We Shall See Hereafter That There Is A Tartar Term
Arghun, Applied To Fair Children Born Of A Mongol Mother
And white
father; it is possible that there may have been a correlative word like
Karaun (from Kara, black) applied
To dark children born of Mongol
father and black mother, and that this led Marco to a false theory.
[Major Sykes (Persia) devotes a chapter (xxiv.) to The Karwan
Expedition in which he says: "Is it not possible that the Karwanis are
the Caraonas of Marco Polo? They are distinct from the surrounding
Baluchis, and pay no tribute." - H. C.]
[Illustration: Portrait of a Hazara.]
Let us turn now to the name of Nogodar. Contemporaneously with the
Karaunahs we have frequent mention of predatory bands known as
Nigudaris, who seem to be distinguished from the Karaunahs, but had a
like character for truculence. Their headquarters were about Sijistan, and
Quatremere seems disposed to look upon them as a tribe indigenous in that
quarter. Hammer says they were originally the troops of Prince Nigudar,
grandson of Chaghatai, and that they were a rabble of all sorts, Mongols,
Turkmans, Kurds, Shuls, and what not. We hear of their revolts and
disorders down to 1319, under which date Mirkhond says that there had been
one-and-twenty fights with them in four years. Again we hear of them in
1336 about Herat, whilst in Baber's time they turn up as Nukdari, fairly
established as tribes in the mountainous tracts of Karnud and Ghur, west
of Kabul, and coupled with the Hazaras, who still survive both in name and
character. "Among both," says Baber, "there are some who speak the Mongol
language." Hazaras and Takdaris (read Nukdaris) again occur coupled in
the History of Sind. (See Elliot, I. 303-304.) [On the struggle
against Timur of Toumen, veteran chief of the Nikoudrians (1383-84), see
Major David Price's Mahommedan History, London, 1821, vol. iii. pp.
47-49, H. C.] In maps of the 17th century, as of Hondius and Blaeuw, we
find the mountains north of Kabul termed Nochdarizari, in which we cannot
miss the combination Nigudar-Hazarah, whencesoever it was got. The Hazaras
are eminently Mongol in feature to this day, and it is very probable that
they or some part of them are the descendants of the Karaunahs or the
Nigudaris, or of both, and that the origination of the bands so called,
from the scum of the Mongol inundation, is thus in degree confirmed. The
Hazaras generally are said to speak an old dialect of Persian. But one
tribe in Western Afghanistan retains both the name of Mongols and a
language of which six-sevenths (judging from a vocabulary published by
Major Leech) appear to be Mongol. Leech says, too, that the Hazaras
generally are termed Moghals by the Ghilzais. It is worthy of notice that
Abu'l Fazl, who also mentions the Nukdaris among the nomad tribes of Kabul,
says the Hazaras were the remains of the Chaghataian army which Mangu Kaan
sent to the aid of Hulaku, under the command of Nigudar Oghlan.
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