76 
LIVES OF THE MOGHUL EMPERORS. 
CHAPTER VIII 
a, d. 1388 — 1394 . 
Hearing that the Kipchaks had invaded his heredi- 
tary dominions, Timur placed governors over his new 
conquests, and returned to Samerkund. No sooner 
were the enemy apprised of his having passed the 
Oxus, than they retreated with the utmost precipita- 
tion. In order to punish the citizens of the Khuarazm 
capital, who had taken part with the invaders, the 
emperor caused that city to be levelled with the 
ground, obliterated the very foundations, and com- 
manded the land to be sown with barley, so that 
not a vestige might remain to point out its site to fu- 
ture generations. Three years afterwards, however, 
having repented of his rashness, he sent an amyr into 
Khuarazm, who, collecting the scattered inhabitants, 
rebuilt the capital and restored it to its original 
splendour. 
On the following year, having defeated with great 
slaughter an arn)y composed of Russians, Circassians, 
Bulgarians, and several tribes bordering upon Tartary, 
under the command ofToktamish Khan, of Kipchak or 
Western Tartary, an old enemy, the emperor marched 
into Jetah, a province of this vast region. During 
their journey through the desert, his army being in 
great want of water, came to a meadow covered 
