The Rashīdī History 8.4.3

8.4.3

Juvaini, the author of the Jahan Kushai, applies to the Mongols the passage from the Koran: "Beware of provoking the Turks, for they are formidable." Abul-feda quotes an Arab author to the effect that the Russians are a people of Turkish race, when pointing to them as belonging to the group of non-Musulman and non-Tajik inhabitants of what were regarded as civilised countries. Ibn Haukal, touching on the question from a geographical point of view, writes: "Tiraz [Taraz] is on the extreme frontier between the country of the Turks and that of the Musulmans"; yet the Musulmans, in this case, were, to a great degree, of Turki race. And, again, Minhaj-ud-Din mentions an invasion of Tibet (from Upper Bengal apparently) and says: "All the people [of Tibet] were Turks, archers, and [furnished with] long bows." Idrisi, also, in speaking of Tibet, says: "This is the country of the Tibetan Turks"; and afterwards: "This intervening space is covered with pastures, forests, and strong castles belonging to the Tibetan Turks." Further on again, he tells us: "There are Turks of very diverse races" (de races très diverses); and he proceeds to detail, among others, the Tibetans and the Kalmaks. The names of the remaining tribes he mentions in this passage, are spelled in so unintelligible a manner, that I can recognise none but the Kirghiz and Kipchaks, with whom he thus classes the Tibetans and the Kalmaks as, all alike, Turks!