Town · Ferghana: the khans of Uzgend · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Akhsikath

Akhsikath, on the right bank of the Syr Darya about 22 km south-west of Namangan, was the capital of Ferghana in the ninth and tenth centuries and is still one of its largest towns, with mosques, a palace, a prison and a caravanserai inside its walls.

The coordinates used here are approximate.

Who holds it

Title
Khan of Ferghana
Since
Not pinned
Confidence
low

Lord in 1200

The khan of Ferghana.

How things stand that morning

Quiet.

Council

Not recorded for 1200.

Communities

Muslims.

Fairs and markets

Not recorded for 1200.

Militia

Not recorded for 1200.

Walls and castle

Walled inner town and citadel.

Trade and crafts

Metalwork (the town was known for crucible steel), farming of the river plain.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: No record for 1200.

Primary sources for Khanate of Ferghana

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
  • 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
  • Dictionary of Countries, Yaqut al-Hamawi (1224 to 1228, at Aleppo). An alphabetical gazetteer of every place Yaqut had read of or seen: he travelled as a bookseller's agent through Syria, Iraq, Persia, Khurasan and Khwarazm (about 1213 to 1220) and settled in Aleppo. Read online

Sources and studies

  1. Wikipedia, 'Akhsikath'
  2. W. Barthold, Turkestan down to the Mongol Invasion (1928)

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