Chaghatai himself appears to have been a just and energetic
governor, though perhaps rough and uncouth, and addicted to
the vice, common among the Mongols, of hard drinking. At
any rate, he was animated by the soldier-like spirit of his
father, and succeeded in keeping order among as heterogeneous
a population,as a kingdom was ever composed of. In 1232, for
instance, when gedition showed itself at Bokhara, he acted with
promptitude, if with severity, and saved his country from a far-
reaching calamity. He was, in all probability, an old-fashioned
Mongol, for we read that he stood by the Yasák, or code of laws
instituted by Chingiz Khan, and that he showed little favour
to what was, at that time in his dominions, the comparatively
new and rising religion of Isláàm. He must, however, have been
fairly tolerant, for ib is recorded that his minister for Trans-
oxiana was a Musulman, called the Jumilat-ul-Mulk, and that
mosques and colleges were founded during his reign. But if
Chaghatai did not lean towards Islám, neither does it appear

1 Le., the country of the Jungar, or Zungar—the /eft-hand—Kálmáks.
32 The Line of Chaghatat.
that he ever inclined towards Christianity, though that religion,
as practised by the Nestorians, must have been familiar to him.
It existed in his own dominions and in those of his brother
Oktai, who seems to have been thoroughly tolerant, and to have
encouraged at his capital, Karakorum, every form of worship,
besides the enlistment in his service of men of all religions—a
cireumstance which had, as will be seen later, an important
bearing on subsequent history.
