Shazhou Uyghurs

Who holds it

Name

not known for 1200 (Huolasan Khan is recorded at Shazhou in 1127)

Title

A Uyghur 'khan' ruled in Shazhou in 1127 (Huolasan Khan); no ruler is named for 1200

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

not known

Confidence

low

No chief or headman is named for 1200 in the sources we could read.

Overlord

The emperor Huanzong, through the military district whose ground the people range over.

What it holds

• Oasis fields on the Danghe and the Shule river
• Cave-temple patronage at Mogao and Yulin

How it was acquired

By the surrender of Guazhou (1030) and Shazhou (1036) to the Tanguts.

Allies and rivals

The Xiping district commander at Guazhou; the Uyghurs of Qocho and Hami to the west (the tau sheet) are kin and trading partners.

How things stand that morning

A large Uyghur population in the far-western oases under the Xiping district: Buddhist, farming and caravan people, with a chief who may still bear the khan's title (not pinned).

Wealth

Oasis farming, caravan halts, tolls shared with the Xia officers; no figures.

Military

Tribal levy under the district commander; no numbers.

Customs

Buddhist cave-temple patronage (cave 409 at Mogao); a chief styled khan in 1127.

Places of note

• Cave 409 at Mogao: Listed in English Wikipedia as Western Xia, with an Uyghur king and attendants.

Where the sources disagree

• Board (dunhuang-mogao, shazhou-town): 'Tangut control' with no mention of the Uyghur population. The English Wikipedia page on the Ganzhou Uyghurs gives the 1127 Huolasan Khan; we have not seen the source of that entry.

Evidence: One dated mention (1127) and one cave painting; no one is named for 1200.

On the map: The range is drawn from the modern homeland and the campaign board's note; no source gives a boundary for 1200.

Primary sources for Great Xia

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.

• Annals of the Western Xia, Wu Guangcheng (吳廣成) (1825 to 1827, compiled from Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's year-by-year reconstruction of Tangut history from the Chinese histories, since the Xia left no surviving annals of their own in Chinese. Read online
• Continuation of the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government, Bi Yuan (畢沅), completed by Feng Jiwu after his death (late eighteenth century, finished after 1801, from Song and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's continuous month-by-month chronicle of the Song and Yuan centuries, compiled from the Song shi, the Liao, Jin and Yuan histories, Li Tao, Li Xinchuan and other Song sources. Read online
• Record of the Personal Campaigns of the Holy Warrior (Chinggis Khan) (presented to Khubilai in 1288, finished in Mongolian in 1290; the surviving Chinese version dates from 1369). A year-by-year Chinese account of Temujin's wars, drawn from the lost Altan Debter (the same source behind the Yuan shi's first chapter and Rashid al-Din). Read online
• 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 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
• 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 Jin, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office, with Ouyang Xuan among the chief compilers (1343 to 1344, from the Jin veritable records and the Jin national history). The official history of the Jurchen empire that ruled north China and Manchuria in 1200. Read online
• History of the Song, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345, from the Song veritable records, state histories and the Huiyao). The official history of the Southern Song, which ruled from Lin'an (Hangzhou) in 1200. Read online

5 more in the sources library for The Tarim, the Uyghurs and Xia.