o - Aceh Books website

MOGHOLS 529
rule. This union lasted for a century until Timur (Tamerlane) captured Herat in
1380.
The Nikudari soon disappeared from historical records, to be mentioned only
once again, in 1562, by Babur, founder of the Moghul dynasty in India, who
referred to them as "inhabitants of Ghor." It was in this mountainous tract of
west central Afghanistan that the Afghan Moghols lived until around 1900.
It was while they were allied with the Kurt rulers in Herat that the Nikudari
or Moghols established themselves in Afghanistan. An unruly group of princes,
the Kurts were often attacked by II Khanid troops and on these occasions retreated
to their castle, the "stronghold of Qaisar," in southern Ghor. The ruins of this
castle and a number of nearby Moghol villages remain to this day. In 1886,
British intelligence reported 18 Moghol villages with a population of some 5,000
still living in the area. The publication of a vocabulary of their Moghol language
in 1838 caused a sensation among linguists of the time. They were forgotten
again until 1955, when a team of U.S. and Japanese linguists discovered what
has been called the "Zirni Manuscript," which prompted renewed interest.
Further linguistic research has been carried out by a German team.
The Kurts disappeared from history after Timur captured Herat in 1380. Under
Timurid and Arghunid rule, the Moghols of Ghor exerted political power in the
mountain regions of west central Afghanistan. Then, in 1650, a Pushtun immigrant
from Baluchistan named Taiman shaped a coalition of peoples in southern
Ghor that has become known as the Taimani tribe of the Char Aimaq (see Aimaq).
Taiman and his successors seem to have gotten along well with the Moghols
until around 1900, when a quarrel about marriage contracts arose that started a
blood feud. The ensuing fight caused the diaspora of the majority of the Moghols
from Ghor. That case was not settled until 1930 through an exchange of wives
in marriage between the Taimani chiefs of Nili and the leading family of the
Moghols in neighboring Zirni. By then only eight villages with Moghol populations
had survived in Ghor near Qaisar; the rest of the population had emigrated
to Obeh and Herat oases on the Heri-rud River and at least five villages in
northern and northeastern Afghanistan.
Strict observation of the rule of endogamy by the Moghols preserved their
Mongolian language and physical features. Mongolian appearance is still strong
today, whereas linguistic missions between 1955 and 1971 found it difficult to
trace even elderly individuals who still remembered fragments of the original
language. The Moghols of Ghor and Herat have become Farsi-Dari speakers,
while others have adopted Pashto. Their numbers may have risen since the British
estimates of 1886 by 100 percent, amounting to a maximum of 10,000 individuals.
Although the Moghols were able to preserve their own language in a Farsi-
Dari speaking environment for more than 700 years, their culture was assimilated
in all other respects, probably early during their history in the west. Recent
research affirms their Sunni creed, in contrast to nineteenth-century, secondhand
statements as to their "paganism" or Shiism. They have adapted themselves
to a semi-nomadic way of life and the mixed pastoral and agricultural economies