Sultan Said Khan
Encyclopedia
Sultan Said Khan ruled the state of Yarkand (mamlakati Yarkand) in Uyghurstan/Eastern Turkestan from September, 1514, to July, 1533. He was born in 1487 in Moghulistan
and was a direct descendant of the first Moghul Khan, Tughlugh Timur
, who had founded the state of Moghulistan
in 1348 (and ruled until 1363). The moghuls were turkicized Mongols who converted to Islam
.
Some English sources refer to this ruler as Abusaid.
When the Chagatai
ulus, which embraced both East and West Turkestan
, collapsed, the result was the creation of two different states: Maverannahr in West Turkestan, with its capital at Samarkand
, where Timur the Great
came to power in 1370, and Moghulistan, with its capital at Almalik, near the present-day town of Gulja, in the Ili
valley. Moghulistan embraced settled lands in Eastern Turkestan as well as nomad lands north of Tangri Tagh
. The settled lands were known at the time as Manglai Sobe or Mangalai Suyah, which translates as Shiny Land, or Advanced Land Which Faced the Sun. These lands included west and central Tarim
oasis-cities, such as Khotan, Yarkand, Yangihisar
, Kashgar
, Aksu, and Uch Turpan
; and hardly involved eastern Tangri Tagh
oasis-cities, such as Kucha
, Karashahr
, Turpan and Kumul, where a local Uyghur
administration and buddhist population still existed. The nomadic areas comprised the present Kyrghyzstan and part of Kazakhstan
, including Jettisu, the area of seven rivers.
The ruler of Aksu, the dughlat amir Puladchi, brought a young, 18 year old, Tughluk Timur
from the Ili
valley in 1347, and in a kurultai
declared him a grandson of Duwa
Khan, the great-grandson of Chagatai Khan
and ruler of the Chagatai Khanate between 1282 and 1307. Puladchi forced all moghuls to recognize Tughluk as Khan. Khans from Chagatai, the second son of Genghis Khan
, to Tughluk Timur are known as "Chagatai khans", and from Tughluk Timur to his descendants as "Moghul khans".
Moghulistan existed around 100 years, and then split into three parts: Yarkand state (mamlakati Yarkand), with its capital at Yarkand, which embraced all the settled lands of Western Kashgaria, still nomad Moghulistan which embraced the nomad lands north of Tengri Tagh
, and Uyghurstan which embraced the settled lands of Eastern Kashgaria, Turpan and Kumul Basins. The founder of Yarkand state was Mirza Abu Bakr, who was from the dughlat tribe. In 1465, he raised a rebellion, captured Yarkand, Kashgar, and Khotan, and declared himself an independent ruler, successfully repelling attacks by the Moghulistan rulers Yunus Khan
and his son Akhmad Khan, or Ahmad Alaq
, named Alach, "Slaughterer", for his war against the kalmyk
s. In 1462 moghul khan Dost Muhammad
took residency in Aksu, denying nomad style of life, and as result Eastern Kashgaria cities, such as Aksu, Uch Turpan, Kucha, Karashar, and also Turpan and Kumul, separated into Eastern Khanate or Uyghurstan.
Dughlat amirs had ruled the country that lay south of Tangri-Tagh in the Tarim Basin
from the middle of the thirteenth century, on behalf of Chagatai Khan and his descendants, as their satellites. The first dughlat ruler, who received lands directly from the hands of Chagatai, was amir Babdagan or Tarkhan
. The capital of the emirate was Kashgar, and the country was known as Mamlakati Kashgar. Although the emirate, representing the settled lands of Eastern Turkestan, was formally under the rule of the moghul khans, the dughlat amirs often tried to put an end to that dependence, and raised frequent rebellions, one of which resulted in the separation of Kashgar from Moghulistan for almost 15 years (1416–1435).
Mirza Abu Bakr ruled Yarkand for 48 years. In May, 1514, Sultan Said Khan, grandson of Yunus Khan
(ruler of Moghulistan between 1462 and 1487) and third son of Akhmad Khan
, made an expedition against Kashgar from Andijan
with only 5000 men, and having captured the Yangihisar citadel, that defended Kashgar from south road, took the city, dethroning Mirza Abu Bakr. Soon after, other cities of Eastern Turkestan — Yarkand, Khotan, Aksu, and Uch Turpan — joined him, and recognized Sultan Said Khan as ruler, creating a union of six cities, called Altishahr. Sultan Said Khan's sudden success is considered to be contributed to by the dissatisfaction of the population with the tyrannical rule of Mirza Abu-Bakr and the unwillingness of the dughlat amirs to fight against a descendant of Chagatai Khan, and who decided, on the contrary, to bring the head of the slain ruler to Sultan Said Khan. This move put an end to almost 300 years of rule (nominal and actual) by the Dughlat Amirs in the cities of West Kashgaria (1219–1514).
, who were killing all the descendants of Timur the Great and Chagatai Khan. Sultan Said Khan saved his life when he moved to Kashgar with his nobles. In 1516, he concluded a peace agreement with his older brother Mansur Khan
, the moghul khan of Chalish
and Turpan ( Uyghurstan
), who died in 1543. As a result the eastern part of the settled country south and partly north of Tangri-Tagh joined his state, including the cities of Bai
, Kucha
, Chalish (Karashahr), Urum (Urumchi
), Turpan, Kumul, and Sajou (Dunhuang
), representing those lands of former Uyghuria that were known as the Fifth Ulus of the Mongol Empire
in the middle of the thirteenth century, because the former ruler of Uyghuria, idikut Baurchuk Art Tekin
married Altun Begi, the daughter of Genghis Khan, and was declared by Genghis as his fifth son in 1211. The historian Mirza Muhammad Haidar, in 1546, called this eastern part of the country the "Eastern Khanate or Uyghurstan" in his famous book Tarikh-i- Rashidi, written in Kashmir
.
The capital of this state was Yarkand, and it was known by the names mamlakati Saidiya, mamlakati Yarkand, and mamlakati Moghuliya in Iranian sources. The last name however was not accurate, because by this time the nomad state of Moghulistan had collapsed. It was eliminated during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by nomadic tribes of Kyrgyz, Kazakhs
and Jungars, that captured all the moghul lands north of Tangri Tagh. The remnants of the moghuls moved to Kashgaria and mixed with the local uyghur
population, although a group of the moghuls, in the amount of 30,000 men, joined Babur
, a descendant of Timur the Great through his father Omar Sheikh, and a descendant of Chagatai Khan through his mother Kutluk Nighar Hanim, a daughter of the Moghul Yunus Khan, in Kunduz
, in 1512, and helped him in his invasion of India
. The Babur state in India was known as the Moghul Empire, and this state recognized Yarkand, as it did the Shaybanid state in Maverannahr, in 1538.
Relations between Yarkand and Ming Dynasty
China
were not developed, although the far eastern boundaries of Yarkand reached the Jiayuguan Pass
at the western end of the Great Wall of China
due to holy expeditions of Mansur Khan, including expeditions against the sary uyghurs — Yellow or Yellow-Haired Uyghurs, called Yugurs, that worshipped Tibetan Buddhism
and took refuge in Gansu
province of Ming China in 1529, fleeing the holy warriors of Mansur Khan. This situation can be partly explained by the full extinction of Silk Road
trade by this time.
Sultan Said Khan died on July 9, 1533, due to asthma
, during a holy expedition against Ursang, Big or Great Tibet
with its capital Lhasa
. The main purpose of this expedition was to destroy the Idol Temple of Ursang, later known as Potala Palace
, in Lhasa, and convert Tibetans to Islam
. Before his death during almost 20 years of ruling he united all the settled country south of Tangri Tagh, from Kashgar to Kumul, in one centralized state with a population of the same origin and language. Also such mountaineous regions as Kashmir
and Bolor (present Nuristan and Kunar
provinces of Afghanistan
, also Chitral District
of North-West Frontier Province
of Pakistan
) became dependencies of Yarkand state, paid tributes and struck silver and golder coins under name " Abul Fath Sultan Said Khan Ghazi ". The contemporary writer dughlat amir Mirza Muhammad Haidar stated that it was a time when the Power of Tyranny (the rule of Mirza Abu Bakr) had been changed to the Power of Law and Order during the rule of Sultan Said Khan. Theft of property was considered a high crime and was subject to severe punishment, including execution. Peasants were encouraged to leave their tools in the fields after work, and household owners to keep the doors of their houses unlocked. Foreign traders, upon arrival to any town, could leave their luggage dumped directly on the road and, after taking a rest for several days and returning, they could find their goods in the same place — safe and untouched.
This country was later known as "Kashgar and Uyghurstan", according Balkh
historian Makhmud ibn Vali (Sea of Mysteries, 1640). Kashgar historian Muhammad Imin Sadr Kashgari called the country Uyghurstan in his book Traces of Invasion (Asar al-futuh) in 1780 (as opposed to Jungaria, which he called Moghulistan, and the Ili River
valley, which he called Baghistan, i.e. Land of Gardens). He wrote that this great country embraced a union of six cities south of Tangri Tagh — Kashgar, Yangihisar, Yarkand, Khotan, Aksu (Ardabil), and Uch Turpan (Safidkuh) — the so-called Altishahr, as well as Kucha
, Chalish (Karashahr), Turpan and Kumul. According to him, the country collapsed not due to attacks by external enemies, but due to the personal ambitions of its religious leaders, the Khojas
. The Khojas were divided into two hostile groups that hated and killed each other - the ak taghliks
(White Mountaineers) and the kara taghliks
(Black Mountaineers), who deposed one of the last moghul khans, Ismail Khan, in 1678, with the help of invited Kalmyks (Dzungars), and put the whole country under the foot of future invaders, including Dzungars and Qings (Manchu
s), for gaining personal powers.
Sultan Said Khan was succeeded in Yarkand by his son, Abdur Rashid Khan (Abdurashid Khan
), who ruled from 1533 to 1560.
Moghulistan
Moghulistan or Mughalistan is a historical geographic unit in Central Asia that included parts of modern-day Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and the Chinese Autonomous Region of Xinjiang...
and was a direct descendant of the first Moghul Khan, Tughlugh Timur
Tughlugh Timur
Tughlugh Timur was the Khan of Moghulistan from c. 1347 and Khan of the whole Chagatai Khanate from c. 1360 until his death. He is believed to be the son of Esen Buqa...
, who had founded the state of Moghulistan
Moghulistan
Moghulistan or Mughalistan is a historical geographic unit in Central Asia that included parts of modern-day Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and the Chinese Autonomous Region of Xinjiang...
in 1348 (and ruled until 1363). The moghuls were turkicized Mongols who converted to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
.
Some English sources refer to this ruler as Abusaid.
Preface
Chagatai Khanate
The Chagatai Khanate was a Turko-Mongol khanate that comprised the lands ruled by Chagatai Khan , second son of the Great Khan Genghis Khan, and his descendents and successors...
ulus, which embraced both East and West Turkestan
Turkestan
Turkestan, spelled also as Turkistan, literally means "Land of the Turks".The term Turkestan is of Persian origin and has never been in use to denote a single nation. It was first used by Persian geographers to describe the place of Turkish peoples...
, collapsed, the result was the creation of two different states: Maverannahr in West Turkestan, with its capital at Samarkand
Samarkand
Although a Persian-speaking region, it was not united politically with Iran most of the times between the disintegration of the Seleucid Empire and the Arab conquest . In the 6th century it was within the domain of the Turkic kingdom of the Göktürks.At the start of the 8th century Samarkand came...
, where Timur the Great
Timur
Timur , historically known as Tamerlane in English , was a 14th-century conqueror of West, South and Central Asia, and the founder of the Timurid dynasty in Central Asia, and great-great-grandfather of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Dynasty, which survived as the Mughal Empire in India until...
came to power in 1370, and Moghulistan, with its capital at Almalik, near the present-day town of Gulja, in the Ili
Ili River
thumb|right|300px|Map of the Lake Balkhash drainage basin showing the Ili River and its tributariesThe Ili River is a river in northwestern China and southeastern Kazakhstan .It is long, of which is in Kazakhstan...
valley. Moghulistan embraced settled lands in Eastern Turkestan as well as nomad lands north of Tangri Tagh
Tarim Basin
The Tarim Basin is a large endorheic basin occupying an area of about . It is located in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China's far west. Its northern boundary is the Tian Shan mountain range and its southern is the Kunlun Mountains on the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. The...
. The settled lands were known at the time as Manglai Sobe or Mangalai Suyah, which translates as Shiny Land, or Advanced Land Which Faced the Sun. These lands included west and central Tarim
Tarim Basin
The Tarim Basin is a large endorheic basin occupying an area of about . It is located in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China's far west. Its northern boundary is the Tian Shan mountain range and its southern is the Kunlun Mountains on the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. The...
oasis-cities, such as Khotan, Yarkand, Yangihisar
Yengisar County
Yengisar County is a county in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwestern China. It is under the administration of the Kashgar Prefecture. It contains an area of 3,373 km2. As of the 2002 census, it had a population of 230,000....
, Kashgar
Kashgar
Kashgar or Kashi is an oasis city with approximately 350,000 residents in the western part of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Kashgar is the administrative centre of Kashgar Prefecture which has an area of 162,000 km² and a population of approximately...
, Aksu, and Uch Turpan
Uqturpan County
Uqturpan County is a county in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and is under the administration of the Aksu Prefecture. According to the 2002 census, it has an area of 9,012 km² with a population of 180,000....
; and hardly involved eastern Tangri Tagh
Tarim Basin
The Tarim Basin is a large endorheic basin occupying an area of about . It is located in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China's far west. Its northern boundary is the Tian Shan mountain range and its southern is the Kunlun Mountains on the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. The...
oasis-cities, such as Kucha
Kucha
Kuchaor Kuche Uyghur , Chinese Simplified: 库车; Traditional: 庫車; pinyin Kùchē; also romanized as Qiuzi, Qiuci, Chiu-tzu, Kiu-che, Kuei-tzu from the traditional Chinese forms 屈支 屈茨; 龜玆; 龟兹, 丘玆, also Po ; Sanskrit: Kueina, Standard Tibetan: Kutsahiyui was an ancient Buddhist kingdom...
, Karashahr
Karasahr
Yanqi , or Karasahr , is an ancient town on the Silk Road and capital of Yanqi Hui Autonomous County in the Bayin'gholin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture of Xinjiang, in northwestern China...
, Turpan and Kumul, where a local Uyghur
Uyghur people
The Uyghur are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today, Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China...
administration and buddhist population still existed. The nomadic areas comprised the present Kyrghyzstan and part of Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
, including Jettisu, the area of seven rivers.
The ruler of Aksu, the dughlat amir Puladchi, brought a young, 18 year old, Tughluk Timur
Tughlugh Timur
Tughlugh Timur was the Khan of Moghulistan from c. 1347 and Khan of the whole Chagatai Khanate from c. 1360 until his death. He is believed to be the son of Esen Buqa...
from the Ili
Ili River
thumb|right|300px|Map of the Lake Balkhash drainage basin showing the Ili River and its tributariesThe Ili River is a river in northwestern China and southeastern Kazakhstan .It is long, of which is in Kazakhstan...
valley in 1347, and in a kurultai
Kurultai
Kurultai is a political and military council of ancient Mongol and Turkic chiefs and khans. The root of the word "Khural" means political "meeting" or "assembly" in the Mongolian language, it is also a verb for "to be established"...
declared him a grandson of Duwa
Duwa
Duwa , also known as Du'a, was khan of the Chagatai Khanate . He was the second son of Baraq. He was the longest reigning monarch of the Chagatayid Khanate and accepted the Great Khan's supremacy...
Khan, the great-grandson of Chagatai Khan
Chagatai Khan
Chagatai Khan was the second son of Genghis Khan and first khan and origin of the names of the Chagatai Khanate, Chagatai language and Chagatai Turks....
and ruler of the Chagatai Khanate between 1282 and 1307. Puladchi forced all moghuls to recognize Tughluk as Khan. Khans from Chagatai, the second son of Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan , born Temujin and occasionally known by his temple name Taizu , was the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death....
, to Tughluk Timur are known as "Chagatai khans", and from Tughluk Timur to his descendants as "Moghul khans".
Moghulistan existed around 100 years, and then split into three parts: Yarkand state (mamlakati Yarkand), with its capital at Yarkand, which embraced all the settled lands of Western Kashgaria, still nomad Moghulistan which embraced the nomad lands north of Tengri Tagh
Tian Shan
The Tian Shan , also spelled Tien Shan, is a large mountain system located in Central Asia. The highest peak in the Tian Shan is Victory Peak , ....
, and Uyghurstan which embraced the settled lands of Eastern Kashgaria, Turpan and Kumul Basins. The founder of Yarkand state was Mirza Abu Bakr, who was from the dughlat tribe. In 1465, he raised a rebellion, captured Yarkand, Kashgar, and Khotan, and declared himself an independent ruler, successfully repelling attacks by the Moghulistan rulers Yunus Khan
Yunus Khan
Yunus Khan , was Khan of Moghulistan from 1462 until his death. He is identified by many historians with Ḥājjī `Ali , of the contemporary Chinese records.- Background and Family :...
and his son Akhmad Khan, or Ahmad Alaq
Ahmad Alaq
Ahmad Alaq , was Khan of eastern Moghulistan from 1487 to 1503. He was the second son of Yunus Khan. His mother was Shah Begum, fourth daughter of Badakhshan prince Lali, who was considered to be the descendant of Alexander the Great....
, named Alach, "Slaughterer", for his war against the kalmyk
Kalmyk people
Kalmyk people is the name given to the Oirats, western Mongols in Russia, whose descendants migrated from Dzhungaria in 1607. Today they form a majority in the autonomous Republic of Kalmykia on the western shore of the Caspian Sea. Kalmykia is Europe's only Buddhist government...
s. In 1462 moghul khan Dost Muhammad
Dost Muhammad (Moghul Khan)
Dost Muhammad Khan was Khan of eastern Moghulistan from 1462 until his death. He was the son of Esen Buqa II.When Esen Buqa died in 1462, the Dughlat amirs were divided over whether they should follow his son Dost Muhammad, who was then seventeen, or his brother Yunus Khan...
took residency in Aksu, denying nomad style of life, and as result Eastern Kashgaria cities, such as Aksu, Uch Turpan, Kucha, Karashar, and also Turpan and Kumul, separated into Eastern Khanate or Uyghurstan.
Dughlat amirs had ruled the country that lay south of Tangri-Tagh in the Tarim Basin
Tarim Basin
The Tarim Basin is a large endorheic basin occupying an area of about . It is located in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China's far west. Its northern boundary is the Tian Shan mountain range and its southern is the Kunlun Mountains on the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. The...
from the middle of the thirteenth century, on behalf of Chagatai Khan and his descendants, as their satellites. The first dughlat ruler, who received lands directly from the hands of Chagatai, was amir Babdagan or Tarkhan
Tarkhan
Tarkhan is an ancient Central Asian title used by various Indo-European Tarkhan (Old Turkic Tarqan; Mongolian: Darkhan; ; ; ; alternative spellings Tarkan, Tarkhaan, Tarqan, Tarchan, Tarxan, Tarcan or Targan) is an ancient Central Asian title used by various Indo-European Tarkhan (Old Turkic...
. The capital of the emirate was Kashgar, and the country was known as Mamlakati Kashgar. Although the emirate, representing the settled lands of Eastern Turkestan, was formally under the rule of the moghul khans, the dughlat amirs often tried to put an end to that dependence, and raised frequent rebellions, one of which resulted in the separation of Kashgar from Moghulistan for almost 15 years (1416–1435).
Mirza Abu Bakr ruled Yarkand for 48 years. In May, 1514, Sultan Said Khan, grandson of Yunus Khan
Yunus Khan
Yunus Khan , was Khan of Moghulistan from 1462 until his death. He is identified by many historians with Ḥājjī `Ali , of the contemporary Chinese records.- Background and Family :...
(ruler of Moghulistan between 1462 and 1487) and third son of Akhmad Khan
Ahmad Alaq
Ahmad Alaq , was Khan of eastern Moghulistan from 1487 to 1503. He was the second son of Yunus Khan. His mother was Shah Begum, fourth daughter of Badakhshan prince Lali, who was considered to be the descendant of Alexander the Great....
, made an expedition against Kashgar from Andijan
Andijan
Andijan or Andizhan is the fourth-largest city in Uzbekistan, and the capital of the Andijan Province. It is located in the east of the country, at , in the Fergana Valley, near the border with Kyrgyzstan on the Andijan-Say River...
with only 5000 men, and having captured the Yangihisar citadel, that defended Kashgar from south road, took the city, dethroning Mirza Abu Bakr. Soon after, other cities of Eastern Turkestan — Yarkand, Khotan, Aksu, and Uch Turpan — joined him, and recognized Sultan Said Khan as ruler, creating a union of six cities, called Altishahr. Sultan Said Khan's sudden success is considered to be contributed to by the dissatisfaction of the population with the tyrannical rule of Mirza Abu-Bakr and the unwillingness of the dughlat amirs to fight against a descendant of Chagatai Khan, and who decided, on the contrary, to bring the head of the slain ruler to Sultan Said Khan. This move put an end to almost 300 years of rule (nominal and actual) by the Dughlat Amirs in the cities of West Kashgaria (1219–1514).
Achievements
At this time, almost all of West Turkestan (Maverannahr) was invaded by nomadic Uzbeks of Shaybani KhanMuhammad Shaybani
Abu 'I-Fath Muhammad , known in later centuries as Shaybani Khan , was a khan of the Uzbeks who continued consolidating various Uzbek tribes and laid foundations for their ascendance in Transoxiana. of Genghis Khan through his grandson Shayban and considered the Timurids as usurpers of the...
, who were killing all the descendants of Timur the Great and Chagatai Khan. Sultan Said Khan saved his life when he moved to Kashgar with his nobles. In 1516, he concluded a peace agreement with his older brother Mansur Khan
Mansur Khan (Moghul Khan)
Mansur Khan , was the khan of Eastern Moghulistan from 1503 until his death. He was the eldest son of Ahmad Alach.-Life:...
, the moghul khan of Chalish
Karasahr
Yanqi , or Karasahr , is an ancient town on the Silk Road and capital of Yanqi Hui Autonomous County in the Bayin'gholin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture of Xinjiang, in northwestern China...
and Turpan ( Uyghurstan
East Turkestan
East Turkestan is a controversial political term with multiple meanings depending on context and usage...
), who died in 1543. As a result the eastern part of the settled country south and partly north of Tangri-Tagh joined his state, including the cities of Bai
Baicheng County
The Baicheng County is a county in the Aksu Prefecture of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China. The county's land area is 15,889 km2...
, Kucha
Kucha
Kuchaor Kuche Uyghur , Chinese Simplified: 库车; Traditional: 庫車; pinyin Kùchē; also romanized as Qiuzi, Qiuci, Chiu-tzu, Kiu-che, Kuei-tzu from the traditional Chinese forms 屈支 屈茨; 龜玆; 龟兹, 丘玆, also Po ; Sanskrit: Kueina, Standard Tibetan: Kutsahiyui was an ancient Buddhist kingdom...
, Chalish (Karashahr), Urum (Urumchi
Ürümqi
Ürümqi , formerly Tihwa , is the capital of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, in the northwest of the country....
), Turpan, Kumul, and Sajou (Dunhuang
Dunhuang
Dunhuang is a city in northwestern Gansu province, Western China. It was a major stop on the ancient Silk Road. It was also known at times as Shāzhōu , or 'City of Sands', a name still used today...
), representing those lands of former Uyghuria that were known as the Fifth Ulus of the Mongol Empire
Mongol Empire
The Mongol Empire , initially named as Greater Mongol State was a great empire during the 13th and 14th centuries...
in the middle of the thirteenth century, because the former ruler of Uyghuria, idikut Baurchuk Art Tekin
Baurchuk Art Tekin
Baurchuk Art Tekin was a ruler, with a title of Idikut, of the Buddhist Uyghur kingdom in Beshbalik , Kara-Khoja and Kumul between 1208 and 1235...
married Altun Begi, the daughter of Genghis Khan, and was declared by Genghis as his fifth son in 1211. The historian Mirza Muhammad Haidar, in 1546, called this eastern part of the country the "Eastern Khanate or Uyghurstan" in his famous book Tarikh-i- Rashidi, written in Kashmir
Kashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
.
The capital of this state was Yarkand, and it was known by the names mamlakati Saidiya, mamlakati Yarkand, and mamlakati Moghuliya in Iranian sources. The last name however was not accurate, because by this time the nomad state of Moghulistan had collapsed. It was eliminated during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by nomadic tribes of Kyrgyz, Kazakhs
Kazakhs
The Kazakhs are a Turkic people of the northern parts of Central Asia ....
and Jungars, that captured all the moghul lands north of Tangri Tagh. The remnants of the moghuls moved to Kashgaria and mixed with the local uyghur
Uyghur people
The Uyghur are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today, Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China...
population, although a group of the moghuls, in the amount of 30,000 men, joined Babur
Babur
Babur was a Muslim conqueror from Central Asia who, following a series of setbacks, finally succeeded in laying the basis for the Mughal dynasty of South Asia. He was a direct descendant of Timur through his father, and a descendant also of Genghis Khan through his mother...
, a descendant of Timur the Great through his father Omar Sheikh, and a descendant of Chagatai Khan through his mother Kutluk Nighar Hanim, a daughter of the Moghul Yunus Khan, in Kunduz
Kunduz
Kunduz also known as Kundûz, Qonduz, Qondûz, Konduz, Kondûz, Kondoz, or Qhunduz is a city in northern Afghanistan, the capital of Kunduz Province. It is linked by highways with Mazari Sharif to the west, Kabul to the south and Tajikistan's border to the north...
, in 1512, and helped him in his invasion of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. The Babur state in India was known as the Moghul Empire, and this state recognized Yarkand, as it did the Shaybanid state in Maverannahr, in 1538.
Relations between Yarkand and Ming Dynasty
Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
were not developed, although the far eastern boundaries of Yarkand reached the Jiayuguan Pass
Jiayuguan Pass
Jiayuguan or Jiayu Pass is the first pass at the west end of the Great Wall of China, near the city of Jiayuguan in Gansu province. It has also been called "Jiayuguan Pass"; however, this form is redundant since "guan" means "pass" in Chinese...
at the western end of the Great Wall of China
Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, built originally to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire against intrusions by various nomadic groups...
due to holy expeditions of Mansur Khan, including expeditions against the sary uyghurs — Yellow or Yellow-Haired Uyghurs, called Yugurs, that worshipped Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, Bhutan, and India . It is the state religion of Bhutan...
and took refuge in Gansu
Gansu
' is a province located in the northwest of the People's Republic of China.It lies between the Tibetan and Huangtu plateaus, and borders Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Ningxia to the north, Xinjiang and Qinghai to the west, Sichuan to the south, and Shaanxi to the east...
province of Ming China in 1529, fleeing the holy warriors of Mansur Khan. This situation can be partly explained by the full extinction of Silk Road
Silk Road
The Silk Road or Silk Route refers to a historical network of interlinking trade routes across the Afro-Eurasian landmass that connected East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean and European world, as well as parts of North and East Africa...
trade by this time.
Sultan Said Khan died on July 9, 1533, due to asthma
Asthma
Asthma is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath...
, during a holy expedition against Ursang, Big or Great Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
with its capital Lhasa
Lhasa
Lhasa is the administrative capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China and the second most populous city on the Tibetan Plateau, after Xining. At an altitude of , Lhasa is one of the highest cities in the world...
. The main purpose of this expedition was to destroy the Idol Temple of Ursang, later known as Potala Palace
Potala Palace
The Potala Palace is located in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, China. It was named after Mount Potala, the abode of Chenresig or Avalokitesvara...
, in Lhasa, and convert Tibetans to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
. Before his death during almost 20 years of ruling he united all the settled country south of Tangri Tagh, from Kashgar to Kumul, in one centralized state with a population of the same origin and language. Also such mountaineous regions as Kashmir
Kashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
and Bolor (present Nuristan and Kunar
Kunar
Kunar may refer to:*Kunar Valley, Afghanistan and Pakistan*Kunar Province, Afghanistan*Kunar River, Afghanistan and Pakistan...
provinces of Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, also Chitral District
Chitral District
Chitral is a district in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan that contains the town of Chitral. It has an area of 14,850 km² and a population of 318,689 at the 1998 Census, which had subsequently risen to about 378,000 people by 2004. It has one of the highest mountains of the world,...
of North-West Frontier Province
North-West Frontier Province
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province and various other names, is one of the four provinces of Pakistan, located in the north-west of the country...
of Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
) became dependencies of Yarkand state, paid tributes and struck silver and golder coins under name " Abul Fath Sultan Said Khan Ghazi ". The contemporary writer dughlat amir Mirza Muhammad Haidar stated that it was a time when the Power of Tyranny (the rule of Mirza Abu Bakr) had been changed to the Power of Law and Order during the rule of Sultan Said Khan. Theft of property was considered a high crime and was subject to severe punishment, including execution. Peasants were encouraged to leave their tools in the fields after work, and household owners to keep the doors of their houses unlocked. Foreign traders, upon arrival to any town, could leave their luggage dumped directly on the road and, after taking a rest for several days and returning, they could find their goods in the same place — safe and untouched.
This country was later known as "Kashgar and Uyghurstan", according Balkh
Balkh
Balkh , was an ancient city and centre of Zoroastrianism in what is now northern Afghanistan. Today it is a small town in the province of Balkh, about 20 kilometers northwest of the provincial capital, Mazar-e Sharif, and some south of the Amu Darya. It was one of the major cities of Khorasan...
historian Makhmud ibn Vali (Sea of Mysteries, 1640). Kashgar historian Muhammad Imin Sadr Kashgari called the country Uyghurstan in his book Traces of Invasion (Asar al-futuh) in 1780 (as opposed to Jungaria, which he called Moghulistan, and the Ili River
Ili River
thumb|right|300px|Map of the Lake Balkhash drainage basin showing the Ili River and its tributariesThe Ili River is a river in northwestern China and southeastern Kazakhstan .It is long, of which is in Kazakhstan...
valley, which he called Baghistan, i.e. Land of Gardens). He wrote that this great country embraced a union of six cities south of Tangri Tagh — Kashgar, Yangihisar, Yarkand, Khotan, Aksu (Ardabil), and Uch Turpan (Safidkuh) — the so-called Altishahr, as well as Kucha
Kucha
Kuchaor Kuche Uyghur , Chinese Simplified: 库车; Traditional: 庫車; pinyin Kùchē; also romanized as Qiuzi, Qiuci, Chiu-tzu, Kiu-che, Kuei-tzu from the traditional Chinese forms 屈支 屈茨; 龜玆; 龟兹, 丘玆, also Po ; Sanskrit: Kueina, Standard Tibetan: Kutsahiyui was an ancient Buddhist kingdom...
, Chalish (Karashahr), Turpan and Kumul. According to him, the country collapsed not due to attacks by external enemies, but due to the personal ambitions of its religious leaders, the Khojas
Khoja (Turkestan)
Khwāja or Khoja, , a Persian word literally meaning 'master', was used in Central Asia as a title of the descendants of the famous Central Asian Naqshbandi Sufi teacher, Ahmad Kasani . The most powerful religious figure in the late Timurid era was the Naqshbandi Shaykh Khoja Ahrar...
. The Khojas were divided into two hostile groups that hated and killed each other - the ak taghliks
Ak Tagh
Aq Tagh, literally "White Mountain" in Chagatai Turki, was a faction of Turkestani Naqshbandi Sufism originated in Samarkand. During the Chagatai Yarkand Khanate in modern day Xinjiang, two Naqshbandi factions, the Aq Tagh and the Qara Tagh vied for popularity and political power by allying with...
(White Mountaineers) and the kara taghliks
Ishaqi
Ishaqi is a small town in the Balad district of the Salah ad Din Governorate of Iraq about 60 miles north of Baghdad.-1st 2006 incident:...
(Black Mountaineers), who deposed one of the last moghul khans, Ismail Khan, in 1678, with the help of invited Kalmyks (Dzungars), and put the whole country under the foot of future invaders, including Dzungars and Qings (Manchu
Manchu
The Manchu people or Man are an ethnic minority of China who originated in Manchuria . During their rise in the 17th century, with the help of the Ming dynasty rebels , they came to power in China and founded the Qing Dynasty, which ruled China until the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, which...
s), for gaining personal powers.
Sultan Said Khan was succeeded in Yarkand by his son, Abdur Rashid Khan (Abdurashid Khan
Abdurashid Khan
Abdurashid Khan , was the ruler of Yarkand Khanate in Uyghurstan between 1533 and 1560 years.Khan was a descendant of the first moghul khan-Tughluk Timur Khan and was born in 1508...
), who ruled from 1533 to 1560.