"Their King, If His Mother Be Not Of Royal Blood,
Is By Them Called Arghun, And Not Considered Their True King." [See P.
291, My Reference To Wellby's Tibet.
- H. C.] Cunningham says the word is
probably Turki, [Arabic], Arghun, "Fair," "not white," as he writes to
me,
"But ruddy or pink, and therefore 'fair.' Arghun is both Turki
and Mogholi, and is applied to all fair children, both male and female, as
Arghun Beg, Arghuna Khatun," etc.[3] We find an Arghun tribe named in
Timur's Institutes, which probably derived its descent from such
half-breeds. And though the Arghun Dynasty of Kandahar and Sind claimed
their descent and name from Arghun Khan of Persia, this may have had no
other foundation.
There are some curious analogies between these Argons of whom Marco speaks
and those Mahomedans of Northern China and Chinese Turkestan lately
revolted against Chinese authority, who are called Tungani, or as the
Russians write it Dungen, a word signifying, according to Professor
Vambery, in Turki, "a convert."[4] These Tungani are said by one account
to trace their origin to a large body of Uighurs, who were transferred to
the vicinity of the Great Wall during the rule of the Thang Dynasty (7th
to 10th century). Another tradition derives their origin from Samarkand.
And it is remarkable that Rashiduddin speaks of a town to the west or
north-west of Peking, "most of the inhabitants of which are natives of
Samarkand, and have planted a number of gardens in the Samarkand
style."[5] The former tradition goes on to say that marriages were
encouraged between the Western settlers and the Chinese women.
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