ainst Timur of Toumen, veteran chief of the Nikoudrians (1383-84), see
Major David Price's _Mahommedan History_, London, 1821, vol. iii. pp.
47-49, H. C.] In maps of the 17th century, as of Hondius and Blaeuw, we
find the mountains north of Kabul termed _Nochdarizari_, in which we cannot
miss the combination Nigudar-Hazarah, whencesoever it was got. The Hazaras
are eminently Mongol in feature to this day, and it is very probable that
they or some part of them are the descendants of the Karaunahs or the
Nigudaris, or of both, and that the origination of the bands so called,
from the scum of the Mongol inundation, is thus in degree confirmed. The
Hazaras generally are said to speak an old dialect of Persian. But one
tribe in Western Afghanistan retains both the name of Mongols and a
language of which six-sevenths (judging from a vocabulary published by
Major Leech) appear to be Mongol. Leech says, too, that the Hazaras
generally are termed _Moghals_ by the Ghilzais. It is worthy of notice that
Abu'l Fazl, who also mentions the Nukdaris among the nomad tribes of Kabul,
says the Hazaras were the remains of the Chaghataian army which Mangu Kaan
sent to the aid of Hulaku, under the command of Nigudar Oghlan. (_Not. et
Ext._ XIV. 284; _Ilch._ I. 284, 309, etc,; _Baber_, 134, 136, 140; _J. As._
ser. IV. tom. iv. 98; _Ayeen Akbery_, II. 192-193.)

So far, excepting as to the doubtful point of the relation between
Karaunahs and Nigudaris, and as to the origin of the former, we have a
general accordance with Polo's representations. But it is not very easy to
identify with certainty the inroad on India to which he alludes, or the
person intended by Nogodar, nephew of Chaghatai. It seems as if two
persons of that name had each contributed something to Marco's history.

We find in Hammer and D'Ohsson that one of the causes which led to the war
between Barka Khan and Hulaku in 1262 (see above, _Prologue_, ch. ii.) was
the violent end that had befallen three princes of the House of Juji, who
had accompanied Hulaku to Persia in command of the contingent of that
House. When war actually broke out, the contingent made their escape from
Persia. One party gained Kipchak by way of Derbend; another, in greater
force, led by NIGUDAR and Onguja, escaped to Khorasan, pursued by the
troops of Hulaku, and thence eastward, where they seized upon Ghazni and
other districts bordering on India.

But again: Nigudar Aghul, or Oghlan, son of (the younger