Royal kin and queens · The oasis lordships of the Tarim, vassals of the Qara Khitai · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Kashgar house on the road

The Eastern Qarakhanid house is a family, and a family in this age shares out towns among its princes.

The brief asked for kinsmen of the Kashgar khan who hold land east of the oasis. None is named in any source. What can be said: the one road town between Kashgar and Yarkand, Maralbexi (the campaign board's Barchuq), and the Poskam oasis beyond Yarkand are the likeliest places for such appanages; the khan's son Abu'l-Fath Muhammad is of age to hold something by 1200 (he is a hostage in 1204), but where is not recorded.

This record exists to mark the claim, not to name a holder.

Who he is

Name
not known (the only son of Yusuf b. Muhammad named in the sources is Abu'l-Fath Muhammad, the future hostage)
Title
Brothers, sons and kin of the khan of Kashgar who may hold land east of the Kashgar oasis; none named
Since
not pinned
Born
not known
Family
Yusuf b. Muhammad (khan of Kashgar from about 1180, died Rajab 601, 1205) is the son of Muhammad b. Ibrahim (Persia record). His son Abu'l-Fath Muhammad is held at Balasagun after 1204 and killed at the gate of Kashgar in 607 AH (1210-11). Other kin: not recorded.
Confidence
low

Persia map records Khanate of Kashgar and Khan of Kashgar; Iranica 'Ilak-Khanids'; Chinese Wikipedia 'Qu Chuli', which calls the returned prince Muhammad III. No appanage east of Kashgar is named anywhere.

Overlord

The khan of Kashgar, Yusuf b. Muhammad, and above him the gurkhan

What it holds

  • Possibly Maralbexi (Barchuq) and the road between Kashgar and Yarkand
  • Possibly a share of Yarkand's revenue: not pinned

How it was acquired

By inheritance within the Eastern Qarakhanid house, if at all.

Allies and rivals

Allied by blood to the khan of Kashgar; neighbours of the lord of Yarkand.

How things stand that morning

Not recorded. Treat the road between Kashgar and Yarkand as the Kashgar khan's by claim; the oases east of it are not shown as his.

Wealth

Tolls and fields of the road towns; no figures.

Military

Household retinues; nothing recorded.

Threats

  • The gurkhan's suspicion of the house: the 1204 revolt costs it a hostage

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. 1204The Kashgar khan's son is taken to Balasagun as a hostage after the revolt.Depends on: The 1204 revolt. Stopped by: No revolt.
  2. 1210 to 1211 (607 AH)Muhammad, the returned hostage, is sent by Kuchlug to Kashgar and killed at its gate (Iranica; Persia record).Depends on: Kuchlug's coup. Stopped by: Nothing.

Places of note

  • Maralbexi (Barchuq): Road town between Kashgar and Aksu; board id maralbashi-barchuq.

Where the sources disagree

  • The brief asks for such claimants by name. None exists in the sources read; the record is a claim marker, with evidence thin.

Evidence: A family claim inferred from how Qarakhanid houses shared out towns. No source names a holding.

On the map: Drawn as a claim 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, 'Ilak-Khanids' (C. E. Bosworth)
  2. Chinese Wikipedia, 'Qu Chuli' (Kuchlug)

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