Magnates and their honours · The oasis lordships of the Tarim, vassals of the Qara Khitai · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Lord of Yarkand

Yarkand is the big oasis half-way between Kashgar and Khotan, and the gate to the Karakoram road to Ladakh.

Its lord in 1200 is not recorded. The sources allow three readings: a governor of the khan of Kashgar, a prince under the khan of Khotan, or a lord of his own under the gurkhan. The Persia map drew it with Kashgar; this map draws it as a lordship of its own, because the 1204 revolt is credited to Kashgar and Khotan, not to Yarkand, and because the Mongol accounts of 1218 treat Yarkand as a separate place with its own garrison leaders.

Whoever the lord is, he is a Muslim Turk, collects the tolls of the junction and answers to the gurkhan.

Who he is

Title
Governor or prince of Yarkand (a Qarakhanid of the Kashgar or Khotan house, or the gurkhan's nominee; not pinned)
Since
not pinned
Born
not known
Family
Not known. The Eastern Qarakhanid house is the natural source of the holder, but no source names him or says which branch he serves.
Confidence
low

Looked for a ruler or governor in Iranica 'Yarkand' (coins and land documents of the 11th and 12th centuries in Arabic and Turkic; no rulers named), Iranica 'Ilak-Khanids', Wikipedia 'Yarkant County', Chinese Wikipedia 'Qu Chuli' (garrison leaders at Yarkand in 1218, unnamed) and the Persia map's Yarkand (lord not pinned). Nothing for 1200.

Overlord

Not pinned: the khan of Kashgar, the khan of Khotan, or the gurkhan directly.

What it holds

  • Yarkand city and the oasis of the Yarkand river
  • Poskam (Zepu) and the road to Karghalik
  • The toll on the Karakoram road to Ladakh and Kashmir where it leaves the oasis

How it was acquired

Qarakhanid since the tenth century; Yarkand coins are known from 1013-14 (Persia record). The holder's title to it in 1200 is not recorded.

Allies and rivals

Neighbours: Kashgar to the north-west, Khotan to the south-east, the Sarikol and Kunlun mountain people to the south. Religious power: the qadi and shaykhs of Yarkand (record Yarkand qadi and mosques).

How things stand that morning

Quiet. No event is recorded for Yarkand in the 1190s or in 1200. Which of the two Qarakhanid seats it answers to is the open question; the campaign may settle it either way without contradicting a source.

Wealth

Grain, cotton, fruit and the caravan trade at the junction of the roads to Kashgar, Khotan, Maralbexi and the Karakoram passes.

Military

The lord's household and the town's militia; nothing recorded.

Threats

  • A claim by Kashgar or Khotan to settle whose Yarkand is
  • Later: Kuchlug's garrisons (1211 to 1218)

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. 1211 to 1218Kuchlug's garrisons hold Yarkand; their leaders surrender after his death in 1218 (Chinese Wikipedia 'Qu Chuli').Depends on: Kuchlug's rule. Stopped by: His fall.

Places of note

  • Yarkand: The lord's seat.

Where the sources disagree

  • Persia map Yarkand and its anchors put Shache and Zepu with kashgar. This record does not: see the realm record, note 3.

Evidence: Everything about the lord is inference. The town, its mint and its Islamic legal documents are attested; a ruler is not.

On the map: Allegiance is open; the colour is tarim, which is the neutral reading.

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, 'Yarkand'
  2. Encyclopaedia Iranica, 'Ilak-Khanids' (C. E. Bosworth)
  3. Wikipedia, 'Yarkant County' (Shache)
  4. Chinese Wikipedia, 'Qu Chuli' (Kuchlug)

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