and lack of organisation. But through the south-western corner, which touches Khurasan, the stream of civilisation has flowed into Balkh. By this path came the Persian, the Greek and the Arab, and each has left his stamp on the culture of the conquered people.[1]
Placed between two powerful neighbours it has been the fate of Balkh to be the scene of conquest and plunder age after age since the dawn of history; its people have been relieved of masters from the south or west only by fiercer masters from the north; their ancient culture and learning, which boasted of a Hellenistic origin, had been all but trodden out under the iron heels of Chenghiz Khan.[2] Their cities were now in ruin and their wealth destroyed beyond hope of recovery.
Besides the wild robbers of the southern mountains and the tame cultivators of the northern lowlands, there was a third element of the population,—"primitive nomads who occupied tracts of barren steppe land, and drove their flocks from hill to valley and valley to hill, in search of pasture according to season.[3]
