The sheet asked for the Qara Khitai commissioner in the Tarim.
The answer is that none is attested. What exists is the system: the gurkhan sends an envoy to count households and collect, travelling with a small armed retinue, and a prince who kills such an envoy has rebelled (the Uyghurs of Qocho do so in 1209). The only resident commissioner known east of the Pamirs is at Qocho. A resident officer at Kashgar, Khotan or Aksu is possible but unrecorded, and the map does not draw one.
Who he is
- Name
- none attested in the Tarim
- Title
- Envoy and tax-gatherer of the gurkhan (shihna in Persian, basqaq in Turkic, shaojian in Chinese)
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Iranica 'Qara Ketay' (tax and census by the gurkhan's emissary, taxes per household, a small armed retinue each, killing one is revolt); the Persia map says no resident commissioner is attested at Samarkand, Bukhara or the Ferghana towns in 1199-1200 and only the Uyghur court of Qocho has a resident shaojian. Nothing places one in the Tarim.
Overlord
The gurkhan
What it holds
- The right to count households and take the tribute, by visit
How it was acquired
By the terms of vassalage after 1141.
Allies and rivals
Works through the local princes; the Muslim notables of each town write the accounts in Persian (Persia record).
How things stand that morning
No visit is recorded for the winter of 1199-1200.
Wealth
The tribute, passed to the treasury at Uzgend (Persia record).
Military
A small armed retinue per envoy. No figures.
Threats
- An envoy's murder would be treated as revolt
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.
- 1209The Uyghurs of Qocho kill the shaojian, called Shaukam in Juvaini (Wikipedia 'Barchuq Art Tegin'); Qocho is the tau sheet's.Depends on: Barchuq's choice for the Mongols. Stopped by: A loyal idiqut.
Where the sources disagree
- The brief's 'Qara Khitai commissioner (shihna) in the Tarim' has no source. Recorded as an unattested office, so the campaign does not assume one.
Evidence: Mechanism attested; local holders not.
On the map: Nothing drawn.
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
Sources and studies
- Encyclopaedia Iranica, 'Qara Ketay'
- Encyclopaedia Iranica, 'Chinese Turkestan iii. From the Advent of Islam to the Mongols' (I. Togan)
- Wikipedia, 'Barchuq Art Tegin'
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.