As soon as [Baiju] assumed authority, he immediately mustered troops from all the peoples under his domination and went to [that part of] the land of the Armenians which was under the domination of the sultan of Rum. Having reached the Karin district he besieged T'eodupolis which is now called Karin city, and settled in around it. He sent ambassadors to the inhabitants, telling them to come out in obedience. But [the residents] did not want to [surrender] and instead sent the emissaries back with insults. Then they got up onto their walls and further insulted [the Mongols].
As soon as [the Mongols] saw that the people did not welcome peace, the chiefs divided the city wall on all sides in order to demolish it. Working swiftly, they erected many catapults, destroyed the wall, entered the city, and mercilessly put everyone to the sword. They ravished goods and property and set the city on fire. At that time the city was very densely populated, being filled not only with Christians and Tachiks, but everyone from the entire district had assembled there.
In the city were countless holy Gospels [belonging to] the [242] high and lowly. The foreigners took the expensive ones [g279] and sold them cheaply to the Christians in their army. [The Christian soldiers] happily took them and distributed them throughout their own districts, dividing them up among the churches and monasteries. May Christ reward the Christian princes Awag, Shahnshah, Aghbugha (Vahram's son), and Grigor Xach'enets'i (Dop'i's son) who was a pious man. For these princes and their troops bought out of captivity as many men, women, children, bishops, priests and deacons as was possible. Freeing all of them, they were allowed to go wherever they chose.
[The Mongols] not only destroyed the city of Karin, but many other districts under the domination of the sultan of Rum. Yet the sultan was unable to do anything since, trembling with fear of them, he had hidden himself; some even said that he had died. Now once the T'at'ar army had done this deed, in glee and with much booty, it returned to Aghbania/Aghuania, to their wintering place, to that fertile and fruitful plain called Mughan. And they spent the winter there [243] [g280].
When [the Mongols] heard this, in no way did they become aroused or boast [to the ambassadors]. Baiju-noyin, their head, merely replied: "You speak grandly; however, the victory will go to whomever God grants it."
Thus one after another ambassador arrived to make [the Mongols] hasten to war, though they did not hurry in any way; rather, they peacefully gathered their troops and those under [g281] their domination, and came to a lush place in the land of Armenia with all their bags and baggage in order to fatten their horses. Then they tranquilly approached the camp of the sultan. The latter had left his accustomed place and had come to that part of Armenia which was under his domination, [244] [to an area near Erzinjan], close to a village named Ch'man-katuk [Kose Dagh]. He came with a countless multitude, with women and concubines, gold and silver and all the valuable possessions he had. For diversion, he also brought along wild animals and many other creeping things, even mice and cats, for he wanted to show himself as fearless to the troops.
General Baiju, consistent with his deep [military] knowledge, divided his soldiers into many groups, putting them under the foremost brave commanders, while the foreign troops, comprising various nationalities, were divided up among [the loyal troops] so that they not work any treachery. Then selecting the valiant and brave from all of them, he made a vanguard which went and battled with the sultan's troops and put them to flight. The sultan himself fled, escaping [g282] by a hairsbreadth and leaving his throne and belongings there. [The Mongols] pursued the fugitive troops and mercilessly cut them down, putting them to the sword; then they turned to loot the fallen.
As soon as the main body of the army arrived and saw that the sultan had fled and his army was beaten, they spread throughout the area raiding and looting. They pulled apart [245] many districts and gathered gold and silver and expensive garments, as well as camels, horses, donkeys and countless animals. They came and besieged the city of Caesarea in Cappadocia. Because the inhabitants did not surrender, they took it forcibly and put the population to the sword, ravishing whatever was in the city and leaving it deserted. Then they came to Sebastia, and since the inhabitants of the city had surrendered in advance (coming out to them with gifts and presents) the people were not punished, although part of the city was looted. Conquering the city in their own name, they set up overseers and left.
They came and besieged Eznka (Erzinjan) and fought numerous battles for it. The inhabitants of the city dealt many blows to the T'at'ar army. Then [the Mongols] started to treacherously call the people out of the city on the pretext [g283] of frienship; and since the inhabitants had no aid from any quarter, they agreed to come. [The Mongols] fell upon them and cut them down, man and woman, sparing only a few lads and girls whom they took into captivity and slavery.
Thus after destroying and enslaving many districts and lands, they came to the city called Divrigi (Tiwrike/Tephrike). Once the inhabitants knew that it was impossible to resist them [246] militarily they wished to surrender. [The Mongols] took many goods from them, but left the city unharmed, while they themselves returned with much booty and in high spirits to their winter camps in Armenia and Aghbania/Aghuania, since the wrecking and destruction of all peoples had come from the Lord. The Christians among their troops freed many people from captivity, both openly and in secret, priests and clerics. This was especially true of the grandee princes Awag, Shahnshah, Vahram and his son Aghbugha, the Xach'ents'is Hasan Jalal and his forces and relatives Grigor, Jalal's mother's sister's son, Dop'i, and other princes and their troops [who freed as many] as they were able. This occurred in 692 A.E. [1243].
When King Het'um heard this, he was deeply saddened and said: "It would have been better for me had they asked for my own son Lewon than for those others." However, since he was afraid [of the Mongols] and so that a refusal would not occasion any great harm, he reluctantly handed them over with many presents besides to those who had come to take them. [The sultan's relatives] were taken and exhibited to Baiju and to the other chiefs. As soon as [the Mongols] saw them, they were happy and greatly honored the ambassadors of the king, establishing stipends and horses for them during the winter, so that when spring came they could return to their own land. Thus friendship was established with the king. They gave him a written ordinance according to their religion which they call el-tamgha [g285].
And so [the Mongols] waited until springtime when, once more, they went against the sultan and his land.
When Lewon died and his daughter Zapel was ruling, the prince of princes Kostandin, having united with kat'oghikos Yovhannes [g286] and other princes, enthroned his own son Het'um, a youth, and sent him as a husband to Zapel in place of the son of the prince who had been seized and put in jail. [Kostandin] likewise wished to have as an ally his father-in-law Het'um's son (named Kostandin like himself). He gave him Lambron as private property and made him his son's coronant. But after a while this man rebelled against his sister's son, King Het'um, as was their ancestral custom. Although Kostandin, the king's father, as well as the king himself greatly strove to bring the rebel to accept submission [249] he would not, for he had received help from the sultan of Rum, and so remained in rebellion.
As soon as the sultan of Rum had fled the T'at'ars, the king took all the villages and fields of Lambron under his control with the exception of the rebel fortress. Then Kostandin sent ambassadors to the king to request reconciliation and to place his sons in the king's service while he himself stayed in the fortress. But the king did not agree to this. [Kostandin] sent envoys two or three times but neither the king nor his father would consent.
So Kostandin went to Konya (Konn) to the sultan of Rum who was then an enemy of the Cilician king since the latter had given the sultan's mother to the T'at'ars. He took [g287] the sultan's troops and came to Cilicia unexpectedly while the king's soldiers were dispersed to their own dwellings. He entered the land, destroyed many awans and fields by fire, murder, and enslavement. He killed and plundered many Christians, occasioning such evil in the land because of a grudge.
Now when the king saw these evils, he assembled his soldiers and valiantly came against the enemy multitude, putting all of them to the sword. Only the rebel prince and [250] a few men with him were able to flee. In this way Kostandin was beaten by the king seven times, after which he entered his fortress and did not dare emerge.
When [the Mongols] had defeated [Rusudan's] son-in-law the sultan of Rum, and had taken many of his cities, they sent prince Vahram as an envoy to him, bidding him to submit [g288]. When he came, he brought with him [Dawit'], the son of [the former] king of the Georgians, Giorgi Lasha (Rusudan's brother), whom she had treacherously sent to the sultan of Rum with her daughter to destroy him so that he would not bring harm to her realm. He had been imprisoned by the sultan.
[251] Vahram brought [Dawit'] and made the situation known to the T'at'ar forces, saying: "the son of our king was exiled and deprived of his kingdom." So [the Mongols] enthroned him in opposition to his aunt and ordered him anointed according to Christian custom. They ordered all of his father's princes to obey him and [ordered] him to reside in the city of Tiflis. Then the grandee princes who were obedient to the T'at'ars, namely Awag who was a general, Shahnshah, son of Zak'aria, Vahram and his son Aghbugha, took him to Mtsxit'a, summoned the kat'oghikos of the Georgians, and anointed him king. His name was Dawit'.
Now when [Dawit's] aunt Rusudan heard about this she fled to Abkhazia (Ap'xazet') and Suanet' with her son (the other Dawit') and sent ambassadors to the other T'at'ar commander Bat'u [of the Golden Horde], a relative of the Khan, who controlled the troops in Russia (Rhuzk'), Ossetia (Oset'k'), and Darband, since he stood [g289] after the Khan. She offered him her submission. [Bat'u] ordered her to reside in Tiflis, and the others did not oppose this since the [Great] Khan had died meanwhile.
[252]
Now [Nerses] since he sat in the Miap'or district, in the monastery named Xamshi (which was under the authority of Awag) did not dare to go without asking [Awag], so that his departure not be taken ill. [Nerses] hid from [the Mongols] and told the church officials to explain that he was not at home, but had gone to Awag. And [the Mongols] sent to him two and three times with threats [ordering him] to come to them.
Then [Nerses] received a command from Awag and went to them in the Mughan plain, bearing gifts according to his means. [253] However, he did not encounter Rhaban there, for the latter had gone to Tabriz (Tawrezh). Therefore [Nerses] went [g290] to the Great Court and stood before Elt'ina khatun. She received him gladly and honored him with great respect, seating him above all the grandees who had assembled by her because of the wedding of her son Bora-noyin. For she had taken the daughter of a certain notable named Ghutun-noyin as a wife for her son; and she had given her own daughter as wife to another noble named Usuf-noyin. Therefore she said to the kat'oghikos: "You have come on a felicitous day." And [Nerses] wisely responded: "I chose this day of your joy, and then came."
Now [Elt'ina khatun] entrusted him and his officials to her brothers Sadeghagha and Gorgogh, who were Christians, newly-arrived from their land, while she might concern herself with the marriage that joyous day. [The brothers] took [Nerses] and greatly honored him.
When they were somewhat lightened of [other] concerns, they gave [Nerses] gifts and an eltamgha so that no one would harass him, and they gave him a Moghal T'at'ar guide who took him throughout his dioceses in the land of the Aghbanians/Aghuans [g291]. Because, for a long while neither [Nerses] nor his predecessors [254] had dared to circulate through their dioceses due to the bloodthirsty and bestial nation of Tachiks. Now [Nerses] passed throughout his diocese returning peacefully to his residence in Xamshi monastery.
Rusudan, queen of the Georgians, sent prince Hamadola as an envoy to the Khan, and when he [was about to] return Hamadola requested T'amt'a from the Khan. He brought her with him with orders from the Khan that whatever had been hers while wife of Melik'Ashrap' be given back to her.
[255] They obeyed the commands of their king and gave to her Xlat' and the districts surrounding it. They themselves spread out raiding the areas of Syrian Mesopotamia, Amida, Edessa, Nisibis (Mtsbin) and the Shambi country and [g292] many districts besides in vain, for although no one opposed them with warfare, nonetheless, because of the summer heat, many of them were sun-struck. Men and horses died.
They went to their lodging places and passed the winter. And they gave an order concerning the [re]construction of the city of Karin, T'eodupolis. The dispersed and hidden [population] and those who had avoided captivity assembled, and the bishop of the city, lord Sargis, whom Zak'are's son prince Shahnshah brought, [also] went [there]. And they commenced to rebuild the ruined and devastated city.
For these reasons, [kat'oghikos Kostandin] hastened to write encyclical letters and universal canons. He sent with the letter the learned and brilliant vardapet Vardan, who, for reasons of prayer had gone to Jerusalem to worship the sites of the Holy Land. After visiting the holy places, he came to Cilicia to the Christ-crowned King Het'um and his brothers. He went to the kat'oghikos who rejoiced exceedingly at his [257] sight. The kat'oghikos kept [Vardan Arewelts'i] with him a long time, binding the latter to himself with affection, for he never wanted him to depart.
To accomplish his aims [of reform, the kat'oghikos] sent [Vardan] and his attendants and wrote to all the cities, venerable monasteries and glorious princes [of Greater Armenia] that they not ignore the prescribed rules which were for the salvation of their souls; and that because [the kat'oghikos] was an old man, they should accept the vardapet in his stead. This is what he wrote. [We omit the encyclical, which deals with doctrinal matters, and resume the translation in chapter 43.]
The wise vardapet Vardan took this document of approval and sent it to kat'oghikos Kostandin in Hrhomkla. Then he himself came to his place of solitude in the Kayean valley. This place was named St. Andrew (Andre) and stood opposite the unassailable fortress of Kayean. He stopped there and instructed many who studied his doctrine.
At the coming of the second year, 696 A.E. [1247], the virtuous kat'oghikos Kostandin sent presents to the churches in the East, by means of his attendant T'eodos. [He sent] silken cloth of variegated colors, expensive cowls for the [259] honored monks for use in the blessed service. [Kostandin also sent] an encyclical so that [the church at] the tomb of the Apostle Thaddeus and the surrounding districts and cities be given to him as a diocese, and [he sent] much gold for the building of a portico which vardapet Yovsep' constructed after the devastation caused by the Turks and the Georgian raids, because for a long time the place was uninhabited and barren.
Yovsep' went to a T'at'ar commander named Anagurak-noyin whose summer quarters were close by the tomb of the blessed Apostle Thaddeus. By [Anagurak-noyin's] command, [Yovsep'] cleaned the church and held the opening ceremony, built a monastery, and assembled many clerics in it [g311].
The T'at'ar man enlarged the roads on all sides [so that] all pilgrims come amongst his troops without fear, He strictly commanded that no one wishing to come be harassed, and he humbled himself to them with love. And many of them came and baptized their sons and daughters, and many who were possessed by devils and were sick became healed, and the name of our Lord Jesus Christ was glorified. Furthermore the entire T'at'ar army was not inimical to [260] the Cross and the Church. Instead, they greatly revered them and offered gifts; there was no hostility among them.
Therefore they provoked him against the pious prince Hasan, called Jalal. [Bugha] seized him in the great court before all the nobles and subjected him to numerous punishments. He demolished [Hasan's] inaccessible fortresses: the one called Xoyaxana in Persian, Ded, Tsiranak'ar and his other fortresses. And they so levelled them that not even a trace appeared that anything had ever been built there. Taking much gold and silver from [Hasan] they barely spared his life. The grandee nobility could do nothing to help him, so terrified were all the spectators.
[Bugha] similarly wanted to seize Awag, the prince of princes and [to subject him] to tortures and flogging. But the grandee nobility notified him [saying]: "Fear not; but [g313] assemble all of your forces and go thus to see [Bugha]. Should he try to seize you, then you seize him." Acting on this advice, [Awag] went to him with many soldiers.
When Bugha saw this, he became frightened and said to him: "What is that multitude of soldiers for? Could it be that you are rebelling from the Khan and have come to kill us?" Awag replied: "Why have you assembled a multitude of [262] evil-doing Iranians to come to treacherously seize us?" As soon as Bugha realized that his treachery was manifest [to Awag], he spoke to him of peace, but in his mind he was ever planning evil against him and awaited an appropriate moment to execute his wicked intention. While [Bugha] thus plotted evil the righteous judgement of God overtook him. Suddenly wounds appeared on his throat and the wicked one suffocated, dying wickedly. This is how the impious man died. And may he not see the glory of God.
In this period the monarch of the Georgians was a woman named Rusudan who had concealed and fortified herself in the impregnable areas of Suanet'ia. Envoys came to her from the two sides of the T'at'ar military—from the great general [of the Golden Horde] named Bat'u who was in the [263] northern regions, a close relative of the Khan, [a man] who ruled over everyone such that not even the Khan sat on his throne without [Bat'u's] order; and [emissaries] from the other general named Baiju who was in the Armenian areas. [Both emissaries told Rusudan] to come to them in peace and friendship and to rule her lordship by their command.
But since [Rusudan] was a beautiful woman, she did not dare go to either one of them for fear of being violated. Instead, enthroning her little son Dawit', she sent him to general Bat'u.
Now when the chiefs who were with Baiju-noyin in the Eastern regions (who had seized all the lands of the Armenians) and the princes of the Georgian realm with them saw that the queen had not come to them but instead had sent her son to Bat'u, they were displeased. They sent to the sultan of Rum, Ghiyath al-Din, and had brought thence Rusudan's brother's son, son of the [former] king of the Georgians, Lasha Giorg, whom Rusudan [previously] had sent [to Rum] with her daughter, [g315] the wife of Sultan Ghiyath al-Din. [Ghiyath al-Din] had placed Rusudan's nephew into confinement, so that there [264] would be no plot against his mother-in-law over the kingdom.
They retrieved him and gave him his father's realm and sent him to their king, the Khan, to confirm him in his rule. Then they themselves urgently sent envoys one after the other to queen Rusudan [telling her] to come to them willingly or unwillingly. Similarly Bat'u sent her [other] son to the Khan and himself summoned Rusudan to go to him.
[Rusudan] thus harassed on two sides took poison by her own will and departed this life. She wrote a will addressed to Awag and entrusted to him her son, should he return from the Khan.
And [the two Davids] went to Guyuk-Khan who received them with love. He legislated that they should rule the kingdom by turns—first Dawit' son of Lasha Giorg, the elder of the two; then, following his death, his father's sister's son, the other Dawit', son of Rusudan, should he still be alive. The treasury of the kingdom was divided into three parts. [The Mongols received] the venerable and priceless throne and the marvellous crown (the likes of which no other kings possessed and which, they say, belonged to Xosrov, father of Trdat the Great, king of the Armenians). [This crown] had remained there secretly due to the fortification of the place, had [265] [subsequently] fallen to the kings of the Georgians and remained there until recent times. This [crown] and [g316] other valuable goods from the treasury were sent to the Khan, while the remainder was divided between themselves. When [the two] returned [to Georgia] this is what they did, with the mediation of Awag, Iwane's son.
And Dawit', son of Lasha, reigned in the city of Tiflis while the other Dawit' sat in Suanet'ia.
Sultan Ghiyath al-Din died and left two young sons. Because there was strife between them, one went to the Khan and received from him his father's authority. [This son] returned with Smbat, the general of the Armenians [g317]. They came to Baiju-noyin and the other nobles who confirmed the order of their king, and provided troops to accompany them to the country of their rule.
As soon as they reached the city called Erznka, they heard that the brother of Sultan Ghiyath al-Din had formed marriage ties with [the family of] Lascaris (Leshkare), emperor of the Byzantines who ruled at Ephesus and, with the latter's aid, had become sultan in Konya (Konn). Meanwhile his own young brother sat on the traditional throne in Alaya. Therefore he feared to go there. Instead, he halted at Erznka to see what would happen.
And general Smbat entered his country [and went] to his brother, King Het'um.
While [the princes] were drinking wine, their spirits rose and foolish men among them said: "Having such a multitude of troops, why do we serve [the Mongols]? Come, let us fall upon them suddenly, destroy and exterminate them, and we shall have our own lands."
[268] The great prince Awag intercepted this plot. The T'at'ar army happening to be in the place was informed about it and the army notified its chiefs.
When the princes' troops had returned to their own places, [the Mongols] wanted to destroy everyone generally, They arrested the princes who happened to be with them, and sent summonses to those who were not there for them to come quickly.
Now merciful God did not let the matter go to the end. This is how He stopped it [g319].
One of the senior leaders, general of the entire army named Chaghatai, who was Awag's friend, came amidst the armed troops and said to them: "We have no order from the Khan to kill those who are obedient to us, stand in service to us, and pay taxes to the Khan. Furthermore, the details of their rebellion is not certain. But if we destroy them without cause, you will be responsible to the Khan." Hearing this, they ceased pursuring the matter.
The mother of Awag, named Xoshak', went to them to assure them of her son's loyalty and that he would soon be [269] arriving—which in fact happened, since prince Awag quickly came up and demonstrated his loyalty to them with many testimonies.
King Dawit' and the other princes arrived. [The Mongols] bound all of them tightly hand and foot with thin cords, according to their custom. They left them bound thus for three days, ridiculing and insulting them for their arrogance and rebellious plans. Then taking all [the rebels'] horses and ransoms, they let them go. [The Mongols] then attacked the Georgian areas falling upon many districts, those which [g320] had rebelled and those which had not. They killed many people and took even more captive. A countless multitude of men, women and children they drowned in the river. This occurred in 698 of the Armenian Era [1249].
After this the prince of princes Awag died and was buried in the mausoleum of his father Iwane, at Pghndzahank'. They gave his authority to Zak'are, son of Shahnshah, his father's brother's son, for Awag had no [legitimate] sons, but only a baby daughter and a son from some illicit liason, about whom (after his death) they said that [the child] was from him... [The text is damaged here.] which his sister took and raised. Subsequently, [270] [the authority] was taken from Zak'are and given to Awag's wife who was named Gonts'a.
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