Herat lay prostrate before the Mongol corps that had crossed the Oxus into Persia. Inhabitants of Herat and its environs had more than an inkling of the horrors that awaited them: the Mongols’ reputation for barbarism, rapine, enslavement, and mass murder had preceded their vanguards. Indeed, Mongols relied on tales of horror to spur capitulations. Balkh, Bukhara, Marw, Nishapur, and Samarqand lay ravaged. Herat was besieged (twice) and suffered terribly. Herat remained desolated for years (Chapter One).

Immediate successors of Chingiz Khan took steps to revitalize Herat (Chapter Two). But Herat was a prize in Chinggisid internecine struggles for supremacy, with factions vying for influence. Möngke created the Kart dynasty to advance the Mongol Empire’s aspirations for order and administration in Khurasan. Shams al-Dīn Kart’s stewardship was undermined by the political machinations of Chinggisid factions; and his absences from Herat campaigning against the Ilkhanate’s enemies, including the Golden Horde.

Shams al-Dīn Kart was assigned vast tracts in Möngke’s patent, but had to negotiate and fashion alliances with local lords in those region. If they failed to become his bondsman (sgl. banda; pl. bandagān), he fought them. His spent years battling recalcitrant local lords in Khurasan, Afghānistān, and Sīstān, and the Golden Horde; but left to his heirs a rudimentary state bound together by a mosaic of bandagān.