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 Cli. V THE TURKISH INVASIoN 143 
this by annexing Khorezm and the upper Oxus and, at first through the intermediary
of some cousins, the provinces of Herat and Sistan. But in this direction
expansion halted there, not only because it was made difficult by the presence
of other Turks in the northeast and by mountains to the southeast, but also
because in fact the majority of the Turkomans were not oriented thither.
Even though, towards the south, a son of ChagrI named Kavurd occupied Kerman
and went beyond to seize the entrance to the Persian Gulf and impose his
power on Oman, these excessively hot deserts could not greatly attract the
Turkomans. 
 On the other hand Tughrul, to whom had been allotted whatever he could conquer
towards the west, was able to take advantage of the more normal area of expansion
which the steppes of the northern and western portions of the Iranian plateau
presented to the Turkomans, as they had to many others before them. The Buwaihids
and other Iranian princes, torn apart by dissensions, poorly supported by
troops who, more than elsewhere, were attached to the soil by land-grants
(Arabic singular, iq~ac), were no longer in a position to organize any real
resistance. Tughrul had no trouble in taking Rayy or in leaping forthwith
to the opposite edge of the plateau to capture Hamadan, at the same time
that, on his flanks, he had his "suzerainty" recognized in Tabaristan and,
in 1043, Isfahan. This advance was considered menacing by the first wave
of Turkomans to have entered western Iran. Fleeing the Selchükids, they
spread over upper Mesopotamia where, cut off from their bases, they were
annihilated by the Arabs and Kurds, who had formed a coalition against their
ravaging pastoral competitors. 
 The situation of Tughrul with his own Turkomans was complex.. It was chiefly
in the direction of Azerbaijan that the convergence of the Iranian routes
caused them to reassemble, and in addition they were drawn by the proximity
of frontiers — Georgian, Armeno-Byzantine, and Caucasian — which
suggested the possibility of resuming the ghazi activity which they had had
to abandon in the east. In itself this did no harm to Tughrul, who thus assured
at slight expense the covering of his northern flank and might look forward
to further conquests. In any event, it was preferable for their flocks to
browse on pastures other than his. But there were disadvantages; Tughrul
needed the Turkomans at hand for his own operations, which had become much
less attractive to them now that, as we shall see, he often forbade pillage
and did not let them take their families for permanent settlement. On the