The Punishment of Virtue (50 page)

16.
Ibid., p. 120.

17.
Ibid., p. 116.

18.
Juzjani, p. 270.

19.
Ibid., p. 385.

20.
Ibid., p. 279, has him “prostrated with a disease of the bowels,” which “drove him out of his mind.”

21.
Juvaini, p. 376.

22.
This is just what Giovanni di Plano Carpini advised western Europeans to do twenty-five years later, should the Mongols renew their attack: “If the Christians wish to save themselves, their country and Christianity, they must gather in one body the kings, princes, barons, and rectors of the lands and send the men to fight the Tartars under a single plan,” p. 89. In making his argument, according to Juvayni, Prince Jalal ad-Din invoked a rather modern notion of governance. He did not want the people to say that their rulers exacted tax and tribute, “yet in time of need, place us in the jaws of disappointment.,” p. 377.

23.
The article “Ghurids” in the
Encyclopedia of Islam
by C. E. Bosworth says there is nothing to confirm this surmise. There seems to be nothing to contradict it either.

24.
This fellow goes by different names in the various sources: Khan Malik, Amin Malik, Yamin Malik, Yamin al-Mulk, and so on. I have chosen to use Khan Malik because it is closest to what the Mongols called him, which has credence because they would probably have been writing down what they heard phonetically.

25.
Juvaini, p. 461.

26.
Ibid., p. 462. Cf. Muhammad ibn Ahmad an-Nasawi,
History of Djalal el-Din Mankobirti, Shah of Khwarazm,
Havez Hamdi, ed. (Cairo: Dar el-Fikr el-Arabi, 1953), pp. 133–34. In French translation: Mohamad en-Nesawi,
Histoire du Sultan Djelal ed-Din Mankobirti, Prince du Kharezm,
O. Houdas, trans. (Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1895), p. 109. Nasawi has Jalal ad-Din and Khan Malik entering Ghazni from this victory at Kandahar together and triumphant. The people of Ghazni, he says, were every bit as thrilled to see the two princes as hungry Muslims are to see the moon that marks the end of Ramadan.

27.
Nasawi, Hamdi, ed., pp. 133–34. For the record, here is the complete translation of the incident. I have tried to preserve the Arabic literary style: Genghis Khan was trying to cut Jalal ad-Din off on his way back from his father's burial, “so Jalal ad-Din got serious about fleeing to the outer limits of Bost [near the current Helmand Province capital, Lashkar Gah, about a three-hour drive west across the desert from Kandahar]. He was apprised that Genghis Khan had set himself up in Taloqan [north of Kabul] with a densely gathered troop, soldiers uncountable. And the light of day was darkened for Jalal ad-Din. Both fixedness and flight seemed hard for him, for there was no refuge in store, no security either behind him or in front of him, and his perils persisted. So to Ghazni he embarked, as suddenly as a man who will not remain in place, or who does not tread the earth with sedentary intentions. On his second or third day, he received news that his cousin Amin Malik [aka Khan Malik]…had left Herat to get away from the Tatars, and had conceived designs on the province of Sistan [Zaranj], to become its governor. But he was not able to, and he was now returning with roughly 10,000 Turkic horsemen, brave youths like lion cubs, lethal. These were select troops from the Sultan's armies who had escaped the [Mongol] catastrophe with abundant equipment and quantities of provisions. Jalal ad-Din sent word to [his cousin] of his proximity, pressing him to be quick and come. The two joined together, and decided to attack the Tatars who were besieging the fortress of Kandahar. And the two pounced on the Tatars. And the Enemies of God were downcast; they did not know how the princes had laid in wait for them, and how the troops of horsemen had closed in on them from all sides. They had figured that the doe-gazelles would run away from them, unable to stand it, that the business ends of their spears would be idle and ineffectual. Until, when they saw [the lance-points] thirsting to slaughter them, parched for [the blood of] their chests, they mounted the withers of flight. And none of them escaped except an insignificant band, which informed Genghis Khan of what had befallen his soldiers.

28.
Ibid., p. 405.

29.
An-Nesawi, p. 108.

30.
Juzjani, p. 1016.

31.
The Secret History,
p. 257. The text was probably written in 1228, just after Genghis Khan's death, with some later additions. See de Rachewiltz, p. xxxiii. Some believe that this same Shigi Qutuqu is the fellow who wrote
The Secret History,
which would explain with special poignancy its lack of detail here.

32.
It was a tactic documented by di Plano Carpini: “When the Tartars are few in numbers they use…dummy men…so that they may seem more numerous to their adversaries [who] are frightened and confused by this,” pp. 75–76. Note that guile has been traditionally seen as just as important to a soldier's craft as bravery and brute force. See Shay,
Odysseus.

33.
For this whole account, see Juvaini, pp. 406–7.

34.
Ibid., pp. 407–8. Nasawi's telling is vivid, and it betrays his Ghurid sensibilities: “And the reason [for this separation],” he writes, “was that, after they shattered the Mongols at Parwan, the Turks started shoving [the Ghurids] around regarding what God had showered down on them in the way of booty, in a blameworthy fashion. To the point that, when one of the Turks wrenched a horse from among the Tatars' livestock away from a loyalist of Ighraq's, and the dispute between the two of them grew long, the Turk hit him with a riding whip. And [Ighraq's men's] souls recoiled at this, and their hearts drew back from it. And the arrogant idea of separating [from the army] flew into their heads, when they saw that they could not get a fair division. For, whenever Jalal ad-Din tried to satisfy [Ighraq's men], the Turks would increase in evil and in zealous partisanship, with calamitous deeds…. And when Jalal ad-Din was trying with kindness to bring [Ighraq's people] back, and, with leisurely and friendly words to bind them to rejoin, the Turks would bolt away. And it was God's command: [Ighraq's people] separated from the army,” pp. 155–56. Note the demonstration of both the
yaghestan
tendency and the tradition of long, drawn-out negotiations to try to thwart it.

35.
Homer,
The Iliad,
I:1–9. I have taken from both the Fagles and Fitzgerald translations.

36.
Jonathan Shay,
Achilles in Vietnam, Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character
(New York: Scribner, 1994), pp. 13–14.

37.
Juvaini, p. 408.

38.
Ibid., pp. 410–11.

39.
The Secret History of the Mongols,
264.

40.
Jean Aubin, “L'ethnogenese des Qaraunas,”
Turcica I (1969),
p. 69. My translation from the French.

41.
His name was Temur, and he was lamed by an arrow wound in Zaranj. “Leng” means “lame” in Persian, whence the Western “Tamerlane.”

42.
In the Mongol belief system, rivers were almost sacred, for like mothers, they gave their milk to the land, providing life. In this context, anything that cut up the land, or worse, that interrupted the integrity of rivers, was taboo. So destroying irrigation systems was, for the Mongols, repairing the river and the land by restoring it to its natural condition. (From a private communication with anthropologist Jack Wetherford.)

CHAPTER 23: FIGHTING WITH THE PEN

1.
April Witt, “Afghan Governor Strains to Shed Warlord Image. Gul Agha's Rule in Kandahar Dismays Some in Kabul,”
Washington Post,
April 15, 2003, p. A22.

2.
See Dana Priest, “The Proconsuls: America's Soldier Diplomats: A Four-Star Foreign Policy?” September 28, 2000, p.A1; “An Engagement in 10 Time Zones,” September 29, 2000, p. A1; “Standing up to State and Congress,” September 30, 2000, p. A1.

CHAPTER 24: MISFIRE

1.
April Witt, “Karzai Gets Agreement from Local Leaders,”
Washington Post,
May 21, 2003.

2.
Carlotta Gall, “Warlords Yield to Afghan Leader, Pledging to Hand Over Funds,”
New York Times,
May 21, 2003.

3.
Witt.

CHAPTER 25: ROUND THREE

1.
Sarah Chayes, “Afghanistan's Future, Lost in the Shuffle,”
New York Times,
July 1, 2003.

CHAPTER 28: MAZAR-I-SHERIF

1. A
hmad Rashid, “Mazar-e-Sharif 1997: Massacre in the North,” in
Taliban
(New Haven: Yale, 2000), pp. 72–74.

CHAPTER 32: COVER-UP

1.
Marcello Fois,
Sempre Caro,
Serge Quadruppani, French trans. (Paris: Seuil,1999), p. 85.