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The Mongol invasion of Afghanistan in 1221, following their victory over the Khwarazmian Empire, resulted in profound and lasting devastation across the region. The assault disproportionately affected sedentary towns and villages, with nomadic communities better positioned to evade the Mongol onslaught. A significant outcome was the deterioration of irrigation systems, critical for agriculture, leading to a demographic and economic shift towards the more defensible hill regions.
Balkh, once a thriving city, was obliterated, remaining in ruins even a century later as observed by the traveler Ibn Battuta. During the Mongols' pursuit of Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu, they besieged Bamyan, and in response to the death of Genghis Khan's grandson Mutukan by a defender's arrow, they destroyed the city and massacred its population, earning it the grim epithet "City of Screams."
Herat, despite being razed, experienced reconstruction under the local Kart dynasty and later became part of the Ilkhanate. Meanwhile, territories extending from Balkh through Kabul to Kandahar fell under the Chagatai Khanate's control after the Mongol Empire fragmented. In contrast, the tribal areas south of the Hindu Kush maintained either alliances with the Khalji dynasty of northern India or retained their independence, illustrating the complex political landscape in the aftermath of the Mongol invasion.