The Rashīdī History 7.2.6

7.2.6

The advent of the Mongolian hordes, however, under Chingiz and his successors, put an end to all such practices, and from that time till the date when Mirza Haidar's history closes (and probably for long after also), the country reverted to a purely pastoral condition. When, therefore, we read of the cities of Taraz, Balasaghun, Aimal, Bishbalik, Almaligh, etc., within the Moghul period, it can hardly be that Moghul cities are intended, but rather encampments — some of them, perhaps, central in situation and well inhabited — standing on or near the sites of the remains of these places. In the more advanced of the countries conquered by the Mongolian armies — in Persia, Mavara-un-Nahr, Turkistan, etc. — no obliteration or even systematic destruction of towns (except in the course of the wars), and no reversion to a nomadic level, seems to have taken place; but the difference in the case of Moghulistan was that, in that country, the nomadic tribesmen of the steppes immediately to the eastward — the true Mongolia — pressed in, and appropriating the land for their own habitation, took root, while in the lower countries they settled as rulers only. Those of the Mongols who, after the first invasion, stayed in the conquered countries with their governing Khans or chiefs, probably intermarried, after a time, with the settled population, and were soon absorbed ;