[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Dark Ages](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages) › [Kashmir](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.kashmir) › [Tārīkh-i Rashīdī](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.kashmir.tarikh-i-rashidi) › [The Tarikh-i-Rashidi (Elias, Ross)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.kashmir.tarikh-i-rashidi~en-ross) › 8.1 # The Rashīdī History 8.1 The Tarikh-i-Rashidi (Elias, Ross) 8.1 - **Language:** English ### [8.1.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.kashmir.tarikh-i-rashidi~en-ross.8.1.1) Men from the regions near the Volga's mouth, Mixed with the rude, black archers of the South; Chiefs of the Uzbek race, Waving their heron crests with martial grace; Turkomans, countless as their flocks, led forth From th' aromatic pastures of the North; Wild warriors of the turquoise hills,—and those Who dwell beyond the everlasting snows Of Hindoo Kosh, in stormy freedom bred, .... — Veiled Prophet of Khorasan. In the foregoing Section, it has been found convenient to use the word Moghulistan for the region occupied by the descendants of the Mongols, subsequent to the time of Chaghatai Khan, though it has been necessary, when speaking of the people or their language from a racial point of view, to employ, occasionally, the terms Mongol and Mongolian rather than Moghul. The distinction may not be a very satisfactory one, and need not be carried farther than is absolutely needed to differentiate between the earlier racial attributes, and the later national, or political, aspects of the land and people. It is not easy, however, to distinguish, nominally, between the Mongols of Mongolia proper, before they spread to the westward under Chingiz Khan, and the same people when, at a later date, having separated from the land of their ancestors, they had come to close quarters with the Musulman inhabitants of the western states of Central Asia. ### [8.1.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.kashmir.tarikh-i-rashidi~en-ross.8.1.2) These neighbours mispronounced the name of the new-comers' original nation and, afterwards becoming their historians, handed it down to posterity under what appears to be an altered form. Fortunately it was not greatly changed by either Persian or Turki writers, yet the slight modification they made has led, in modern times, to doubts whether the terms Mongol and Moghul were intended for the same word, and whether they denoted one people or two. We may be satisfied that the two forms, as also the Mo-ol of some of the earlier transliterators from the Chinese, are intended for one and the same. ### [8.1.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.kashmir.tarikh-i-rashidi~en-ross.8.1.3) With the name of the land it was somewhat different. The Mongols themselves have perhaps never had a general name for the whole of the countries inhabited by their tribes — that is, for the region known to Europeans as 'Mongolia' in its most extended sense. At the time of Chingiz Khan, probably whatever country was vaguely regarded by Turki and Persian writers as being in the original occupation of the Mongols, or Moghuls, was called simply Moghulistan; but later, when a specific region, bordering on some of the most advanced and thickly peopled countries of the Turks and Tajiks, became the home of Mongol tribesmen, who made their presence felt in a manner none too agreeable, they absorbed the attention of their neighbours and came to be spoken of as the Moghuls in a special sense, and their land as Moghulistan. The rest of the race fell out of sight: their territory was far away and probably seldom heard of, while taking into consideration the loose ideas prevalent among Asiatics on such subjects, it is not in the least unlikely that the smaller, but better known, region, should have acquired for itself the name which, by strict right, should have been applied to the whole. That the original population of this smaller region was composed of various nations, previous to its becoming the home of Mongol tribesmen, we have seen already. ### [8.1.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.kashmir.tarikh-i-rashidi~en-ross.8.1.4) Abul Ghazi tells us that it was inhabited by many tribes — some that were of Mongol race and others that were not — and D'Ohsson and Howorth amply demonstrate the same thing. It contained Uighurs, who were a tribe of Turki descent; Kara Khitai, whose origin was chiefly Manchu (and therefore of a Tungusic root), though probably much mixed with Mongol blood; also Naimans and Karluks, and perhaps some original Kirghiz, all of Turki ancestry; and, moreover, there were Kalmaks, who must be regarded as a branch of the Mongol race. But when, during the time of the Mongol ascendency, large numbers of that people settled in the country and became, from a military point of view, the dominant race, it is scarcely surprising that the western foreigners should have given the whole of the region the name of Moghulistan, just as they had previously, when the Kara Khitai were supreme there, called the same territory Kara Khitai. It was the name that the Mongols themselves affected and were (at that time, at any rate) proud of, while it was also that with which their fame and their most cherished traditions were associated. Their mode of procedure, and the result they unconsciously attained, are paralleled in European history by the instance of the Franks in Gaul. During the third century, the Franks were still a loose confederacy of Germanic tribes living beyond the right bank of the Rhine. By degrees, under the Merovingians, they began to invade the country on the left bank. ### [8.1.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.kashmir.tarikh-i-rashidi~en-ross.8.1.5) As the Roman power declined, their own increased till, in the fifth century, they had extended it over the whole of northern Gaul. Here they adapted themselves to the conditions of their new territory, and gradually spread over the entire surface of what is now France. Their numbers were so small that they were overlaid by the large Gallic population, yet the new-comers succeeded eventually in imposing their name on the larger nation, and originated the names of France and French, which entirely displaced those of the ancient inhabitants. But Moghulistan was not the only name the new land of the Mongols acquired, for in many books of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, we find both country and people alluded to under the name of Jatah—a name that, in translating, has been made to assume several unnecessary forms. Thus Pétis de la Croix, who put the Zafar-Náma into French, as far back as the end of the seventeenth century, transliterated the word Getah, and many subsequent authors followed his example. From the name mis-spelled in this way, much speculation arose among European writers, some of whom were able to derive from it the designation of the Jats of India, and others to recognise the Getæ, or Massagetæ, of classical authors. It is fair to say that most modern Orientalists have hesitated to accept these speculative conjectures, though the meaning and origin of the name, have been hidden from them. ### [8.1.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.kashmir.tarikh-i-rashidi~en-ross.8.1.6) Mirza Haidar now (and he is the first to do so) clears the matter up by informing his readers, parenthetically, in a number of places, that Moghulistan and Jatah were one and the same country. In the passages from the Zafar-Náma, which he cites in the First Part of his history, he interpolates this definition repeatedly, while in the closing chapter of that Part, he adds the further explanation that the Chaghatais called the Moghuls Jatah, on account of their enmity towards them, and by way of depreciation. Thus it was merely a nickname—a term of contempt or reproach—and when, with this clue, the word is sought in a Mongol dictionary, it is found to mean a 'worthless person,' a 'ne'er-do-well,' or 'rascal.' It has therefore no racial significance, but like such names as Kazak, Kalmak, etc., was probably applied to the Moghuls by their more cultivated neighbours, on account of their barbarous manners, lawless character, and unsettled habits generally. This being the sense, it need not be used except in translating from the texts; explained once for all, the Jatahs who have haunted the works of historians and commentators for two hundred years, fall into their right place and need be heard of no more. But the anomalies of nomenclature did not stop here, for our author further implies that the Moghals retorted on the Chaghatais with the reproachful name of Karawanas. ### [8.1.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.kashmir.tarikh-i-rashidi~en-ross.8.1.7) Unfortunately he does not, in this instance, give any clue to the meaning of the word, and neither Turki dictionaries nor the transliterated Mongol dictionaries (as far as I am able to use them) throw any light upon it. Indeed, I know of nothing to point to the word being a term of depreciation, except the inference to be drawn from this one statement of Mirza Haidar's; but, taking into consideration the connection in which he introduces it, and the common practice over the greater part of Asia, of one nation calling another by a reproachful nickname, this single instance is probably sufficient. The name, under one variant or another, has been found by translators in several Oriental works, and appears in many cases to be applied to a tribe or community: thus Quatremere cites the Tarikh-i-Wassaf to the effect that the army of the "Karawanas" resembled monkeys rather than men, but that they were the bravest "among the Mongols"; also Mirkhwand, who is represented as describing them in precisely the same way; Rashid-ud-Din, who also speaks of their bravery; and several others who, however, only make mention of the name. Not one of these authors assists us in assigning a meaning to the word, or in tracing the origin of its application to the Chaghatais as a people. None of them do more than represent the Karawanas to have been a sub-tribe of Mongols who entered Khorasan and Persia under Hulaku, or very shortly after him. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.kashmir.tarikh-i-rashidi~en-ross.8.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.kashmir.tarikh-i-rashidi~en-ross.8.1) · Pramāṇa