Christians of the Church of the East (Nestorians), speaking Syriac, Sogdian, Persian and Old Uyghur, have left churches and manuscripts in the Turfan oases (a church at Qocho that the German expeditions labelled Ruin K, and the monastery site at Bulayiq north of Turfan, both known to me from memory, with finds usually dated to the 9th to 12th centuries and no firm date for the end of use).
They are also at Beshbaliq, and among the Naiman and Kereyit steppe peoples. The Church's organization is distant: the Catholicos Eliya III (1176 to 1190) set up a metropolitan district round Kashgar with the Gurkhan's leave (Wikipedia, Zhilugu), but we could find no bishop or metropolitan of Qocho or Beshbaliq for 1200. The Qara Khitai court, though Buddhist, tolerates the Church.
Who holds it
- Title
- A priest or bishop; not attested for 1200
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
No source we could open names the head of this house or community for 1 January 1200.
Overlord
Tolerated by the idiqut and the Gurkhan
What it holds
- Churches and a monastery in the Turfan oases (Qocho Ruin K and the Bulayiq site; whether either is still in use in 1200 is not known, recalled)
Allies and rivals
Patron: Tolerated by the idiqut and the Gurkhan.
How things stand that morning
A tolerated minority.
Wealth
Offerings, rents and gifts; no figures.
Places of note
- Qocho Church of the East: Church excavated as Ruin K (recalled); use in 1200 not established
- Beshbaliq church ruin: Church remains (recalled)
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Wikipedia (Naimans, Zhilugu); finds recalled.
On the map: A point or a small disc; the estates of the house are not located.
Primary sources for Qocho
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- The Secret History of the Mongols (1228 or 1240 (the colophon's Year of the Rat is disputed), with later additions; the surviving Chinese transcription and gloss were made under the Ming in the 1380s). The only Mongol account of Temujin's rise, written within living memory. Read online
- History of the Liao, chapter 30, on the Western Liao, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1344). The only Chinese official notice of the Qara Khitai, a few pages at the end of juan 30. Read online
- History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. Read online
- History of the World Conqueror: the Qara Khitai (Gur Khans) and the Uyghurs of Beshbaliq, Ala al-Din Ata-Malik Juvayni (begun about 1252 to 1253, ends with 1260). Juvayni's chapters on the Uyghur kingdom (its origin legend, Beshbaliq and Qocho, and the idiqut Barchuq's murder of the Qara Khitai resident before his submission to Chinggis Khan in 1209) and on the Gur Khans of the Qara Khitai are the fullest Muslim account of the Tarim and Zhetysu around 1200: the gurkhan Zhilugu's court at Balasagun, his tax collectors in the oasis towns and in Samarkand, his relations with the Khwarazmshah Tekish and then Muhammad, and the arrival of the Naiman prince Kuchlug in 1208. Read online
- Compendium of Chronicles, Rashid al-Din Fadl Allah Hamadani (1300 to 1311, at Tabriz). The official Ilkhanid history, compiled from Mongol oral tradition and the lost Altan Debter. Read online
- Compendium of Chronicles: the Turkic and Mongol tribes and the life of Chinggis Khan, Rashid al-Din Hamadani (about 1300 to 1311, in the Ilkhanate). The fullest description of who held what on the steppe around 1200, written a century later from Mongol court records (the Altan Debter) and from informants such as Bolad Chingsang. Read online
- History of the Yuan, Song Lian (宋濂) and the Ming history office (1369 to 1370). Juan 1, the annals of Taizu (Chinggis Khan), gives a dated outline of Temujin's early wars drawn from the same lost Altan Debter as the Shengwu qinzheng lu: the Tatar war with the Jin in 1196, the Merkit and Naiman campaigns, the Tayichi'ut war, Jamuqa's coalition of 1201 and the Tatar and Kereyit wars of 1202 and 1203. Read online
- The History of the World Conqueror, Ata-Malik Juvayni (1252 to 1260). Written for the Mongols but with a long retrospective on the powers they destroyed. Read online
3 more in the sources library for The Tarim, the Uyghurs and Xia.
Sources and studies
- Wikipedia: Naimans
- Wikipedia: Yelu Zhilugu
- Wikipedia: Qocho (list of idiquts drawn from Turghun Almas, flagged by the page itself as full of gaps)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.