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) Juji, son of
Chaghatai, was the leader of the Chaghataian contingent in Hulaku's
expedition, and was still attached to the Mongol-Persian army in 1269,
when Borrak Khan, of the House of Chaghatai, was meditating war against
his kinsman, Abaka of Persia. Borrak sent to the latter an ambassador, who
was the bearer of a secret message to Prince Nigudar, begging him not to
serve against the head of his own House. Nigudar, upon this, made a
pretext of retiring to his own headquarters in Georgia, hoping to reach
Borrak's camp by way of Derbend. He was, however, intercepted, and lost
many of his people. With 1000 horse he took refuge in Georgia, but was
refused an asylum, and was eventually captured by Abaka's commander on
that frontier. His officers were executed, his troops dispersed among
Abaka's army, and his own life spared under surveillance. I find no more
about him. In 1278 Hammer speaks of him as dead, and of the Nigudarian
bands as having been formed out of his troops. But authority is not given.
The second Nigudar is evidently the one to whom Abu'l Fazl alludes.
Khanikoff assumes that the Nigudar who went off towards India about 1260
(he puts the date earlier) was Nigudar, the grandson of Chaghatai, but he
takes no notice of the second story just quoted.
In the former story we have bands under Nigudar going off by Ghazni,
and conquering country on the Indian frontier. In the latter we have
Nigudar, a descendant of Chaghatai, trying to escape from his camp on
the frontier of Great Armenia. Supposing the Persian historians to be
correct, it looks as if Marco had rolled two stories into one.
