This desert, which extends from Khwārizm and the borders of Balkh to the Caspian, and from the limits of the Persian Khorasān to the sea of Aral, and the country of the Kirghiz, s inhabited by wandering Turkomāns,* some of whom own submission to the chiefs of Khwārizm, or Urgenj, and others to the Persians; while a considerable portion of them yield scarcely even a nominal submission to either.