- Turco-Persian
The Turco-Persians were a heterogeneous confederation of certain Turkic, Iranic and Mongol peoples that eventually conquered much of
Central Asia ,Southwest Asia andSouth Asia during the 15th to 17th centuries. The most notable member of this society was theTurco-Mongol conquerorTimur , who established the Turco-PersianTimurid dynasty . The Turco-Persian leaderBabur , who was descended fromTimur (Tamerlane) on his father's side, and fromChagatai Khan , second son of the Mongol rulerGenghis Khan , on his mother's side, was the founder of theMughal Empire inIndia . [ [http://search.eb.com/eb/article-9054153 Encyclopædia Britannica] ]The Turco-Persian society was a dual society, ruled by two separate ethnic classes. The
Turco-Mongol s were the warrior caste of the society, called "ahl al-sayf" ("men of the sword") in Arabic. They claimed descent from the Mongol warriors, although they spoke either Turkic languages or Persian rather than Mongolian tongues. They lived their lives largely on horseback as fierce conquerors. The other part of the ruling class, the "men of the pen" (Arabic: "ahl al-elm" - "men of wisdom"), was of Persian origin. They were called "Tajiks " by the Turco-Mongols and filled the ranks of important officers,chancellor s (called "wazir s" in Persian), merchants, artists, poets, scientists, andscholar s.Most of the ruling kings were of mixed heritage, including Persian and Turkic, like the Timurid kings Shah Rukh and
Ulugh Beg . This symbiosis of Turk and Tājik gave birth to one of the most powerful cultures in Islamic history that for many centuries ruled Central Asia, Iran, and India.References
ee also
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Turko-Persian tradition
*Persianate society
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