The Dughlat clan (;
Mongolian: ''
Dolood/sevens, Doloo/seven;
Middle Mongolian
Middle Mongol or Middle Mongolian was a Mongolic languages, Mongolic koiné language spoken in the Mongol Empire. Originating from Genghis Khan's home region of Northeastern Mongolia, it diversified into several Mongolic languages after the coll ...
: Doluga, Dolugad''; Dulğat; ) was a
Mongol
Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, China (Inner Mongolia and other 11 autonomous territories), as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family of M ...
(later
Turko-Mongol
The Turco-Mongol or Turko-Mongol tradition was an ethnocultural synthesis that arose in Asia during the 14th century among the ruling elites of the Golden Horde and the Chagatai Khanate. The ruling Mongol elites of these khanates eventually assim ...
) clan that served the
Chagatai khans as hereditary vassal rulers of several cities in western
Tarim Basin
The Tarim Basin is an endorheic basin in Xinjiang, Northwestern China occupying an area of about and one of the largest basins in Northwest China.Chen, Yaning, et al. "Regional climate change and its effects on river runoff in the Tarim Basin, Ch ...
, in modern
Xinjiang
Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...
, from the 14th century until the 16th century. The most famous member of the clan,
Mirza Muhammad Haidar
Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat Beg (; c. 1499/1500 – 1551) was a Chagatai Turco-Mongol military general, governor of Kashmir, and a historian. He was a Mughal Dughlat prince who wrote in both Chaghatai and Persian languages. Haidar and Babu ...
, was a military adventurer, historian, and the ruler of
Kashmir
Kashmir ( or ) is the Northwestern Indian subcontinent, northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term ''Kashmir'' denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir P ...
(1541–1551). His historical work, the ''Tarikh-i Rashidi'', provides much of the information known about the family.
History
Early history
The Dughlat tribe is mentioned as having supported
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan (born Temüjin; August 1227), also known as Chinggis Khan, was the founder and first khan (title), khan of the Mongol Empire. After spending most of his life uniting the Mongols, Mongol tribes, he launched Mongol invasions and ...
during his creation of the
Mongol Empire
The Mongol Empire was the List of largest empires, largest contiguous empire in human history, history. Originating in present-day Mongolia in East Asia, the Mongol Empire at its height stretched from the Sea of Japan to parts of Eastern Euro ...
in the early 13th century.
Rashid al-Din Hamadani
Rashīd al-Dīn Ṭabīb (; 1247–1318; also known as Rashīd al-Dīn Faḍlullāh Hamadānī, ) was a statesman, historian, and physician in Ilkhanate Iran.[Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...]
and eventually settled in the area comprising the
''ulus'' of
Chagatai Khan
Chagatai Khan (; – 1242) was a son of Genghis Khan and a prominent figure in the early Mongol Empire. The second son of Genghis's wife Börte, Chagatai was renowned for his masterful knowledge of Mongol custom and law, which he scrupulously ...
.
In the mid-14th century the authority of the Chagatai khans underwent a sudden decline. In the western part of the khanate (specifically
Transoxiana
Transoxiana or Transoxania (, now called the Amu Darya) is the Latin name for the region and civilization located in lower Central Asia roughly corresponding to eastern Uzbekistan, western Tajikistan, parts of southern Kazakhstan, parts of Tu ...
and the bordering provinces), the khans had become rulers in name only, with real power in the hands of the local Turko-Mongol amirs after 1346. In the eastern provinces (spec. the Tarim Basin and the area that was to become
Moghulistan
Moghulistan, also called the Moghul Khanate or the Eastern Chagatai Khanate, was a Muslims, Muslim, Mongol, and later Turkic peoples, Turkic breakaway khanate of the Chagatai Khanate and a historical geographic area north of the Tian Shan, Teng ...
) the authority of the khans in Transoxiana was virtually nonexistent. As a result, power there was in the hands of the local lords and tribal chiefs.
By this time the Dughlats had become one of the most eminent clans in the eastern regions. Chief among their holdings were the towns
Aksu,
Kashgar
Kashgar () or Kashi ( zh, c=喀什) is a city in the Tarim Basin region of southern Xinjiang, China. It is one of the westernmost cities of China, located near the country's border with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. For over 2,000 years, Kashgar ...
,
Yarkand
Yarkant County,, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency also Shache County,, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency also SASM/GNC ro ...
, and
Khotan
Hotan (also known by #Etymology, other names) is a major oasis town in southwestern Xinjiang, an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region in Northwestern China. The city proper of Hotan broke off from the larger Hotan County to become an ...
Their influence allowed them to select a Genghisid khan of their own choosing. In 1347, according to the ''Tarikh-i Rashidi'', the Dughlat
Amir Bulaji raised a certain
Tughlugh Timur
Tughlugh Timur Khan ( Chagatai and Persian: تغلق تیمور خان; also Tughluq Tömür or Tughluk Timur; 1312/13–1363) was the Khan of Moghulistan from and Khan of the whole Chagatai Khanate from c. 1360 until his death. Esen Buqa (a d ...
to the khanship and recognized his authority. The new khan, despite owing his throne to the Dughlats, was a man of strong character and maintained effective control of Moghulistan. He also converted to
Islam
Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
, an act that was copied by the Dughlats (one of whom,
Amir Tulik, had been secretly converted even before the khan's adoption of the faith). However, the Dughlats continued ruling by the Mongolian law (Yasa), which was not replaced by the Shari'ah untl centuries later.
Qamar ud-Din
Under Tughlugh Timur, both amirs Tuluk and Bulaji had held the office of ''ulus beg''. After the death of Bulaji the office was given to his son
Khudaidad. This was contested by Bulaji's brother,
Qamar ud-Din, who desired to be ''ulus beg'' himself. His request for the office to be transferred to him was refused by Tughlugh Timur; consequently after the latter's death Qamar ud-Din revolted against Tughlugh Timur's son
Ilyas Khoja Khan. He was likely responsible for the death of Ilyas Khoja; most of the family members of Tughlugh Timur were also killed. Qamar ud-Din proclaimed himself khan (the only Dughlat ever to do so) and, although he did not gain the support of many of the amirs, managed to maintain his position in Moghulistan.
Qamar ud-Din's reign consisted of a series of wars with
Timur
Timur, also known as Tamerlane (1320s17/18 February 1405), was a Turco-Mongol conqueror who founded the Timurid Empire in and around modern-day Afghanistan, Iran, and Central Asia, becoming the first ruler of the Timurid dynasty. An undefeat ...
, the amir of Transoxiana. Qamar ud-Din's forces unable to defeat Timur, but at the same time Timur was incapable of decisively defeating the Moghuls, who were able to retreat into the barren steppe country of Moghulistan. During a fresh invasion by Timur and his army in 1390, however, Qamar ud-Din disappeared. His disappearance enabled a Chagatayid,
Khizr Khoja, to gain control of Moghulistan.
The Dughlats in the 15th century

Qamar ud-Din's disappearance had left his nephew Khudaidad the senior member of the Dughlat family. Amir Khudaidad Dughlat had a very good knowledge about Genghis Khan's Yasa(law), which was an example of the Dughlats' continued respect for the Mongolian tradition. According to the ''Tarikh-i Rashidi'', Khudaidad had been an early supporter of Khizr Khoja and had hid him from Qamar ud-Din during the latter's purge of members of the house of Chagatai. Khudaidad's power rapidly increased and he became a king-maker in the years after Khizr Khoja's death. He also divided Aksu, Khotan, and Kashgar and Yarkand amongst his family members; this division of territory lasted until the time of
Mirza Aba Bakr.
Khudaidad eventually left the service of the Moghul khans; this did not preclude the other Dughlats from maintaining good relations with them. During the 15th century, Kashgar was recovered after it was temporarily seized by Timur's grandson
Ulugh Beg
Mīrzā Muhammad Tarāghāy bin Shāhrukh (; ), better known as Ulugh Beg (; 22 March 1394 – 27 October 1449), was a Timurid sultan, as well as an astronomer and mathematician.
Ulugh Beg was notable for his work in astronomy-related ma ...
; on the other hand, Aksu was given over to the Moghul khans.
Dughlat clan of Kazakhs
Now, the Dughlat (Dulat or
Дулат in Kazakh language) is one of the major tribe of modern
Kazakh people, they belong to
Senior-Juz of
Kazakhs
The Kazakhs (Kazakh language, Kazakh: , , , ) are a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia and Eastern Europe. They share a common Culture of Kazakhstan, culture, Kazakh language, language and History of Kazakhstan, history ...
, mainly inhabited in the east and southern parts of Kazakhstan such as
Almaty Oblysy and
Jetysu region of Kazakhstan, with a population of approximately 3,000,000 among Kazakhs (
see the Dughlat tribe of Kazakh people - from Wikipedia Dughlat introduction in Kazakh language). The Duglats sub-clans ar
Botpay, Shymyr, Sikymy, Zhanys and Eskeldysee the brief introduction of Dulats.
The most recently Y-DNA tests which investigated b
KZ DNA Projectin Kazakhstan shows that the Y-DNA haplogroup of Dughlat tribe of Kazakhs carries C3 haplogroup
see KZ DNA Project
The international ports of Dulat (Dulata Kouan - 都拉塔口岸 in Chinese) in the
Qapqal Xibe Autonomous County of the
Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture
Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture is an autonomous prefecture in northern Xinjiang, China. Its capital is Yining, also known as Ghulja or Kulja. Covering an area of 268,591 square kilometres (16.18 per cent of Xinjiang), Ili Prefecture shares ...
of China was named after with the Dughlats, because of the historical inhabitant of Dughlats clans in this area in the past, the ports of Dulat was opened in 2003 with the agreement of governments of both Kazakhstan and China.
Mirza Aba Bakr
Mirza Aba Bakr, the great-great-grandson of Khudaidad, built up an independent kingdom for himself in the last decades of the 15th century. Beginning with the seizure of Yarkand, which was henceforth his capital, he conquered Khotan and Kashgar from other members of his family and defied numerous attempts by the Moghul khans to force him into submission. By the beginning of the 16th century he was also conducting raids into
Ferghana
Fergana ( uz-Latn-Cyrl, Fargʻona, Фарғона, ), () or Ferghana, also Farghana is a district-level city and the capital of Fergana Region in eastern Uzbekistan. Fergana is about 320 km east of Tashkent, about 75 km southwest of ...
,
Badakshan
Badakhshan is a historical region comprising the Wakhan Corridor in northeast Afghanistan, eastern Tajikistan, and Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County in China. Badakhshan Province is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. Much of historic Ba ...
and
Ladakh
Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory and constitutes an eastern portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a Kashmir#Kashmir dispute, dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and India an ...
. Near the end of his reign he even managed to plunder Aksu, which was still held by the Moghuls. In 1514 his forces were defeated by the Moghul
Sultan Said Khan
Sultan Said Khan (Chagatai language, Chagatai and Persian language, Persian: سلطان سعید خان) ruled the Yarkent Khanate from September 1514 to July 1533. He was born in the late 15th century in Moghulistan, and he was a direct descend ...
, compelling him to flee. This marked the end of Dughlat control over the western Tarim Basin cities, which were in the hands of the Moghul khans until they were conquered by the
Dzungars
The Dzungar people (also written as Zunghar or Junggar; from the Mongolian words , meaning 'left hand') are the many Mongol Oirat tribes who formed and maintained the Dzungar Khanate in the 17th and 18th centuries. Historically, they were on ...
in the late 17th century.
Mirza Muhammad Haidar
Mirza Muhammad Haidar was the nephew of Mirza Aba Bakr. He was the son of
Muhammad Husain Kurkan, who had married into the family of the Moghul khans and had spent his life alternating between serving the
Moghuls, the
Timurid Babur
Babur (; 14 February 148326 December 1530; born Zahīr ud-Dīn Muhammad) was the founder of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent. He was a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan through his father and mother respectively. He was also ...
and the
Shaybanid Uzbeks
The Uzbeks () are a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia, being among the largest Turkic ethnic groups in the area. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, next to Kazakhs, Kazakh and Karakalpaks, Karakalpak ...
. Mirza Haidar himself entered the service of Sultan Said Khan just before the latter's conquest of Mirza Aba Bakr's kingdom. During the khan's lifetime he conducted a holy war in Ladakh on his behalf. After Sultan Said Khan's death in 1533 his son
Abdur Rashid Khan executed Mirza Haidar's uncle; fearing the same fate, Mirza Haidar fled to the
Mughal
Mughal or Moghul may refer to:
Related to the Mughal Empire
* Mughal Empire of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries
* Mughal dynasty
* Mughal emperors
* Mughal people, a social group of Central and South Asia
* Mughal architecture
* Mug ...
Emperor
Humayun
Nasir al-Din Muhammad (6 March 1508 – 27 January 1556), commonly known by his regnal name Humayun (), was the second Mughal emperor, who ruled over territory in what is now Eastern Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Northern India, and Pakistan from ...
in northern
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
. It was in the service of the emperor that he undertook the conquest of Kashmir in 1541. Mirza Haidar was more or less able to retain his position as ruler of Kashmir for ten years, during which he wrote the ''Tarikh-i Rashidi''. His reign in Kashmir ended in 1551 when he was killed by the Kashmiris while fighting against a revolt. Mirza Haider Dughlat in the Tarikh-i Rashidi constantly alludes to a distinct tribe or community of Moghuls in Mughalistan, however reduced in numbers, who had preserved Mongol customs, and from the incidental references to Mongolian phrases and terms, likely retained elements of the original Mongolian language, despite the growth of Islam and the growing use of the
Turki language, the latter which Haider naturally spoke. According to the Tarikh-i Rashidi, Haider Dughlat considered his "Moghul Ulus" to be a separate people from the settled Turks of Transoxiania, from the fifteenth century and the first half of the sixteenth century.
Notes
References
*Barthold, W. "Dughlat." ''The Encyclopedia of Islam, Volume 2.'' New Ed. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1965.
* Elias, N. Commentary. ''The Tarikh-i-Rashidi (A History of the Moghuls of Central Asia)''. By Mirza Muhammad Haidar. Translated by Edward Denison Ross, edited by N. Elias. London, 1895.
*
Grousset, René. ''The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia.'' Trans. Naomi Walford. New Jersey: Rutgers, 1970.
*Kim, Hodong. The Early History of the Moghul Nomads: The Legacy of the Chaghatai Khanate. ''The Mongol Empire and Its Legacy.'' Ed. Reuven Amitai-Preiss and David Morgan. Leiden: Brill, 1998.
* Mirza Muhammad Haidar. ''The Tarikh-i-Rashidi (A History of the Moghuls of Central Asia)''. Translated by Edward Denison Ross, edited by N.Elias. London, 1895.
External links
*
Dughlat tribe of Kazakh people - from Wikipedia Naiman introduction in Kazakh languagesee the Dughlat (Dulat) of Kazakhs at clan systems of Kazakh people www.elim.kz
{{Turkic peoples, state=expanded
Former countries in Chinese history
History of Xinjiang
Mongol peoples
Turkic peoples of Asia
Kazakh tribes
Ethnic groups in Kyrgyzstan