Qara Khitai direct ground

Who he is

Name

no named officer; the Gurkhan is Yelu Zhilugu (reigned 1178 to 1211)

Title

The Gurkhan Yelu Zhilugu's officers and herdsmen in the southern Zhetysu

Since

1178 (the Gurkhan)

Born

not known

Family

The Liao Khitan royal house (Yelu); the empress Pusuwan was killed in 1178 and Zhilugu raised by Xiao Wolila

Confidence

low

e-history.kz says the Gurkhan directly governed the southern part of Zhetysu, the north-east of Ispijab and Kulja, while the country north of the Ili belonged to Qarluq khans. We use it for the Issyk Kul side. Named local officers are not recorded.

Overlord

The Gurkhan (his lordship is the Persia map's)

What it holds

• The east end of Issyk Kul and the Terskey slope
• The Kegen-Narynkol belt
• Winter shelter on the lake shore
• The tribute of the herders who graze here

How it was acquired

Yelu Dashi took the country in the 1130s.

Allies and rivals

The Qarluq khans north of the Ili; the Kashgar Karakhanids over the passes; the Uyghur kingdom far to the east.

How things stand that morning

Peace. The Gurkhan's followers and herders are in winter camp on the lake shore and the low valleys.

Wealth

Pasture, horses, the Gurkhan's tribute, the passes to Kashgar and Aksu.

Military

The Gurkhan's own horsemen; no numbers for 1200.

Threats

• The war with the Ghurids and Khwarazm far to the west
• Naiman refugees later

Places of note

• Karakol: Modern town at the east end of Issyk Kul; founded 1869, not a town in 1200
• Kegen: Modern village on the Kegen valley route; not a town in 1200

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: One secondary account (e-history.kz) of the Qara Khitai in Zhetysu; Wikipedia pages on the Qara Khitai and Zhilugu.

On the map: The eastern edge is a guess at where the Gurkhan's pasture gives way to Qarluq and Kangli herds.

Primary sources for Qara Khitai

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 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
• The Life of Sultan Jalal al-Din Mankubirti, Shihab al-Din Muhammad al-Nasawi (about 1241, at Aleppo). A Khwarazmian secretary's life of the last Khwarazmshah. Read online
• The Nasirid Generations: a General History of the Muslim Dynasties, Minhaj-i Siraj Juzjani (1259 to 1260, at Delhi). The Ghurid court's own history, by a man born in 1193 whose family served the sultans of Ghur and Ghazna. 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 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