In ssit. 618 (A.D. 1221) Gengis Khan advanced eastward and entered the city of Balkh, whose inhabitants he massacred on account of the assistance they had rendered to Gelal-Eddin, the son of Mohammed. While he was engaged in the conquest of the neighbouring countries, he sent part of his forces to subdue Khorasan, part to conquer the western provinces of Persia, and au army of 80,000 men to pursue Gelal-Eddin, who had fled into the countriee west of the Indies. These expeditlous were successful, with the exception of the last. Gelal-Eddin, who appears to have been a brave and enterprising prince, defeated the Moguls, but was soon afterwards conquered by Gengis Khan, who had marched in person against him. In the two following years the lieutenants of Gengis Khan conquered Azcrbijan and all the other provinces of the Persian empire. In £H. 620 (A.D. 1224), he again crossed the Jaxartes, and returned to his capital, Cara-Corom, after an absence of seven years, during which period he had laid waste the most fertile regions of Asia, plundered the cities of Carizme, Herat, Balkh, Candahar, Bokhara, Samarcand, and many others of less note, and destroyed, according to the calculation of Oriental historians, five millions of human beings. His empire now extended from the
Volga to the Pacific, and from Siberia to the Persian Gulf; but he still meditated new conquests, and in the following year led his victorious Moguls through the desert of Gobi against the King of Tangut, whom he defeated and subdued. He then continued his march towards the southern provinces of China, but died on the borders of that country on the 10th of Ramadhan, A.H. 624 (24th of August 1227), in the sixty-fourth year of his age. He was succeeded by his son Octal. His two other sons had the provinces of Transoxiana and Khorasan assigned to them. The Mogul princes have always claimed descent from the family of Gengis Khan ; but his descendants lost all real power, though they still retained the title of khan, in the time of Tamerlane. [Thm] The code of laws published by Genes Khan is still known in Asia under the title of Isa Gengis Khani' (' The Laws of Gengis Khan'). Au interesting account of them is given by M. Langles in the fifth volume of 'Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits de la Bibliothbque du Rai'