Magnates and their honours · The Qarluq and the nomads of the Ili, the Zhetysu and Dzungaria · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Khan of Qayaliq

Qayaliq (Kayalyk, near the village of Koylyk in Sarkand district, Kazakhstan) is the old capital of the Qarluq jabgu, an almost independent Qarluq possession inside the Karakhanid state in the 11th and 12th centuries.

Excavation shows a town of about one by one-and-a-fifth kilometres with a cathedral mosque, brick mausolea of the late 12th and early 13th century with Muslim burials, a local mint of silver and copper, rich houses with underground heating, a Buddhist temple and a Manichaean temple (12th to 13th century). It is a Muslim Turkic capital with Buddhist and other temples beside the mosque. The khan keeps his people, title and faith and sends tribute: the model of Qara Khitai rule.

Who he is

Name
Arslan Khan is the Qarluq ruler of Qayaliq in 1211 and 1218; whether he held it on 1 January 1200 is not pinned
Title
Khan of the Qarluq at Qayaliq (the old seat of the Qarluq jabgu)
Since
not known
Born
not known
Family
The Qarluq khans; Arslan Khan is later a son-in-law of Chinggis (the marriage is undated)
Confidence
low

Wikipedia (Mongol conquest of the Qara Khitai) names Arslan Khan as ruler of the Qarluq city Qayaliq and a son-in-law of Chinggis, who may have joined Jebe in 1218. The excavation summary names no ruler. No Qarluq ruler is named for 1200 in anything we could open.

Overlord

The Gurkhan of the Qara Khitai, as tributary

What it holds

  • Qayaliq and its oasis on the Aschibulak stream
  • The steppe north of the Ili: Sarkand, Taldykorgan, Tekeli, Lepsy, the Karatal and Aksu rivers
  • The mint
  • The caravan road from Almaliq and Dzungaria to the Chu

How it was acquired

Inherited from the old Qarluq jabgu; confirmed under the Qara Khitai from the 1130s.

Allies and rivals

Ozar of Almaliq (neighbour and later rival); the Qara Khitai; the Kangli of the north-east steppe; the Naiman.

How things stand that morning

A tributary khan at peace. The town is a winter town in January; the nomads are in winter camps.

Wealth

A mint, the caravan road, horses and sheep, estates.

Military

Qarluq horsemen under their chiefs; no numbers for 1200.

Threats

  • Qara Khitai demands
  • Naiman raiders
  • Rivalry with Almaliq

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. 1211Arslan Khan of Qayaliq surrenders to Chinggis (Wikipedia, Qara Khitai); the marriage that makes him Chinggis's son-in-law is undated.Depends on: Mongol strength Stopped by: Qara Khitai reprisals

Places of note

  • Qayaliq (Kayalyk): Old Qarluq capital

Where the sources disagree

  • The campaign board entry qayaliq: coordinates 45.15 N 78.72 E, 'Buddhist and Nestorian communities'. The excavation summary has Buddhist and Manichaean temples; Rubruck (1253) believed a man with an inked cross was a Christian. No church is excavated. The coordinate is plausible (Koylyk is in Sarkand district) but the summary gives none.

Evidence: Archaeology (the excavation summary) is the best evidence on this ground; the ruler is not named for 1200.

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

On the map: A sketch round the site.

Primary sources for Qarluq

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 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 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
  • 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 Yuan, Song Lian (宋濂) and the Ming history office (1369 to 1370). Juan 1, the annals of Taizu (Chinggis Khan), gives a dated outline of Temujin's early wars drawn from the same lost Altan Debter as the Shengwu qinzheng lu: the Tatar war with the Jin in 1196, the Merkit and Naiman campaigns, the Tayichi'ut war, Jamuqa's coalition of 1201 and the Tatar and Kereyit wars of 1202 and 1203. Read online
  • 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
  • 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. archaeology.kz: Koilyk/Kayalyk, the city (excavation summary)
  2. Wikipedia: Mongol conquest of the Qara Khitai
  3. Wikipedia: Mongol campaigns in Central Asia
  4. e-history.kz: the Kara-Khitan khanate (1128-1213) and the Naiman and Khereid uluses
  5. Astana Times: Historical sites recall when Kazakhstan was Buddhist
  6. W. Barthold, Turkestan down to the Mongol Invasion (3rd ed., 1968; catalogue entry seen, text not opened, cited from memory)
  7. OMNIA board notes for tau (starting point only)

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