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

Kashgar: the Eastern Qarakhanids

Kashgar is the great oasis at the western end of the Tarim basin, where the roads from Ferghana, the Chu valley, the Pamirs and India meet the road along the edge of the desert to China.

Since the Qara Khitai took Balasagun, the Eastern Qarakhanid khans, demoted by the gurkhan, have ruled from Kashgar alone. On 1 January 1200 the khan is Yusuf b. Muhammad, who has ruled since about 1180. Kashgar is a Muslim Turkish city, home of Hanafi scholars and of Turkish learning (the Qutadghu Bilig, the 'wisdom that brings good fortune', was presented to its khan in 1069-70, and Mahmud al-Kashgari, author of the great dictionary of the Turkish dialects, was of this house), and also the seat of a metropolitan of the Church of the East.

Khotan, further east and beyond this sheet, has its own khan. Four years later Kashgar and Khotan rise against the gurkhan, and Yusuf's son is taken as a hostage.

Who rules

Name
Abu'l-Muzaffar Yusuf b. Muhammad
Title
Khan of Kashgar, head of the Eastern Qarakhanids (styled Tamghach Khan in some modern lists; not pinned)
Since
About 1180 (modern lists); not pinned to the year
Born
Not pinned
Family
Son of Muhammad b. Ibrahim, khan of Kashgar from about 1158 to about 1180. His son Abu'l-Fath Muhammad is taken to Balasagun as a hostage after the revolt of 1204 and is killed by the notables at the gate of Kashgar in 607 (1210-11) when Kuchlug sends him back to rule. Other children and wives: not pinned. Khotan has its own khan (Iranica).
Confidence
medium

TDV 'Karahanlilar' (Yusuf died in Rajab 601, February-March 1205, buried in Kashgar); Iranica 'Ilak-Khanids'; Wikipedia's lists (1180-1205).

Overlord

The gurkhan Yelu Zhilugu, since the Qara Khitai took Kashgar in the 1130s and moved the eastern khan there from Balasagun.

What the realm holds

  • Kashgar and its oasis (the Kizil Su and Tumen rivers): Kashgar, Artush, Yengisar, Opal and the villages to Faizabad (Jiashi)
  • Yarkand: not pinned (between the khans of Kashgar and Khotan)
  • The road heads to Ferghana (the Terek pass), the Alay (Irkeshtam) and the Pamirs (Tashkurgan and Sariqol: not pinned)

How it was acquired

Hereditary in the Qarakhanid house since the tenth century; under the Qara Khitai since the 1130s.

Allies and rivals

Lord: the gurkhan. Neighbours: the khan of Khotan (outside), the khan of Ferghana over the passes, the Uyghurs of Qocho far to the east (outside). Later enemy: Kuchlug, who conquers Kashgar by 1214.

The realm that morning

Yusuf b. Muhammad rules Kashgar as the gurkhan's vassal; no war is recorded. The revolt of 1204 lies ahead.

Wealth

Irrigated oasis farming; the caravan trade between Transoxiana, the steppe and China; jade and goods from Khotan; cotton.

Military

The khan's retinue and the townsmen; Kashgar's walled town and citadel. No figures.

Threats

  • The gurkhan's weight on his vassals, which leads to the revolt of 1204
  • Strife with Khotan

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. 1204Kashgar and Khotan rebel against the gurkhan; the revolt is crushed and Yusuf's son Muhammad is held as a hostage at Balasagun.Depends on: Discontent with Qara Khitai rule. Stopped by: A lighter Qara Khitai hand.
  2. Rajab 601 (February-March 1205)Yusuf dies and is buried at Kashgar; no successor is installed by the gurkhan.Depends on: Natural death. Stopped by: Nothing.
  3. 607 (1210-11)Kuchlug sends the hostage Muhammad to rule Kashgar; the notables kill him at the gate, and Kuchlug wastes the oasis until it submits (1214).Depends on: Kuchlug's usurpation. Stopped by: Far beyond 1200.

Places of note

  • Kashgar: The khan's capital.

Where the sources disagree

  • GM's dossier names no khan of Kashgar; Yusuf b. Muhammad (about 1180-1205) is the khan on 1 January 1200 on the evidence of the dynastic lists and his dated death; his title is not pinned.

Evidence: The khan's name and death are known from a burial record and the lists; almost nothing is recorded of Kashgar's affairs in the 1190s.

On the map: Only the Kashgar oasis is drawn with confidence; Yarkand and the Pamir valleys are anchored with low confidence.

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 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

Sources and studies

  1. TDV Islam Ansiklopedisi, 'Karahanlilar'
  2. Encyclopaedia Iranica, 'Ilak-Khanids' (C. E. Bosworth)
  3. Wikipedia, 'Kara-Khanid Khanate'
  4. Wikipedia, 'Kashgar'

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