Nikudaris was a band of people who lived in the district of Ghazna and used to make invasions into the provinces of Sistan, Kerman and Fars to the west and Multan, Lahore and Dehli to the east in the 13th and the 14th centuries. Originally they were belonging to the Ulus of Juchi, but later they were commanded by the princes descending from Chaghatai.
I have come to the conclusion that they were belonging not to the three princes Balaghay, Tutar and Quli, who had been dispatched by Batu from the Ulus of Juchi to join Hülegü's campaigns in Iran and died successively in the II-khan's court, but to the army who had settled in the Indo-Iranian frontier by the order of the Great Khan Ögedei.
For one reason, I find in eastern Iran no trace of the army of abovementioned princes after the conquest of the Assassins and the Abbassids.
Then, Marco Polo, who traveled through the districts of Kerman, , Rudbar and Hormuz in about 1272, reported that their soldiers were of mixed bood, which was impossible to happen to those of the three-princes who arrived in Iran with Hülegü.
Thirdly, they were called as Nikudaris or as Qarauna (s) s replaceable with each other. The latter was a name given to the descendents of the army settled in the Indo-Iranian frontier by the order of Ögedei.
In 1261/2 they fled from Hülegü's search and went to the city of Mastung led by Nikudar (or Negüder) Noyan. Later they came in submission to the Chaghataid princes. In 1262/3 it was reported to the court of prince Töbshin that Shams al-Din Kurt of Herat was willing to join the Chaghataids and Nikudar. At that time Algu Khan of the Ulus of Chaghatai invited the commanders of the Indo-Iranian frontier army, but no one from the Nikudaris was cited. Then we find Junjudar Noyan, one of the chiefs of the Niktidaris was appeared in the vicinity of Zaranj, the capital city of Sistan. Before 1271 some of the Chaghataids were settled in Sistan and before 1272 the Nikudaris began to attack Rudbar. Their commanders were Chaghatai's great grandson Mubarak-Shah, his son Öljei-Buqa, Chaghatai's grandson Mochi and his son Qutlug-Khoja.
