Sarcouncil Journal of Arts and Literature Aims & Scope

Abstract: This article examines how sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Persian and Chaghatay Turkic narrative sources record ethnic processes in Mawarannahr (Transoxiana). Instead of treating chronicles as direct ethnographic inventories, the study approaches them as genre-bound historical texts in which ethnonyms appear in connection with campaigns, political alliances, administrative appointments, urban settings and dynastic claims. The corpus includes Persian works such as Mulla Shadi's Fath-nama, Kamal al-Din Bina'i's Shaybani-nama, Fazlallah ibn Ruzbihan Isfahani's Mikhman-nama-yi Bukhara, Hafiz Tanish Bukhari's Abdulla-nama, Muhammadyar ibn Arab Qataghan's Musakhkhir al-bilad, Mahmud ibn Wali's Bahr al-asrar, Dastur al-muluk, Tarikh-i Muqimkhani and Muhit al-tawarikh. It also considers Chaghatay Turkic texts, including Tawarikh-i guzida - Nusrat-nama, Muhammad Salih's Shaybani-nama, Babur-nama, Shajara-yi Turk and Zubdat al-asar, together with broader regional histories such as Tarikh-i Abulkhayr-khani, Tarikh-i Rashidi and Habib al-siyar. Through comparative source criticism, the article argues that the sources reveal a gradual transformation: groups first described as military-political allies from Dasht-i Qipchaq were later represented as actors embedded in regional administration, fortress governance, court hierarchy and local socio-political life. The findings show that ethnic history in Mawarannahr must be reconstructed by comparing language, genre, narrative purpose and context rather than by mechanically extracting tribal names from isolated passages