The Rashīdī History 7.2.4

7.2.4

Perhaps the only power which the Moghuls stood in fear of, after the days of Timur, was that of the Uzbegs, when these were first rising to power. Under Shaibani Khan the confederated tribes of Uzbegs still possessed the characteristics and qualities of nomadic nations, and it is not a little remarkable that the Moghuls, so far from dealing with them as they were accustomed to do with others in the low countries, enlisted under Shaibáni in large numbers, and assisted him against the more civilised forces of Baber and the Khorasani Mirzas. They seem to have feared to measure themselves with those who could use their own tactics against them, or fight them, indeed, with their own weapons. In many places in Mirza Haidar's history, as well as in the Zafar-Náma and other books, mention is made of the 'cities' or 'towns' of Moghulistan; but as the same words must necessarily be used when speaking of the settled countries of Mavara-un-Nahr, Turkistan, and Alti-Shahr, they are somewhat misleading terms to apply to the aúl, or encampments, of a nomadic people. One native writer, whose book dates from the first half of the fourteenth century, presents, in a few words, a telling picture of Moghulistan in his day—or part of Turkistan as it was then still called. "Since the region has been devastated by the arms of the Tatars," he writes, "it is inhabited only by a scanty population.