The Qarluq and the nomads of the Ili, the Zhetysu and Dzungaria

Who rules

Name

Arslan Khan is attested as the Qarluq ruler at Qayaliq when he submits to Chinggis in 1211; Ozar (Buzar) is attested as lord of Almaliq in 1211. Who held either seat on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

Title

Arslan Khan, khan (and jabgu by tradition) of the Qarluq at Qayaliq; and the lord of Almaliq

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

The Qarluq khans, heirs of the old Qarluq jabgu who ruled the Ili country inside the Karakhanid world

Confidence

low

The Qara Khitai and Mongol sources name Arslan Khan and Ozar only from 1211. Nothing I could open dates either man's accession. 'Arslan Khan' is also a Karakhanid title (the Western Karakhanid ruler of Samarkand, whom the Qara Khitai pressed in 1204), so the name alone does not prove a link to Qayaliq earlier than 1211.

Overlord

The Gurkhan of the Qara Khitai (Yelu Zhilugu), as tributary khans who keep their title, people and faith

What the realm holds

• Qayaliq (Kayalyk), the old Qarluq capital, with a mint, a cathedral mosque and mausolea
• Almaliq and the apple country of the lower Ili valley
• The Ili valley, its winter shelter and summer mountain pastures (Tekes, Kunes, Zhaosu)
• The steppe north of the Ili: Taldykorgan, Tekeli, Sarkand, Lepsy, the Karatal and Aksu rivers
• The western Dzungarian steppe: Jinghe, Bole, Lake Ebinur, the Jungar gate, Karamay, Wusu
• The caravan road from Dzungaria through the Jungar gate to the Ili and the Chu

How it was acquired

The Qarluq came into the Ili and Zhetysu in the 8th to 10th centuries and led the Karakhanid state. Yelu Dashi's Qara Khitai extended their authority here in the 1130s and have left the Qarluq khans in place since.

Allies and rivals

Overlord: the Gurkhan. Neighbours: the Uyghur kingdom of Qocho and Beshbaliq to the east (a trading neighbour, also a tributary of the Qara Khitai); the Qara Khitai's direct ground in the southern Zhetysu; the Kangli herders of the north-east steppe; the Naiman on the Altai and Irtysh side. In 1211 Arslan Khan and Ozar both go to Chinggis (English Wikipedia, Qara Khitai and Almaliq pages). Later Arslan Khan is called a son-in-law of Chinggis (the date of the marriage is not given) and Ozar's son Siknak Tegin is given the only daughter of Jochi after Ozar's death; the Mongol-conquest page puts that marriage on Ozar himself, which we think is a slip.

The realm that morning

A tributary people at peace under the Gurkhan. No Qarluq war or raid is recorded for the winter of 1199-1200. The Qarluq herds are in their winter camps: the low steppes of the Ili and Karatal, the lower Lepsy and Aksu, the Ebinur basin and the sheltered Dzungarian edges.

Wealth

Horses, sheep and cattle; the caravan tolls at Qayaliq and the Jungar gate; the apple and grain land of the Ili oases; a local mint of silver and copper at Qayaliq (excavation); trade in furs from the Naiman side and in jade, silk and cloth from the Tarim and China. No figures are known.

Military

Mounted archers under clan and tribe chiefs. The Qara Khitai can call on them but keep no garrison among them. No numbers are known for 1200 (the 1211 figures in modern books are not a source for this date).

Threats

• Qara Khitai demands for troops and tribute
• Naiman or Merkit war-bands pushing south from the Irtysh as the Mongols rise
• Rivalry between the Qarluq lords of Qayaliq and Almaliq
• Famine winters on the Ili

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.

In 1200

1. 1200 (no dated event)No dated event. The Qarluq go on paying tribute; the winter is spent in camp.Depends on: Peace in the Qara Khitai east Stopped by: A Naiman raid or a feud among the Qarluq lords

Later, on the likely course

1. 1204 and afterThe Qara Khitai are drawn into wars with the Ghurids and Khwarazm in the west; in the east the Naiman break and their princes flee south.Depends on: The Mongol victory over the Naiman Stopped by: A Naiman victory
2. 1211Arslan Khan of Qayaliq surrenders to Chinggis (Wikipedia, Qara Khitai) and Ozar of Almaliq acknowledges his supremacy (Wikipedia, Almaliq); the marriages into Chinggis's house come later or are undated. Kuchlug seizes the Gurkhan's throne the same year.Depends on: Mongol strength after the Naiman war Stopped by: Qara Khitai reprisals
3. between 1211 and 1218 (not dated closely)Kuchlug attacks Almaliq and kills Ozar; the town appeals to Chinggis and Jebe comes in 1218.Depends on: Kuchlug holding the Gurkhan's lands Stopped by: Mongol intervention

Places of note

• Qayaliq (Kayalyk): Old Qarluq capital: mosque, mausolea, mint
• Almaliq: Apple country market town in the lower Ili valley
• The Jungar gate: Pass between the Ili-Zhetysu country and the Irtysh steppe

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry almaliq says Almaliq 'is not yet a city' in 1200 and rises under Ozar. This is plausible but inferred: no excavation report we could open shows the 12th-century town. We keep it as a market town of uncertain size.
• The campaign board entry qayaliq says the khan's town has Buddhist and Nestorian communities. The excavation summary lists a Buddhist temple and a Manichaean temple (12th-13th century) and a cathedral mosque and mausolea, and no Christian church has been found; Rubruck's 1253 visit is the source for the temples.
• e-history.kz says the Gurkhan ruled southern Zhetysu, the north-east of Ispijab and Kulja directly and that the Qarluq khans held the country north of the Ili. We follow it for the south side (Issyk Kul, Kegen) but not for Kulja, which lies on the Ili's north bank beside Almaliq; we leave Kulja with the Qarluq and note the claim.
• Wikipedia's Zhilugu page has a minister advise 'Karluk Arslan Khan' to kill himself about 1204. That is the Karakhanid Arslan Khan of Samarkand, not the Qarluq of Qayaliq; we do not use it here.

Evidence: Fetched: the Kayalyk excavation summary (archaeology.kz), e-history.kz's accounts of the Qara Khitai in Zhetysu, the Wikipedia pages on Almaliq, the Qara Khitai and the Mongol conquest, Buyruq Khan, Naimans. The Persian and Mongol sources (Juvaini, Rashid al-Din, Yuan shi) that name Arslan Khan and Ozar are from 1211 and later, and we could not open them; the picture of the nomad peoples north of the Tian Shan is inferred from the geography and from what the later chroniclers say.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: The Qarluq block north of the Ili is the best-supported. The Dzungarian block is nomad range with no source for 1200; it is coloured Qarluq because nothing better fits.

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 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