Jalaluddin Manguberdi: hero of the homeland

After crossing the Indus Jalaluddin gathered troops in northern India, defeated the ruler of Shatra and minted coins in his own name; the Delhi sultan Iltutmish did not wish to clash with him. After about three years, in 1224, realising it was hard to settle firmly in India, he set out for Iran: Kirman, Shiraz and Isfahan submitted to him. The caliph of Baghdad feared Jalaluddin rather than allying against the Mongols; the caliph’s army was, according to the book, defeated near Basra. In 1225 Jalaluddin took Azerbaijan and made Tabriz his capital, in August he defeated the Georgians near Garni fortress, and in 1226 he conquered Georgia. In 1227 near Isfahan he defeated the army of the Mongol commander Taynal Noyon. But the betrayal of his brother Ghiyasuddin, the plot of his vizier Sharafulmulk and the hostility of neighbouring sultanates weakened him: in August 1230 he lost to a joint army near Erzincan. In 1231 the Mongols destroyed his army in a night attack, and Jalaluddin fled to the mountains and was killed by Kurds. He lived about 33 years.