2008年9月20日星期六

Chagatai Khanate


From:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chagatai_Khanate

The Chagatai Khanate was a Mongol and later more Turko-Islamic[1] in language and culture khanate of the Mongol Empire that comprised the lands ruled by Chagatai Khan (alternative spellings Chagata, Chugta, Chagta, Djagatai, Jagatai, Chaghtai), second son of the Mongol emperor Genghis Khan, and his descendents and successors.

At its height in the late 13th century, the Khanate extended from the Amu Darya south of the Aral Sea to the Altai Mountains in the border of modern day Mongolia and China.[2]

The khanate lasted in one form or another from 1220s until the late 17th century, although the western half of the khanate was lost to Tamerlane in the 1360s. The eastern half remained under Chagatai khans who were, at times, allied or at war with Timur's successors. Finally, in the 17th century, the remaining Chagatai domains fell under the theocratic regime of Apaq Khoja and his descendants, the Khojijans, who ruled East Turkestan under Jungar and Manchu overlordships consecutively.

Contents

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[edit] Mongol successor states

History of Mongolia
Before Genghis Khan
Mongol Empire

Khanates
- Chagatai Khanate
- Golden Horde
- Ilkhanate
- Yuan Dynasty
Timurid Empire
Mughal Empire
Crimean Khanate
Khanate of Sibir
Dzungar

Qing Dynasty (Mongolia during Qing)
Republic of China
Mongolian People's Republic (Outer Mongolia)
Modern Mongolia
Mengjiang (Inner Mongolia)
People's Republic of China (Inner Mongolia)
Buryat Mongolia
Kalmyk Mongolia
Hazara Mongols
Aimak Mongols

Timeline
edit box

Genghis Khan's empire was inherited by his third son, Ögedei, the designated Great Khan who personally controlled the lands east of Lake Balkash as far as Mongolia. Tolui, the youngest, the keeper of the hearth, was accorded the northern Mongolian homeland. Chagatai, the second son, received Transoxania, between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers in modern Uzbekistan, and the area around Kashgar. He made his capital at Almalik near what is now Kulja in northwestern China[3]. Apart from problems of lineage and inheritance, the Mongol Empire was endangered by the great cultural and ethnic divide between the Mongols themselves and their mostly Islamic Turkic subjects.

When Ögedei died before achieving his dream of conquering all of China, there was a unsettled transition to his son Güyük (1241) overseen by Ögedei's wife Töregene who had assumed the regency for the five years following Ögedei's death. The transition had to be ratified in a kurultai, which was duly celebrated, but without the presence of Batu, the independent-minded khan of the Golden Horde[4]. After Güyük's death, Batu sent Berke, who maneuvered with Tolui's widow, and, in the next kurultai (1253), the Ögedite line was passed over for Möngke, Tolui's son, who was said to be favorable to Nestorian Christianity[5]. The Ögedite ulus was dismembered; only the Ögedites who not immediately go into opposition were given minor fiefs[6].

[edit] The Chagatai Khanate after Chagatai

Chagatai died in 1242, shortly after his brother Ögedei. For nearly twenty years after this the Chagatai Khanate was little more than a dependency of the Mongol central government, which deposed and appointed khans as it pleased. The cities of Transoxiana, while located within the boundaries of the khanate, were administrated by officials who answered directly to the Great Khan.[7]

This state of subservience to the central government was ended during the reign of Chagatai's grandson Alghu (1260-1266), who took advantage of the civil war between Kublai Khan and Ariq Boke by revolting against the latter, seizing new territories and gaining the allegiance of the Great Khan's authorities in Transoxiana[8]. This attitude of defiance continued under Alghu's eventual successor, Baraq (1266-1271), who expelled the Kublai Khan's governor in Chinese Turkestan.[9]

Baraq soon came into conflict with the Ögedite Kaidu (Qaidu), who gained the support of the Golden Horde and attacked the Chagatayids. Baraq was soon confined to Transoxiana and forced to become a vassal of Kaidu[10]. At the same time, he was at odds with Abaqa, the Ilkhan, who ruled his Ilkhanate in Persia. Baraq attacked first, but was defeated by the Ilkhanate army and forced to return to Transoxiana, where he died not long after.[11]

The next several Chagatayid khans were appointed by Kaidu[12], who maintained a hold upon the khanate until his death. He finally found a suitable khan in Baraq's son Duwa (1282-1307), who participated in Kaidu's wars with Kublai khan and his successors of the Yuan Dynasty.[13] The two rulers also were active against the Ilkhanate.[14] After Kaidu's death in the first decade of the 14th century, Duwa threw off his allegiance to his successor. He also made peace with the Yuan Dynasty and paid tributes to the Yuan court; by the time of his death the Chagatai Khanate was a virtually independent state.[15]

[edit] End of Chagatayid rule in Transoxiana

Duwa left behind numerous sons, many of whom became khans themselves. Included among these are Kebek (1309, 1318-1326), who instituted a standardization of the coinage and selected a sedentary capital (at Qarshi), and Tarmashirin (1326-1334), who converted to Islam and raided the Sultanate of Delhi in India. The center of the khanate was shifting to the western regions, i.e. Transoxiana. Tarmashirin, however, was brought down by a rebellion of the tribes in the eastern provinces and the khanate became increasingly unstable in the following years. In 1346 a tribal chief, Qazaghan, killed the Chagatai khan Qazan during a revolt.[16]

Qazan's death marked the end of effective Chagatayid rule over Transoxiana. Administration of the region fell into the hands of the local tribes (which were mostly Turkic or Turko-Mongol) who were loosely allied with one another. In order to legitimatize their rule, they maintained a member of the house of Genghis Khan on the throne, but these khans were no more than puppets.[17]

The only serious attempt to restore Chagatayid rule in Transoxiana came from Tughlugh Timur (who will be discussed below), who invaded Transoxiana twice and attempted to neuter the power of the tribes. He was unsuccessful, however, and died soon afterwards. When his army departed the region, control of Transoxiana was contested by two tribal leaders, Amir Husayn (the grandson of Qazaghan) and Timur or Tamerlane. Timur eventually defeated Amir Husayn and took control of Transoxiana (1369-1405).

Like his predecessors, Timur maintained a puppet khan on the throne to legitimatize his rule, but his khans were members of the house of Ögedei, not descendants of Chagatai[18]. For over three decades, Timur used the Chagatai lands as the base for extensive conquests, conquering Herat in Afghanistan, Shiraz in Persia, Baghdad in Iraq, and Damascus in Syria. After defeating the Ottoman Turks at Angora, Timur died in 1405 while marching on China. After his death his successors, the Timurids, are also reported to have had their own shadow khans until the mid-15th century. Nevertheless, the Chagatai legacy lived on; Timur's troops were called Chagatais[19], and the literary language used the Timurids and their Moghul neighbors to the east was called Chagatai Turkic[20]

[edit] Chagatayid rule continued in East Turkestan

Beginning in the mid-14th century a new khanate, in the form of a nomadic tribal confederacy headed by a member of the family of Chagatai, arose in the region of the Ili River. It is therefore considered to be a continuation of the Chagatai Khanate, but it is also referred to as the Moghul Khanate[21], since its tribal inhabitants were originally considered to be pure "Moghuls" (ie, Mongols), in contrast to the mostly Turkic and Turkicised Mongols of Transoxiana[22].

The eastern regions of the Chagatai Khanate in the early 14th century had been inhabited by a number of Mongol nomadic tribes. These tribes resented the conversion of Tarmashirin to Islam and the move of the khan to the sedentary areas of Transoxiana. They were behind the revolt that ended in Tarmashirin's death. One of the khans that followed Tarmashirin, Changshi, favored the east and was anti-Muslim.[23]

In the 1340s as a series of ephemeral khans struggled to hold power in Transoxiana, little attention was paid by the Chagatayids to the eastern regions. As a result, the eastern tribes there were virtually independent. The most powerful of the tribes, the Dughlats, controlled extensive territories in Moghulistan and the western Tarim Basin. In 1347 the Dughlats decided to appoint a khan of their own, and raised the Chagatayid Tughlugh Timur to the throne.[24]

Tughlugh Timur (1347-1363) was thereby made the head of a tribal confederacy that governed the Tarim Basin and the steppe area of Moghulistan (named after the Moghuls). His reign was contemporaneous with the series of puppet khans that ruled in Transoxiana, meaning that there were now effectively two khanates headed by Chagatayids: one in the west, centered in Transoxiana, and one in the east, centered in Moghulistan. Unlike the khans in the west, however, Tughlugh Timur was a strong ruler who converted to Islam (1354) and sought to reduce the power of the Dughlats[25]. In 1360 he took advantage of a breakdown of order in Transoxiana and his legitimacy as descendant of Chagatai Khan[26] to invade the region and take control of it, thereby temporarily reuniting the two khanates. Despite invading a second time in 1361 and appointing his son Ilyas Khoja as governor of Transoxiana, however, Tughlugh Timur was unable to keep a lasting hold on the region, and the Moghuls were ultimately expelled by Amir Husayn and Timur, who then fought amongst themselves for control of Transoxiana[27].

Chagatayid rule in Moghulistan was temporarily interrupted by the coup of the Dughlat amir Qamar ud-Din, who likely killed Ilyas Khoja and several other Chagatayids. The Moghuls that remained obedient to him were constantly at war with Timur, who invaded Moghulistan several times but was unable to force its inhabitants into submission[28]. A Chagatayid restoration occurred in the 1380s, but the Dughlats retained an important position within the khanate; for the next forty years they installed several khans of their own choosing[29].

This cycle was broken by Uvais Khan (1418-1428), a devout Muslim who was frequently at war with the Oirats (Western Mongols) who roamed in the area east of Lake Balkash. He was usually defeated and even captured twice by the Oirat Esen Tayishi, but was able to secure his release both times. Uvais Khan was followed by Esen Buqa (1428-1462), who frequently raided the Timurid Empire to the west. Late in his reign he was contested by his brother Yunus Khan (1462-1487), who had raised to the khanship by the Timurids in an attempt to counter Esen Buqa. Yunus Khan defeated the Uzbeks and maintained good relations with the Kazakhs and Timurids, but the western Tarim Basin was lost to a revolt by the Dughlats. In 1484 he captured Tashkent from the Timurids.[30]

During the fifteenth century the Moghul khans became increasingly Turkified. Yunus Khan is even mentioned to have the looks of a Tajik instead of those of a Mongol[31]. This Turkification may not have have been as extensive amongst the general Moghul population[32], who were also slower to convert to Islam than the khan and top amirs (although by the mid-fifteenth century the Moghuls were considered to be largely Muslim[33]). The khans also adopted the Islamic sharia in favor of the Mongol yasa[34].

Territory of the Eastern Chagatai (Moghul) Khanate in 1490
Territory of the Eastern Chagatai (Moghul) Khanate in 1490

After Yunus Khan's death his territories were divided by his sons. Ahmad Khan (1487-1503), who took eastern Moghulistan and Uighuristan, fought a series of successful wars against the Oirats, raided Chinese territory and attempted to seize the western Tarim Basin from the Dughlats, although he was ultimately unsuccessful. In 1503 he traveled west to assist his brother Mahmud Khan (1487-1508), the ruler of Tashkent and western Moghulistan, against the Uzbeks under Muhammad Shaybani. The brothers were defeated and captured; they were released but Tashkent was seized by the Uzbeks. Ahmad Khan died soon after and was succeeed by his son Mansur Khan (1503-1545), who captured Hami, a Chinese dependency, in 1513. Mahmud Khan spent several years trying to regain his authority in Moghulistan; he eventually gave up and submitted to Muhammad Shaybani, who executed him.[35]

Mansur Khan's brother Sultan Said Khan (1514-1533) conquered the western Tarim Basin from the Dughlats in 1514 and set himself up in Kashgar. Thereafter the Moghul Khanate was permanently divided, although Sultan Said Khan was nominally a vassal of Mansur Khan in Turfan. After Sultan Said Khan's death he was succeeded by Abdurashid Khan (1533-1565), who began his reign by executing a member of the Dughlat family. A nephew of the dead amir, Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat fled to Mughal Empire in India and eventually conquered Kashmir, where he wrote a history of the Moghuls. Abdurrashid Khan also fought for control of Moghulistan against the Kirghiz and the Kazakhs, but Moghulistan was ultimately lost; thereafter the Moghuls were largely restricted to possession of the Tarim Basin[36].

[edit] End of Chagatayid rule

In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, the Moghul khanate of Kashgar underwent a period of decentralization, with numerous subkhanates springing up with centers at Kashgar, Yarkand, Aksu and Khotan. At the same time, the khans increasingly gave up secular power to the khojas, until they were the effectively the governing power in Kashgaria. The khojas themselves were divided into two sects: the Aq Taghlik and the Kara Taghlik. This situation persisted until the 1670s, when the Moghul khans apparently tried to reassert their authority by expelling the leader of the Aq Taghlik[37]. The Aq Taghlik responded by requesting the assistance of the Dzungars (who were Oirats); the Dzungars invaded Kashgaria, imprisoned the khan, and installed the Aq Taghlik in Kashgar. They also helped the Aq Taghlik overcome the Kara Taghlik in Yarkand. A short time later, the Moghul kingdom of Turfan and Hami was also conquered by the Dzungars[38]. The Tarim Basin fell under the overall rule of the Dzungars until it was taken by the Manchu Emperors of China in the mid-18th century[39].

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Xinjiang: China's Muslim Borderland, S. Frederick Starr, pg. 243
  2. ^ See Barnes, Parekh and Hudson, p. 87; Barraclough, p. 127; Historical Maps on File, p. 2.27; and LACMA for differing versions of the boundaries of the khanate.
  3. ^ Grousset, pp. 253-4
  4. ^ Grousset, pp. 268-9
  5. ^ Grousset, pp. 272-5
  6. ^ For example Kaidu, who received Qayaliq, in modern Kazakhstan. Biran, pp. 19-20. He later revolted against Kublai Khan and forcefully made the Chagatai khans his vassals for three decades, as will be discussed below.
  7. ^ Grousset, pp. 328-9
  8. ^ Biran, pp. 21-2
  9. ^ Biran, p. 25
  10. ^ Biran, pp. 25-6
  11. ^ Biran, pp. 30-2
  12. ^ Biran, p. 33
  13. ^ Biran, pp. 50-2
  14. ^ Biran, pp. 59-60
  15. ^ Biran, pp. 71-6
  16. ^ Grousset, pp. 341-2
  17. ^ Manz, pp. 43-4. For more details about this time period, see the articles Qazaghan, Abdullah ibn Qazaghan, and Buyan Suldus, the individuals who held the position of ulus beg, or amir of the ulus, and who were the most powerful tribal leaders within Transoxiana
  18. ^ First Suurgatmish (1370-1388), then Sultan Mahmud (1388-1402). Grousset, p. 416
  19. ^ Barthold, "Caghatai-Khan," p. 814
  20. ^ Chagatai Turkic is now an extinct literary language, but it was relatively common in Central Asia up until Soviet times. Karpat, p. 10. Both the modern Uzbek and the Uyghur languages are closely related to it.
  21. ^ Kim, p. 290; n.1 discusses the various names used for this khanate. In addition, Timurid authors pejoratively called the Moghuls Jatah, or "worthless people." Elias, p. 75
  22. ^ Roemer, p.43
  23. ^ Grousset, p. 341
  24. ^ Grousset, pp. 343-4
  25. ^ Kim, pp. 302-3
  26. ^ After the execution of Shah Temur (1358) the Transoxianan Turkic amirs had not bothered to appoint a new puppet khan, meaning that there was not even a shadow khan in the west that could be used to oppose Tughlugh Timur's legitimist claims
  27. ^ Grousset, pp. 409-11. For details of the battles between Amir Husayn and Timur for control of Transoxiana, see Manz, Chapter 3
  28. ^ Kim, p. 306
  29. ^ Barthold, "Dughlat," p. 622
  30. ^ Grousset, pp. 491-5
  31. ^ Grousset, p. 495
  32. ^ Elias, p. 78
  33. ^ Muhammad Haidar Mirza, p. 58
  34. ^ Muhammad Haidar Mirza, pp. 69-70
  35. ^ Grousset, pp. 495-7
  36. ^ Grousset, pp. 499-500
  37. ^ Grousset, pp. 500-1
  38. ^ Grousset, pp. 527-8
  39. ^ Elias, pp. 125-6

Kara-Khanid Khanate


Form:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kara-Khanid_Khanate

Kara-Khanid Khanate was a Turkic Khanate founded by the Karakhanids (Qarakhānid, also spelled Ilek Khanidis, Turkish: "Karahanlılar", 黑汗, 桃花石) who were a Turkic dynasty. Kara-Khanid Khanate ruled Transoxania in Central Asia from 840 to 1211.[1] Their capitals included Kashgar, Balasagun, Uzgen and then again Kashgar. The name of the state comprises two Turkish words, "Kara" and "Khan". "Kara" means "black" in Turkish, indicating nobility, and "Khan", actually "Kağan", is a Turkish title given to the ruler of a state like Hakan, Tanhu, Yabgu, and İlbey.

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[edit] Origins

[edit] Early history

Despite continuity from the first Uyghur Empire and affinity with the Kara-Khojas, the Kara-Khanids claimed descent from the legendary Afrasiab dynasty.[citation needed] The use of the vertical Uyghur script among Muslim Turks extended well into Timurid times in western Turkistan, and well into Manchu times in some enclaves in eastern Turkistan. The Anatolian Turkish beyliks in Ilkhanid times and early Ottoman times still retained scribes trained in the vertical script in order to do transactions with the Timurids. These scribes were called "bakshy", a name possibly of Chinese origin, meaning "great scholar", one of the titles of the Confucian soldier-scholar Yelu Dashi, or of Sanskrit origin.

The nomadic elements of the Kara-Khanid and Kara-Khitan states, the Karluk and Naiman hordes, laid the foundation for the modern Kypchak Turkic-speaking cultures of the Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and Tatars. The Muslim, Persianized, sedentary elements of the Kara-Khanid culture are preserved today among the Tajik, Uzbek, Afghan, Hui and Uyghur nations, two of which speak Chagatay Turkic languages.

[edit] Early migrations

Kara-Khanid Khanate in 1025 AD.
Kara-Khanid Khanate in 1025 AD.

A branch of the Uyghurs migrated to oasis settlements of Tarim Basin and Gansu, such as Gaochang (Khoja) and Hami (Kumul) and set up a confederation of decentralized Buddhist states called Kara-Khoja. Others, occupying western Tarim Basin, Ferghana Valley, Jungaria and parts of Kazakhstan bordering the Muslim Khwarazm Sultanate, converted to Islam no later than 10th century and built a federation with Muslim institutions called Kara-Khanlik, whose princely dynasties are called Kara-Khanids by historians.

In 999 Harun (or Hasan) Bughra Khan, grandson of the paramount tribal chief of the Uyghur-Karluk confederation, occupied Bukhara, the Samanid capital. The Samanid domains were split up between the Ghaznavids, who gained Khorasan and Afghanistan, and the Karakhanids, who received Transoxania; the Oxus River thus became the boundary between the two rival empires. During this period the Kara-Khanids were converted to Islam.

Early in the 11th century the unity of the Kara-Khanid dynasty was fractured by constant internal warfare. In 1041 Muhammad 'Ayn ad-Dawlah (reigned 1041–52) took over the administration of the western branch of the family, centred at Bukhara. After the rise of the Seljuks at the end of the 11th century in Iran, the Kara-Khanids became nominal vassals of the Seljuks. Later they would serve the dual suzerainty of both the Kara-Khitans to the north and the Seljuks to the south.[1]

With a decline in Seljuk power, the Kara-Khanids in 1140 fell under domination of the rival Turkic[citation needed] Karakitai confederation, centred in northern China. 'Uthman (reigned 1204–11) briefly reestablished the independence of the dynasty, but in 1211 the Karakhanids were defeated by the Khwarezm-Shah 'Ala' ad-Din Muhammad and the dynasty was extinguished.

[edit] Famous Kara-Khanid rulers

The restored mausoleum of Ayshah bibi near Taraz.
The restored mausoleum of Ayshah bibi near Taraz.
See also: Kara-Khanid rulers

Historically influential Kara-Khanid rulers include Mahmoud Tamgach of Kashgar. After the defeat of the Khitan dynasty by the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234) in Northern China, the great Khitan mandarin Yelu Dashi escaped from China with a small band of Khitan soldiers, recruited warriors from Tangut, Tibetan, Karluk, Kara-Khoja, Naiman areas and marched westward in search of asylum.

Yelu Dashi was accommodated by the hospitable Tangut Western Xia Kingdom and the Buddhist Kara-Khojas. However, he was shut out by the Muslim Kara-Khanids near Gulja and Kashgar. Enraged, he subjugated Karakhanid states one by one and set up the Kara-Khitan suzerainty in Balasagun on the Irtysh River. Several military commanders of Kara-Khanid lineages such as the father of Osman of Khwarezm, escaped from Kara-Khanid lands during the Kara-Khitan invasion. In 1244, upon the invitation of the Egyptian Mamluks, Osman of Khwarezm marched on Jerusalem and liberated the holy city, on behalf of Islam, from the Crusaders.


[edit] Kara-Khitan Invasion

Asia in 1200 AD, showing Kara-Khitan and neighbors.
Asia in 1200 AD, showing Kara-Khitan and neighbors.

The Kara-Khitan Khanate, though harsh on the Muslim Karluk-Uyghurs, did not dispossess all of the Kara-Khanid domains. Instead, the Khitans (most of them were actually Naimans, Tanguts and Karluks speaking the same Turkic language as the Kara-Khanids) retreated to the northern steppes and had the Kara-Khanids act as their tax-collectors and administrators on Muslim sedentary populations (the same practice was adopted by the Golden Horde on the Russian Steppes). The Kara-Khitans even incorporated Kara-Khanid Muslim generals such as Muhammad Tai, who surrendered to the Naiman usurper Kuchlug at the end of the Kara-Khitan Dynasty. Kuchlug, the last ruler of the Kara-Khitan Dynasty, was especially harsh on the Muslim populations under his suzerainty. He went so far as to forcing conversions from Islam to Buddhism, the dominant religion of the ruling Kara-Khitans. The elite Kara-Khitans and their Naiman soldiers, on an interesting note, were very often Nestorian Christians, as suggested by the Syriac names of the Gur-Khans (Emperors), who at the same time had Confucian titles and patronized Buddhist establishments. Kuchlug's Naimans were perhaps heavily Nestorian Christian. The reason for force conversions into Buddhism was perhaps due to the underdevelopment of Nestorian institutions, making it unsuitable on sedentary domination.

[edit] Downfall

In the early 13th century Kara-Khitan ruler Kuchlug, a sworn foe of Genghis Khan, was crushed by the advancing Mongol army along with his Kara-Khitan military state. His vassals, the Kara-Khanids, offered meager resistance to the Mongols.

[edit] Culture

11-12th century Karakhanid mausolea in Uzgen, Kyrgyzstan.
11-12th century Karakhanid mausolea in Uzgen, Kyrgyzstan.

It is perhaps because of the similarities between Kara-Khanid and Kara-Khoja cultures that during the Yuan and Ming periods former Kara-Khoja and Xixia lands were populated by converts to Islam indistinguishable from Chagatay and Timurid lands. These Turkic Muslims under Chinese influence later adopted the Chinese language while still maintaining extensive trade relations with Turkestan. They were designated "Hui" in Chinese, obviously derived from "Huihui" or "Huihu", an archaic transliteration of "Uyghur". The Kara-Khanid culture started as a literate tradition, with a body of Muslim subjects recorded in the vertical Sogdian script of the first Uyghur Empire.

The Islamized Karluk princely clan, the Balasaghunlu Ashinalar (the Kara-Khanids) gravitated toward the Persian Islamic cultural zone after their political autonomy and suzerainty over Central Asia was secured during the 9-10th century. As they became increasingly Persianized (to the point of adopting "Afrasiab", a Shahnameh mythical figure as the ancestor of their lineage), they settled in the more Indo-Iranian sedentary centers such as Kashgar, and became detached from the nomadic traditions of fellow Karluks, many of whom retained the Nestorian-Mahayana-Manichaean religious mixture of the former Uyghur Khanate.

[edit] Legacy

Kara-Khanid legacy is arguably the most enduring cultural heritage among coexisting cultures in Central Asia from the 9th to the 13th century. The Karluk-Uyghur dialect spoken by the nomadic tribes and turkified sedentary populations under Kara-Khanid rule branched out into two major branches of the Turkic linguistic family, the Chagatay and the Kypchak. The Kara-Khanid cultural model that combined nomadic Turkic culture with Islamic, sedentary institutions spread east into former Kara-Khoja and Tangut territories and west and south into the subcontinent, Khorasan (Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Northern Iran), Golden Horde territories (Tataristan) and Turkey. The Mongol Chagatay, Timurid and Uzbek states and societies inherited most of the cultures of the Kara-Khanids and the Khwarezmians without much interruption.

Uyghur Empire






















From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyghur_Khaganate

The Uyghur Empire (Chinese: 回纥 / 回鶻) is a Turkic empire that existed for about a century between the mid 8th and 9th centuries. They were a tribal confederation under the Uyghur nobility, referred to by the Chinese as Chiu Hsing ("Nine Clans").

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[edit] The Rise of Uyghurs in Mongolia

A rebellion in 742 against the ruling Göktürk Khaganate by the Uyghur, Karluk, and Basmyl tribes left an immense power vacuum in Mongolia and Central Asia. The Basmyls captured the Göktürk capital Ötügen and their king Özmish Khan in 744, effectively taking charge of the region. However a Uyghur-Karluk alliance against the Basmyls was formed later the same year. The coalition defeated the Basmyls and beheaded their king. The Basmyl tribes were effectively destroyed; their people sold to the Chinese or distributed amongst the victors. The Uyghurs took control of Mongolia, with the Karluk tribes given lands further West. The Uyghur chief Kutluk bilge köl (Glorious, wise, mighty) had himself crowned as the supreme ruler (khagan) of all Altaic tribes and built his capital at Ordu Baliq.

In 747, Kutluk bilge köl died, leaving his youngest son, Bayanchur Khan to reign as Khagan El etmish bilge ("State settled, wise"). After building a number of trading outposts with the Chinese, Bayanchur Khan used the profits to build the capital, Ordu Baliq ("City of Court"), and another city, Bai Baliq ("Rich City"), further up the Selenga River. The new khagan then embarked on a series of campaigns to bring all the steppe peoples under his banner. During this time the Empire vastly expanded, with Sekiz Oghuz, Qïrghïz, Qarluqs, Türgish, Toquz Tatars, Chiks and the remnants of the Basmïls coming under Uyghur rule.

The Chinese defeat at the Battle of Talas combined with a series of rebellions, the largest being of An Lushan, forced the Chinese emperor to turn to Bayanchur Khan for assistance. Seeing this as an ideal opportunity to meddle in Chinese affairs, the khagan agreed, quelling several rebellions and defeating an invading Tibetan army from the south. As a result, the Uyghurs received tribute from the Chinese and Bayanchur Khan was given the daughter of the Chinese Emperor to marry (princess Ningo).

In 756, the Uyghurs turned their attentions to a rival steppe tribe, the Kyrgyz to the north. Bayanchur Khan destroyed several of their trading outposts before slaughtering a Kyrgyz army and executing their Khan.

Finally, in 759, after drinking heavily at a celebration, Bayanchur Khan died. His son Tengri Bögü succeeded him as Khagan Kutluk tarkhan sengün.

[edit] Golden Age

Asia in 800 AD, showing the Uyghur Khanate and its neighbors.
Asia in 800 AD, showing the Uyghur Khanate and its neighbors.

In 762, in alliance with the Tang, Tengri Bögü launched a campaign against the Tibetans. He recaptured for the Tang Emperor the western capital Luoyang. Khagan Tengri Bögü met with Manichaean priests from Iran while on campaign, and was converted to Manicheism, adopting it as the official religion of the Uyghur Empire.

In 779 Tengri Bögü, incited by sogdian traders, living in Ordu Baliq, planned an invasion of China to take advantage of the accession of a new emperor. Tengri Bögü's uncle, Tun Bagha Tarkhan opposed this plan, fearing it would result in Uyghur assimilation into Chinese culture[citation needed]. Bagha Tarkhan led a rebellion against his ruler, beheading him and his closest followers (about 2,000 nobles). Tun Bagha Tarkhan ascended the throne as Alp kutluk bilge ("Victorious, glorious, wise") and enforced a new set of laws, which he designed to secure the unity of the khaganate, He also moved against the Kyrgyz once more, finally bringing them under the Uyghur Khaganate's control.

[edit] Decline

In 795 the khagan, bearing title Kutluk bilge, died and the Yaghlakar (Chinese: Yao-lo-ko) dynasty came to an end. The Uyghur Empire started to fragment before a new ruler, a general named Kutluk, declared himself as the new khagan under the title Ai tengride ülüg bulmïsh alp kutluk ulugh bilge ("Greatly born in moon heaven, victorious, glorious, great and wise"), founding a new dynasty, the Ediz (Chinese: A-tieh). With solid leadership once more, the Khaganate averted collapse. Kutluk became renowed for his leadership and management of the Empire. Although, he consolidated the empire, he failed to restore it to its previous power. On his death in 808, the empire began to fragment once again. He was succeeded by his son, who went on to improve trade in inner Asia. The last great khagan of the Empire was a khagan with unknown name, bearing the title Kün tengride ülüg bulmïsh alp küchlüg bilge ("Greatly born in sun heaven, victorious, strong and wise"), whose achievements included improved trade, uptill the region of Sogdiana, and on the battlefield he repulsed a force of invading Tibetans. This khagan died in 824 and was succeeded by a brother, Qasar, who was murdered in 832, inaugurating a period of anarchy. In 839 the legitimate khagan was forced to commit suicide, and a usurping minister named Kürebir seized the throne. In the same year there was a famine that killed much of the livestock the Uyghur economy was based on.

[edit] Collapse

The following spring, in 840, the Kyrgyz tribe invaded from the north with a force of around 80,000 horsemen. They sacked the Uyghur capital at Ordu Baliq, razing it to the ground. The Kyrgyz captured the Uyghur Khagan, Kürebir (Hesa) and promptly beheaded him. The Kyrgyz went on to destroy other Uyghur cities throughout their empire, burning them to the ground. The last legitimate khagan, Öge, was assassinated in 847, having spent his 6-year reign in fighting the Kyrgyz and the supporters of his rival Ormïzt, a brother of Kürebir. The Kyrgyz invasion destroyed the Uyghur Empire, causing a diaspora of Uyghur people across Central Asia.

[edit] After the Empire

The three kingdoms of Gansu (848-1036), Turfan (856-1369) and Karakhanids (850-1212) were formed by the Uyghurs who fled (southwest, west and further west respectively) from the Yenisei Kyrgyz, several years after the fall of the empire. None of these states became as powerful as the Uyghur Empire but did hold artistic, scientific and commercial achievements to their name. The Uyghurs became important civil servants in the later Mongol Empire, which adopted the Uyghur script as its official script.

[edit] List of Uyghur Khagans

The following list is based on Dennis Sinor, "The Uighur Empire of Mongolia," Studies in Medieval Inner Asia, Variorum, 1997, V: 1-25. Because of the complex and inconsistent Uyghur and Chinese titulatures, references to the rulers now typically include their number in the sequence, something further complicated by the non-inclusion of an unnamed ephemeral son of 4 between 5 and 6 in 790, and the inclusion of a spurious reign between 7 and 9.

  1. 744–747 Qutlugh bilge köl (K'u-li p'ei-lo)
  2. 747–759 El-etmish bilge (Bayan Chur, Mo yen ch'o), son of 1
  3. 759–779 Qutlugh tarqan sengün (Tengri Bögü, Teng-li Mou-yü), son of 2
  4. 779–789 Alp qutlugh bilge (Tun bagha tarkhan), son of 1
  5. 789–790 Ai tengride bulmïsh külüg bilge (To-lo-ssu), son of 4
  6. 790–795 Qutlugh bilge (A-ch'o), son of 5
  7. 795–808 Ai tengride ülüg bulmïsh alp qutlugh ulugh bilge (Qutlugh, Ku-tu-lu)
  8. 805–808 Ai tengride qut bulmïsh külüg bilge (spurious reign: tenure belongs to 7, name to 9)
  9. 808–821 Ai tengride qut bulmïsh külüg bilge (Pao-i), son of 7
  10. 821–824 Kün tengride ülüg bulmïsh alp küchlüg bilge (Ch'ung-te), son of 9
  11. 824–832 Ai tengride qut bulmïsh alp bilge (Qasar, Ko-sa), son of 9
  12. 832–839 Ai tengride qut bulmïsh alp külüg bilge (Hu), son of 10
  13. 839–840 Kürebir (Ho-sa), usurper
  14. 841–847 Öge, son of 9