The Alay valley, the high grassy trough south of Ferghana between the Alay and Trans-Alay ranges, and the bare plateau of the eastern Pamir beyond it, are summer pastures and the line of the road from Ferghana by Osh and the Alay to Kashgar over the Irkeshtam.
No town stands here; Turkish herding clans use the grass in summer and leave in winter. The evidence for 1200 is very thin.
Who holds it
- Name
- Not pinned: no chief or clan is named in the sources for 1200
- Title
- Chiefs of the herding clans
- Since
- Not pinned
- Confidence
- low
Overlord
The gurkhan, in practice the khans of Ferghana and Kashgar on either side
What it holds
- The summer pastures of the Alay valley and the eastern Pamir
- The Osh to Kashgar road over the Alay and the Irkeshtam
How it was acquired
Customary use.
Allies and rivals
The khans of Ferghana and Kashgar, who use and guard the road.
How things stand that morning
Herders under their own chiefs; nothing recorded.
Wealth
Flocks; the road.
Military
Mounted herdsmen; no castles recorded.
Threats
- Winter
- Raids along the road
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Drawn as a province because no town lord is known here; the clans of 1200 are unnamed.
On the map: A sketch of the high country.
Primary sources for Qara Khitai
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 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
- The Life of Sultan Jalal al-Din Mankubirti, Shihab al-Din Muhammad al-Nasawi (about 1241, at Aleppo). A Khwarazmian secretary's life of the last Khwarazmshah. Read online
- The Nasirid Generations: a General History of the Muslim Dynasties, Minhaj-i Siraj Juzjani (1259 to 1260, at Delhi). The Ghurid court's own history, by a man born in 1193 whose family served the sultans of Ghur and Ghazna. 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 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
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.