Frontier town · Samarkand: the Western Qarakhanids · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Otrar

Otrar, the old Farab, stands near the confluence of the Arys and the Syr Darya, at the meeting of the oasis towns and the Qipchaq steppe.

Its citadel and walled inner town stand on a five-sided mound; its suburbs had bath houses with hot water in the ninth to twelfth centuries, and its kilns made fine pottery. It is the gurkhan's frontier town on the middle river, held by a Qarakhanid lord. In 1218 its Khwarazmian governor will massacre a Mongol caravan here: far in the future.

Who holds it

Name
Taj al-Din Bilge Khan (attested from 1204; not pinned for 1200)
Title
Qarakhanid lord of Otrar
Since
Not pinned
Confidence
low

Lord in 1200

A Qarakhanid lord, vassal of the gurkhan: probably Taj al-Din Bilge Khan (not pinned).

How things stand that morning

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 for 1200.

Communities

Muslim Turks and Persian speakers; nomads at the gates.

Fairs and markets

Not recorded; the trade with the nomads is continuous.

Militia

Not recorded.

Walls and castle

Citadel and walled inner town on the mound (about 18 m high); suburbs outside.

Trade and crafts

Pottery; irrigated farming from the Syr Darya and the Arys; trade with the Qipchaq and Kangli (horses, sheep, slaves, hides) for grain, cloth and weapons.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The site is well excavated; its lord in 1200 is an inference from 1204-10 evidence.

Primary sources for Khanate of Samarkand

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
  • 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
  • Dictionary of Countries, Yaqut al-Hamawi (1224 to 1228, at Aleppo). An alphabetical gazetteer of every place Yaqut had read of or seen: he travelled as a bookseller's agent through Syria, Iraq, Persia, Khurasan and Khwarazm (about 1213 to 1220) and settled in Aleppo. 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, 'Otrar'
  2. W. Barthold, Turkestan down to the Mongol Invasion (1928)
  3. TDV Islam Ansiklopedisi, 'Karahanlilar'

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