The Karai, Qarai, or Qara ("Black") Tartars are a Turkic or Mongol tribe found in Khorasan, Azerbaijan, Kerman, and Fars.
According to Encyclopedia Iranica, the Qara'i or Qara Tatars are "a Turkic-speaking tribe of Azerbaijan, Khorasan, Kermān, and Fārs." According to Vladimir Minorsky, the name Karāʾi may have been rooted in the Keraites, a Mongol people, while according to Gyula Németh, the tribe's name might have originated from other ethnic groups in Central Asia. [1]
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 Kipchak groups known by this adjective. The earliest mention of these, not necessarily related, are the "Black Tatars" (Chinese :黑韃靼), a subdivision of the Rouran Khaganate in Tang sources.[ citation needed ] Meanwhile, at the western end of the steppe, more "black Tatars" were troops serving the First Bulgarian Empire. [2]
The Qara Tatars were recorded as a Mongol tribe of 30–40,000 nomad families dwelling near Amasya and Kayseri in Anatolia at the time of Timur's conquests. Upon a suggestion by the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I [3] and to refill the depopulated extremities of his empire, [4] Timur deported these tribes back to Central Asia, specifically Khwarazm and an island in Issyk-Kul that later ceased to exist. [3] Many of the tribesmen tried to escape from the forced migration, and although many were captured, some tribesmen remained in Anatolia. [5] A portion of the tribe that was previously deported managed to escape to the Golden Horde, and some additionally returned to Anatolia following Timur's demise. In 1419, groups from the tribe were deported by the Ottomans to the Balkans, settling near Pazardzhik in modern-day Bulgaria. [3]
At the start of the Qajar dynasty, Qarai Turks were also scattered beyond southern Khorasan through the desert zone of Sistan. [6] Malcolm (1829) thought the Qarai of Persia arrived from "Tartary" as a result of Timur's campaigns. [7] Under Afsharid Nader Shah (r. 1736–1747), they were settled in 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 Mogan.
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" [8] 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". [9]
A small Qarai population is found in Kerman Province, comprising some 420 households as of 1957, centered on the village of Tangu. [10] and in Fars Province, where clans using the name Qarai are found within the Qashqai, Khamsa and Mamasāni tribal confederacies. Oberling (1960:101) cites Iranian Army Files of 1956 according to which the Qarai of Kerman and Fars were moved there from Khorasan during the Safavid dynasty.
The Timurid Empire was a late medieval, culturally Persianate, Turco-Mongol empire that dominated Greater Iran in the early 15th century, comprising modern-day Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, much of Central Asia, the South Caucasus, and parts of contemporary Pakistan, North India, and Turkey. The empire was culturally hybrid, combining Turkic, Mongolic, and Persian influences, with the last members of the dynasty being "regarded as ideal Perso-Islamic rulers".
The Qara Qoyunlu or Kara Koyunlu, also known as the Black Sheep Turkomans, were a culturally Persianate, Muslim Turkoman monarchy that ruled over the territory comprising present-day Azerbaijan, Armenia, northwestern Iran, eastern Turkey, and northeastern Iraq from about 1374 to 1468.
Shahrokh Mirza, better known by his dynastic title of Shahrokh Shah was the Afsharid king (shah) of the western part of Khorasan from 1748 to 1796, with a two-month interruption. A grandson of the Iranian conqueror Nader Shah, Shahrokh was the son of Reza Qoli Mirza Afshar and his Safavid wife Fatemeh Soltan Begom, who was the sister of Tahmasp II, the penultimate Safavid shah of Iran. Shahrokh's half-Safavid descent made him stand out amongst his Afsharid relatives, and was used to bolster the legitimacy of his grandfather. After the assassination of Nader Shah in 1747, his nephew Ali-qoli Khan, ascended the throne in Mashhad and had all of Nader Shah's descendants in fortress of Kalat massacred. Shahrokh was spared in case his Safavid lineage would come to use, and was instead kept in the fortress as a prisoner. While Adel Shah was battling his rebellious younger brother Ebrahim Mirza, a party of Turkic, Kurdish, and Arab tribal leaders took advantage of his absence and installed Shahrokh on the throne. Both Adel Shah and Ebrahim were eventually defeated and killed, but Shahrokh was not long afterwards overthrown by a party of dissident tribal leaders, who installed the Safavid pretender Mir Sayyed Mohammad on the throne. Shahrokh was soon blinded at the instigation of Mir Alam Khan Khuzayma and other leading nobles, much against Suleiman II's will.
The Keraites were one of the five dominant Turco-Mongol tribal confederations (khanates) in the Altai-Sayan region during the 12th century. They had converted to the Church of the East (Nestorianism) in the early 11th century and are one of the possible sources of the European Prester John legend.
Uthman Beg or Osman Beg was a late 14th and early 15th-century leader of the Turkoman tribal federation of Aq Qoyunlu in what is now eastern Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan and Iraq.
Qizilbash or Kizilbash were a diverse array of mainly Turkoman Shia militant groups that flourished in Azerbaijan, Anatolia, the Armenian highlands, the Caucasus from the late 15th century onwards, and contributed to the foundation of the Safavid dynasty in early modern Iran.
The Jalayirid Sultanate was a dynasty of Jalayir origin, which ruled over modern-day Iraq and western Iran after the breakup of the Ilkhanate in the 1330s. It lasted about fifty years, until disrupted by Timur's conquests and the revolts of the Qara Qoyunlu Turkoman. After Timur's death in 1405, there was a brief attempt to re-establish the sultanate in southern Iraq and Khuzistan. The Jalayirids were finally eliminated by the Qara Qoyunlu in 1432.
Torbat-e Heydarieh is a city in the Central District of Torbat-e Heydarieh County, Razavi Khorasan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. The closest major city to Torbat-e Heydarieh is Mashhad, 175km away.
The Erivan Khanate, also known as Chokhur-e Sa'd, was a khanate that was established in Afsharid Iran in the 18th century. It covered an area of roughly 19,500 km2, and corresponded to most of present-day central Armenia, the Iğdır Province and the Kars Province's Kağızman district in present-day Turkey and the Sharur and Sadarak districts of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of present-day Azerbaijan.
The Baharlu, also spelled Bahārlou, Baharloo, Baharlooe, are a Turkic ethnic group living in Hamadan, Fars, Kerman, Azerbaijan and Khorasan in Iran. Fars embraces the bulk of Baharlu tribe members and is identified as the provenance of the tribe. They speak one of the southern dialects of the Azerbaijani language.
Afshar is a tribe of Oghuz Turkic origin, that split into several groups in Iran, Turkey and Afghanistan.
Eshaq Khan Qaraei-Torbati, was one of the wealthiest and most powerful chieftains in Khorasan during the reigns of Agha Mohammad Khan and Fath Ali Shah. He was fluent in Persian and Arabic.
Sardar Mohammad Khan Qaraei-Torbati, was one of the wealthiest and most powerful chieftains in Khorasan during the reigns of Fath Ali Shah. He was admired by his friends and cursed by his foes.
Bayat is one of the Oghuz tribes in Turkmenistan, Iran, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. When Oghuz Turks started to migrate from the Aral steppes to Khorasan in the 11th and 13th centuries, Bayat people spread throughout the region. They are sub-ethnic groups of Turkmens and Azerbaijanis. The Bayats are Muslim and speak a southern dialect of Azerbaijani language in Azerbaijan and Iran, or their own dialect of Turkish in Turkey, and Ersari dialect of Turkmen in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The ancient Turkmen proverb says: "Kayi and Bayat tribes shall lead the people".
The conquest of Khorasan by Safavid loyalist forces against separatists in Khorasan was Nader Shah's first major military campaign which he waged on behalf of the new Safavid pretender to the throne, Tahmasp II. It would propel him into the centre of the political landscape of war-torn early eighteenth-century Persia.
The Guarded Domains of Iran, alternatively the Sublime State of Iran and commonly called Qajar Iran, Qajar Persia or the Qajar Empire, was the Iranian state under the rule of the Qajar dynasty, which was of Turkic origin, specifically from the Qajar tribe, from 1789 to 1925. The Qajar family took full control of Iran in 1794, deposing Lotf 'Ali Khan, the last Shah of the Zand dynasty, and re-asserted Iranian sovereignty over large parts of the Caucasus. In 1796, Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar seized Mashhad with ease, putting an end to the Afsharid dynasty. He was formally crowned as Shah after his punitive campaign against Iran's Georgian subjects.
Turkoman, also known as Turcoman, was a term for the people of Oghuz Turkic origin, widely used during the Middle Ages. Oghuz Turks were a western Turkic people that, in the 8th century A.D, formed a tribal confederation in an area between the Aral and Caspian seas in Central Asia, and spoke the Oghuz branch of the Turkic language family.
The High Middle Ages, or Classic Feudalism Period in what constitutes the present-day Republic of Azerbaijan, lasted from around the 11th century to the 15th century AD. The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and were followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended around the 15thcentury AD. Key historical trends of the High Middle Ages include the incorporation of the territories that constitute present-day Azerbaijan into the Seljuk Empire, the establishment of the Eldiguzids, the Mongol invasions and the rule of the Ilkhanate, the invasions of Timur and the establishment of the Turkoman Kara Koyunlu and Aq Qoyunlu tribal confederations.
The Guarded Domains of Iran, commonly referred to as Afsharid Iran or the Afsharid Empire, was an Iranian empire established by the Turkoman Afshar tribe in Iran's north-eastern province of Khorasan, establishing the Afsharid dynasty that would rule over Iran during the mid-eighteenth century. The dynasty's founder, Nader Shah, was a successful military commander who deposed the last member of the Safavid dynasty in 1736, and proclaimed himself Shah.
Agacheri was a Turkmen tribe that inhabited parts of Anatolia until the 14th century. They were allied with the Qara Qoyunlu during the 14–15th centuries but shifted their allegiance to the Aq Qoyunlu upon the downfall of the former. A portion of the tribe remained in Anatolia, while another migrated to Iran, where they additionally incorporated Lurs. The tribe is known by its historical name in Iran, while it is thought to be connected to the Tahtacı in Turkey.