Karashahr sangha

Who holds it

Title

Abbots and elders of the Karashahr monasteries; none named

Since

not pinned

Born

not known

Family

Not known.

Confidence

low

Wikipedia 'Karasahr' (Uyghur conquest in the mid-ninth century; Buddhism and Manichaeism declined as Islam grew, no dates; no ruler listed after 789), Wikipedia 'Qocho' (the Uyghur kingdom a Buddhist state with Manichaean and Christian communities), Iranica 'Chinese Turkestan iii' (the Uyghurs held the northern cities east of Kucha). No monastery or abbot is named for 1200.

Overlord

The lord of Karashahr (Lord of Karashahr); the idiqut of Qocho by religion and custom, not by any recorded tie.

What it holds

• The Buddhist monasteries of the Yanqi basin that are still in use: not pinned
• Fields, gifts and patrons' endowments: inferred, not recorded

How it was acquired

The monasteries are of the Tocharian and early Uyghur centuries; the sangha's holdings of 1200 are not recorded.

Allies and rivals

Ally of the lord of Karashahr and kin in faith of the sangha of Qocho and Kucha. Muslim traders pass along the road.

How things stand that morning

Not recorded.

Wealth

Patrons' gifts and whatever fields the houses hold; no figures.

Threats

• Later: the Mongol age, when the basin passes to the Chagatai khanate (from the mid-13th century, Wikipedia 'Karasahr')

Places of note

• Karashahr: The basin and its monasteries.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Buddhism in the basin before 1200 is attested; its state in 1200 is not.

On the map: A point only; no monastery is placed.

Primary sources for Tarim oases

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.

• 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
• Old Uyghur contracts, land sales, loans and administrative documents from the Turfan oases (mostly thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, with some earlier; dated by animal years and rarely to a reign). Sale deeds, loans, leases, slave sales, wills and tax lists from Turfan, Qocho and Beshbaliq, the only internal evidence for everyday life, land tenure, prices and officials in the Uyghur kingdom whose idiqut was a vassal of the Qara Khitai in 1200.
• Journey to the West of the Perfected Changchun (Qiu Chuji), Li Zhichang (李志常) (about 1228, from the journey of 1220 to 1224). A dated eyewitness itinerary across the steppe and the Tarim twenty years after 1200: the Kereyit country and the Ongud frontier, the Naiman mountains, the Uyghur towns of Beshbaliq and the Tarim with their Buddhist and Christian communities, Almaliq of the Qarluq, and Samarkand. Read online