Khalaj

The Khalaj were a Turkic-speaking people of Afghanistan.^[1] A Bactrian manuscript of 711 names a Khalaj princess. It calls her seven times by the Old Turkic title kïnžuy, “consort”.^[2] The Persian geography of 982 places the Khalaj around Ghazni, where they owned many sheep. It adds that they were numerous also in Balkh, Tukharistan, Bust and Guzganan. Another geographer describes them as cattle-breeders of Turkish appearance, dress and language between India and Sistan.^[3] The Arabic script writes the names Khalaj and Karluk almost alike, so the two are easily confused. The translator of the Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam reads Khalaj where the manuscript has Khallukh.^[4] Kashgari counts them among the Turkmän. He derives their name from qal ac, “remain hungry”. He says that two Khalaj clans had left the federation of the twenty-four Oghuz clans.^[5] Three theories of their origin are put forward. The first holds that they are a remnant of the Hephthalites. The second counts them with the Turkic settlement of Afghanistan in early Islamic times. The third derives them from the Argu.^[6]

Their language is still spoken in central Iran.^[7] Some scholars regard it as a branch of Turkic of its own. Others regard it as an Oghuz speech.^[7] The speech of the Argu, as Kashgari records it, shares several features with it, among them n for older ñ.^[8]

References

^ Erdal 2004, p. 73 n. 125
^ Erdal 2004, p. 4 n. 6
^ Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam; Minorsky 1970, p. 111, 347
^ Golden 1992, p. 387, 111; Minorsky 1970, p. 387, 111
^ Dīvān Lughāt al-Turk; Golden 1992, p. 387, 348; Minorsky 1970, p. 387, 348
^ Golden 1992, p. 83, 229, 347, 387; Minorsky 1970, p. 83, 229, 347, 387
^ a b Golden 1992, p. 387
^ Erdal 2004, p. 16 n. 33, 73

Sources

Literature

Marcel Erdal, A Grammar of Old Turkic (2004)
Peter B. Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples (1992)
V. Minorsky, Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam, "The Regions of the World": A Persian Geography 372 A.H. – 982 A.D., translated and explained, with the preface by V. V. Barthold, 2nd ed. (1970)