Yarkand

Who holds it

Title

Governor or prince of Yarkand (not pinned; see Lord of Yarkand)

Since

not pinned

Born

not known

Family

Not known.

Confidence

low

Iranica 'Yarkand', Wikipedia 'Yarkant County', Chinese Wikipedia 'Qu Chuli', the Persia map's Yarkand. No 12th-century ruler.

Lord in 1200

Not pinned: a governor of the khan of Kashgar or of Khotan, or a prince of his own. See Lord of Yarkand.

Overlord

The gurkhan, through the khan of Kashgar or of Khotan or directly; not pinned.

What the town holds

• The town and the irrigated land of the Yarkand river
• The toll at the junction of the roads

How it was acquired

Qarakhanid since the tenth century; the town's mint and documents show Muslim rule from the 11th century.

Allies and rivals

Kashgar, Khotan and Maralbexi are its neighbours on the road; the mountain people of the Kunlun and Sarikol edge are its suppliers and raiders in bad years.

How things stand that morning

Quiet. The open question is allegiance.

Wealth

The oasis and the tolls of the junction. No figures.

Military

No figures.

Council

The qadi's court and the shaykhs of the mosques, inferred from the legal documents; leading families and any headman not recorded.

Communities

Turkic Muslims; a Jewish community seems to be mentioned in the 11th and 12th century documents (Iranica); Christians of the Church of the East are reported at Yarkand by Marco Polo in 1273-74 (later evidence), within the metropolitan province of Kashgar.

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

Grain, cotton and fruit; the caravan trade at the junction; the Karakoram road to Ladakh and Kashmir leaves the oasis here; Khotan jade passes through on the way to Kashgar and the west.

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. 1211 to 1218Kuchlug's garrisons hold Yarkand; their leaders yield after his death in 1218 (Chinese Wikipedia 'Qu Chuli').Depends on: Kuchlug's rule. Stopped by: His fall.

Places of note

• Yarkand: The oasis town.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry yarkand: 'Muslim since the Qarakhanid conquest of Khotan two centuries ago'. Yarkand was Muslim and Qarakhanid before 1006.
• Persia map anchors Shache and Zepu with kashgar; this map draws them tarim (realm record, note 3).

Evidence: Town, mint and legal documents are attested for the 11th and 12th centuries; ruler, walls, council and events for 1200 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 drawn from the modern Yarkand and Poskam districts: the full oasis, wider than the medieval town's own fields. Maralbexi and Makit are left to their own record and to the Kashgar house claim.

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