Product Code Database
The Qarai, Karai or Qara Tatars ( Black Tatars) are a Turkic peoples tribe found in Greater Khorasan, Azerbaijan, Kerman province, and Fars province.
Since qara "black" is a designation for "north" in Turkic languages it was a frequently used tribal identifier among the early Turkic peoples, and there are numerous Kipchaks known by this adjective. The earliest mention of these, not necessarily related, are the "Black Tatars" (c=黑韃靼), a subdivision of the Rouran Khaganate in Tang dynasty sources. Meanwhile, at the western end of the steppe, more "black Tatars" were troops serving the First Bulgarian Empire., p. 112
At the start of the Qajar dynasty, Qarai Turks were also scattered beyond southern Khorasan through the desert zone of Sistan.Richard Tapper, Tribe and State in Iran and Afghanistan, Routledge, 2012, p.19 Malcolm (1829) thought the Qarai of Persia arrived from "Tartary" as a result of Timur's campaigns.J. Malcolm, The History of Persia, 2 vols., London, 1829. Under Afsharid Nader Shah (r. 1736–1747), they were settled in Greater Khorasan. Before that time, the Karai seem also to have been found in Azerbaijan. Adam Olearius, who traveled in Azerbaijan in 1638, mentions Karai as one of the tribes of Mughan plain.
They became influential there in the 18th century, after their leader, Amir Khan, was made governor of Mashhad under Ahmad Shah Durrani in 1749. Their political power peaked in the early 19th century under the leadership of Eshaq Khan Qaraei-Torbati. Eshaq Khan had submitted to Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar in 1795, but under Fath-Ali Shah Qajar he achieved de facto autonomy from the central Qajar government, seizing control of Mashad in 1813. But soon later, in 1816, Eshaq Khan's tribal alliance fell apart and he was killed in Mashad.
Esḥaq Khan was succeeded by his son Mohammad Khan Qaraei-Torbati, who managed to retain "a sort of semi-independent existence"C. E. Yate, Khurasan and Sistan, London, 1900, p. 53. But in the second half of the 19th century, the Karai chiefs lost most of their wealth and influence. George N. Curzon, who visited the area in 1889, described the region as "terribly decimated both by Turkmen ravages and by the great famine".G. N. Curzon, Persia and the Persian Question, 1892, vol. I, p. 203.
|
|
