Samarkand

Who holds it

Name

Ibrahim b. Husayn

Title

Khan of Samarkand

Since

1178

Confidence

high

Lord in 1200

The khan Ibrahim b. Husayn in person, vassal of the gurkhan.

How things stand that morning

The khan's 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

The khan's court; the shaykh al-islam and qadi of Samarkand (in 1217 the shaykh al-islam is Jalal al-Din, whose tenure in 1200 is not pinned); the family of al-Marghinani; heads of quarters.

Communities

Persian-speaking Muslim townsmen (Hanafi); Turkish soldiers and the khan's household; a metropolitan see of the Church of the East (its holder in 1200 not recorded); Jews.

Fairs and markets

Markets in the suburbs and at the gates; no fair days recorded for 1200.

Militia

The townsmen are armed enough to massacre a Khwarazmian garrison in 1212; nothing specific for 1200.

Walls and castle

The walled old city on Afrasiyab with its citadel and the khan's palace; the outer wall round the suburbs. The khan also has a palace at Gurjmin outside the city.

Trade and crafts

Paper; silk and cotton cloth, red fabrics, satins sold to the Turks (the geographers); metalwork; the caravan trade to Bukhara, Shash, Ferghana and the steppe; the mint.

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.

1. 1210-1212Muhammad of Khwarazm takes Samarkand (1210); the townsmen rise and kill the Khwarazmian garrison (1212); Muhammad sacks the city and makes it his capital.Depends on: The breach between Uthman, the gurkhan and Khwarazm. Stopped by: Far beyond 1200.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The city's topography is well known from the geographers and archaeology; its governance in 1200 is not documented.

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