Khalaj people in the context of "Turk Shahis"

Play Trivia Questions online!

 or

Skip to study material about Khalaj people in the context of "Turk Shahis"
Ad spacer

⭐ Core Definition: Khalaj people

The Khalaj (Bactrian: χαλασσ, romanized: Xalass; Persian: خلج‌ها, romanized: Xalajhâ) are a Turkic ethnic group who mainly reside in Iran. In Iran they still speak the Khalaj language, although most of them are Persianized.

Historically, the Khalaj who lived among Pashtuns were slowly Pashtunized. Due to this, the Khaljis of Delhi, originating from Khalaj migrants from Afghanistan into India, were often considered to be Pashtuns by other Turkic nobles. The Ghiljis, one of the largest Pashtun tribes, also derive their name from the Khalaj, and it is likely that the Khalaj initially formed the core of this tribe.

↓ Menu

>>>PUT SHARE BUTTONS HERE<<<

👉 Khalaj people in the context of Turk Shahis

The Turk Shahis were a dynasty of Western Turk, or mixed Turco-Hephthalite origin, that ruled from Kabul and Kapisa to Gandhara in the 7th to 9th centuries AD. They may have been of Khalaj ethnicity. The Gandhara territory may have been bordering the Kashmir kingdom to the east. From the 560s, the Western Turks had gradually expanded southeasterward from Transoxonia, and occupied Bactria and the Hindu Kush region, forming largely independent polities. The Turk Shahis may have been a political extension of the neighbouring Western Turk Yabghus of Tokharistan. In the Hindu Kush region, they replaced the Nezak Huns – the last dynasty of Bactrian rulers with origins among the Xwn (Xionite) and/or Huna peoples (who are sometimes also referred to as "Huns" who invaded Eastern Europe during a similar period).

The Turk Shahis arose at a time when the Sasanian Empire had already been conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate. The Turk Shahis then resisted for more than 250 years the eastward expansion of the Abbasid Caliphate, until they fell to the Persian Saffarids in the 9th century AD. The Ghaznavids then finally broke through into India after overpowering the declining subsequent Hindu Shahis and Gurjaras.

↓ Explore More Topics
In this Dossier

Khalaj people in the context of Khwarazmian dynasty

The Anushtegin dynasty or Anushteginids (English: /ænuʃtəˈɡinid/, Persian: خاندان انوشتکین), also known as the Khwarazmian dynasty (Persian: خوارزمشاهیان) was a Sunni Muslim dynasty of Turkic mamluk origin from the Bekdili clan of the Oghuz Turks. The Anushteginid dynasty ruled the Khwarazmian Empire, consisting in large parts of present-day Central Asia, Afghanistan and Iran in the approximate period of 1077 to 1231, first as vassals of the Seljuks and the Qara Khitai (Western Liao), and later as independent rulers, up until the Mongol conquest of the Khwarazmian Empire in the 13th century.

The dynasty was founded by commander Anushtegin Gharchai, a former Turkic slave of the Seljuq sultans, who was appointed as governor of Khwarazm. His son, Qutb ad-Din Muhammad I, became the first hereditary Shah of Khwarazm. Anush Tigin may have belonged to either the Begdili tribe of the Oghuz Turks or to Chigil, Khalaj, Qipchaq, Qangly, or Uyghurs.

↑ Return to Menu

Khalaj people in the context of Turco-Afghan

In the historiography of the Indian subcontinent, the term Turco-Afghan refers to the successive Islamic dynasties of the Ghaznavids, and the Delhi Sultanate, all of which had their origin in Turkic peoples from Central Asia. The Turco-Afghan period begins with the Ghaznavid campaigns in India in 1000 AD.

The Turco-Afghan Khalji dynasty, founded by Jalal ud din Firuz Khalji, was the second dynasty to rule the Delhi Sultanate from 1290 to 1320. The Khaljis originated from the Khalaj, a Turkic tribe which had been Pashtunized over time. Other branches of the Khaljis had also established themselves in Bengal (1204-1231) and Malwa (1401-1562).

↑ Return to Menu
LINKED FROM (PARENTS)
← Turk Shahis ← Khwarazmian dynasty ← Anushtegin dynasty ← Turco-Afghan ← Turk Shahi ← Turko-Afghan
LINKS TO (CHILDREN)
Tegin Shah → Elteber → Hephthalite → Peroz I → Brahmi → Iltäbär → Bactrian language → Shri → Atar → Pahlavi scripts → Yazdegerd III → Persian language → Romanization of Persian → Turkic peoples → Iran → Khalaj language → Persianization → Pashtuns → Pashtunization → Khalji dynasty → Delhi Sultanate → Ghilji → Pashtun tribes →