The Qarai Turks of Khorasan
QARAI
(No. 1) (Tribe) ―
A
Turkish tribe of Khorasan, inhabiting the districts of Turshiz and
Turbat-i-Haidari, where they are said to have been brought by Timur. The chiefs
of Qarai, however, appear to have lost their former pretensions to
independence, and it may be assumed that, in common with the rural population
of the interior districts, the Qarai would if no specially unfavourable
influences were at work, be available for defence in the event of invasion. The
Qarai are still accounted a warlike race; and the regiments recruited from
them, one of which is supplied by Turbat-i-Haidari and the other by Turshiz,
bear a high reputation.
According
to enquiries made at different times from well-informed old people in Khorasan,
the Qarai are Turks. They probably come from the same stock as the Garili
(q.v.), a large number of whose families are said to have been moved by one of
the Mongol kings from Turkistan so Syria, whence they were brought to Fars by
Amir Timur, and eventually from Fars to Khorasan by Shah Ismai’l Safavi. They
remained in the Merv and Herat districts for some time, but afterwards settled
in the Turbat-i-Haidari district, which was in an almost independent state in the
early part of the nineteenth century. They were a very powerful tribe then, but
gradually their numbers decreased.
Their
decline was the result of rebellion, continued persecution by the Turkomans,
and famine.
Is-haq
Khan, the well-known Qarai chief, gained great power, and was in open rebellion
during the reign of Fath ‘Ali Shah Kajar, but he was killed with his son, Hasan
‘Ali Khan, at Meshed by Prince Muhammad Vali Mirza in the year 1815. His second
son, Muhammad Qhan Qarai, then rebelled, but coerced by Hasan ‘Ali Mirza, the
Shuja’-us-Sultaneh in 1819. He broke out into rebellion again and took
possession of the town of Meshed in 1829, but was subdued by the troops of
Ahmad ‘Ali Mirza, son of Fath ‘Ali Shah, who was appointed Governor-General of
Khorasan. He, however, remained in a semi-independent state during his
lifetime.
After
his death the chiefs of the Qarai tribe lost their former independence, and
gradually the hereditary chiefship was abolished, and the tribe placed under
the Governor of Turbat-i-Haidari for the time being.
They
now number about 3,000 families, all of whom are in the Turbat-i-Haidari
district.
Their
leading khans are ‘Ali Naki Khan
Shuja’-ul-Mulk and Abdur Riza Khan. The former is commander of the local Qarai
battalion of Khorasan and is about 55 years of age (1897). The latter is sartip (colonel) of the Qarai levy savars.
The
Qarai battalion consists of two wings of 500 men each, or 1,000 men altogether.
Only half the regiment (one wing) is on service at a time, the other half always
remaining on furlough. Of the wing that is on service 200 men are generally on
garrison duty in the citadel of Meshed, 200 men at Muhsinabad on the
Perso-Afghan frontier, while 50 are lent to the contractor of the turquoise
mines near Nishapur for employment as guards at the mines. The men on service
are relieved every six months.
The
levy savars number only 150 men and
are always employed in the Turbat-i-Haidari district.― (Maula Bakhsh.)
Gazetteer of Persia. Volume I, Simla: Government of
Monotype Press, 1910, pp. 607―608.
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