In the days of the Tīmūrides, however, the dialect of Turkish, known as Chaghatāy, became honoured by a definite position in literature, chiefly in the department of poetry. The Chaghatāy dialect is the oldest form of Turkish which has come down to us in the Arabic character, and it is still spoken throughout Transoxiana, Turkestān, and Kāshghar. As with the Aryan family of languages so with the Turkish, the farther east we go the nearer we approach its source. In Yarkand and Kāshghar this language is called Turkī, while in Samarkand and Bokhārā it is known by the name of Uzbegī. Although Uzbegī is the language most commonly heard in the bazaars of Samarkand and Bokhārā, it does not hold the field alone, its rival being a corrupt form of Persian spoken by the Tājiks, and hence known as Tājikī. This dialect, while on the one hand preserving many old Persian words which in Persia itself have dropped out of the spoken tongue, has, on the other hand, with regard to its grammatical forms and its syntax, been greatly influenced by its Turkish neighbour.[422] Under the Tīmūides there flourished a poet named Mīr `Alī Shīr, or Navāy, who certainly did more than any other to enrich the Chaghatāy literature, and who may justly be regarded the national poet _par excellence_ of the Eastern Turks. CHAPTER XXVI THE SHAYBĀNIDES The Mongol dynasty, established in China and known as the Yuen, founded by Kubilāy Khān[423] _cir._ 1260, began to decline very soon after his death (1294); and in 1353 a native of humble birth, named Chu Yūan Chang, succeeded in overthrowing the alien line, and, in 1368, originated the famous dynasty of Ming. The nomads’ rule was again confined to the steppes of Mongolia. Eastern and Western Turkestān continued, in the Ming period, to constitute the dominions of the Chaghatāys.[424] This so-called Middle-Empire originally included Transoxiana, but in the first half of the fourteenth century Transoxiana came under the sway of a separate line of Chaghatāy Khāns. [Illustration: INTERIOR OF A KIRGHIZ TENT] North of the Middle-Empire was that of the Dasht-i-Kipchāk, which included the vast steppes extending east and north of the Sea of Aral, a part of modern Siberia, the land north of the Caspian, and both sides of the Lower Volga.[425] These broad realms had been given to Chingiz Khān’s first son, Jūjī, on whose death, in 1225, it was divided into two sections. The Eastern division, the habitat White Horde, fell to Jūjī’s eldest son, Orda; while the Western, that of the Golden Horde, was ruled over by Bātū, the conqueror of Russia, who had his residence in Sarai, on the Lower Volga.[426] Another branch of the house of Jūjī was the heritage of his fifth son, Shaybān, whose dominions were contiguous with those of the White Horde.[427] They became famous in the fifteenth century under the name of Uzbegs, and the origin of their name has given rise to many strange conjectures.