Barlas

Barlas
ᠪᠠᠷᠤᠯᠠᠰ
Барлас
برلاس

Barulas
Constitutive tribes of the Khamag Mongol Confederations the Barlas were showing in 1207
Parent house
Borjigin
Country
Current region
Central Asia
Place of origin
Khamag Mongol Confederation
FoundedEarly to Mid 12th-Centuries
FounderIn Mongolia:
Qachuli Barlas

In Transoxiana:
Qarachar Barlas
TitlesKhan
Sheikh
Mirza
Beg
Shah
Sardar
Emir
Ghazi
Sultan
TraditionsTengrism
later
Sunni Islam
EstatesKesh; Samarkand
Cadet branches

The Barlas (Mongolian: ᠪᠠᠷᠤᠯᠠᠰ, Барлас, romanized: Bārulās; Chagatai Turkic/Persian: برلاس, Barlās; also Berlās) were a Mongol tribe which later underwent Turkification in Central Asia, forming a nomadic confederation. Barlas were originally a sub-clan of the Borjigin, which emerged within the Khamag Mongol confederation in present-day Mongolia in the early to mid-12th century CE, and traced their military roots to Kheshig Guard, one of the elite regiments of the Mongol Empire. The Barlas produced imperial dynasties of two major empires in Asia: the Timurid Empire in Central Asia and Persia; and the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent.

History

Origins

Portrait of Timur, a member of the Barlas. Painted in 1405–1409.

According to the Secret History of the Mongols (written during the reign of Ögedei Khan [r. 1229–1241]) and historian Rashid al-Din Hamadani (1247–1318) who wrote the Jami' al-tawarikh, the Barlas shared ancestry with the Khiyad Borjigin, who were the descendents of Khaidu Khan. He also noted that the Barlas' relationship with the imperial Mongol ruling clan was through a common ancestry via Tumbinai Khan, who was both Timur and Genghis Khan's ancestor. Rashid al-Din Hamadani also traced the ancestry of the imperial clan of Genghis Khan and his successors, as well as other related Mongol clans. The progenitor of the Barlas clan is Qachuli, who founded the tribe in Khamag Mongol in Northern Mongolia; Qachuli was either the son of Tumanay Setsen or Tumbinai Khan (the chief of the Borjigin), as well as the twin brother of Qabul Khan, the founder and first ruler of the Khamag Mongol Confederations. Qachuli's great-grandson was Qarachar Barlas, a minister (Noyan) and military commander of a (Tumen) under Genghis Khan; during the Mongol Invasions of Central Asia, he migrated and established new settlements in the regions of Central asia and Transoxiana. Genghis Khan later assigned Qarachar to be a minister and governor (Darughachi) of Transoxiana under the command of Chagatai Khan.

The Barlas controlled the region of Kish (modern day Shahrisabz, Uzbekistan) and all of its lineages seem to have been associated with this region. In contrast to most neighboring tribes who remained nomadic, the Barlas were a sedentary due to their military and aristrocratic natures and status of tribe. Due to extensive contacts with the native population of Central Asia, the tribe had adopted the religion of Islam , leaving behind their forefather's Tengrism, and as native Mongol speakers, they adopted the Chagatai language, a Turkic language of the Qarluq branch, which was heavily influenced by Arabic and Persian. Although the Barlas were not always exogamous, but many marriages recorded were outside the tribe.

Timurids and Mughals

Babur, founder of the Mughal Empire. Late Shah Jahan Album, painted c. 1640.

Its most famous representatives were the Timurids, a dynasty founded by the conqueror Timur in the 14th century, who ruled over modern-day Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and almost the entire rest of the Caucasus, Afghanistan, much of Central Asia, as well as parts of contemporary Pakistan, Mesopotamia, and Anatolia. One of his descendants, Babur, later founded the Mughal Empire of Central Asia and South Asia.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Grupper, S. M. (1992–94). "A Barulas Family Narrative in the Yuan Shih: Some Neglected Prosopographical and Institutional Sources on Timurid Origins". Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi. 8: 11–97.
  2. ↑ Chann, Naindeep Singh (2008). "Intellectual Movements during Timuri and Safavid Periods (1500-1700 A.D.)". Iran and the Caucasus. 12 (2): 413–415. doi:10.1163/157338408x406182. ISSN 1609-8498.
  3. ↑ Anooshahr, Ali (2018). "Mongols in the Tarikh-i Rashidi". Oxford Scholarship Online. doi:10.1093/oso/9780190693565.003.0006.
  4. ↑ Rührdanz, Karin (2016). "8 From the Mongols to the Timurids: Refinement and Attrition in Persian Painting". The Mongols' Middle East. Brill. pp. 172–192. ISBN 978-90-04-31199-2.
  5. ↑ Manz, B.F. (1989). The rise and rule of Tamerlan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 28. ... We know definitely that the leading clan of the Barlas tribe traced its origin to Qarachar Barlas, head of one of Chaghadai's regiments ... These then were the most prominent members of the Ulus Chaghadai: the old Mongolian tribes — Barlas, Arlat, Soldus and Jalayir ...
  6. ↑ Soucek, Svat. Timur and the Timurids. New Jersey: Princeton University. Timur was born around 1336 in Transoxania near Kesh – later known as Shahrisabz – in the Kashka Darya region of what is today the Republic of Uzbekistan. He was a Turk of the Barlas tribe; this tribe, like many others, boasted a Mongol name and ancestry, but for all practical purposes it was Turkic.
  7. 1 2 M.S. Asimov & C. E. Bosworth (1998). History of Civilizations of Central Asia. UNESCO Regional Office. p. 320. ISBN 92-3-103467-7. ... One of his followers was [...] Timur of the Barlas tribe. This Mongol tribe had settled [...] in the valley of Kashka Darya, intermingling with the Turkish population, adopting their religion (Islam) and gradually giving up its own nomadic ways, like a number of other Mongol tribes in Transoxania ...
  8. ↑ Garthwaite, Gene R. (2005). The Persians. Wiley. p. 148. ISBN 978-1-55786-860-2.
  9. ↑ "Family tree of major Timurid princes". Power, Politics and Religion in Timurid Iran. Cambridge University Press. 2007. pp. xviii–xviii. ISBN 978-0-521-86547-0.
  10. ↑ "Part Two: The Secret History of the Mongols Index". Index to the Secret History of the Mongols. De Gruyter Mouton. 1972. pp. 175–344.
  11. ↑ Saunders, J. J. (2023). "The Turkish rehearsal for the Mongol conquests". The History of the Mongol Conquests. London: Routledge. pp. 16–29. ISBN 978-1-003-40809-3.
  12. ↑ Chaliand, Gérard (2014). A Global History of War: From Assyria to the Twenty-First Century. California: University of California Press. p. 151.
  13. ↑ Lee, Joo-Yup (2019). "Turkic Identity in Mongol and Post-Mongol Central Asia and the Qipchaq Steppe". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-027772-7.
  14. ↑ Droese, Janine; Karolewski, Janina (4 December 2023). Manuscript Albums and their Cultural Contexts: Collectors, Objects, and Practices. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. p. 135. ISBN 978-3-11-132146-2. To the best of my knowledge, the earliest portrait of Timur can be found in a genealogical scroll (Istanbul, Topkapı Palace Museum, H. 2152, fols 32-43"), produced shortly after his death in Samarqand (probably under the reign of Khalil Sultan, r. 1405-1409)
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Kamola, Stefan (2019-09-01). Making Mongol History. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-1-4744-2142-3.
  16. 1 2 "Part Two: The Secret History of the Mongols Index", Index to the Secret History of the Mongols, De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 175–344, 1972-12-31, retrieved 2025-06-03
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Rührdanz, Karin (2016-01-01), "8 From the Mongols to the Timurids: Refinement and Attrition in Persian Painting", The Mongols' Middle East, BRILL, pp. 172–192, ISBN 978-90-04-31199-2, retrieved 2025-06-08
  18. ↑ The Secret History of the Mongols, transl. by I. De Rachewiltz, Chapter I Archived February 23, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
  19. ↑ Joshi, Harit (2020), "Akbarnama", Encyclopédie des historiographies : Afriques, Amériques, Asies, Presses de l’Inalco, pp. 41–43, ISBN 978-2-85831-344-0, retrieved 2025-06-10
  20. ↑ Melville, Charles (2021-10-11), "On Some Manuscripts of Hatifi's Timurnama", Exploring Written Artefacts, De Gruyter, pp. 1123–1146, ISBN 978-3-11-075330-1, retrieved 2025-06-10
  21. ↑ Chann, Naindeep Singh (2008). "Intellectual Movements during Timuri and Safavid Periods (1500-1700 A.D.)". Iran and the Caucasus. 12 (2): 413–415. doi:10.1163/157338408x406182. ISSN 1609-8498.
  22. ↑ Chann, Naindeep Singh (2008). "Intellectual Movements during Timuri and Safavid Periods (1500-1700 A.D.)". Iran and the Caucasus. 12 (2): 413–415. doi:10.1163/157338408x406182. ISSN 1609-8498.
  23. ↑ Chann, Naindeep Singh (2008). "Intellectual Movements during Timuri and Safavid Periods (1500-1700 A.D.)". Iran and the Caucasus. 12 (2): 413–415. doi:10.1163/157338408x406182. ISSN 1609-8498.
  24. ↑ "Part One: The Secret History of the Mongols Text", Index to the Secret History of the Mongols, De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 11–174, 1972-12-31, retrieved 2025-06-08
  25. ↑ Chann, Naindeep Singh (2008). "Intellectual Movements during Timuri and Safavid Periods (1500-1700 A.D.)". Iran and the Caucasus. 12 (2): 413–415. doi:10.1163/157338408x406182. ISSN 1609-8498.
  26. ↑ B.F. Manz, The rise and rule of Tamerlan, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1989, p. 156–7
  27. ↑ Gérard Chaliand, A Global History of War: From Assyria to the Twenty-First Century, University of California Press, California 2014, p. 151
  28. ↑ G. Doerfer, "Chaghatay", in Encyclopædia Iranica, Online Edition 2007.
  29. ↑ B.F. Manz, The rise and rule of Tamerlan, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1989, p. 157
  30. ↑ "Babur and Humayun with Courtiers, from the Late Shah Jahan Album". Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art. The first Mughal emperor, Babur, who reigned from 1526 to 1530, is shown seated on the right with his son and successor, Humayun.
  31. ↑ René Grousset, The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia, Rutgers University Press, 1988. ISBN 0-8135-0627-1 (p.409)
  32. ↑ "Ẓahīr-al-Dīn Moḥammad Bābor" at Encyclopædia Iranica