 Hudud al-Alam, completed in 983, lists Suyab as a city of 20,000 inhabitants.It is believed to have been supplanted by Balasagun in the early 11th century and was abandoned soon thereafter.The area around Suyab briefly returned to China under the Qing Dynasty during the 18th century, but was ceded to the Russian Empire in the Treaty of Tarbagatai in 1864, along with Lake Balkash.