Kara-Khanid Khanate
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The Muslim, Turkic Kara-Khanid Khanate is not to be confused with the Sinitic, Khitan Kara-Khitan Khanate.
Origins
Early historyDespite continuity from the first Uyghur Empire and affinity with the Kara-Khojas, the Kara-Khanids claimed descent from the legendary Persian Afrasiab dynasty. The use of the vertical Uyghur script among Muslim Turks extended well into Timurid times in western Turkistan, and well into Manchu times in some enclaves in eastern Turkistan. The Anatolian Turkish beyliks in Ilkhanid times and early Ottoman times still retained scribes trained in the vertical script in order to do transactions with the Timurids. These scribes were called "bakshy", a name possibly of Chinese origin, meaning "great scholar", one of the titles of the Confucian soldier-scholar Yelu Dashi, or of Sanskrit origin.
The nomadic elements of the Kara-Khanid and Kara-Khitan states, the Qarluq and Naiman hordes, laid the foundation for the modern Kypchak Turkic-speaking cultures of the Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and Tatars. The Muslim, Persianized, sedentary elements of the Kara-Khanid culture are preserved today among the Tajik, Uzbek, Afghan, Hui and Uyghur nations, two of which speak Chagatay Turkic languages.
Early migrations
A branch of the Uyghurs migrated to oasis settlements of Tarim Basin and Gansu, such as Gaochang (Khoja) and Hami (Kumul) and set up a confederation of decentralized Buddhist states called Kara-Khoja. Others, occupying western Tarim Basin, Ferghana Valley, Jugaria and parts of Kazakhstan bordering the Muslim, Turco-Tajik Khwarazm Sultanate, converted to Islam no later than 10th century and built a federation with Muslim institutions called Kara-Khanlik, whose princely dynasties are called Kara-Khanids by historians.After the rise of the Seljuks in Iran, the Kara-Khanids became nominal vassals of the Seljuks. Later they would serve the dual suzerainty of both the Kara-Khitans to the north and the Seljuks to the south.
Famous Kara-Khanid rulers
Historically influential Kara-Khanid rulers include Mahmoud Tamgach of Kashgar. After the defeat of the Khitan dynasty by the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234) in Northern China, the great Khitan mandarin Yelu Dashi escaped from China with a small band of Khitan soldiers, recruited warriors from Tangut, Tibetan, Qarluq, Kara-Khoja, Naiman areas and marched westward in search of asylum.Yelu Dashi was accommodated by the hospitable Tangut Western Xia Kingdom and the Buddhist Kara-Khojas. However, he was shut out by the Muslim Kara-Khanids near Gulja and Kashgar. Enraged, he subjugated Kara-Khanid states one by one and set up the Kara-Khitan suzereignty in Balasaghun on the Irtysh river, modern day Kazakhstan. Several military commanders of Kara-Khanid lineages such as the father of Osman of Khwarezm, escaped from Kara-Khanid lands during the Kara-Khitan invasion. In 1244, upon the invitation of the Egyptian Mamluks, Osman of Khwarezm marched on Jerusalem and liberated the holy city, on behalf of Islam, from the Crusaders.
Kara-Khitan Invasion
The Kara-Khitan Khanate, though harsh on the Muslim Qarluq-Uyghurs, did not dispossess all of the Kara-Khanid domains. Instead, the "Khitans" (most of them were actually Naimans, Tanguts and Qarluqs speaking the same Turkic language as the Kara-Khanids) retreated to the northern steppes and had the Kara-Khanids act as their tax-collectors and administrators on Muslim sedentary populations (the same practice was adopted by the Golden Horde on the Russian Steppes). The Kara-Khitans even incorporated Kara-Khanid Muslim generals such as Muhammad Tai, who surrendered to the Naiman usurper Kushluk at the end of the Kara-Khitan Dynasty. Kushlug, the last ruler of the Kara-Khitan Dynasty, was especially harsh on the Muslim populations under his suzereignty. He went so far as to forcing conversions from Islam to Buddhism, the dominant religion of the ruling Kara-Khitans. The elite Kara-Khitans and their Naiman soldiers, on an interesting note, were very often Nestorian Christians, as suggested by the Syriac names of the Gur-Khans(Emperors), who at the same time had Confucian titles and patronized Buddhist establishments. Kushluk's Naimans were perhaps heavily Nestorian Christian. The reason for force conversions into Buddhism was perhaps due to the underdevelopment of Nestorian institutions, making it unsuitable on sedentary domination.
Mongul Occupation & Overthrow of Kara-Khitans
In the early 13th century Kara Khitan ruler Kushlug, a sworn foe of Genghis Khan, was crushed by the advancing Mongol army along with his Kara-Khitan military state. His vassals, the Kara-Khanids, offered meager resistance to the Mongols.
Cultural Influences & History
It is perhaps because of the similarities between Kara-Khanid and Kara-Khoja cultures that during the Yuan and Ming periods former Kara-Khoja and Xixia lands were populated by converts to Islam indistinguishable from Chagatay and Timurid lands. These Turkic Muslims under Chinese influence later adopted the Chinese language while still maintaining extensive trade relations with Turkestan. They were designated "Hui" in Chinese, obviously derived from "Huihui" or "Huihu", an archaic transliteration of "Uyghur". The Kara-Khanid culture started as a literate tradition, with a body of Muslim subjects recorded in the vertical Sogdian script of the first Uyghur Empire.
The Islamized Qarluq princely clan, the Balasaghunlu Ashinalar (the Kara-Khanids) gravitated toward the Persian Islamic cultural zone after their political autonomy and suzereignty over Central Asia was secured during the 9-10th century. As they became increasingly Persianized (to the point of adopting "Afrasiab", a Shahnameh mythical figure as the ancestor of their lineage), they settled in the more Indo-Iranian sedentary centers such as Qashgari, and became detached from the nomadic traditions of fellow Qarluqs, many of whom retained the Nestorian-Mahayana-Manichaean religious mixture of the former Uyghur Khanate.
Legacy
Kara-Khanid legacy is arguably the most enduring cultural heritage among coexisting cultures in Central Asia from the 9th to the 13th century. The Qarluq-Uyghur dialect spoken by the nomadic tribes and turkified sedentary populations under Kara-Khanid rule branched out into two major branches of the Turkic linguistic family, the Chagatay and the Kypchak. The Kara-Khanid cultural model that combined nomadic Turkic culture with Islamic, sedentary institutions spread east into former Kara-Khoja and Tangut territories and west and south into the subcontinent, Khorasan (Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Northern Iran), Golden Horde territories (Tataristan) and Turkey. The Mongol Chagatay, Timurid and Uzbek states and societies inherited most of the cultures of the Kara-Khanids and the Khwarazmians without much interruption.
See also
- Mamluks
- Uighars
External links
- [Crusades]
- http://www.ttk.gov.tr/yayinlar/karahan.htm
- http://www.enfal.de/starih6.htm
- http://www.ozturkler.com/data_english/0002/0002_10_05.htm
- http://www.ozturkler.com/data_english/0001/0001_09_03.htm
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