History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c6.9

c6.9

Marco Polo who travelled in Asia in the thirteenth century, speaking of the Qaraunahs whom he met at Kirman and other places in Persia, writes that they were the sons of Indian mothers by Tartar fathers and describes them as a predatory and marauding tribe.⁴ Elias and Ross, the learned translators of Mirza Haider’s *Tarikh-i-Rashidi*, rightly think that Marco Polo used the word Indian in a very broad sense and opine that probably it refers to Beluchi. Marco Polo alone writes that this name is given to them because of their mixed breed. No other writer has given an explanation of the word Qaraunah except Marco Polo, and no dictionary affords any assistance. Among Muslim historians neither Wassāf nor Mirkhond, nor Rashid-al-Din explains the origin of the term. They only dwell upon their warlike qualities and their peculiar physiognomy. They describe them as a sub-tribe of Mongols who entered Khorasan and Persia under Halākū or some time after his invasion. Mirza Haider Daghlāt, the well-known author of the *Tarikh-i-Rashidi*, writes of them: