CHAGHTAI, a Turki race to which Baber belonged. He spoke and wrote in Chaghtai Turki, which continued in use at the court of Delili until a late period. There were two races, two languages, and two religious sects at that court, —the nobles of Iran and Turan, Persia, and Turk estan, the former of the Shiah persuasion, who spoke Persian, the latter Sunni Mahomedans, who spoke Turki ; and in the latter days of the empire the contentions between the two races were a source of its weakness. Tod says (Rajas than, i. pp. 6,60, 322) Chaghtai are the Sakatai of the IIindu Puranas, from Sakadwipa, changed by the Greeks to Scythia. The political limits of the great Getic nation in the timeof Cyrus, six centuries bcforeChrist, were littlecircumscribed on the rise of Timur. At this period (A.D. 1330) the kingdom of Chaghtai was bounded on the west by the Dhasht i-Kapchak, and on the south by the Jaxartes or Jihon, on which river the Getic khan, like Tomyris, had his capital. Kojend, Tashkand, Ootrar, Cyropolis, and the most northern of the Alexandria cities were within the bounds of Chaghtai. D'Ohsson names thirty Chaghtarides
on the throne of Transoxiana from 1222 to 1362. As the Chaghtai dynasty drew to its close in Eastern Turkestan, the priestly element began to increase. In 1678, Galdan Khan, sovereign of the Eleuth or Kalmuk tribes of Dzungaria, established the khojahs of the White Mountain. But, after a century of dissensions, in 1757 the Chinese brought the Turkestan states under their rule. Were we to contrast the literary acquire ments of the Chaghtai princes with those of their contemporaries of Europe, the balance of lore would be found on the side of the Asiatics, even though Elizabeth and Henry Iv. of France were in the scale. Amongst the princes from the Jaxartes aro historians, poets, astronomers, founders of systems of government and religion, warriors, and great captains, who claim our respect and admira tion.—Tod's Rajasthan, i. pp. 6, 60, 322 ; Ferrier's Afghans, p. 423 ; Vanabery, pp. 157-159.