LAUSR

ABSTRACT According to the mid-sixteenth-century historian Mirza Haydar Dughlat, the more westerly of the two khanates into which the Chaghadayid state in Central Asia had divided in the fourteenth century came to be called by its eastern neighbours “Qara’unas”, after the Mongol contingents that had for several decades dominated present-day Afghanistan. The precise etymology of the word Qara’unas is unclear, although the majority of scholars have preferred Marco Polo’s definition as “of mixed race”. This article explores the historical links between the Qara’unas and the Chaghadayids, and seeks to explain afresh why the term was applied to the rulers and people of the western Chaghadayid state. Abbreviations: AEMA: Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi; GMS: Gibb Memorial Series; IB: Ibn Battuta; JT: Rashid al-Din, Jami‛ al-tavarikh; MP: Marco Polo, Le divisement du monde; MRTB: Memoirs of the Research Department of the Toyō Bunko; SP: Rashid al-Din, Shu‛ab-i panjgana