Qayaliq has a cathedral mosque of 34 by 28 metres with roughly 54 wooden-column bases, a mihrab on the west wall and heating flues, and a group of brick mausolea of the late 12th to the first half of the 13th century with Muslim-rite burials and Arabic inscriptions (archaeology.kz).
The mosque and the mausolea belong to the town's Muslim elite, who are also the Qarluq khan's court. The qadi and the elders of the mosque hold such endowments as the town has. The city later becomes a centre of followers of Khoja Ahmad Yasawi (the page dates a Turkestan khojas' genealogy to 1281); that is later. The Ili's Muslim community also includes Almaliq.
Who holds it
- Title
- The imam, the qadi and the elders of the Qayaliq mosque
- 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
The Qarluq khan of Qayaliq
What it holds
- The mosque and the mausolea
- Endowed lands near the town (not located)
Allies and rivals
Patron: The Qarluq khan of Qayaliq.
How things stand that morning
Working; no dispute recorded.
Wealth
Offerings, rents and gifts; no figures.
Places of note
- Qayaliq mosque and mausolea: Late 12th to early 13th century
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Excavation summary; the endowment itself is not attested.
On the map: A point or a small disc; the estates of the house are not located.
Primary sources for Qarluq
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 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
- 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
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.