DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.25988#0289
1810-15.
Poona.
265
tribes ? Even if this be the case, it is strange that the Russians
shonld have an Arabic name for a division of their subjects. I
cannot account for the general application of the word Tartar,
which ought certainly to be nsed as a conventional term for
all the wandering tribes of the West, or not at all. I have been
told by a Toork that at Bokhara it is onlv applied to the
Uzbegs. He even said that the Tartars, or couriers in the
Grrand Signior’s service, are or were originally of Uzbeg descent.
What you have heard of the general use of Persian beyond the
Oxus agrees with all my information, but I do not find that it
is limited to the other side of that river. It is nowhere the
vernacular language of the Uzbegs, but it is that of the Taujiks
or Serts, 9 who are found in great numbers all over Toorkistan,
but also in Balkh and other places on this bank of the Oxus.
It is probable there are no Taujiks among the Toorkamans, who
inhabit the left bank of the Oxus, lower down than the places
I have mentioned, and that circumstance may have led to the
opinion that Persian is less common on this side than on the
other. I have not been able to surmount the difficulty about
the origin of these Taujiks. I should think they were descend-
ants of Arabs, were it not that the Arabian conquerors are still
to be found clistinct from the Taujiks in the countries which
were reduced by the Caliphs. They cannot be descendants of
colonists sent from Persia in the days when Toorkestan was
subject to the other country, for their language is modern Per-
sian, and I have never lieard of the Persians being powerful
beyond the Oxus, since that language became prevalent. They
may possibly be people who have been led into captivity, at
different times, by the Toorkee and Affghan chiefs who have
ravaged Persia, and may have multiplied within the limits of
the masters, as the Israelites did in Gfoshen. Before I leave the
subject of Toorkestan, I must assure you how happy I shall be
to be of any use to Baber. I am, however, afraid I shall be of
very little. You are much better acquainted than I am with
many of the subjects on which I thought at first I coulcl have
given you information ; and, even within Affghanistan, I do not
9 Name applied to the Taujiks by the Uzbegs. Elphinstone, Cabul, 1104.
Poona.
265
tribes ? Even if this be the case, it is strange that the Russians
shonld have an Arabic name for a division of their subjects. I
cannot account for the general application of the word Tartar,
which ought certainly to be nsed as a conventional term for
all the wandering tribes of the West, or not at all. I have been
told by a Toork that at Bokhara it is onlv applied to the
Uzbegs. He even said that the Tartars, or couriers in the
Grrand Signior’s service, are or were originally of Uzbeg descent.
What you have heard of the general use of Persian beyond the
Oxus agrees with all my information, but I do not find that it
is limited to the other side of that river. It is nowhere the
vernacular language of the Uzbegs, but it is that of the Taujiks
or Serts, 9 who are found in great numbers all over Toorkistan,
but also in Balkh and other places on this bank of the Oxus.
It is probable there are no Taujiks among the Toorkamans, who
inhabit the left bank of the Oxus, lower down than the places
I have mentioned, and that circumstance may have led to the
opinion that Persian is less common on this side than on the
other. I have not been able to surmount the difficulty about
the origin of these Taujiks. I should think they were descend-
ants of Arabs, were it not that the Arabian conquerors are still
to be found clistinct from the Taujiks in the countries which
were reduced by the Caliphs. They cannot be descendants of
colonists sent from Persia in the days when Toorkestan was
subject to the other country, for their language is modern Per-
sian, and I have never lieard of the Persians being powerful
beyond the Oxus, since that language became prevalent. They
may possibly be people who have been led into captivity, at
different times, by the Toorkee and Affghan chiefs who have
ravaged Persia, and may have multiplied within the limits of
the masters, as the Israelites did in Gfoshen. Before I leave the
subject of Toorkestan, I must assure you how happy I shall be
to be of any use to Baber. I am, however, afraid I shall be of
very little. You are much better acquainted than I am with
many of the subjects on which I thought at first I coulcl have
given you information ; and, even within Affghanistan, I do not
9 Name applied to the Taujiks by the Uzbegs. Elphinstone, Cabul, 1104.