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For more than two centuries which elapsed between the fall of the
Samanid and the rise jf the Mongol power there existed in Transoxiana
a^M.uslim Turkish dynasty variously known as " Ilak-Khani," "Kha,ni"
and " Afrasiyabi." These the Qara-Khita'is suffered to remain, only
requiring of them the payment of tribute and the acceptance of a
political resident (Shahna) it their Court. From most of the Khwarazm-
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shahs also they received tribute uatil overthrow;! by them in 607/1210-11
as mentioned above.
This collapse of the Qara-Khita'i power proved, in fact, to be a great
calamity for the Khwarazm-shahs in particular and the Muslims in general,
for' thereby was broken down a barrier which* had hitherto effectively
protected them from the Mongols and other predatory heathdns who
dwelt further to the north and east, and so was prepared that great
catastrophe which shortly afterwards laid waste the Muslim world; a
fact emphasized by Ibnu'l-Athir (ed. Tornberg, xii, p. 235) in a passage
translated in the second volume of my Literary History of Persia, p. 430.
The word Gitr-Khdn 1
(otherwise Ktir-KMn, Kit-Khan, Uz-Khdn,
Ur-Khdn or Or-Khdn} was a generic title of these Kings, not the proper
naxieof anyoneof them. Ibnu'l-Athir : says "Ku in the Chinese language
is & title given to the greatest of their Kings, while Khan is a title of the
Kings of the Turks, so that it
[the compound Ku-Khdn\ means 'Greatest
of Kings'." In the Ta'rikh-i-Jahdn-gushdy (vol. ii, p. 86) and in the
To? rikh-i-Jahdn-drd also it is explained as Khdn-i-Khdndn, i.e. "Khan
of Khans " or " Great Khan " and on the ; same authority the name
of this particular Gur-Khdn is said to have been Qiishqin Tayqu.
Dr Babinger has kindly called my attention to a note on Ibn 'Arabshah's
in the Memoires de fAcademic
explanation of Giir-Khdn by S. de Sacy
for 1822, p. 476.
X. Atmatigin, Amfr Bayabani and Atsiz.
, (Text, p. 22 ; Persian notes, p. 114.)
The correct form and signification of the first and second of these
three names is uncertain, and the MSS. differ in their readings. The
first has been found by Mirza Muhammad in the History of Bukhara of
Muhammad ibn Zufar ibn 'Umar, composed in 574/1178-9, only 38
years' after the Battle >f Qatawan, but here also the MSS. differ, the
British Museum MS- (Add. 2777, f. 28 a ) having ^ Aymantigin " or
"Imantigin," and the Bibliotheque Nationale MS. (Suppl. Pers. 1513,
"
Alitigin." It is evidently one of the numerous Turkish names
f. 23 b )
ending in tigin (like Subuktigin, Alptigin, etc.)
but the first element
remains doubtful > The same uncertainty affects "the son of the Amir
Bayabani, on whose identity no satisfactory light has yet been thrown."
1 Mirza Muhammad cites two passages which show, by the word-plays wherein
lies thei' point, that by the Persians at any rate the pronunciation Gur-Khdn was
adopted. Khaqani says :
'
'
j*-' O^Jr els' *
See alscovol. ii, p. 93 of the Tc?rlkh-i-fahdn-gushdy :
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