Sart

Sart is a name for the settled inhabitants of Central Asia and the Middle East, which has had shifting meanings over the centuries. Sarts, known sometimes as Ak-Sart in ancient times, did not have any particular ethnic identification, and were usually (though not always) town-dwellers. Since the 16th century and onward Mughal historians referred to the Tajiks of the Kabulistan (now Afghanistan) and surrounding regions as Sarts.

There are several theories about the origin of the term. It may be derived from the Sanskrit "sarthavaha" (merchant, caravan leader), a term supposedly used by nomads to describe towndwellers. It may be a corruption of the Sogdian ethnonym "Soghd."

The earliest known use of the term is in the 1070 Turkic text Kutadgu Bilig ("Blessed Knowledge") in which it refers to the settled population of Kashgaria. Then, the term apparently referred to all settled Muslims of Central Asia, regardless of language.

Rashid-al-Din Hamadani in the Jami' al-Tawarikh writes that Genghis Khan commanded for Arslan Khan, prince of the Muslim Turkic Karluks, to be given the title "Sartaqtai", which he considered to be synonymous with "Tajik" (It is possible, however, that Rashid al-din, who was Persian, misunderstood the meaning of this, as "Sartaqtai" was the name of one of the Genghis Khan's sons).

A 13th-century Mongolian source, "Secret History of the Mongols", states that the Mongols called people from Central Asia, most notably Khwarezm, "Sartuul". "Sar" in Mongolian means "moon" so sart or sarta would mean "ones with (flag with) moon" since the Muslims had Hilal symbol on their flags. One of the Mongolian tribes living in the Zavkhan province is made up of descendants of merchants from Khwarezm who resided in Harhorin and is still called Sartuul.

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