Mughal people

The Mughals (also spelled Moghul or Mogul) are a number of culturally related clans of Indo-Turkic people in modern-day North India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Uzbekistan. It is claimed they are descended from the various Central Asian Mongolic and Turkic tribes and Persians that settled in Mughal India. The term Mughal (or Moghul in Persian) literally means Mongol. During the time of the Mongol Empire in the 13–14th century, the army of Genghis Khan swept across Central Asia and into Persia. Over subsequent centuries, descendants of these soldiers inter-married with Persian and Turkic Muslims, converted to Islam and adopted the Persian language and culture. The conflict between India and the Mongols has been recorded from the time of Genghis Khan to Timur to Babur. The Delhi Sultanate (1206–1526) faced nearly annual Mongol onslaughts from 1297 to 1303 when the Doab was sacked and what is now Pakistan was under continual Mongol occupation. Indian and Indo-Persian sources referred to the invaders as Mughal, derived from Mongol. During the 16th century, the Turko-Mongol conqueror Babur brought most of northern India under Mughal rule, establishing an empire that would endure until the mid-19th century. As the ruling class, the Mughals lived mainly in cities along with other Muslims. They were traditionally known for their skill at horsemanship, archery, wrestling and a meat-heavy diet. The court itself does not now consist, as originally of real Mongols, but a medley of Turks, Turkman/Uzbeks, and Persians or descendants of all these classes; known, as said before by the general appellation Mughal by the Muslims of native origin. As early as the 17th century, the term Mughal covered a large number of groups. Generally, all Central Asian immigrants to India, whether Uzbek, Chughtai or Gürkani Türks, further Timurids, Barlas, Kipchak, Kazakhs, Turkman, Kyrgyz, Uyghurs or Mongol, were referred to as Mughal. The term was also used for later immigrants from Iran and Turkey, such as the famous Qizilbash community.