1916.] A unique History of Herat. 169 



seems to have been intentionally left blank by him. When he 

 commenced the history he could not as a matter of fact posi- 

 tively say to what date he would be able to reach, and conse- 

 quently left the blank, intending to fill it up after completing 

 the work. It seems therefore quite probable that Sayfi died 

 shortly after finishing this first volume, and that he did not 

 live to fulfil his plan of adding a second. This theory receives 

 considerable support from the fact that the author of the 

 Raudat-ul-Jannat, who freely borrows from this work, while 

 narrating the events of the year a.h. 721 = a. d. 1321 (with 

 which the present work ends), distinctly gives us to under- 

 stand that Sayfi's history of the Kurt kings does not extend 

 beyond that date (a.h. 721 = a. d. 1321). He says further that 

 although Sayfi promised a second volume he (the author of the 

 Baudat) had not up to that time (a.h. 897 = a. d. 1492) suc- 

 ceeded in tracing its existence, and that in his opinion Sayfi 

 did not live to fulfil his promise. The passage in the Raudat 

 runs thus 



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Since the dawn of Islam there has hardly been a great 

 civil war, or dynastic revolution, or foreign invasion in Central 

 Asia in which Herat has not played an important part and 

 suffered accordingly. It enjoyed peace and prosperity during 

 the first three centuries of the Muhammadan era when the 

 Tahirides of Khurasan (a.h. 205-259 = a.d. 820-873), the 

 Saffarides of Sijistan (a.h. 254-290 = a.d. 868-902), and the 

 Samanides of Bukhara (a.h. 261-389^=a.d. 875-999) were in 

 power; but during the succeeding rules of the Ghaznavide 

 kings it was eclipsed by the neighbouring capital of Ghazni until 

 in the time of Sultan Sanjar of Merv about a.h. 552 = a. d. 1157 

 the barbarious Turkoman tribe of Ghuzz swept over Afghan- 

 istan and devastated the city. The most deplorable ravages 

 were wrought in the city during the time of Qhingiz Khan 

 when the Mongol hordes invaded Persia and left the country a 

 wilderness after levelling all its buildings, palaces, etc., to the 

 ground. In a.h. 618 = a. d. 1221 Qhingiz Khan sent two succes 

 sive expeditions against the city which resulted in a general 

 slaughter of its inhabitants. Out of several lacs of inhabitants 

 our author names sixteen persons who alone survived the 

 massacre and who were subsequently joined by another party 

 of twenty-four survivors. The city began slowly to recover 

 under the Ghorid kings (a.h. 634-642=*a.d. 1236-1244) and 

 rose to distinction during the time of the Kurt Mahks until it 



