Kataghan

Kataghan, an important branch of the Uzbeg Tatars, who form the mass of the population in Kunduz and Balkh (Afghan Turkestan), from the northern slopes of the Hindu-Khush to the left bank of the Upper Oxus, with a few groups on the right bank in Bokhara; small stature, broad flat features, small oblique eyes, beardless face. Formerly nomads, now mostly sedentary traders and agriculturists; all Sunnites (orthodox Mohammedans); two main divisions, Besh-bula with five sub-groups, and Cheguna with sixteen sub-groups; total population 220,000 in Afghanistan, 45,000 in Bokhara. (C. M. Macgregor, Afghanistan, 1871.)