Khanate, Qara Khitai vassal · Persia and the Eastern Islamic World · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Ferghana: the khans of Uzgend

Ferghana is the rich, closed valley of the upper Syr Darya, ringed by mountains, with some forty towns that have Friday mosques.

Since the Qara Khitai conquest a branch of the Qarakhanid house has ruled it from Uzgend, at the valley's eastern end where the road climbs to Kashgar and to the Chu. It is a vassal khanate of the gurkhan, who keeps his treasury in Uzgend. The family that rules it also holds Samarkand (Ibrahim b. Husayn moved there from Uzgend in 1178), Otrar and probably Shash, but the khan of Uzgend is a separate prince.

His name on 1 January 1200 is not known: Tughrul Khaqan Muhammad is attested in 1182, and Qadir Khan takes power in 1210. The khanate's towns are Uzgend, Osh, Quba, Marghinan, Akhsikath (the old capital, still large) and Kasan. Its monuments stand at Uzgend: beside the tomb of the early khan Nasr b. Ali (1012-13) are the domed tombs of the Ferghana line, the northern one (1152-53) believed to be that of the founder Jalal al-Dunya wa'l-Din Husayn, the southern one (1186) of an unknown khan, and a tall brick minaret.

Who rules

Name
Not pinned. The last khan attested before 1200 is Tughrul Khaqan Muhammad, on the throne in 578 (1182); the next is Ulugh Sultan Qadir Khan, who takes power at Uzgend in 606 (1210) and whom Barthold calls Jalal al-Din Qadir Khan, 'Great Sultan', in 1212
Title
Khan (khaqan) of Ferghana at Uzgend
Since
Not pinned
Born
Not pinned
Family
The khans of Ferghana are the Husaynid branch of the Qarakhanids: Husayn b. Hasan (Bilge Turk Tughrul Khaqan, died Rajab 551, September 1156), his son Mahmud (Toghan Khan, died 559/1164), Mahmud's brother Ibrahim b. Husayn (1164-78, now khan of Samarkand), Tughrul Khan Nasr (1168-73), and Tughrul Khaqan Muhammad (attested 578/1182). TDV thinks Qadir Khan (1210) was probably Muhammad's son or brother. Taj al-Din Bilge Khan of Otrar is 'of the Ferghana branch' (TDV).
Confidence
low

TDV 'Karahanlilar'; Iranica 'Ilak-Khanids' (a separate Ferghana khanate from 1137, annihilated by the Khwarazmshah in 1212-13); Barthold, Turkestan, pp. 182, 390, 393.

Overlord

The gurkhan Yelu Zhilugu, whose treasury is kept at Uzgend.

What the realm holds

  • Uzgend, the capital, with the gurkhan's treasury
  • Osh, Quba and Marghinan in the southern valley
  • Akhsikath and Kasan in the north, on and above the Syr Darya
  • The passes to Kashgar (by the Terek and the Alay) and to the Chu (by the Yassi and At-Bashi): the valley's trade with the Turks
  • The mines of the valley's rim (iron, copper, silver, mercury, sal ammoniac near Uzgend, per the geographers cited by Barthold)

How it was acquired

A separate Qarakhanid khanate in Ferghana from 1137 (Iranica) or 1141 (TDV), founded by Husayn b. Hasan under the Qara Khitai.

Allies and rivals

Lord: the gurkhan. Kinsmen: Ibrahim b. Husayn of Samarkand, the khan of Shash, Bilge Khan of Otrar. Neighbours: the khan of Kashgar over the passes; the Turkish herders of the Alay and the Tien Shan. Later enemies: Kuchlug, who plunders the Uzgend treasury in 1210, and Muhammad of Khwarazm, who destroys the khanate in 1212-13.

The realm that morning

A quiet vassal khanate; no war is recorded on its ground. Its khan's name is not pinned.

Wealth

Irrigated fields and orchards; the transit trade with the Turkish nomads and with Kashgar (slaves, horses, furs, silver); the mines and metal crafts of the valley's rim; Uzgend's mint.

Military

The khan's Turkish guard and the princes' retinues; the walled towns with citadels (Uzgend's citadel inside its inner town, Osh, Akhsikath, Kasan). No figures.

Threats

  • Nomad raids over the passes
  • Quarrels within the Qarakhanid family
  • The gurkhan's demands for tribute and troops

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. 606 (1209-10)Ulugh Sultan Qadir Khan takes power in Uzgend.Depends on: The death or fall of the ruling khan. Stopped by: Not pinned.
  2. 1210Kuchlug, rising against the gurkhan, plunders the treasury at Uzgend.Depends on: Kuchlug's arrival (1208) and revolt. Stopped by: Far beyond 1200.
  3. 1212-13Muhammad of Khwarazm destroys the khanate of Ferghana; later he empties the valley's towns before Kuchlug.Depends on: Khwarazmian conquest of Transoxiana. Stopped by: Far beyond 1200.

Places of note

  • Uzgend: Capital, treasury of the gurkhan, dynastic tombs and minaret.
  • Akhsikath: The old capital of Ferghana on the Syr Darya, about 22 km south-west of Namangan.

Where the sources disagree

  • GM's dossier: 'Uzgend and Ferghana under a Qarakhanid line'. Correct; the khan's name for 1200 is not pinned in any source read.

Evidence: Known mainly from coins and building inscriptions; the chronicles hardly mention Ferghana between 1182 and 1210.

On the map: The khanate is drawn as the valley; its hold on the mountain rims and on the western end towards Khujand is not pinned.

Primary sources for this realm

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 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

Sources and studies

  1. TDV Islam Ansiklopedisi, 'Karahanlilar'
  2. Encyclopaedia Iranica, 'Ilak-Khanids' (C. E. Bosworth)
  3. W. Barthold, Turkestan down to the Mongol Invasion (1928), pp. 155-189, 390, 393
  4. Archnet, 'Three Mausolea at Uzgen'

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