Those who wish to form a clear idea of the degraded condition of the greater part of the Indian kings and princes in the southern and northern part of India, must recur to the hostile invasions by which foreign conquerors reduced those countries under their dominion. In the year 1202 the Tartar _Gingsa Khan_, or _Gengis Khan_, made an incursion into the kingdom of _Tangut_, and in 1209 into India. He was followed in 1409, two centuries later, by _Timur_ _Bec_, or Tamerlan, when he had crushed the dynasty of the Moguls, which afterwards was divided into two branches, the eastern and the western. Timur established himself in the neighbourhood of _Agra_; expelled, as far as his power extended, the legal Indian kings and princes; and committed the care of the provinces he had subdued to nabobs and governors of his own appointment. This was the first time that the Mogul Tartars took possession of India. Some writers assert, that _Gengis Khan_ did not enter India till the year 1218, and that the conquest of that country by Timur falls about the year 1398. However this may be, _Mir Shah_, called by some _Mirzan Pir Mohamed_, kept possession of the northern part of India for several years, and composed for his subjects a new code of laws according to the political system of the Moguls. The next conqueror of India was _Abu Said Shemor Ami Shah_, who reigned in 1493. During the persecution which Timur permitted against the Indians, the Gypsies, who belonged originally to the caste of the _Pareas_, a people residing on the _Sindhu_, or Indus, fled from their native country, wandered through Scythia, and, proceeding thence to Hungary, dispersed themselves over various parts of Europe[35]. In the year 1519, or, according to some, 1526, the celebrated conqueror _Bahur_, a descendant of Timur, extended the Mogul empire in India; or was rather, as some assert, the real founder of it. He had four sons, _Homaon_ or _Omayoun_, _Sehir Shah_, _Selim Shah_, and _Firuz Shah_, who reigned after him. In the year 1550, or 1556, _Akbar_ the wise, a son of _Homaon_, rebuilt the city of Agra, introduced new laws, and appointed new nabobs or viceroys in the provinces. He caused various Indian books to be translated also into the Persian language; and among these were the work called _Mahabhàrada_, and another named _Ayin Akberi_. The latter was a book of Indian laws, which had been collected by his minister _Albufazel_. _Akbar_ died in 1605, and was succeeded by _Gehanguir_. The latter had five sons, one of whom swayed the sceptre of the kingdom of _Dàkshima_ or _Decan_, which he had subdued by force. In 1627 _Gehanguir_ was followed by _Shah Gehan_, who also left behind him five sons. According to some, however, a prince named _Bolasci_ reigned a considerable time before him. _Akbar_ restored to the Brahmans their observatory at Benares, in order that they might continue their astronomical observations, which had been long interrupted by the war.