Yakub Beg
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Yakub Beg (1820 - May 16, 1877) was a Tajik adventurer who became head of the kingdom of Kashgaria.
Yakub Beg was born in Pskente, Kokand (in today's Uzbekistan).
Yakub Beg took advantage of anti-Chinese uprisings in what is now Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, in north-western China, to make himself the ruler of Kashgaria with its capital in Kashgar. He ruled at the height of The Great Game era when the British, Russian, and Chinese empires were all vying for Central Asia.
Kashgaria extended from the capital Kashgar in south-western Xinjiang to Urumqi, Turfan, and Hami in central and eastern Xinjiang more than a thousand kilometers to the north-east. He ruled a majority of what was known at the time as East Turkestan.
He was not particularly admired by his subjects, burdening them with heavy taxes and subjecting them to tyrannical rule. He died at Korla in 1877, and although no one knows exactly what happened to him, it was rumoured that he committed suicide or had a stroke. After his death his state rapidly fell apart, and Kashgaria was reconquered by China.
References
- Boulger, Demetrius Charles The Life of Yakoob Beg, Athalik Ghazi and Badaulet, Ameer of Kashgar (London: W.H. Allen & Co.) 1878
- Kim, Hodong Holy war in China. The Muslim Rebellion and State in Chinese Central Asia, 1864-1877 (Stanford University Press) 2004
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