Aksu is the chief oasis of the northern road between Kashgar and Kucha, where the rivers off the Tian Shan gather, and the foot of the passes to the Ili valley and Issyk Kul.
The campaign board makes it the Qara Khitai's 'eastern hinge'. No source supports that: no governor, garrison or tribute is recorded there. What the sources give is a frontier history: Aksu was Uyghur ground in the ninth century, was taken by the Kara-Khanids by about 1096 (Wikipedia 'Qocho', weakly sourced), and then lies between the Muslim Turks of Kashgar and the Buddhist Uyghurs of Kucha.
In 1200 its lord is best read as a local Muslim or mixed Turkic governor under the gurkhan, with his name not known.
Who he is
- Title
- Governor or prince of Aksu (a Qarakhanid-descended governor or an Uyghur beg; not pinned)
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Family
- Not known.
- Confidence
- low
Looked in Wikipedia 'Qocho' (Aksu, Tumshuk and Kucha were lost to the Kara-Khanids by 1096, if the page is right), Wikipedia 'Qara Khitai' and 'Barchuq Art Tegin' (Aksu not mentioned), Iranica 'Chinese Turkestan iii' and 'Kucha' (Aksu not mentioned), Chinese Wikipedia on Xinjiang history. No ruler, officer or event for Aksu in the 12th century.
Overlord
The gurkhan, by tribute; whether through the khan of Kashgar or direct is not recorded.
What it holds
- Aksu city and the oasis of the Aksu river, with Wensu and Awat
- The road north over the Muzart and Bedel passes
- The ford and caravan halt on the Aksu river
How it was acquired
Not recorded. Kara-Khanid by about 1096 (Wikipedia 'Qocho').
Allies and rivals
West: Uch Turfan and Maralbexi; east: Bay and Kucha; north: the Qarluq and other herders of the Tian Shan pastures.
How things stand that morning
Quiet; nothing recorded. The lord, his faith (Muslim, Buddhist or both among his people) and his master are all open.
Wealth
Irrigated grain, cotton and fruit; the road tolls; copper and iron in the hills (attested for the Tang, not for 1200); the Tian Shan pastures.
Military
Household and town militia; nothing recorded.
Threats
- Gurkhan's tax-gatherers
- Later: Kuchlug's rule and the Mongols
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.
- 1211 to 1218Aksu passes with the rest of the Tarim to Kuchlug and then to the Mongols; no local event is recorded.Depends on: Kuchlug's coup. Stopped by: His fall.
Places of note
- Aksu: The oasis town.
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board entry aksu: owner 'The Qara Khitai'; no source supports a Qara Khitai governor at Aksu. Followed as tarim, vassal of the gurkhan.
Evidence: No 12th-century evidence for Aksu was found. The record is a place on the road with an unknown lord.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: The oasis is drawn from modern counties; the medieval limits are not known.
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
- Wikipedia, 'Qocho'
- Wikipedia, 'Qara Khitai'
- Encyclopaedia Iranica, 'Chinese Turkestan iii. From the Advent of Islam to the Mongols' (I. Togan)
- Encyclopaedia Iranica, 'Kucha'
- Chinese Wikipedia, 'Xinjiang lishi' (history of Xinjiang)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.