Khotan lies between the White Jade and Black Jade rivers where they leave the Kunlun, and was a Buddhist kingdom for a thousand years until the Qarakhanid conquest about 1006 (Khan of Khotan in the sources of 1006-07; coins by 1016-17).
Its Buddhist monks had mostly fled to Tibet before the fall (Wikipedia 'Buddhism in Khotan'). By 1200 it is a Muslim city under its own Eastern Qarakhanid prince, apart from Kashgar, living on jade, silk, carpets and the road east to Dunhuang. Stein could write in 1907 that nothing is known of Khotan under the Qara Khitai.
Who holds it
- Title
- Khan (or governor) of Khotan of the Eastern Qarakhanid house (see Khan of Khotan)
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Family
- Not known.
- Confidence
- low
Iranica 'Khotan' and 'Ilak-Khanids', Wikipedia 'Hotan', Stein. No 12th-century ruler named.
Lord in 1200
The khan of Khotan, a prince of the Eastern Qarakhanid house; name not known.
Overlord
The gurkhan; in form the khan of Kashgar as head of the house.
What the town holds
- The city and the Khotan oasis
- Yotkan, the old capital site, about 10 km to the west
- The beds of the two jade rivers
How it was acquired
Taken about 1006 by Yusuf Qadir Khan; held by the Eastern house since.
Allies and rivals
Kashgar (kin and rival), Yarkand, Keriya and Niya; the Lop people at the road's end.
How things stand that morning
Quiet; the 1204 revolt is ahead.
Wealth
Jade, silk, carpets, orchards and the tolls of the road. No figures.
Military
No figures.
Council
The imam and judges of the madrasa (Imam and judges of Khotan) and the merchants of the bazaar; no names for 1200.
Communities
Muslims (Turks, and the Khotanese-speaking townsmen of the old kingdom, whose language and script Mahmud al-Kashgari noticed in the 1070s); two churches were working about 1050 (Gardizi, via Togan); Marco Polo finds all Muslim in 1273-74.
Fairs and markets
Not recorded. The jade is gathered in autumn at low water; the caravans for the east leave after it.
Militia
Not recorded.
Walls and castle
Not recorded. Whether the city of 1200 stands at Yotkan or at the modern site is not known.
Trade and crafts
Jade; silk and pile carpets; cotton, vines and orchards (Polo c. 1273 for cotton, vineyards and orchards: later evidence); the southern road east by Keriya, Niya, Cherchen and Charklik to Dunhuang and the Tangut; the road west to Yarkand and Kashgar.
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.
- 1204Rises with Kashgar and is crushed.Depends on: Discontent. Stopped by: A gentler gurkhan.
- 1213 or 1214Kuchlug takes Khotan; the imam is nailed to his madrasa.Depends on: Kuchlug in power. Stopped by: His fall.
Places of note
- Khotan: The city.
- Yotkan: Old capital site.
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board entry khotan: consistent. The campaign board says 'Kuchlug destroys' the eastern Qarakhanids after 1211: the Khotan events are 1213 or 1214 (Iranica).
Evidence: Conquest, jade and the 1204 and 1213 events are attested; the 1200 ruler and town are not.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: Tierra is the modern Khotan, Lop and Moyu core; the medieval oasis may have been smaller.
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
- Encyclopaedia Iranica, 'Khotan' (History in the Islamic Period)
- Encyclopaedia Iranica, 'Ilak-Khanids' (C. E. Bosworth)
- Encyclopaedia Iranica, 'Chinese Turkestan iii. From the Advent of Islam to the Mongols' (I. Togan)
- Wikipedia, 'Hotan'
- Wikipedia, 'Buddhism in Khotan'
- M. A. Stein, Ancient Khotan (1907), vol. 1, p. 233, Digital Silk Road (Toyo Bunko)
- 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.