 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Qara'unas" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(June 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
TheQara'unas orNegüderi were theMongols who settled inAfghanistan after moving fromTurkestan andMongolia.[1][2][3]
The word Qarauna derived from theTurkic wordQara meaning black inMongolian.[4] At first they were subjects of theGreat Khan and served astamnas ortamachis inAfghanistan. The Great Khan appointed their leaders from non-Chingisid generals such as Dayir and Mungudei. In 1238, they settled nearIndia to face the military forces of theDelhi Sultanate. In the 1250s their leader wasSali Noyan who was of Tatar origin.Möngke Khan orderedSali Noyan and his tamna soldiers to join Hulegu's army in 1253. In 1260,Jochid Baval, the father ofNogai Khan, was executed on the orders ofHulegu Khan after gaining permission fromBerke who was the khan of theGolden Horde. Soon after that, Kuli and Tutar, also Golden Horde princes, died under suspicious circumstances.Golden Horde soldiers who served Hulgeu feared for their lives and began to move to theKipchak Steppes viaDerbent while others moved through Syria toEgypt. Angered, Hulegu punished many soldiers of the Golden Horde forthe defeat of Ain Jalut. The Mongol generalBaiju was executed as well. To the east, the flight of Jochid troops into Afghanistan in significant numbers led to the creation of theNegudari (Nikudari) Mongols or Qara'unas in 1262. Berke ordered general Neguder to carry out raids in the eastern part of theIlkhanate. Some historians refer to the Qara'unas as Neguderis. This term was derived from the name of Negudar.
Although some scholars claim that the Qara'unas did not owe allegiance to any khanate in the 1290s, it is also claimed that the Qara'unas were largely brought under theChagatai Khanate during the reign ofAlghu in 1262. As a result of wars between the Mongol khanates, the Qara'unas deserted Hulegu and captured Sali bahadur. While a majority of Qara'unas were ruled by Chagatai princes, there was another group inKhorasan which formed the eastern border forAbagha Khan. He appointed former Chagatai KhanMubarak Shah their leader.
Duwa recalled his cousin Abdullah and appointed his sonQutlugh Khwaja a governor there in 1299. The descendants of Duwa ruled the Qara'unas after that.Oljeitu reasserted his ancestors' claim on Afghanistan and repelled the Qara'unas in 1314. Another Chagatai princeYasa'ur was given lands in Afghanistan by the latterIlkhan. By his complaisance toward theBuyantu Ayurbawda Khan of theYuan and the Ilkhan Oljeitu,Kebek reoccupied the territory peacefully.Esenbuqa andTarmashirin were all military governors of the Qara'unas who later became Chagatai Khans. This military group had participated in allMongol invasions of India after 1241.
Serving under the Khans, they gained confidence from them. Qara'unas were the main force for the campaigns inPersia andIndia. Neguderis wintered aroundGhazna and summered in Ghur and Garchistan. According toMarco Polo, they were mixed withIndians and Turks, because these soldiers were unable to reachMongolia to findMongol wives. After the death ofQazan Khan, the Chagatai Khanate split into two parts until it was temporarily reunited underTughlugh Timur (1347–1363). Chagatai Mongol fell under the control of semi-nomadic oboghs: the Arlat in the west, theBarlas in the center, and theJalayir in the north, and two non-tribal military groups, the Qara'unas and the Qa'uchin.
While the Mongols in Moghulistan, the eastern part of the Chagatai Khanate, called their western counterparts in Transoxiana Qara'unas (blacks or mixed breed), the western Chagatayid called the Mongols of Moghulistan Jete (bandits). The western part of the khanate was under the control of Qara'unas such asamirQazaghan and his son‘Abdullah. ButSuldus and Barlas nobles revolted against their rule in 1359.
With the Mongol (Moghul) invasion in 1360, the Qarauna ascendancy failed. In 1362Tamerlane (Temur, Timur) rejoined the Qara'unas under Qazaghan's grandson,Husayn. They freed Transoxiana from the Mongols ofMoghulistan, whom they considered unruly bandits in the next year. But in 1365 the Moghuls invaded again. The Qarauna and Barlas forces were defeated.
Quickly after the Khan's fail, Timur and Husayn recovered. They co-ruled Transoxiana and installed a puppet khan. Husayn decided to build himself a permanent capital and urban base on the site ofBalkh in Afghanistan andTurkestan, ruined since the time ofGenghis Khan, but now to be developed as an anti-Samarkand. When the ambitious Temur finally revolted in 1370 at the head of his coalition, Husayn had little support left and was easily defeated and killed. Temur fully subjugated the Qara'unas in the 1380s.
During the reign of Temur (d.1405), Qara'unas formed a huge part of his army. According toBabur, they still spoke Mongolian in the mountains of Ghazni in the late 15th century.[5]
TheNikudari are (or were; Weiers notes that his informants were not aware of this term anymore) a population group of Afghanistan of Mongolic origin. They are distinct from them in that theHazara do not exhibit any Mongolic linguistic peculiarities. The Nikudari, on the other hand, used to speakMoghol which is probably extinct now.
Their tribal name hails from their former military leader,Negudar, who according toMorgan was a general of theGolden Horde,[6] but according to the research of Weiers that Morgan fails to quote was a leader of rebels againstHulegu Khan.[7]