Town · The Qarluq and the nomads of the Ili, the Zhetysu and Dzungaria · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Almaliq

Almaliq, 'the place of apples' (the sources say many crab apples grow round it), stands on the Ili plain between the Tian Shan and the river, a good distance from both Qayaliq to the north-west and Beshbaliq to the east.

It is a Qarluq market town before it is a capital: the sources name it only from 1211 and its great age, as a Chagatayid residence and a Christian and Muslim city, comes after 1250. On 1 January 1200 it is a settled and orchard town with the Qarluq nomads wintering round it, at the junction of the roads from Dzungaria, from Beshbaliq and from the Chu.

Who holds it

Name
not known for 1 January 1200 (Ozar in 1211)
Title
Qarluq lord of Almaliq
Since
not known
Born
not known
Family
Ozar's family
Confidence
low

See the lord of Almaliq.

Lord in 1200

Not pinned. In 1211 it is Ozar.

Overlord

The Gurkhan; Arslan Khan of Qayaliq is the senior Qarluq lord

What the town holds

  • The town and orchards
  • Fields on the north bank of the Ili
  • The road toll at the junction

How things stand that morning

A market town of moderate size; its lord not pinned; the campaign board's note that it is 'not a city' is probably right.

Wealth

Apples and fruit, grain, horses, tolls.

Military

Qarluq horsemen of the district.

Threats

  • Qara Khitai demands
  • Rival lords
  • War-bands from the north

Communities

Qarluq Muslims and nomad herders; Buddhist and Christian groups (thin); Uyghur traders from Beshbaliq.

Walls and castle

Not known for the 12th century; the later Chagatayid town is documented, the earlier one is not.

Trade and crafts

Orchard fruit, grain, horse trade, caravan services.

Places of note

  • Almaliq: Site near Huocheng

Where the sources disagree

  • The campaign board entry almaliq: the coordinate (44.0 N, 80.8 E) is close to the site near Huocheng; the campaign board's account of Ozar's rise as a horse thief is not dated and we do not use it as a fact of 1200.

Evidence: Wikipedia on Almaliq (Ozar, 1211) and the campaign board; no excavation of the 12th-century town found.

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

On the map: A 10 km disc round the Huocheng site.

Primary sources for Qarluq

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 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
  • 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

Sources and studies

  1. Wikipedia: Almaliq, Xinjiang
  2. Wikipedia: Mongol conquest of the Qara Khitai
  3. Wikipedia: Mongol campaigns in Central Asia
  4. W. Barthold, Turkestan down to the Mongol Invasion (3rd ed., 1968; catalogue entry seen, text not opened, cited from memory)
  5. OMNIA board notes for tau (starting point only)

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