The Rashīdī History 106.1

106.1

At the beginning of the reign of Yunus Khan, all the Moghuls dwelt, according to their old custom, in Moghulistan; they avoided all towns and cultivated countries [and regarded them] with great repugnance. They were Musulmans in nothing but the name; in fact, not even in name, for they were carried off into the countries round about, and sold as slaves like other infidels. After the Khan had had the happiness to kiss the feet of his Holiness, the latter wrote letters to all the surrounding Musulman rulers, saying: "We have seen Sultan Yunus Khan, and it is not lawful to molest a tribe whose chief is so good a Musulman." From that date, no more Moghuls who had been carried off, were ever bought or sold as slaves, in a Muhammadan country. The Moghuls had always been this kind of [nomadic] people. The Khan felt that until they settled down in cultivated countries and towns, they could never become true Musulmans. He therefore exerted himself to the utmost to bring their settlement about.