The Rashīdī History 8.2.2

8.2.2

but in any case, Marco Polo refers to them as a race of half-breeds, and states that the name of Caraonas had been given them on account of their mixed parentage. Dr. Erdmann, again, alludes to the Karawinah, or Karawinas, stationed in Khorasan about the same period, and explains, on the authority of Wassaf, that they were the artillerists (Feuerwerker) of the Chaghatai army. These are the only two instances known to me, where meanings for the term are suggested by original contemporary authors; but there seems no reason to suppose that the name was specially given to any such classes as half-caste robbers or artillerymen. It was imposed, Mirza Haidar tells us, on the Chaghatais generally, and therefore is far more likely to have had its origin in something quite unconnected with either the banditti of Kirman or the gunners of the army in Khorasan, for both these classes may have inherited a right to the distinction with their Chaghatai relationship: the lesser would be contained in the greater. But under whatever name the Moghuls were known to their neighbours, one of the most noteworthy circumstances connected with them, during the period to which Mirza Haidar's history refers, was that they were rapidly declining in power and in numbers.