[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) › 8.2 # The Rashīdī History 8.2 The Tarikh-i-Rashidi (Elias, Ross) 8.2 - **Language:** English ### [8.2.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.kashmir.tarikh-i-rashidi~en-ross.8.2.1) It appears from Wassaf that there was, indeed, a tribe among the Mongols named Kuranos towards the end of the twelfth century, though the name is not traceable in Rashid-ud-Din's lists, unless we are prepared to recognise it in that which Dr. Erdmann transliterates "Ghuranut" (where the final ut is only the Mongol plural) or "Ghurulas". In any case, the form Kuranos is said to have afterwards become modified in Persia, into Karawanas, which, but for the absence of an accent on the third a, is the same spelling as Mirza Haidar's. But the fact that a tribe, or sub-tribe, bearing this name existed in the twelfth or thirteenth centuries, in no way accounts for its having been applied, as a general term of contempt, to the Chaghatais as a people: there must have been some other reason and origin. The name itself was found, by Quatremère, never to appear previous to the Mongol invasions of the west, or subsequent to the date of the Zafar-Nama—viz., 1424. Marco Polo was one of the earliest to mention it, and he gives it the form Caraonas. He relates that he met with the Caraonas at Kirman and, apparently also, at other places in Persia farther north, and describes them as a robber tribe who were "the sons of Indian mothers by Tartar fathers." Probably the word "Indian" may have been employed by him in a very broad sense, or it may, as Sir H. Yule has suggested, perhaps stand for Biluchi; ### [8.2.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.kashmir.tarikh-i-rashidi~en-ross.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. ### [8.2.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.kashmir.tarikh-i-rashidi~en-ross.8.2.3) With the introduction among them of the Musulman religion, they seem to have tended gradually to lose their national characteristics and to merge more and more into the tribes or nations—for the most part of Turki descent—by whom they were surrounded. From the time of the Mongol conquests down to the first half of the sixteenth century, nearly three hundred years had elapsed. In so long a period, it is only reasonable to conclude that some changes may have taken place in a politically weak and unstable people like the Mongols, and who, in addition, were pressed upon from the west and south by alien nations much superior to themselves in numbers. It is not, however, necessary to assume, as some writers have done, that the mass of the Moghuls, even in the latest years of this period, were of Turki blood, or that they used the Turki language as their own. The circumstances that appear rather to have given rise to this view are: (1) the glimpses that are occasionally obtained in history of the Moghul Khans and chiefs (almost the only persons ever noticed individually by historians) who had become to all intents and purposes Turks, at a period following pretty closely on that of the Mongol ascendency—a matter that affects only the Moghuls of Moghulistan; and (2) the use made by Musulman authors of the word Turk, when designating, sometimes all nomad and steppe-dwelling, or pastoral, tribes, and sometimes a specific race. ### [8.2.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.kashmir.tarikh-i-rashidi~en-ross.8.2.4) This dual use of the word Turk underlies the whole of the ethnography of Central Asia, as it has come down to us through the writings of Oriental authors. It has been my object to avoid, if possible, all discussion of this much-debated question, but in order that some of our author's statements may not be wrongly interpreted, it is necessary to make some brief remarks upon it. One instance which touches phase (1) is that of the racial characteristics of the family of Baber, which gave to India the so-called 'Moghul' line of kings. It will hardly be disputed that not alone Baber himself, but some of his more immediate ancestors, were to all intents and purposes Turks; and this was the case not only in the acquisition of language and manners, but by intermixture of blood; while his successors, whose portraits, painted in India, are extant at the present day, show no trace in their features of descent from a Mongoloid race. It is said that Baber's grandfather (Sultan Abu Said of Khorasan, 1452-67) was described by a Khivan contemporary, who visited him, as a very handsome man with a full beard and unlike a Moghul. Another, and perhaps more perfect, instance of the same thing is the description given in the Tarikh-i-Rashidi of the personal appearance of Yunus, Khan of Moghulistan, in 1456, or some two centuries only after the death of Chaghatai Khan—who was certainly a pure Mongol. ### [8.2.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.kashmir.tarikh-i-rashidi~en-ross.8.2.5) Yunus is reported, by one who says that he expected to see a beardless man, "like any other Turk of the desert," to have had a full beard and Tajik (i.e., Aryan) features; and brief though this description is, it tells so significant a tale of a changed race, that it is probably as trustworthy a record, as a portrait painted by even a superior artist to those of Hindustan. In the case of the few families of the chiefs, there would be a tendency to change much more rapidly than in that of the bulk of the people. Their custom was to give their relations in marriage to the friendly rulers of foreign countries, and, in exchange, to take to wife a member of those rulers' families; if one Khan subjugated another, he usually demanded a daughter or a sister in marriage; while it was no doubt possible, and perhaps fashionable, for the governing classes to add foreign wives to their harems, in the same way that Musulmans of means and position have loved to do at all periods and in most countries. In these circumstances, the physical characteristics of the original race would soon pass away among the families of the chiefs, and with them would go the language and the customs. But with the mass of the tribes-people it would be otherwise. There appears to be no description of them indicating a resemblance to the Turks; on the contrary, the description of Yunus implies a difference between him and the mass of his people. ### [8.2.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.kashmir.tarikh-i-rashidi~en-ross.8.2.6) Moreover, we may assume that the rank and file of the Moghuls would not have the same opportunities for rapidly connecting themselves in blood relationship with their neighbours; consequently the distinctive features of their race would take longer to undermine. As already observed, the life of the steppes and the comparative isolation of the aúl, would tend rather to preserve the purity of the race. It may not be possible to form an estimate of the length of time that would be needed to bring about a change of type by gradual intermarriage, but we know, at any rate, of one instance where this same Mongol people, from living in more or less isolated positions, and mixing with neighbouring races only to a very slight extent, have preserved all the physical characteristics of their original type, as well as the language, down to our own day — or some six and a half centuries from the date of their transplantation, during the era of the Mongol conquests. I refer to the Hazaras of Afghanistan, most of whom are still as unmistakably Mongol in feature and build as the inhabitants of Mongolia itself. According to the most trustworthy accounts of them, they descend from the remnants of the army of Nikudar Oghlan, a son of Hulaku, who invaded the region in which they dwell now, about the latter half of the thirteenth century; ### [8.2.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.kashmir.tarikh-i-rashidi~en-ross.8.2.7) while Professor von der Gabelentz has shown that, in spite of a slight mixture of Persian words, their language is still strictly Mongolian, or more particularly, West Mongolian — i.e., Kalmuk. On the general question of the rise and decay of languages, enough is known of the process which a nation has to go through before it can completely change its tongue, to justify the belief that a very long period is needed for the transfer to become finally accomplished. The first step is that the people should become bi-lingual — that the mass of them (not a few of the chiefs) should come to use both the old and the new language with equal facility — and this alone is a process requiring many generations. The next step is that the old language should fall into disuse and be forgotten. The second stage may, perhaps, take less time to work itself out than the first; but it must, nevertheless, require a period measured in generations. Thus, when we consider that a century (according to the usual computation) embraces only about three generations, it must be regarded as improbable that the tribes which were pure Mongols at the end of the thirteenth century should have become the pure Turks they are sometimes represented, at the period dealt with by our author. The Russian savant Gmelin, who travelled in Central Asia in the last century, is emphatic in stating his belief in the permanency of the Mongol race in general, as far as physical attributes are concerned. ### [8.2.8](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.kashmir.tarikh-i-rashidi~en-ross.8.2.8) He affirms that, in spite of all mixtures of blood by their wars in distant countries, the Mongol tribes have not only preserved their characteristic type of features, but have even impressed it on other races with whom they have come in contact—such as the Kirghiz and others. This statement perhaps hardly affords a proof on the subject in question, but it goes towards showing that the eradication of the Mongol type is not a simple matter, or one that is likely to have been accomplished in a space of barely two hundred years. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.kashmir.tarikh-i-rashidi~en-ross.8.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.kashmir.tarikh-i-rashidi~en-ross.8.2) · Pramāṇa