Steel from the mountains north of Afghanistan
 

So far, when we have discussed wootz steel from India, we have concentrated on south India and a few other places in the Deccan – but they did also have steel in other places.

The Mongol armies must have had access to steel for their weapons – but from where?
After the invasion of India, the Moguls had big armies stationed in Afghanistan and even more north, to keep their ‘friends’ out of India. Such armies needed a lot of new weapons, and repair of old weapons.

Read what Ann Feuerbach has to say to this.
At Merv, they did not import ingots because they had a whole metal industry. I am sure that the metals were smelted in the mountains of north Afghanistan and then brought down the Murgab River to Merv. There was also a huge military outpost there during the Islamic period. They needed blades.

Jens