Genghis takes Samarkand and Bukhara. Slashing his way across Central Asia, Genghis crushes the great cities that gleamed in Shah Muhammad’s crown. Samarkand, Muhammad’s own capital, surrenders to the Mongols. So does Bukhara, a metropolis in what is now Uzbekistan. Genghis is unrepentant . “I am the punishment of God,” a Muslim historian later quoted him as saying, “If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.” A witness took a dimmer view: “They came, they sapped, they burnt, they slew, they plundered, and they departed.”   © 1997 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.