'The History of Persia, from the most early period to the present time: containing an account of the religion, government, usages and character of the inhabitants of that kingdom. By Colonel Sir John Malcolm, KCB, KLS Late minister plenipotentiary to the court of Persia from the supreme government of India. In two volumes.' [‎239] (272/786)

THE HISTORY OF PERSIA.
possession in that province was the City of Herat, which had chap . xx.
been committed to the care of a son of the reigning monarch, ^
Zemaun Shah.
This chapter would be incomplete without a view of the actual An account
condition of that part of Tartary which is situated between Khorassan tribe'rXt-
and the Jaxartes. The inhabitants of this region had, from the bet^n
most early ages, made constant inroads upon the frontier provinces and
of Persia; and they several times overrun and subjugated the whole
of that kingdom. Four centuries had elapsed since the sword of
Timour had laid waste its fields and destroyed its cities: but the
traces of desolation still remained, to remind its inhabitants of what
their ancestors had suffered; and they watched, with the most
anxious alarm, every appearance which indicated the gathering of
clouds in that quarter whence those storms had burst which had
overwhelmed their country in ruin.
Those provinces which lie immediately north of Khorassan,
between the Oxus and the Caspian, and which formed part of
the kingdom of Khaurizm, are possessed by a number of tribes,
which trace their descent from some men of a Moghul family*,
who are represented to have emigrated at a very early period
from the northern parts of Tartary to the provinces they now
inhabit. They married, according to this account, the women of
the country where they settled; and, though their descendants
were not deemed worthy of being ranked in the tribe of their
* D'Herbelot, on the authority of Mirkhond, states, that they were of the tribe
of Oghouz Khan, who was the third prince of the Moghul dynasty, being the grandson
of Moghul Khan, its founder.