Qara Khitai commissioner

Who he is

Name

not known for 1 January 1200

Title

Commissioner of the Gurkhan at the court of the idiqut (Chinese shaojian, Persian shaukam; the brief's shihna, shaohan)

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

A Khitan or Khitan-appointed officer of the Gurkhan's household

Confidence

low

The last holder, killed by the Uyghurs in 1209, is given by Chinese Wikipedia, from the Yuan-era text, as Shahena (Chinese 沙黑納), described as a taishi-seng shaojian; whether Shahena is a name or the title shihna is unclear. The Yuan shi calls the Khitan-appointed 'officers who supervise the state' (jianguo). Juvaini's shaukam is the same office. Who held it in 1200 is not known; the officer killed in 1209 may or may not be the same man.

Overlord

The Gurkhan Yelu Zhilugu at Balasagun

What it holds

• The right to speak for the Gurkhan at the Uyghur court
• The gathering of the annual tribute and supplies from Qocho
• A small household and escort; no garrison

How it was acquired

By the Gurkhan's appointment, after the Uyghur submission to Yelu Dashi in the late 1120s or early 1130s.

Allies and rivals

He is the Gurkhan's man among Uyghurs who resent him. He may have supporters among the begs who profit from the tribute.

How things stand that morning

At the idiqut's court, probably at Qocho. His demands are the grievance that grows into the revolt of 1209.

Wealth

What he draws as the Gurkhan's agent; no figures.

Military

A personal escort. The Gurkhan's forces are far away at Balasagun.

Threats

• Uyghur resentment
• Distance from the Gurkhan

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. 1209 (year jisi)The Uyghurs kill the Gurkhan's supervisors; the Yuan shi says the idiqut killed the Khitan-appointed officers and sought to submit to Chinggis.Depends on: The idiqut deciding the Mongols are strong enough Stopped by: The commissioner's warning to Balasagun in time, or a Qara Khitai army

Places of note

• Qocho: Where the commissioner most probably is in January

Where the sources disagree

• The brief spells the office shihna or shaohan. Persian shaukam and Chinese shaojian are the forms in the Uyghur sources; shihna is the Persian-Turkic word (shahna) for a resident commissioner. We treat them as one office.

Evidence: Fetched: Yuan shi 122 (officers set up to supervise the state), zh.wikipedia on Gaochang Huigu (shaojian, Shahena), Wikipedia (Qara Khitai: a commissioner put to death in 1209). Juvaini's wording from memory.

On the map: A commissioner has no ground; a point only.

Primary sources for Qocho

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 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
• 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

3 more in the sources library for The Tarim, the Uyghurs and Xia.