XIV AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF CHINESE TURKESTAN: THE MEDIAEVAL AND LATER PERIOD

Cascar constituted a Kingdom in former days, but now is subject to the Great Kaan, The people worship Mohamed. There are a good number of towns and villages, but the greatest and finest is Cascar itself, The inhabitants live by trade and handicrafts; they have beautiful gardens and vineyards, and fine estates, and grow a great deal of cotton. . . . There are in this country many Nestorian Christians, who have churches of their own.—Maroo Poro.

Tez rise of the Mongols from the position of despised tributaries of the Kin dynasty to that of lords of Asia and Eastern Europe is among the greatest events in history. Chengiz Khan, the organizing genius who welded tribes, with their constant feuds, raids and petty wars, into a single vast, obedient army, was born in 1162. When a boy of thirteen he succeeded to the confederacy built up by his father Yissugay, and for many years he suffered the vicissitudes of fortune that were usual in those times and circumstances ; among them being capture by his enemies. After these early difficulties, we hear of the youthful chieftain serving the Kin Emperor and attacking with success the Buyr Nur Tartars who had killed his father.

Among his allies were the Keraits, a Nestorian

Christian tribe whose chief, Toghril, better known as 263 the Wang Khan, was probably the original subject of the stories associated with Prester John, the fabulous monarch renowned in mediaeval Europe. In 1199 the two chiefs attacked the powerful Naiman tribe of Christians which occupied the country to the north of the Tian Shan, but the campaign was unsuccessful owing to the treachery of the Kerait leader, who drew off his troops at a critical moment. Three years later Wang Khan actually attacked and worsted the Mongols, but this defeat was avenged by Chengiz, who surprised him by a night attack. Wang Khan fled to the Naiman, by whom he was put to death. The results of this encounter were important, since it gave Chengiz control of the southern part of the present province of Mongolia.

His next campaign was directed against the Naiman. The two forces met to the north of the Tian Shan, and the result was a decisive victory for Chengiz, who thereby subjugated the Naimans and their allies. The Naiman king was carried out of the battle mortally wounded, but his son Guchluk escaped to Chinese Turkestan and took refuge with the Gur Khan, whose hospitality he abused as mentioned in the previous chapter.

In 1218 Chengiz invaded Chinese Turkestan and detached a force of 20,000 men from the main body to attack Guchluk. The latter fled without attempting to fight for his throne, but was overtaken in the wilds of Badakshan and put to death. The Mongol general proclaimed freedom of worship, which was one of the few benefits conferred by these nomad rulers. Through their influence, too, the position of Moslem women was considerably raised in Central

Asia, where it is still relatively high. Later on commerce prospered, owing to the removal of the boundaries of states, and during the second half of the thirteenth century the illustrious Venetian, Marco Polo, traversed the province from the Pamirs to Kashgar, from that city to Yarkand and Khotan, and thence to China.

Chengiz Khan divided his dominions among his four sons. To Chagatai, his second son, was assigned Transoxiana as a centre, with appanages in every direction; Eastern Turkestan, Ili, Tibet, Ladak, Badakshan, Afghanistan, Kashmir and Bokhara being all included in his wide-spreading kingdom. Chagatai was a follower of Buddha, and his rule was both vigorous and tolerant. His capital was at Almaligh, near the modern Kulja, where he led a nomad’s life remote from the great cities of Samarcand and Bokhara. He bestowed Eastern Turkestan on the Dughlat family, and its chiefs became hereditary rulers of the province. Early in the fourteenth century a permanent division was made, Moghulistan * being separated from Transoxiana. For the former kingdom a Mongol prince, Isan Bugha, was elected and set on the throne, which he occupied until his death in 1330. His successor, after an interval of anarchy, was his son Tughluk Timur, whose mother, while pregnant with him, had, on account of the jealousy of the head wife, been married to a nobleman and sent away from the Court. Owing to this it was not even known whether a son or a daughter had been born to the Khan until the head of the Dughlat tribe despatched a confidential servant, who ascertained the facts and brought back the youth, then sixteen years of age.

The Tarikh-i-Rashidi, the sole important literary work produced in Eastern Turkestan,! opens with the following sentence, which merits quotation : “One day, when Tughluk Timur Khan was feeding his dogs with swine’s flesh, Shaykh Jamal-u-Din was brought into his presence. The Khan said to the Shaykh, ‘ Are you better than this dog or is the dog better than you ?’ The Shaykh replied, ‘If I have faith I am the better of the two, but if I have no faith, this dog is better than I am.” The K#an was much impressed by these words, and a great love for Islam took possession of his heart.” His conversion did not take place during the Skaykh’s lifetime, but was accomplished by a Maulana or ““ Master,” a small, weak man in appearance, who, when challenged, smote the Champion of the Infidels senseless. This seemingly miraculous blow resulted in 160,000 persons becoming Moslems, and by the end of the fourteenth century Islam had supplanted Buddhism generally throughout Eastern Turkestan.

Tughluk Timur’s first capital was Aksu, but later he selected Kashgar, and his chief claim to distinction is his connection with the great Tamerlane. At this period the western division of Chagatai’s kingdom, which was ruled by puppet Khans, had fallen into a state of anarchy. Tughluk Timur accordingly determined to annex it, and in 1360 crossed the frontier at the head of an army. The chief of the Barlas tribe was defeated and fled to Khorasan, but his nephew Timur, destined to become famous as

Tamerlane, saved the situation by timely submission, and was received into favour.

On the death of Tughluk Timur in 1363 Tamerlane drove out his son, who died shortly afterwards, and the throne of Kashgar was usurped by Amir Kamaiu-Din, of the Dughlat tribe.

In 1375, hearing that Moghulistan was weakened by disorders, Tamerlane decided to invade it. In the chronicle known as the Zafar Nama an interesting account is given of this campaign. At the outset the weather was terribly severe: “No one ever yet saw so much snow; the world looked like a morsel in the snow’s mouth.” But Jahangir, the invader’s eldest son, defeated the enemy, who had taken refuge in deep ravines. Kamar-u-Din escaped, but his wife and daughter were captured, and Tamerlane married the latter and ended the campaign with festivities. He invaded Moghulistan altogether five times, the valley of the Yulduz being the meetingplace of his armies, and Eastern Turkestan suffered terribly from these raids, in the course of which the country was laid waste.

In 1892 Kamar-u-Din died, and a son of Tughluk Timur, who had been leading a wandering life, hidden by his attendants, at first in the Parmirs, then in the Kuen Lun, and finally in the wild Lob Nor region, was set on the throne, and concluded a peace with Tamerlane.

Tamerlane’s last projected campaign against China would have led across Moghulistan, and the Khan was much perturbed by orders to sow large tracts of land with corn and to collect thousands of head of cattle for the use of the army. But one day * they saw advancing rapidly a man mounted on a black horse and clothed in white robes. The chamberlains ran up from every side to try to stop him in his course, but he did not slacken his speed till he came up to where the Khan was standing. Then he called out in a loud voice, ‘ Amir Timur is no more ; he has died at Otrar!’ Many horsemen were sent after him, but none could overtake him.” The news announced in this dramatic fashion was confirmed forty-five days later. The “Scourge of God’ had died on February 4, 1405, and the country was thereby saved from being eaten up by the vast armies which he would have led on this distant campaign.

It is interesting to note that in 1420 Amir Khudadad, the then ruler, entertained the embassy despatched by Shah Rukh, the celebrated successor of Tamerlane, to the Emperor of China. The outward route of the ambassadors ran by Samarcand and Tashkent and thence to the north of the Tian Shan by Yulduz to Turfan, the return route passing through Khotan and Kashgar. The autograph letters of Shah Rukh are still extant, and the description of the journey given by one of the envoys is delight fully vivid.

We learn a good deal about Eastern Turkestan during the early part of the sixteenth century through Mirza Haidar’s description of the career of Sultan Said, whose service he entered. This ruler, unable to face the Uzbegs, whose power had become formidable, decided in 1514 to forsake Andijan and to attack Aba Bakr, of the Dughlat tribe, who ruled at Kashgar and Yarkand. The expedition was a complete success and re-established the Moghul dynasty, Aba Bakr being murdered while fleeing to Ladak. Sultan Said invaded Badak-

LT TT EI TER ey”

A Ae eet ‘J shan, Ladak and Kashmir during the next two decades, and died from the effects of the rarefication of the atmosphere on his way back from Ladak, near the celebrated Karakoram Pass. Rashid Khan, who gave his name to the history, succeeded to the throne and ruled for some years with much cruelty. After his death his sons divided their heritage, and the country relapsed into anarchy.

Under the later Chagatai Khans, Islam recovered from the set-back it had received from the invasions of Chengiz Khan and his immediate successors, thanks mainly to the influence of Bokhara and Samarcand, which had become important centres of Moslem learning. During the reign of Rashid Khan, the celebrated saint Sayyid Khoja Hasan, more generally known as Makhdum-i-Azam or “The Great Master,” visited Kashgar from Samarcand and was received with extraordinary honours. The saint’s sons settled at Kashgar, where their father had married a wife and had received rich estates, and gradually established a theocracy, laying upon the necks of the submissive, apathetic people a heavy yoke which they still bear. In course of time two parties were formed whose influence on the subsequent history of the country has been profound. The supporters of the elder son were termed A% Taulin or ‘ White Mountaineers,” from the name of the range behind Artush, their headquarters, whereas the supporters of the younger were known as Kara Taulin or “Black Mountaineers,” from the hills near Khan Arik. Both parties of Khojas, as they were termed, aimed at political supremacy and intrigued with any external power that appeared likely to favour their ambitions.

In 1603 the famous Portuguese monk Benedict Goez reached Yarkand and was honourably received by its ruler, to whose mother he had lent money at Kabul. The Prince repaid the debt in jade, which the traveller sold to great advantage during his onward journey.

We now come to the rise of the Zungars or Kalmuks, a Mongol race which then dwelt in Ili and the surrounding districts. Under Khan Haldan Bokosha, one of the outstanding figures of the period, their. power stretched northwards to Siberia and southwards to Kucha, Karashahr and Kunya-Turfan; but Haldan rebelled against the Chinese and was decisively beaten.

His nephew and successor, Tse Wang Rabdan, ruled from Hami on the east to Khokand on the west, and, until his murder in 1727, was the most powerful of Zungarian rulers. The Torgut Mongols from fear of him fled to the banks of the Volga. Sir Henry Howorth gives an interesting account of the relations between Tse Wang and the Russians, from which it appears that Peter the Great, attracted by rumours of gold in Eastern Turkestan, despatched a body of 3000 men up the Irtish with Yarkand as their objective; but the Zungars assailed the column and forced it to retire.

To return to the Khoja family, its most celebrated member was Hidayat Ulla, known as Hazrat Apak or “His Highness the Presence,” head of the 4% Taulins, who was regarded as a Prophet second only tp Mohamed. Expelled from Kashgar he took refuge at Lhassa, where the Dalai Lama befriended him and advised him to seek the aid of the Zungars, In 1678 the Jatter seized Kashgar, which remained in their power for many years, and Hazrat Apak ruled as the deputy of the Khan, paying tribute equivalent to £62,000 per annum. In his old age the saint retired from the world to end his days among his disciples.

Some years later internal disorders enabled Amursana, one of the Zungar chiefs, to declare himself and his tribe Chinese subjects, and to persuade other tribes to follow his example ; he also induced Kashgar to tender allegiance to the Chinese. It was the policy of the Emperor Keen Lung to reconquer Ili and Eastern Turkestan for the Celestial Empire ; and in 1755 he despatched an army 150,000 strong, which met with little resistance and enabled him to consolidate the allegiance tendered through Amursana, who was appointed Paramount Chief. The Zungar soon tired of Chinese rule and massacred a detachment of the Celestial forces; but the Chinese reoccupied Zungaria in 1757, and in the following year crushed the tribe. Kulja was founded on the site of the Zungarian capital, and the modern name of Hsin-Chiang or the “New Province ”’ was formally bestowed on the reconquered countries.

The Chinese, realizing their numerical weakness, settled soldiers and landless men in the fertile districts of the ‘“ New Province,” to which they also deported criminals and political prisoners, among the latter being Tunganis deported from Kansu and Shensi. Chinese rule was evidently less harsh than Russian; for in 1771 the Torgut Mongols to the number of 100,000 families fled back to the Ili valley from the banks of the Volga, as narrated in dramatic fashion by De Quincey.

The prestige of China after her splendid successes was naturally very high and led to further acquisitions. First the Middle and then the Little Horde of Kirghiz, in spite of their connection with Russia, offered their submission ; it was accepted, and the . rulers of Khokand, Baltistan, and Badakshan followed suit.

The Khans of Central Asia were alarmed by this display of Chinese power, and formed a confederacy, headed by Ahmad Khan, the Amir of Afghanistan, who despatched an embassy to Peking to demand the surrender of Chinese Turkestan on the ground that it was inhabited by Moslems. Receiving an unsatisfactory reply, the Afghan Amir was careful not to attack the Chinese, but contented himself with holding Badakshan in force; and soon afterwards the confederacy broke up.

Chinese exactions both in taxation and in forced labour for the erection of cantonments now became very heavy, and many of the oppressed peasants fled to Andijan, where they formed a party of malcontents, who awaited their opportunity.

The first attempt to expel the Chinese was made in 1822 by Jahangir, the Khoja, who, supported by the Kirghiz, raided Kashgar, but was repulsed, and retreated to the country south of Issik Kul, where he defeated a Chinese expedition. In 1826 he again tried to win Kashgar, and this time with success. Enormous forces were organized for its recovery, and after a trial by champions, in which a Kalmuk archer defeated a Khokandian armed with a musket, the Chinese won the day, and Jahangir was captured and put to death. Confiscations and executions followed, and 12,000 Moslem families wore deported to Ili and settled as serfs under the name of Tarantchis.

Forts, too, were built at all important centres and Chinese authority seemed to be stronger than ever. As a further precaution a blockade was declared against Khokand. The Khan, resenting this policy and using Yusuf, the brother of Jahangir, as a puppet, invaded the province in 1830, but was forced to return to defend his own country against an invasion from Bokhara.

In the following year the Chinese made peace with Khokand, bestowing valuable privileges on the Khan, including a yearly subsidy of £3600, in return for which he was pledged to prevent hostile expeditions; he was also granted entire control of his subjects in Chinese Turkestan, to be exercised through Aksakals or “Elders” of their own nationality. The term Altz Shakr, or “Six Cities,” now began to be applied to the western part of the province, which was specially affected by the treaty.

In 1846, the result of the British operations against China and the weakness of that empire becoming known, the sons of Jahangir attempted another expedition, headed by Ishan Khan Khoja, known as Katte Tura, or ““ Great Lord,” who was the moving spirit among the brothers. Kashgar was captured by treachery ; but the tyranny of the victors alienated the province, and the Chinese garrison at Yarkand was strong enough to expel the motley gathering of Kirghiz and Khokandi adventurers, in whose wake some 20,000 families left their homes and crossed the Terek Dawan in mid-winter. population, enforcing five daily attendances at the mosques, by means of cruel punishments, and forbidding the time-honoured custom of plaiting the hair; he also barbarously murdered the German traveller Adolph Schlagintweit. Thanks to his unpopularity the Chinese army which attacked the usurper met with no resistance, and the Khoja fled back to Andijan, followed, it is said, by some fifteen thousand families. But probably all these numbers are exaggerated.

1 This province generally signifies the country lying to the north of the Tian Shan, but, as nsed in the text, the term includes the whole of the eastern division of the Khanate. 1 The writer was Mirza Haider, Gurkhan, who wrote a history of his ancestors, and also graphically described the events in which he sometimes played a leading part. A new figure was now about to appear on the stage, through whose action Chinese Turkestan was opened up to Great Britain and Russia. We may therefore fitly end the second section of this historical sketch before describing the kingdom founded by Yakub Beg.

Page 268.

TAMERLANE.