Chapter 25. Gazi-Baradj becomes Bulgar’s Emir again (1236-1242 AD)

Hearing the shouts of the Tatars, I rose with an effort and stepped out from the yurt. At that time 10 thousand Bulyars, who escaped the slaughter, were lead from the citadel to the field. Guük demanded to slay everybody, but I, with the help of Mankay and Subyatay, shielded the peaceful ones. After that one thousand fighters in armour were separated from the spared and they prepared to slay them. I accidentally noticed among them Gali, who intentionally turned away his face from me. In his arms, he held his grandson, who braced him with horror. Not remembering myself, pointing to seid, I cried fiercely to the khans: “He cannot be executed, he is the Supreme Kakhin of the Bulgars. His death will bring misfortune to Menkhols”.

Batu, out of the superstitious fear, and Mankay and Subyatay, out of the kind benevolence to me, supported me, and Guük, shocked by my scream, agreed to spare the seid. My djura began pulling Gali by force from the terrible place, but he kept turning around toward the doomed and tried to cheer them with a pray. However from his lips were coming only illegible words, which soon merged with the terrible screams of the townspeople, on whose eyes the Tatars began to slash the last Bulyarian bakhadirs. And they looked to me as giants, and for a long time I saw them at nights, and I did not meet fighters equal to them in bravery.

Barely standing, I went with Subyatay to Nur-Suvar, and in the Нукрат we met with Yaldau and Khisam who rode to meet us. Guük insisted on destroying the Nur-Suvar for the death of the Türkmen Khan Kush-Birde. And that Khan chased after Bachman, but near the Kermek was stopped and killed by Kul-Burat, the young son of Gazan. However, Subyatay, seeing my desire to prevent big bloodshed, suggested to the khans to punish only the Kermek itself, and went there. His opinion turned out to be decisive, and everybody followed him.

I swayed Kul-Burat to go out with everybody with confession, and he surmised to save himself and his people with a lie that Kush-Birde drowned in a bog himself. And the killed Khan was really drowned in a bog. They began to search for him, but, fortunately for the bakhadir, pulled only a Kush-Birde’s boot, and have believed the bakhadir. I told Batu, that most likely someone urinated into the bog, and by that attracted Su-Anasy who craved for lust. She seized the unfortunate khan, and carried him into the abyss. They began to search for the perpetrator, and really found one who urinated into the water. He was immediately drowned in retaliation for the death of Kush-Birde.

Kermek, however, was given to Türkmens to destroy. After the death of the Khan they came to such a fury that, breaking into the Bulyar’s echke-kalyu, they hacked Altynbek into pieces. And at that time I lost the count of days, and As-Azim estimated himself that Bulyar fell on November 5, 1236, by the Uruses’ calendar.

Badri, meanwhile, met in the Razi-Suba a new “Baba” embassy. Ablas-Khin let one ambassador, at his request, to the Bandja, but Boyan intercepted and executed him. The two other ambassadors, who were breaking through to me with the answer from “Baba”, reached the Nur-Suvar. I kept them by me.

Ishtyak, Kul-Burat, Badri and Tetesh raised me in the Nur-Suvar citadel Baryntu (“Burunda” in the Menkholian language) to the Emir throne, and therefore the Tatars began to call me Burunda. Certainly many people were disappointed that I began to be titled only the Emir, but I could not do it differently, for I left the title of the Emir per the agreement with Ugyatay. I had to concede to Kypchak and to the Great Khan the Tubdjak and Saksin, as a payment for the death of 20 thousand Tatars and 55 thousand Türkmen, Kashans and Kypchaks during the capture of the Bulyar. I hastened to remove the Tatars beyond the limits of the State, promising them, as the allies of the Menhols, to help with the provision and soldiers for the taking of the Rus. Only Mankay and with him, 50 thousand Tatars and others remained to besiege the unyielding Mardan.

As the Tatars forbade anything associated with the Menkhol’s enemies, I had to rename the kursybays into cossacks, as the Hons called the most daring bakhadirs. Gali, despite of my persuasions, refused to become the seid, and as a sign of protest against the destruction of the Bulyar, he departed into voluntary confinement in the Alabuga. I proclaimed Kylych the seid, and he immediately also took the head of the “El-Khum”.

Mankay besieged Bandja for a whole year, trying to achieve peace surrender of this huge and blossoming city. The fact was that I, feeling for the people, in a case of a peaceful outcome, agreed to transfer the Bandja to Batu, to set up here the capital of his ulus, the Kypchak. However, the Arbugais were defending to death, most of all in the world value their ancient freedom. During one sortie of the besieged was seized Bachman himself with his son. Bachman was executed by Mankay, but I managed to extort from the kind Khan the son of the Tarkhan, and left him with me under the name of Naryk.

Ablas-Khin went to Mardan also and expelled Boyan-Mohammed from the Burtas. He was forced to come to me with a confession, and received the Kazan from me, for I transferred Khisam to the Bolgar. I transferred Baytüba, renamed Cheremshan, to the son of Yaldau, who was sitting in the Djuketau and therefore was nicknamed Tukhchi-Ismail. The Tatars called Djuketau “Djiku”, therefore Ismail was also called Djiku by them. In his possession also were the vicinities of the Bulyar, where the escaped Bulyarians erected a new city of Tatyk.

Altynchach, who have headed the Bandjians after the death of Bachman, was married to Burtas-Bagish, the son of Badri. This Bek fell at defending the fortress Baradj, from which he lead out all the inhabitants.

Therefore, when Badri came to the Bandja and offered his daughter-in-law to evacuate from the city of all the owners a conclusion, she agreed and let out beyond the walls up to eight thousand of the suvarchis with their families. After that the Tatars stormed the city, driving in front of themselves a crowd of the Ars and Serbiyans. The last defenders of the Bandja, igniting the city, gathered in the “Saban” mosque and, after Tatars’ unsuccessful attempts to take it, were, in turn, burned there.

Altynchach, however, was not found. It was rumoured that she managed to escape from the city and left with a squad of Badjanak bakhadirs to the Bashkort, where her trace of got lost. The son of Mergen, Tazbuga, was ordered to find her, but he drowned crossing Agidel, with many of his contingents. It was rumoured that Ishtyak hid her, his granddaughter, in the Chilyab, where she died.

Bandja was completely destroyed for the death of the 6 thousand Tatars and 11 thousand of the Kypchaks and Türkmens, and I resettled its suvarchis on the cities and baliks of the reconstituted provinces of Samar and Echke Bulgar, instead of the Bellak. The centre of the Samar was selected the former menzel Khorasan in the Kinel district, on which place was then built the city. It was called, in honour of the Bandjian merchant Kamysh, the Kamysh-Saray or Kamysh-Samar, for the suvarchis donated the most of of the means for the formation of the city.

It was planned for the winter to jointly take the Rus, with the Kanian, Balynian, Djirian, Djunian and Djuketunian parts of which would submit and pay tribute to the Bulgar, and the Galidjian and Bashtu would pay to the Menkhol. I was burning with the desire to settle accounts with Djurgi for all those troubles I suffered by his fault. When Mankay took the Kisan, I immediately left the camp in Lachyk-Uba with 500 kazanchis, 5 thousand cossacks of Kul-Burat and 3 thousand Arbugains of Ablas-Khin, and without a fight entered Djun-Kala. The boyars met me joyfully, for they knew that only I can save them from the horrors of the war.

Simultaneously Boyan passed through the Nukrat to the Djuketun and took this city with the help of admonition by As-Azim, whom I sent with him. From Djun-Kala, where 2 thousand Ulchians joined me, I sent Badri to the Kan, and Kul-Burat to Kul-Asma, and they took these cities with terrible slaughter. Learning about it, Djurgi left Batyr in the Bulymer and fled to the rivulet Shud, where he began collecting troops from the Balyn and Galidj. The ”Tile Balynly” hoped to sit out in the forests and preserve the army, and then to return and recapture his lands. I, however, broke his plans, sending to the Galidj a letter notifying about the opportunity of the peaceful transition of the Galidj into the hand of the Menholian Great Khan in case of the non-interference of the Galidjians in the war with the Balyn. The Galidjian boyars, having read the letter, did not help Djurgi.

Having solidified the Djun-Kala under the State power and leaving here Ablas-Khin, I went against the Radjil. Kul-Burat, moving ahead of me, took and burned this fortress, and then the Kush-Urma and Ar-Aslap. In Kush-Urma we were joined by Boyan, who took the Balukta and Mir-Galidj after the Djuketun, but his spoils were so great that I left him in place. I entered Djir peacefully, with the sounds of the bells, for the local boyars remembered and loved me. They told me with tears that Djurgi forcibly took from the city the family of Vasyl to his camp, and begged me to rescue them.

Meanwhile Guük took the Moskha due to the surrender by the son of Djurgi, who relieved Nankai from the power. Nankai locked in the balik named after his ancestor, “Arbat”, where the Bek was killed. Guük brought his head to Bulymer, and Batyr, seeing it, surrendered in grief. As in the beginning he did not want to surrender to the Tatars and put up a resistance to them, Guük immediately ordered to strangle my aged uncle.

I, with the Djirian guides, rushed to the Shud, through the Amut which surrendered to my boyars. Not a single Djirian, out of the hatred to Djurgi and the love to me, did inform the Balynian about my expeditious movement. Three thousand cossacks and 300 Suvarian militiamen led by Kul-Burat quietly circled the camp from the west and positioned in wait on the way to the Galidj, and I with the others struck on the Djurgi’s camp. In the front were 2 thousand infantrymen of the Djirian boyar Deber-Aslap, whom Djurgi earlier banished to the Djun-Kala for his sympathies to me, and whom I appointed as my envoy in the Djir.

Djurgi bolted to the Galidj road, but his cart fell under the shots of the Suvarian archers and the swords of the Kul-Burat cossacks. Jumping off the cart, Djurgi bolted to the thicket but got stuck in the snow. Naryk aptly rode to him, and, cutting off his head with a chirkes, impaled it on the staff of the battle flag.

And Djurgi sent Bat-Aslap to the Galidj with a convoy with all the Balynian treasury. With him were also sent Vasyl and his son Barys, who knew nothing about it. When the patrol of Bat-Aslap met Kul-Burat, Bat-Aslap immediately turned to the south and met with Guük, and Barys in a confusion fled to the sardar and was forwarded to me. The other relatives of Vasyl also joined me with their people, and I treated them as my sons. And the Balynians, numbering up to 25 thousand, were ruthlessly hacked up by my people, who have lost 500 cossacks, 250 Bulgarian archers and one thousand of the Djirians and Djunians.

Bat-Aslap transferred to Guük the treasury and was spared by the Khan, however not for it, but for his actions against me. He slandered the poor Vasyl, telling Guük that he intentionally sent his son to me with ten wagons out of the fifty. It was a lie. And Vasyl was telling in vain that he knew nothing about the contents of the wagons and did not induce Barys to flee. Guük tormented him with terrible tortures and, not able to force the Bek to defame his son and me, killed him in a fury.

When I was reached by the requirement of Guük to deliver Barys, I, being afraid for his fate because of the Khan’s hatred to me, sent the Bek with Naryk to the Bulgar. However, the suspicion of me penetrated even into the soul of Batu, and only the words of Mankay and Subyatay in defence of my honour saved me from the unjust punishment.

And I was always amazed by the passion with which many khans sorted out any rumours and squabbles, even interrupting at that time the important war operations, as though the Menkhol’s destiny depended on the analysis of empty snitches. In my case, only the traditionally passionless words of Subyatay about the need to quickly execute first of all the decree of the Great Khan stopped the prolonged dispute of the khans.

Having received the Batu and Guük order to move farther with them, I responded that Bulgars fight against Rus only in the middle of the winter, and turned back. When a second envoy of both khans warned me in their name that I will be cut into chunks for my refusal to go to the Galidj, I responded through him about my decision to preserve the Galidj for the Great Khan. Here Guük bit his tongue, recalling who I am. In his personal letter to me he asked not to take offence for the murder of Batyr and Vasyl and assured that he would not execute them if he knew how they are related to me. In response, I wrote that their death happened by the will of Allah and that I am not going to blame for it anybody, which caused in the soul of the Khan a unique in his life gleam of sympathy to another person…

After my departure, the khans, feeling uncertain without me, stopped at a distance of three days travel from the Galidj, and turned towards the steppe. The Karadjarian and Shamlynian Beks, trying to prevent the intrusion into their possessions, sent to the Kazile a 20-thousand army led by the Kaubuyian Bek Kur-Amir. The Bek stationed most of his army near the city, and himself, with 4 thousand fighters, posted in the citadel. The Tatars, not knowing that the city was fortified by the Bulgarian custom and is defended by the Kara-Bulgar Bek, tried to take it on the run, and failed.

The Kaubuyian fighters, acting in concert from the ambush and the city, repelled all attacks of the Tatars. The fights lasted for six days, and at the dawn of the seventh Kur-Amir with the remains of his alay left the city and went to the Batavyl. From there, however, he was forced to retreat to the Karadjar, for the Karadjar Bek evacuated from there all the troops to his city. The embittered Tatars destroyed abandoned by him Kazile and pursued him until the city, but did not dare to capture it, mindful of the Kaubuys.

Subyatay, who was in the rear of the Tatar army, arrived at the Kazile after the capture of the fortress. Learning about the loss here of 2 thousand Tatars and 5 thousand others, the only time in his life he was infuriated and reproached the khans for their recklessness. This time even the rowdiest kept quiet and lowered their heads, the fact was that in all other fights in the Rus the khans lost 7 thousand Tatars and 20 thousand others, and the Kazile losses were equal to all Kisanian combined!

Having agreed to take the Karadjar the next year, the khans went to the steppes to rest. During the fights in the State and in the Rus they lost 35 thousand Tatars and 91 thousand others, and to the steppe came 45 thousand Tatars and 79 thousand others. And in the capture of the Bulyar were killed 400 thousand Bulgars, in the capture of the Bandja 80 thousand Bulgars, in the capture of the Kisan 70 thousand Ulchians, in the capture the Balyn 360 thousand Ulchians, in the capture of the Kazile and Batavyl 100 thousand Ulchians. After that in the State remained 1,500 thousand Bulgars and 750 thousand Arians, Sebers, Uruses and Serbiyans, and in the Kisan and Balyn were 4,500 thousand Ulchians and 600 thousand Arians.

Soon after my return from the Balynian war to me arrived the trusted person, or Bashkak, of the Great Khan, the Kashan Khan Kutlu-Buga (the brother of the Ugyatay wife) with the Mongytian tima of the sons of Chambek, Kalmak and Burilday Beks. Bashkak was charged with the control for the Great Khan provinces, and intermediation between me, that is the State, and the Kypchak Horde. He had hardly divided the districts of the Djaik and Saksin between his Mongyts and the Batu brother Berkay, which was accompanied by quarrels and threats from Berkay.

Even more difficult was to define the possessions of the State and the Kypchak. The troublemaker Berkay suddenly pretended to all of the Samar, the former Bellak, and invaded that province of the State with his Kypchaks. Badri with Naryk went against the impudent, but, unfortunately, the young and arrogant Burilday interfered in the affair on the side of Berkay. We crushed about 300 Kypchaks and some 100 Mongyts, and cleared Samar of their presence, but because of the Mongyts our dispute got an unpleasant and dangerous form of the collision with the Menkhol. Therefore I arrived to Kutlu-Buga and gave in the joint use of Berkay and Mongyts the most deserted area of the Samar. The kind Kutlu-Buga loudly declared it to the trouble-makers as a great concession by the State, named me Sain and forced them to stop conflicting with me. And I nicknamed Kutlu-Buga “Bagrim” and never was disappointed in him.

Only Allah one knows, what would happen between the State and the Kipchak had he not been the Bashkak!

I gave Kutlu-Buga one-quarter of the Gülistan balik in the Bolgar, and he summoned here from the Galidj Ar-Aslap Bek and appointed him responsible for the secure collection of the Menkholian and Bulgarian tribute from the Galidj. He came with head and chin shaved as a sign of submission and paid the tribute for three years. Kutlu-Buga took from the tribute the Menkhol share, and I took the share of the State, a fourth part. And this fourth part exceeded twice the old full Djirian tribute which consisted of the Djirian, Kisanian and Kanian shares.

After the Ar-Aslap to the Bolgar a began coming also other Ulchian Beks… And when the Kara-Ulcha and Buri-Sala Bek Danil arrived there and agreed with Kutlu-Buga about the submission of his possessions under the hand of the Great Khan, Berkay traitorously attacked the Buri-Sala and mown its population. Learning about it, the Karadjarian Bek Myshdauly turned back from the Bulgarian road, and Mankay had to take his city by force. Kur-Amir held the city to the last and then retreated to the Shamlyn. Here he died from the wounds and was buried with honours, as the bakhadir who saved the city from the Tatars.

In 1240 I received the reply from the Great Khan to my letter, in which Ugyatay called on me to help the Tatars to subdue the Bashtu, Baylak and Modjar. I began preparations for the campaign and left to the Mukhsha, but, suddenly, Berkay attacked the Burtas. Badri helped the city to withstand, but the district was completely ravaged. Up to 50 thousand of the Burtasian Bulgars fled to the Echke Bulgar, and their stories about the atrocities of the Tatars excited all the population.

Taking advantage of it, Yaldau raised a mutiny against me, and with the help of Boyan and Ismail captured Nur-Suvar and Bolgar and seized Khisam. The cunning Yaldau, however, in those conditions of uncertainty did not dare to declare himself the Kan, and encouraged the djien insurgents to declare Gali as the head of the country with the title of the Seid. The mullah did not leave Alabuga in view of his feebleness but agreed to become the head of the State. He immediately sent to the Nur-Suvar his firman which said: “By the will of Allah, I, Seid Mohammed-Gali, accept the control of the Bulgarian State and declare jihad to the damned Tatar troops.

Following the will of the Creator, the true Emir of all Moslems, I also proclaim:

-All people are born to be equal. Let the will of the Almighty come true.

– Henceforth all ingichis who accepted Islam are transferred to the subashes and ak-chirmyshes category, and the remaining heathen to the kara-chirmyshes.
-Let people not pay and not serve to anybody, except for their own State.
-Let rulers of all ranks get to be elected and displaced by the Moslem djiens where the categories of cossacks, al-chirmyshes, suvars and subashes have equal rights.
-Let the same djien pass all the laws of the state, down to the decision on war and peace.
-Let rulers rule under the law, and the knights serve as cossacks for the state salary or be transferred to the categories of suvars or igenchians.
– Let the reasonable limits to the riches and the taxes, established by Talib, be restored.
-Let everyone select the category of his existence, and this his right will be untouchable.
-Let the merchants and masters voluntary increase the share of the ordinary participants in their enterprise.
-Let everyone have the right to the court-appointed by me and the following me elected Seids, to complain about any person, and to receive a fair satisfaction under the law.
-Let for the proved extortions, theft, adultery and other crimes the guilty of them to be expelled from the State without the right of return.”

There were still more, but I remembered only these, the most important ones.

The firman came to the end with the following words:

“Let all, who can wear armours, belt on a sword for the sacred war for this will of the Creator.
Testifying this to be true, I, the Seid Mohammed-Gali, put my seal to the written”.

Having received the firman, Ilyas was terrified and tried to hide it. In fact, he was not going to obey the seid, and only wanted to use his name for his own benefit. But the firman reached the people, and ingichis and small proprietors began to attack the kazanchis, bilemchis and suvarbashis. Kul-Burat, appointed the sardar by the seid, gathered in his army the kurmyshes and kara-chirmyshes, and in September with his army, he entered the Bolgar and Nur-Suvar.

Batu at that time besieged the Bashtu. I was not informing him about the revolt, not be the culprit for the failure of the Tatars’ campaign. Kutlu-Buga, learning about the revolt, took from Batu the best corps of Subyatay and sent the Emir to the Mukhsha to my aid. Without Subyatay the Tatars turned out to be unable to act against the Bashtu, and departed from the city.

When Subyatay came close, I went with him and Badri to the Nur-Suvar. The kazanchis and suvarbashis, scared by the revolt of the underclass, forgot about jihad and only waited for my arrival. As soon as I approached the Nur-Suvar the suvarbashis and kazanchis betrayed the throngs of the underclass, and Ilyas rode to me with penance and with the heads of the eight rebels. Kul-Burat did not begin to fight with Badri, whom I prudently sent forward, and retreaded to the Echke-Kalga of the Bolgar. But the underclass pickets gave us a desperate resistance but were dispersed.

In the Bolgar, in the morning, before our arrival to the city, the suvarbashis and kazanchis attacked the underclass units and subjected them to a ruthless eradication. Boyan and Ismail rode to me from the city, in a sign of the submission tied with ropes… After that Kul-Burat also rode to me from the citadel, having received my assurance to spare his cossacks. The embittered kazanchis attacked him, and the Arbugais of Badri with much efforts separated the fighters.

Subyatay, held back by me, did not interfere, and I myself, in exchange for sparing the Nur-Suvar and Bolgar, ordered to demolish the “Mumin” fort. I forgave Ilyas, Boyan, Ismail and Kul-Burat. The bakhadir of the Menkhols expressed his surprise with my softness, on which I said: “How is it possible to rule the country after exterminating the best Beks and cossacks for their minute swaying?” Subyatay laid off and, after a rest, went to Batu.

Gali, learning about the events, collapsed and did not rise any more. I did not disturbed his solitudes. Only after the campaign in the west I sent Kul-Burat to Alabuga, charging him to move the Seid to the Nur-Suvar. I painfully wanted to explain to Gali the motives of my actions, but I could not have done it. The sardar found the Seid dying. Near the capital he tired out the horses, and himself was pulling the arba. Alas, he drove to the Nur-Suvar the already lifeless body of Gali with the book ”Hon Kitaby” on his chest. I buried the teacher near the palace, but after that could not rule any longer. In 1242, having raised Khisam to the throne of the State, I left to Batu, who for a long time was asking me to become his Visir.

But then, after the suppression of the ”Gali War”, I felt to be the happiest person, for I saved from the destruction of the Nur-Suvar and Bolgar. Leaving Khisam in the capital, and Kul-Burat in the Bolgar, I followed Subyatay with Ablas-Khin, Boyan and Naryk, and 5 thousand suvarchies, cossacks and arbugains to the Bashtu. We arrived to Batu at the end of October, 1240. The Khan has been helplessly trambling at the Bashtu, for the Kaubuys, embittered by the Tatars’ ravages of their province, resisted all attempts by Batu to set up the siege of the city.

Guük was furious, for Ugyatay ordered all khans, except for the members of the house of Juchi, to come to him by the end of the year. Subyatay also was excited and jumped to me with the words: “Now you should help me!” I was touched with him displaying the human feelings and immediately went forward. The Kaubuys and Türkmens, seeing my Hons’ banner, immediately came over to my side, and the Tatars could close the ring besieging the Bashtu. I attached four thousand Kaubuys to my army and did not regret it… It happened on November 5 on milad, as I was told by As-Azim. I myself already did not keep track of the days.

When it began to be possible to approach Bashtu closer, the Khinian masters ineptly began striking the walls. The task turned out to be protracting, and Batu in irritation started flogging the masters with a whip, threatening them with terrible punishments. I, perfectly knowing the weaknesses of the Urus’ fortifications, however, did not initial to help them with advice, for after the destruction of the Bulyar I already could not stand the view of the cruel murders of the innocent people. Taking also the pity of the Bashtues, I ordered Badri to ride to the wall from our side and to lead out even a part of the inhabitants from the city.

When Ablas-Khin shouted to the besieged: “Come out! There will be an attack now!”, and raised high our Hons’ banner, the Bashtues began to leave through the Copper Gate. Before Guük arrived, I had time to let through my lines about 5 thousand inhabitants. Guük, who suddenly galloped to us, froze from what he saw, but, fortunately, Badri had time to throw our banner on the wall directly into the hands of a cagy Bashtuan, and I presented it as bringing the captured through the gate taken by me. Guük could not directly unmask me, as the Bashtues waived the Bulgarian banner, and in a powerless fury ordered me to give the place to Mankay.

While the Khan was approaching, Bashtuan left the city with my banner, and his comrades tightly closed the gate again. The Bashtuan was called Yakub, and he was the son of that Kuman Bulsan who under the order of Khondjak secretly let out to home the captured Bek Ugyr. I charged him with the Bashtuans who left the city, and he could safely lead them to Galidj. And we departed from the city, and I, pretending to be unfairly offended, retired in my yurt so do not see the massacre following after this.

We were at Bashtu two more weeks after the capture of the city by the Tatars, for Batu made a farewell feast for the Chingizids who were leaving home. I purposely was not invited, for everybody, certainly, figured out my simple fable about the Bashtu captives escaping from the guards. Only the tipsy Subyatay dared to come to me under a pretence of the natural needs, and, almost forcibly handing me a secretly taken goblet of archa, said: “I do not understand, why Suldan loves you, you really do not want to be the sulda? I would not drink with you for your slyness, but there is nothing I could do, Suldan himself came to me last night and ordered to bring you this archa! Fight! Fight!”.

And the Tatar word “suldai” came from the Hons’ “suldash”, meaning “mercenary”, only the Bulgars then began pronouncing this word like Sabanians: “üldash”. But Subyatay did not want to offend me, for in the Tatarian the word “suldai” meant ”bravest soldier”…

A captive Bashtuyan boyar Dima-Karak, taken by the Kaubuys near our camp, induced Batu for a campaign against Avaria, by a false promise of an easy victory. I did everything to prevent this intrusion, but the hating me Baydar Ordu talked Batu into it. Then I declared that I shall not be at war with the Modjars in view of their consanguinity with the Bulgars, and Batu not without a regret agreed to send me through Bailak and Vakhta to join with him in Avaria. He wanted to give me the silent Kydan, but Baydar and the blindly obeying him Ordu insisted on sending them with me.

In a fierce argument, they loudly accused me of aspiration to traitorously ally with the Frants and to strike with them on Batu, but Subyatay shut their yelling, pointing to the scantiness of their achievements in comparison with mine, and to the traitorous character of their own helpless treading at the citadel. During all the way I regretted that I pulled out Dima-Karak from the hands of the Kaubuys, who wanted to finish the boyar off for his raids on their possessions.

We set out ahead of Batu, and on the way to the Bailak 10 thousand Shamlyns of the Bek Michael joined Baydar. Shamlynians were taking the walls of the cities along the way, and the Tatars plundered and burned them… This campaign was the most disgusting in my life. The atrocities and the senseless murders by the Tatars were upsetting my people, and the Menkhols were enraged by that I always set up my stan at some distance from them and defiantly surrounded it with the wagons, boards and blockages of the trees.

Baydarа had, in addition to the Shamlyns, 4 thousand Menkhols and 20 thousand of different üldash crowd. Almost every day his camp had wild scenes. Once Ordu accused the Kypchaks that they stole and ate the Tatar’s sheep. Baydar ordered to kill for that one hundred Kyrgyzes, though in all the steppe the were known for their honest nature.

When the doomed for terrible execution began to be tied down, they raced to my camp, shouting: “We are dying! Save us!” In the years of encounters with the Menkhols my people grew unaccustomed to the intervention in their affairs, but here, hearing the calls for help in their native language, could not restrain themselves and pour out onto the wagons with weapons in their hands. The Tatars, pursuing the fugitives, stopped and began shooting them from the bows. Only three Kyrgyzes managed to crawl through the wagons, but one of them has already been fatally wounded and, dying, said to me: “Thank you that you relieved us of the terrible execution. Let the Tangra pardon you on the Doomsday!”

I quickly ordered to put the clothes of other fugitives on the two Kaubuys who died of wounds…

From the Batavyl I sent my people with the letters to the Artan Bek Askal and to the sons of the Galidjian Bek, subjected to me and Kypchak. One of them of [the letter] Alak-Djan had distinguished by his atrocities and church plunders during the storm of Bashtu, and later on by not helping our merchants at the lake Nurma during an attack of an Almanian unit, and shamefully fled from them with 8 thousand of the Galidjians. But another helped me to move to the Galidj the Bashtu Anchians, and then, with 300 of his djuras, and Anchians, and 200 Artanians of Askal, defeated that Almanian unit of seven Beks and 600 Karatunian people.

Askal earlier served in the Bulgar, and participated with me in the campaign against the Djuketun, and then was my guide in the Bailak. He repeatedly bravely defended our merchants and revenged the Galidjians and Almanians for their robberies. I let him off to his home with one of the “Baba” envoys.

Batu sent his firman about granting broad rights to the Rus church with Alak-Djan, and he presented it as a result of his efforts, even though his brother solicited for the church. Even earlier, Alak-Djan attributed to himself the victory of the Iske-Galidjians and the Sadumian Ars, who switched to their side, over the Sadimians, though he arrived to the place of the fight already after the victory, and only hacked up ruthlessly all the captives…