Muslim endowments and lodges · The oasis lordships of the Tarim, vassals of the Qara Khitai · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Yarkand qadi and mosques

Yarkand is a Muslim town with Islamic law in daily use: land documents of the 11th and 12th centuries, in Arabic and Turkic and in the form an Islamic court requires, survive from the oasis, with signs of a small Jewish community (Iranica 'Yarkand').

A town that draws up documents in this form has a qadi (judge), notaries and mosques, and the families that hold these posts are a power inside the town: they keep the record of land and inheritance, settle water and property disputes, and speak to the lord. No name or building of 1200 is recorded. The tombs and shrines that survive at Yarkand are later: the Tombs of the Yarkand Khans belong to the khanate of 1514 to 1713.

Who holds it

Title
Qadi (judge) and the shaykhs and scribes of the mosques of Yarkand; none named
Since
not pinned
Born
not known
Family
Not known.
Confidence
low

Iranica 'Yarkand' (land documents of the 11th and 12th centuries in Arabic and Turkic, in Islamic legal form, with signs of a Jewish community), Wikipedia 'Yarkant County', Wikipedia's list of national monuments in Xinjiang (the Tombs of the Yarkand Khans, 16th and 17th centuries). No qadi, mosque or shrine of 1200 is named.

Overlord

The lord of Yarkand, not pinned (Lord of Yarkand).

What it holds

  • The qadi's court and the notaries' documents (attested as a practice)
  • Mosques: not described
  • Endowments: inferred, not recorded

How it was acquired

Muslim since the Qarakhanid period; Yarkand coins are known from 1013-14 (Persia record).

Allies and rivals

Ally and check on the lord; its notables keep the accounts in the language the gurkhan's envoys need (Persian, per the Persia record).

How things stand that morning

Not recorded.

Wealth

Fees and endowment income, inferred; no figures.

Threats

  • Later: Kuchlug's garrisons (1211 to 1218)

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

  1. 1211 to 1218Yarkand passes to Kuchlug, whose general policy is to make a conquered town's Muslims change religion or wear Khitan dress (Juvaini, via Wikipedia 'Kuchlug'); no Yarkand case is recorded.Depends on: Kuchlug's rule. Stopped by: His fall in 1218.

Places of note

  • Yarkand mosques: The town's courts and mosques.

Where the sources disagree

  • Sheet asks for 'the mazar of Khotan and Yarkand' and Sufi lodges: none is attested for Yarkand in 1200. The only shrines the sources name are the Yarkand khans' tombs, 300 years later.

Evidence: A practice attested by documents; no person or building of 1200.

On the map: A point only.

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

Sources and studies

  1. Encyclopaedia Iranica, 'Yarkand'
  2. Wikipedia, 'Yarkant County' (Shache)
  3. Wikipedia, 'List of Major National Historical and Cultural Sites in Xinjiang' (Tombs of the Yarkand Khans, Id Kah Mosque and others)
  4. Chinese Wikipedia, 'Qu Chuli' (Kuchlug)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.