Art. III.—The Chaghatāi Mughals

Without attempting to go back to the obscure traditions concerning the great nomad confederacy or confederacies that ranged the country north of the desert of Gobi, or to the genealogies of the tribes of Turks, Tārtārs, and Mu als, descendants of Yāfi (Japhat) son of Nūḥ, who, after coming out of the Ark with his father, is said to have fixed his yūrat or encampment in the Farther East, and who have furnished subjects for the most copious traditions for native chroniclers, and materials for the most intricate controversies ever since; it may perhaps safely be assumed that Mu al was probably in the first instance the name of one tribe among many, a clan among clans, and extended to the whole as its chief acquired an ascendency over the rest. The name is most likely locally much older than the time of engiz, but it was hardly known to more distant nations before the tenth century, and became only widely famous in connection with him.