Khorasan and sistan

The Baloch, no doubt, possessed horses and raided far afield, as their

descendants have done ever since. They crossed the desert into Khorasan and

Sistan, and the fact that two of the provinces of Sistan were already in Istakhri’s

time known as Baloch country shows that they had begun to establish

themselves there. During the reign of Mahmud Ghaznwi they roused the wrath

of that monarch by robbing his ambassador on the way to Karman, between

Tabbas and Khabis. Mahmud sent his son Mas’ud against them, who finally

defeated them near Khabis, which lies on the edge of the desert, at the foot of the

Karman Mountains.

3 On another occasion these robbers were disposed of by

allowing them to capture several loads of poisoned apples, which they devoured.

The chronicler approves of this as a pleasant and ingenious scheme for getting

rid of them.

Firdausi, who lived at this time at Tus, near Meshhed, in Khorasan, must have

been familiar with the name of these marauders, and this knowledge must have

given point to the descriptions in the ‘Shahnama’ already alluded to.