Aksu

Who holds it

Title

Governor or prince of Aksu (see Lord of Aksu)

Since

not pinned

Born

not known

Family

Not known.

Confidence

low

Wikipedia 'Qocho', 'Qara Khitai', 'Barchuq Art Tegin'; Iranica 'Chinese Turkestan iii'. Nothing for Aksu in the 12th century.

Lord in 1200

A local governor under the gurkhan; not known.

Overlord

The gurkhan; route not recorded.

What the town holds

• The town and oasis of the Aksu river
• The ford, the halt and the road north over the Muzart and Bedel passes

How it was acquired

Not recorded.

Allies and rivals

Uch Turfan and Maralbexi to the west; Bay and Kucha to the east; the herders of the Tian Shan to the north.

How things stand that morning

Not recorded; no event for 1199-1200.

Military

No figures.

Council

Not recorded for 1200.

Communities

Mixed Turkic Muslim and Buddhist in unknown proportion.

Fairs and markets

Not recorded; the weekly bazaar is the oasis custom but no date is known for 1200.

Militia

Not recorded.

Walls and castle

Not recorded for 1200.

Trade and crafts

Grain, cotton and fruit; tolls on the northern road; the road over the passes to Almaliq and the Ili valley; copper and iron in the hills (Tang evidence).

Places of note

• Aksu: Oasis town.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry aksu: 'eastern hinge of the Gurkhan's authority' with a road east to Kara-Khoja. The road is real (Aksu, Bay, Kucha, Karashahr, Turfan); the hinge is not documented.

Evidence: No 12th-century source names Aksu.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: Tierra drawn from modern counties.

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