Cherchen (Polo's Charchan) is the last real oasis before the Lop, where the river Qarqan brings water from the Kunlun.
It was the old kingdom of Qiemo and in the fifth century the refuge of the Shanshan king (Wikipedia 'Shanshan'). Polo in 1273-74 found jade and chalcedony in its river and a Muslim population (later evidence). For 1200 no lord is recorded.
Who holds it
- Title
- Not known
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
No source names a holder.
Lord in 1200
Local headmen; Khotan by claim.
What the town holds
Not recorded.
How things stand that morning
Not recorded; no event for 1199-1200.
Military
No figures.
Council
Not recorded for 1200.
Communities
Not recorded.
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
Not recorded.
Places of note
- Cherchen: Oasis halt.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Geography and Polo.
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
Sources and studies
- Wikipedia, 'Shanshan'
- Marco Polo, Travels (c. 1298), chapters on Kashgar, Yarkand, Khotan, Pein, Charchan and Lop; recalled, not rechecked here
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.