Balasagun, in the Chu valley between the Kyrgyz range and Issyk-Kul, was the capital of the eastern Qarakhanid khans until the Qara Khitai took it about 1134 and made it their own capital, called by them Husi Ordo and by the Muslims Quz Ordu.
The town is Muslim and Christian: its Nestorian community is large and its cemeteries are in use into the fourteenth century. The eleventh-century Burana minaret, then over 46 m high, marks the west end of the town site most scholars identify with Balasagun. In 1210, when the gurkhan's power breaks, the townsmen will shut the gates on his army and the town will be stormed after a sixteen-day siege and sacked.
Who holds it
- Name
- Yelu Zhilugu
- Title
- Gurkhan
- Since
- 1177-78
- Confidence
- high
Lord in 1200
The gurkhan directly; his palace camp (ordo) lies near the town.
How things stand that morning
The capital, quiet.
Charter
None: the towns of the Qarakhanid khans have no charters; the khan's governor, the judge (qadi), the market inspector (muhtasib) and the headman (ra'is) run them.
Council
Not recorded; the gurkhan's officers rule.
Communities
Turkish Muslims; Christians of the Church of the East; the Khitan court and soldiers (Buddhists and followers of the Khitan rites) in the ordo nearby; Sogdian-descended townsmen.
Fairs and markets
Not recorded.
Militia
The townsmen hold their walls against the gurkhan's own army in 1210.
Walls and castle
Walled town (the Burana site with its walls and citadel mound); the minaret.
Trade and crafts
The caravan road from Kashgar and China to the west; the farms of the Chu valley; the court's demand.
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.
- 1210Shuts its gates against the gurkhan's retreating army and is stormed after sixteen days and sacked (Barthold after Juvaini).Depends on: The defeat near Taraz and the collapse of the gurkhan's authority. Stopped by: Far beyond 1200.
Where the sources disagree
- The identification of Balasagun with the Burana site is the majority view; some place it at Ak-Beshim or Krasnaya Rechka in the same valley.
Evidence: Capital status is certain; the town's life in 1200 is known mainly from archaeology.
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
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.