Khan of Khotan

Who he is

Title

Khan (or governor) of Khotan, of the Eastern Qarakhanid house; exact title not pinned

Since

not pinned

Born

not known

Family

Of the Eastern Qarakhanid house that took Khotan about 1006 under Yusuf Qadir Khan. How he is related to Yusuf b. Muhammad, khan of Kashgar, is not recorded. Wives, children, ministers and age: not known.

Confidence

low

Looked for a name in Iranica 'Ilak-Khanids' (the Eastern khanate 'had different khans for Kashgar and Khotan', none named), Iranica 'Khotan' (no ruler between the conquest and Kuchlug), Wikipedia 'Kara-Khanid Khanate' (no separate Khotan list), Chinese Wikipedia 'Qu Chuli', Stein (nothing is known of Khotan in the Qara Khitai period) and the Persia map. No name was found and none is invented.

Overlord

The gurkhan Yelu Zhilugu; in form also the khan of Kashgar as head of the Eastern house, though the sources do not define the tie.

What it holds

• Khotan city and its oasis between the Yurungkash (White Jade) and Karakash (Black Jade) rivers, with Yotkan, the old capital site
• The jade rivers' beds, worked each autumn at low water
• Probably the oases on the road to either side: Guma and Moyu to the west, Chira and Keriya to the east, with Niya and Cherchen as weaker claims. Not pinned: no source lists his lands.

How it was acquired

Yusuf Qadir Khan took Khotan about 1006 (Utbi calls him khan of Khotan in 397 AH, 1006-07; coins in his name were struck there by 407 AH, 1016-17, with the title 'king of the East and of China'). The Eastern house kept it after the Qarakhanid split of the 1040s (Iranica 'Khotan').

Allies and rivals

Lord: the gurkhan. Kin and neighbour: Yusuf b. Muhammad at Kashgar, whose Kashgar he joins in revolt in 1204. Neighbours: the lord of Yarkand to the west, the headmen of Keriya and Niya to the east, the Lop people beyond. Religious power at home: the imam and judges of Khotan (record Imam and judges of Khotan). The Tangut empire at Dunhuang is the market for his jade at the far end of the road.

How things stand that morning

Ruling Khotan as the gurkhan's vassal in peace. No war, raid or levy of any kind is recorded for 1199-1200, and almost nothing for the whole Qara Khitai period (Stein). The revolt with Kashgar in 1204 lies ahead.

Wealth

The jade rivers (Chinese sources treat Khotan as the main source of nephrite for China: Wikipedia 'Hotan'); silk and pile carpets; cotton, vines and orchards (Polo, c. 1273: later evidence); the road tolls. Whether the prince held the jade as a monopoly is not recorded for 1200.

Military

His household and the city militia. The oasis was Buddhist and Muslim armies fought over it in the eleventh century (shrine traditions of the holy war: not dated evidence). No figures.

Threats

• A heavier hand from the gurkhan: this is what brings the 1204 revolt
• Rivalry with Kashgar or Yarkand over the road
• Later: Kuchlug's conquest of 1213 or 1214

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. 1204Khotan rises with Kashgar and is crushed by the gurkhan's army (Iranica 'Ilak-Khanids').Depends on: The same discontent as at Kashgar. Stopped by: A gentler gurkhan.
2. 1213 or 1214Kuchlug takes Khotan and gives the people the choice of Khitan dress or leaving Islam; most take the dress (Iranica 'Khotan').Depends on: Kuchlug's seizure of power in 1211. Stopped by: His fall.
3. 1216 to 1218The Khotanese welcome the Mongols, who allow free practice of Islam (Juvaini, via Iranica).Depends on: Jebe's campaign. Stopped by: A Naiman victory.

Places of note

• Khotan: The prince's seat.
• Yotkan: Old capital site of the Buddhist kingdom, about 10 km west of the modern city.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry khotan and the-jade-rivers-of-khotan: consistent on the 1006 conquest and the jade. The campaign board's 'state monopoly' of the jade gathering is not documented for 1200 (the monopolies known are Qing); we treat it as likely tolls and tribute, not a proven monopoly.
• The Persia map's Khanate of Kashgar says Khotan has its own khan (Iranica). Followed.

Evidence: Conquest and the separate seat are attested; nothing about a ruler, a reign or an event of 1100-1203 is. Stein said the same in 1907.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: Only the Khotan oasis itself is firm; the oases on either side are an inference from the road and are marked claimed.

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