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

Qayaliq

Qayaliq is the best-documented town of the Zhetysu east of Almaty.

Arabic sources of the 11th to early 13th centuries name it as the capital of the Qarluq jabgu, an almost independent Qarluq possession within the Karakhanid state. Excavation shows a settlement of about one by one-and-a-fifth kilometres with a cathedral mosque (34 by 28 metres, with a mihrab and heated by flues), mausolea of the late 12th and early 13th century with Muslim burials and Arabic inscriptions, a Buddhist temple and a Manichaean temple of the 12th to 13th centuries (a thirteen-legged lamp was found), rich houses with underground heating, Chinese ceramics and Iranian lustreware, and a local mint of silver and copper. Rubruck visits in 1253.

The khan keeps all this and sends tribute to the Gurkhan.

Who holds it

Name
Arslan Khan in 1211 and 1218; 1200 not pinned
Title
Khan of the Qarluq at Qayaliq
Since
not known
Born
not known
Family
The Qarluq khans
Confidence
low

See the khan of Qayaliq.

Lord in 1200

A Qarluq khan; not named for 1200 (Arslan Khan from 1211).

Overlord

The Gurkhan

What the town holds

  • The town and mint
  • The oasis on the Aschibulak stream
  • The road from Almaliq and Dzungaria to the Chu

How it was acquired

Inherited; confirmed under the Qara Khitai.

How things stand that morning

A tributary Qarluq capital in winter, with its mosque and temples standing (or building: the mosque and mausolea date to the late 12th or early 13th century and so may be new).

Wealth

Coin, trade and the caravan road, horse herds.

Military

Qarluq horsemen; no numbers.

Threats

  • Qara Khitai demands
  • Naiman raiders

Council

Not known. The khan and his officers; the qadi of the mosque and the elders of the Muslim community; Yasawi-order shaykhs later.

Communities

Qarluq Muslims in the majority; a Buddhist temple and a Manichaean temple (12th and 13th centuries, excavated); a possible Christian element (Rubruck 1253, not found in excavation).

Walls and castle

A walled town of roughly 1 by 1.2 km (excavation summary), with a large estate near the centre; wall dates not given.

Trade and crafts

Silver and copper coinage, carved-brick building, imported ceramics and glass, caravan trade.

Places of note

  • Cathedral mosque and mausolea: Late 12th to early 13th century

Where the sources disagree

  • The campaign board entry qayaliq: coordinates and the Qarluq khan stand; 'Nestorian community' is not shown by excavation.

Evidence: Archaeology summary (archaeology.kz); Rubruck cited from the same page; the ruler is not named for 1200.

"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 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. archaeology.kz: Koilyk/Kayalyk, the city (excavation summary)
  2. Wikipedia: Mongol conquest of the Qara Khitai
  3. Astana Times: Historical sites recall when Kazakhstan was Buddhist
  4. OMNIA board notes for tau (starting point only)

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