The Uyghur kingdom of Qocho and Beshbaliq

Who rules

Name

not known for 1 January 1200

Title

Idiqut (iduq qut, 'holy fortune'), king of the Uyghurs of Qocho

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

The old Uyghur royal house that left the steppe after 840 and settled at Beshbaliq and Qocho; the Yuan-era texts trace it to the legend of the tree-born ancestor at Mount Qorin

Confidence

low

No source we could open names the idiqut of 1 January 1200. The first name that can be dated is Bilge (Biliege), idiqut when Yelu Dashi came through in the late 1120s or early 1130s and made the Uyghurs his tributaries (Liao shi, recalled; zh.wikipedia dates the vassalage to 1132). The next is Barchuq Art Tegin, attested as idiqut only in the sexagenary year jisi (1209), when he killed the Qara Khitai supervisors (Yuan shi 122).

Between them lie about seventy-five years with no name we can check. The list on English Wikipedia (drawn mostly from Turghun Almas, Uyghurlar, 1992, and admitted by the page to have numerous gaps before the thirteenth century) runs: Bilge (1123), Bilge Tegin (1126), then Isen Tomur with no dates, then Baurchuq Art Tegin (given as 1208 or 1229 to 1235 or 1241), a Yur Temur (Yue-er Tiemuer) in 1229, and Kesmez (Qusmayin) from 1235 or 1242. Isen Tomur is the only name in print for the long interval, undated and unsourced, so he is a candidate for the idiqut of 1200 and no more.

Barchuq's own Wikipedia page dates his reign from 1208 (lead) or 1209 (succession list) to 1235, which is only the first year in which he is attested and not a date of accession. Barchuq may already have been idiqut in 1200, or still a tegin (prince) waiting for the throne: his name carries the rank tegin. Not pinned.

Overlord

The Gurkhan of the Qara Khitai (Yelu Zhilugu, reigned 1178 to 1211, Chinese era name Tianxi: a seal dated to the third month of Tianxi 20 is 1197, Wikipedia, which would put 1 January 1200 in Tianxi 22 and the lunar new year of 1200 in Tianxi 23), through a resident commissioner at the Uyghur court

What the realm holds

• Qocho (Gaochang, Kara-Khoja), the winter capital, with its oasis and the Flaming Mountains cave temples (Bezeklik, Sengim, Toyuq)
• Yarkhoto (Jiaohe), Lukchun, Pichan (Shanshan) and Toksun, the other oasis towns of the Turfan depression
• Beshbaliq (Beiting) and the plain of Jimsar and Qitai, the summer capital and its pastures
• The north-slope oases westward (Fukang, Urumqi, Changji, Hutubi, Manas), held lightly and thinly evidenced
• Hami (Kumul), Barkol and Yiwu on the road to Dunhuang: probable, not pinned
• The tolls and halts of the northern Silk Road between Hami and the Karashahr line
• The estates of the Buddhist monasteries, which the idiqut protects and which are a large part of the irrigated land

How it was acquired

The dynasty dates from the 860s, when the Uyghur leader Pugu Jun seized Xizhou (Gaochang), Beiting and Luntai from the Tibetans (zh.wikipedia, 866). The Yuan shi (juan 122) says the line lived 'more than 170 years' at Jiaozhou, which it equates with Huozhou (Qocho), down to Barchuq, who was subject to the Khitans. Counted back from 1209 that is about the 1030s, so the figure may mark a late move of the royal seat to Qocho and not the dynasty's start in the 860s; we note it and do not rely on it.

It was a tributary of the Liao, then, from the late 1120s or early 1130s, of Yelu Dashi's Qara Khitai.

Allies and rivals

Overlord: the Qara Khitai at Balasagun, whose commissioner is at the court. Neighbours: the Tangut empire of Xia on the Dunhuang road to the east (trade, Buddhist exchange, no war known); the Tarim oasis lords at Karashahr and Kucha to the south-west (the Turfan-Karashahr road is the border); the Qarluq and the Naiman marchers on the steppe to the north-west and north. Uyghur scribes serve the Naiman court: Tata-tonga, the Uyghur keeper of Tayang Khan's seal, is taken by Chinggis in 1204 (Yuan shi 124, recalled).

The Jin received tribute from Qocho in 1144 (Wikipedia, Qara Khitai).

The realm that morning

A quiet tributary state. On 1 January 1200 the court is in its winter capital at Qocho, and so, most probably, is the Qara Khitai commissioner; Beshbaliq is a summer town with a skeleton household. No war, raid or revolt is recorded on this ground that winter. The Qara Khitai are at war far to the west (the Ghurids and Khwarazm), the Naiman are quarrelling among themselves and with Temujin and Toghrul on the Altai side, and Xia is at peace with the Jin; none of that touches Qocho directly.

The commissioner presses the Uyghurs for tribute and supplies, which is the grievance that breaks out in 1209.

Wealth

Irrigated land: grapes (raisins and wine), cotton and cotton cloth, grain, melons, fruit, watered by mountain streams and underground canals (karez); caravan tolls, lodging and credit on the northern road; sal ammoniac from the smoking mountain north of Beiting (Wang Yande, recalled); horses, sheep and felt from the Beshbaliq and Barkol pastures; the estates and gifts of the monasteries; the copying, translating and trading in books. The tribute to the Qara Khitai is a charge on all this. No figures are known.

Military

No garrison or army figure is known. The idiqut has a household guard, levies of his tegins and begs, and walled towns (Qocho has three enclosures, Yarkhoto sits on a cliff island, Beshbaliq has a walled plan of the Tang city). The Qara Khitai keep no garrison at Qocho: the commissioner works by authority and by sending for troops. After 1209 the Uyghurs fight for the Mongols.

Threats

• The commissioner's demands for tribute and supplies
• A Naiman or Merkit war-band driven onto the Dzungarian side by the Mongols and Kereyit
• Xia, if the Dunhuang road is closed or if the Hami oasis is claimed
• A succession quarrel in the royal house (the idiqut's heir and the tegins)

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)An ordinary tributary year: the court winters at Qocho and moves to Beshbaliq for the summer; caravans, monastery building and copying go on. Nothing in the Uyghur record is dated to 1200.Depends on: Qara Khitai peace in the east; no Naiman or Merkit movement across Dzungaria Stopped by: A raid from the Altai side or a quarrel with the commissioner

Later, on the likely course

1. about 1204Chinggis crushes the Naiman and takes the Uyghur scribe Tata-tonga, keeper of Tayang's seal; the Mongols begin to use the Uyghur script. Afterwards Naiman and Merkit refugees spill south and west across Dzungaria.Depends on: The Mongol victory over Tayang Khan, which has not happened on 1 January 1200 Stopped by: A Naiman victory over Temujin and Toghrul (they are winning against Buyruq in 1199 and may not)
2. jisi year, 1209 (Yuan shi gives only the sexagenary year)Barchuq Art Tegin kills the Qara Khitai supervisors and sends to Chinggis to offer submission. In 1211 he goes to Chinggis's court and is given a daughter, Altun Beki, and the title of fifth son.Depends on: Chinggis having become strong enough to protect the Uyghurs, and the commissioner's demands staying heavy Stopped by: A Qara Khitai or Naiman reprisal, or the idiqut's death or deposition

Places of note

• Qocho (Gaochang, Kara-Khoja): Winter capital, three-walled city of rammed earth
• Beshbaliq (Beiting): Summer capital, ruins north of Jimsar
• Yarkhoto (Jiaohe): Old Tang city on a cliff island west of Turfan
• Hami (Kumul): Oasis on the Dunhuang road, probably Uyghur

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry kara-khoja-qocho names Barchuq Art Tegin as the sitting idiqut in 1200. The sources attest him only from 1209 (Yuan shi 122, year jisi). Not pinned.
• The campaign board entry hami-yizhou says Hami is 'shared with the Tangut caravans'. No source we found shows Xia sharing Hami; the Xia frontier town on this road is Shazhou (Dunhuang), about 400 km east. Hami is probably Uyghur, not pinned.
• Wikipedia's idiqut list (Bilge 1123, Bilge Tegin 1126, Isen Tomur undated, Baurchuq 1208 or 1229) is used only for its names: Isen Tomur is the one undated name between 1126 and Barchuq. It gives Barchuq two dates 21 years apart and cites no source for the earlier names, so we do not treat it as dating anyone. English Wikipedia puts the vassalage to the Qara Khitai in 1128; zh.wikipedia in 1132; we say 'the late 1120s or early 1130s' and note both.
• Juvaini and the Yuan shi differ in wording about the Gurkhan's envoy: Juvaini writes shaukam (Chinese shaojian, 'junior supervisor'), the Yuan shi writes 'officers set up to supervise the state' (jianguo). We treat them as the same office.

Evidence: Fetched and read this session: Yuan shi 122 (the Uyghur kingdom's own account of itself, written about 1370), the English and Chinese Wikipedia pages on Qocho and Gaochang Huigu, and the Qara Khitai pages. The names and the 1200 ruler are not in any of them. The picture of Turfan life (trade, estates, three religions) rests on the Turfan manuscripts and caves, which date the religious life of the 9th to 11th centuries well and the 12th century poorly; we project it forward with that warning.

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

On the map: The Turfan block is firm. Beshbaliq is firm; the north-slope oases are a best guess. Hami and Barkol are drawn as Uyghur on the strength of the Yuan-era sources and the road geography, not on a source dated to 1200.

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 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
• 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
• 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.
• Brief Account of the Black Tatars, Peng Daya (彭大雅) with notes by Xu Ting (徐霆) (1237 (Peng Daya's text from a 1232 to 1233 embassy, Xu Ting's notes from a 1235 to 1236 embassy)). Two Song envoys' notes on the Mongols under Ogodei: the steppe, climate, herds, hunting, the ruler's tent and court, the army, taxes, trade, the postal relay, the Uyghur and Khitan clerks, and the subject peoples. 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