The lake-shore and the Terskey and Kungey slopes at the east end of Issyk Kul, where the lake keeps winter milder.
The Chigil and Qarluq herders of the Karakhanid age remain, now paying tribute to the Gurkhan. No town stands at Karakol until the Russians come. Yearly range: Summer on the Terskey and Jeti-Oguz slopes. Winter camp: The lake shore and the low valleys.
Who holds it
- Name
- not known: clan elders and chiefs, no single chief named in any source
- Title
- The Gurkhan's officers and the clan chiefs
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
The nomad peoples of the sheet are known by name from the Qara Khitai, Mongol and Persian chroniclers and from the later pastoral calendar of the same ground; no source we could open names a chief of this people for 1 January 1200.
Overlord
The Gurkhan
What it holds
- Summer on the Terskey and Jeti-Oguz slopes.
Allies and rivals
The neighbouring herders; the Gurkhan as overlord.
How things stand that morning
In winter camp. No raid or war recorded.
Wealth
Horses, sheep, cattle and felt; the pasture itself.
Military
Mounted archers under tribe and clan chiefs. No numbers are known.
Threats
- A hard winter or cattle plague
- Raids from neighbouring herders
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Inferred from geography and later sources.
On the map: The outline is a sketch of the seasonal range; nomad ground has no line.
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
- e-history.kz: the Kara-Khitan khanate (1128-1213) and the Naiman and Khereid uluses
- e-history.kz: the Kara-Khanid khanate
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.