukhara. Makhmud
Yalavach realized the impossibility of raising any
taxes from a plundered and destroyed city. This seemed
to be the primary reason that Bukhara avoided revenge
from the swords of Chagatay, the most zealous adherent
of a Chingiz-khan's Yassa and the most cruel of his
descendants. Soon, at an urgent request of the Mongolian
High Khan Ugedey, Makhmud Yalavach was replaced with
his son Masud who held this position until his death
in 1289, except for a short interruption.
Makhmud Tarabi's uprising was the first and largest
rebellion of working masses against the Mongolian
conquerors and their vassals by local nobility. This
uprising displayed the people's hatred for the regime's
violence and extortion and served as an impetus to
a number of edicts to guard local population from
unlimited self-will of the Mongolian aristocracy.
Masudbek liked Bukhara very much and built it up gradually
with beautiful buildings, of which one to be noted
is Masudiyo Madrasah. During his rule, another madrasah,
Khaniyo, had been erected in memory of Siyurkuk-teni-biki,
a widow of Chingiz-khan's son Tuluy and mother of
the great Khan Munka (1251-1259), who confessed Christianity.
With about 2,000 students and great libraries , both
madrasas were an adornment to the Registan square.
A mudarris (professor) and mutavilliy of the Khaniyo
Madrasah, Sayf ad-Din Bakharzi, was a famous theologian
and member of the Ku-braviya Sufi fellowship. During
the succeeding decades, particularly in the 1260s
and 1270s, Maverannakhr was to be a scene of claims
of supremacy by different Chingizids. The visit of
Berke-khan to Bukhara in the late fifties was also
part of this progression. Berke-khan was an uncle
of Batiy and inherited the throne after Batiy's death.
He removed the Chaga-taids from ruling Maverannakhr
under agreement with High Khan Munka. He professed
Islam and considered it his duty to protect the Muslims'
interests. He arrived in Bukhara to pay a tribute
of respect to the city's eminent scholars.
According to the data of sources, by that time the
country had nearly recovered from the Mongolian invasion,
some regions had regained their previous status, others
were close to doing so.
By the winter of 1262-1263, however, the first military
conflicts between Khan Berke and Khulagu-khan took
place because of opposing territorial interests in
the Caucasus.9 A Chagatid prince Algu-khan, apparently
having used the retreat of Berke-khan as an excuse,
started the mass expulsion of tax-collectors and other
members of the Djuchi Ulus from Maverannakhr. Five
thousand craftsmen and other dependent people in the
employment of Batiy had been killed, and all their
property, even their wives and children, had been
expropriated.
The city's able-bodied male population numbered 16,000
people, and their families added several times more.
They witnessed the revival of the economic prosperity
of Bukhara. In all probability, a significant portion
of urban population were craftsmen who worked in the
special workshops (korkhana), and citizens engaged
in trades who paid certain taxes to their masters.
The new masters settled scores with people who had
served the Djuchids while the Chigataids were in exile,
as well as with the Djuchids themselves. Representatives
of the top clergy of Bukhara, including Burkhaniddin,
son of the famous Sheikh Sayf ad-Din Bokharzi, suffered
persecution because of their relationship with Berke-khan.
The chronological order of events happening during
this period differs in various primary source. It
seems most likely that the winter of 1262-63 is the
date of Berke-khan's defeat and the expulsion of the
Djuchids from Maverannakhr. The Djuchids' property,
arms, and horses bound for Arik-Buge had been cap-
tured by Algui the Chagatid and distributed to his
army. Algui, apparently, got back his hereditary ulus
(Maverannakhr and Bukhara) in this way and started
active military action on the territory of Semirechye
to save his ulus.
In 1262-64 the Polo brothers visited Bukhara, describing
it as a large and magnificent city. They had to spend
three years here because: «It was impossible
to travel either ahead or back». Probably, the
Polo brothers could not leave Bukhara because of sedition
and military actions going on in the adjacent regions.
The city itself did not suffer from such massacres
for it still flourished.
Finally the brothers Arik-Buka and Khubi-lay, the
sons of Tuluy, arrived at an agreement of reconciliation,
for they were rivals to win the Mongolian throne.
Khubilay became a Great Khan. That is perhaps why
Khulagu-khan sent a delegation to congratulate him.
The Polo brothers left the city together with this
delegation.
After Algu-khan had died (1264) the next Chagatid
khan, Borak, following the tradition of his kinsmen,
continued to struggle against the claimants to Maverannakhr,
that is against Great Khan Khubilay, the Djuchids
(Khaidu) and the Khulaguids' state with its ruler
Abaka-khan, a son of Khulagu. Military actions resulted
in numerous hardships that caused ravage and impoverishment
of Bukhara along with its adjacent localities.
The Mongolian princes worried about their revenue
as it diminished because of the impoverishment of
Maverannakhr. In the kurultai of 1269 they adopted
a resolution that henceforth they would live in the
mountains and steppes; would not stick to the cities;
neither let the cattle go around sown fields nor impose
unnecessary penalties on their subjects.16 They also
agreed about the territorial rights of princes to
raise taxes in Maverannakhr, because the Khaidu-khan
had arrayed his troops between Bukhara and Borak-khan's
military camp in order not to allow the plundering
of the city again.17 One more event of 1269, probably,
preceded Borak's campaign to Kho-rasan,- grain and
cattle were requisitioned from inhabitants of Maverannakhr,
dooming them to starvation. Borak-khan failed in his
campaign on Khorasan in 1270. Defeated and embittered,
the army started to plunder again on its way back.
Nor did Bukhara escape this looting.
In response to the attack on Khorasan, a son of Khulagu-khan
sent an army to Bukhara in 1273 with an ultimatum
to resettle all the people to Khorasan or be ravaged
again.
Bukhara had been seized by the Khulaguids on 22 January
1273. The city had been submerged in chaos —
the most dreadful massacre and plunder that had ever
been seen — worse than what Chingiz-khan had
wrought. Bloodshed lasted the whole week. The magnificent
and well-arranged Masudbek Madrasa was set on fire
and many manuscripts burnt in the madrasa's library.
At last, 10,000 men of the Chagataids under command
of Algu-khan's son came to Bukhara's aid. The Khul-aguid
detachment left the city with an enormous amount of
property. The Chagataids did not reacon on being involved
in the military conflict, rather they arrived at an
agreement with the Khulaguids about sharing booty
and, coming back to Bukhara, completed the plunder
and addded to the murders in the city. As a result
about 50,000 people were killed. The Mongolian military
detachment spread around Bukhara and continued raids
and devastation. Thus, Bukhara and its surrounding
localities were ravaged and devastated so that life
faded away for the succeeding seven years.
In the 1280s, Masudbek made an energetic attempt to
repopulate and renew the city. From 1282-1283 silver
coins were minted here regularly.20 The Masudiyo Madrasa
was reconstructed after the destruction of 1273. Masudbek
himself was buried there in 1289. A vakf document
(realty registration), which dates back to 1 299,
registers the purchase of a village with properly
irrigated lands near Bukhara (about 25 km north),
the founding of one more village, two mosques, and
a number of textile workshops. This is evidence of
slow process in reviving the economic life in Bukhara
and the reestablishing and reinhabiting the localities
around it. The consequences of devastation had an
influence upon the life of the city for several decades
into the early fourteenth century. It had completely
lost its significance as a center of trade, crafts,
and culture.
In the first half of the fourteenth century Bukhara
was still under the Chagatid Ulus. But the action
now shifted to the battles between khans ruling this
territory. Each wanted to establish solid relationships
with traditional agricultural regions of Maverannakhr
on the one hand, and with nomadic military aristocracy
on the other, hoping to continue their nomadic traditions.
Their struggle for power frequently expressed itself
in raids and plun-derings within the multitude of
Maverannakhr's small feudal domains, including Bukhara
and its district — which were under nominal
rule of the Sadrs, representatives of the aristocratic
clergy families.
Mutinous Chagatid prince Yasavur won one of such military
conflicts against Kebek, the Chagatid khan of Maverannakhr;
this occured in 1316, with support of the Khorasan
beks. Yasavur resettled peoples of all the vilayets
(districts) and villages along the Amula River (Amu-Darya)
from Termez to the borderline of Samarkand, destroying
cities and districts formally under Kebek and capturing
their populations — over 50,000 people —
and taking spoils. Bukhara was also invaded.22 Ibn
Batu-ta, a traveller who visited Bukhara in 1333,
wrote: «This city was the capital of the cities
beyond the Djaykhun River, but damned Tatar Chingiz
has destroyed it and turned to ruins all but a few
of its mosques, madrasas, and bazaars».23 The
author also noted: «They have a brand of fruits
named ak-allu (al-alti). They are dried and peoples
bring them to India and China. These fruits are put
into water for drinking. They are sweet while fresh,
whereas when dried, they turn sour with a lot of pulp;
I have never seen anything similar in either Andalusia
or Syria».24 These data are interesting as a
report about the heavy devastation of Bukhara in that
period, and as an evidence of international trade
and a comparatively stable political situation under
khan Tarmashirin. The very fact that Ibn Batuta visited
Bukhara testifies to some stability.
In the fourteenth century vakf documents published
by O.D. Chekhovich, mention is made of the following
situation:
«In the localities of Bukhara in 1326 there»
were many ruins of destroyed castles, mosques, and
dwellings, weed-grown and desolated gardens and vineyards....
All this, apparently, is a trace of dreadful devastation
because of the Mongolian invasion and internal wars
between khans. Moreover, it was in 1316, that Mongols
ruined Bukhara."
The author took note that the vakf document of 1326
reflected also the opposite process: planting gardens,
vineyards, construction of houses, canals and so on.
In the 1320s the monetary reform of Kebekkhan also
took place, with "the majority of production
minted in the mints of Samarkand and Bukhara".
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