Kashgar
Encyclopedia
Kashgar or Kashi is an oasis
city with approximately 350,000 residents in the western part of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region
of the People's Republic of China
. Kashgar is the administrative centre of Kashgar Prefecture
which has an area of 162,000 km² and a population of approximately 3.5 million.
The city covers an area of 15 km². The altitude averages 1,289 m/4,282 ft. above sea level. The city is located in the western extremity of China, near the border with Tajikistan
.
name is 喀什 (Kāshí), a shortened form of the longer and less-frequently used . Ptolemy
(AD 90-168), in his Geography, Chapter 15.3A, refers to Kashgar as “Kasia”. The name is Middle Iranic in its origin, meaning "Kush Mountains" (from gar/ghar, "mountain", and Kush/Kâsh, being the same as the ethnonym of the Kushan Empire and the Hindukush mountains in the neighboring Afghanistan
.
An early Chinese name was 疏勒 (now Shule County
), variously romanized as Su-leh, Sulei, Shule, Shu-le, She-le, Shu-lo or Sha-le, which perhaps represents either an original Solek or Sorak.
Alternate historical Romanizations for "Kashgar" include Cascar
and Cashgar.
Variant names include the approved name Shule, the native as well as Jangi-schahr, Kashgar Yangi Shahr, K’o-shih-ka-erh, K’o-shih-ka-erh-hsin-ch’eng, Ko-shih-ka-erh-hui-ch’eng, K’o-shih-ko-erh-hsin-ch’eng, New Kashgar, Sheleh, Shuleh, Shulen, Shu-lo, Su-lo, Su-lo-chen, Su-lo-hsien, Yangi-shaar, Yangi-shahr, Yangishar, Yéngisheher, Yengixəh̨ər and Еңишәһәр.
envoy traveled the Northern Silk Road
to explore lands to the west.
Another early mention of Kashgar is during the Former Han (also known as the Western Han Dynasty), when in 76 BC the Chinese conquered the Xiongnu
, Yutian (Khotan
), Sulei (Kashgar), and a group of states in the Tarim basin
almost up to the foot of the Tian Shan
mountains.
Ptolemy
speaks of Scythia
beyond the Imaus, which is in a “Kasia Regio”, probably exhibiting the name from which Kashgar and Kashgaria (often applied to the district) are formed. The country’s people practised Zoroastrianism
and Buddhism
before the coming of Islam.
In the Hanshu (Book of the Former Han), which covers the period between 125 BC and 23 AD, it is recorded that there were 1,510 households, 18,647 people and 2,000 persons able to bear arms. By the time covered by the Hou Hanshu (roughly 25 to 170), it had grown to 21,000 households and had 3,000 men able to bear arms.
The Hou Hanshu (Book of the Later Han), provides a wealth of detail on developments in the region:
And, more particularly in reference to Kashgar itself, is the following record:
The Hou Hanshu also gives the only extant historical record of Yuezhi
or Kushan involvement in the Kashgar oasis:
However, it was not very long before the Chinese began to reassert their authority in the region:
From an earlier part of the same text comes the following addition:
Then the first passage continues:
The Weilüe, composed in the second third of the 3rd century, mentions a number of states as dependencies of Kashgar: the kingdom of Zhenzhong (Arach?), the kingdom of Suoju (Yarkand), the kingdom of Jieshi, the kingdom of Qusha, the kingdom of Xiye (Khargalik), the kingdom of Yinai (Tashkurghan), the kingdom of Manli (modern Karasul), the kingdom of Yire (Mazar – also known as Tágh Nák and Tokanak), the kingdom of Yuling, the kingdom of Juandu (‘Tax Control’ – near modern Irkeshtam), the kingdom of Xiuxiu (‘Excellent Rest Stop’ – near Karakavak), and the kingdom of Qin.
However, much of the information on the Western Regions contained in the Weilüe seems to have ended roughly about (170), near the end of Han power. So, we can’t be sure that this is a reference to the state of affairs during the Cao Wei (220-265), or whether it refers to the situation before the civil war during the Later Han when China lost touch with most foreign countries and came to be divided into three separate kingdoms.
The Sanguoshi, ch. 30 says that after the beginning of the Wei Dynasty
(220) the states of the Western Regions did not arrive as before, except for the larger ones such as Kucha
, Khotan
, Kangju
, Wusun
, Kashgar, Yuezhi
, Shanshan
and Turpan, who are said to have come to present tribute every year, as in Han times.
In 270, four states from the Western Regions were said to have presented tribute: Karashahr, Turpan, Shanshan
, and Kucha
. Some wooden documents from Niya
seem to indicate that contacts were also maintained with Kashgar and Khotan also had contact about this time.
In 422, according to the Songshu, ch. 98, the king of Shanshan, Bilong, came to the court and "the thirty-six states in the Western Regions" all swore their allegiance and presented tribute. It must be assumed that these 36 states included Kashgar.
The "Songji" of the Zizhi Tongjian
records that in the 5th month of 435, nine states: Kucha, Kashgar, Wusun, Yueban, Tashkurghan, Shanshan, Karashahr, Turpan and Sute all came to the Wei court.
In 439, according to the Weishu, ch. 4A, Shanshan, Kashgar and Karashahr sent envoys to present tribute.
According to the Weishu, ch. 102, Chapter on the Western Regions, the kingdoms of Kucha, Kashgar, Wusun, Yueban, Tashkurghan, Shanshan, Karashahr, Turpan and Sute all began sending envoys to present tribute in the Taiyuan reign period (435-440).
In 453 Kashgar sent envoys to present tribute (Weishu, ch. 5), and again in 455.
An embassy sent during the reign of Wencheng Di (452-466) from the king of Kashgar presented a supposed sacred relic of the Buddha; a dress which was incombustible.
In 507 Kashgar, is said to have sent envoys in both the 9th and 10th months (Weishu, ch. 8).
In 512, Kashgar sent envoys in the 1st and 5th months. (Weishu, ch. 8).
Early in the 6th century Kashgar is included among the many territories controlled by the Yeda or Hephthalite
Huns, but their empire collapsed at the onslaught of the Western Turks between 563 and 567 who then probably gained control over Kashgar and most of the states in the Tarim Basin
.
, in 618, saw the beginning of a prolonged struggle between China and the Western Turks for control of the Tarim Basin.
In 635 the Tang Annals report an embassy from the king of Kashgar. In 639 there was a second embassy bringing products of Kashgar as a token of submission.
Xuan Zang passed through Kashgar (which he refers to as Ka-sha) in 644 on his return journey from India
to China. The Buddhist religion, then beginning to decay in India, was active in Kashgar. Xuan Zang records that they flattened their babies heads, were ill-favoured, tattooed their bodies and had green eyes. He said they had abundant crops, fruits and flowers, wove fine woollen stuffs and rugs, their writing had been copied from India but their language was different from that of other countries. The inhabitants were sincere believers in Buddhism and there were some hundreds of monasteries with more than 10,000 followers, all members of the Sarvastivadin School.
Contemporaneously, Nestorian Christians were establishing bishoprics at Herat
, Merv
and Samarkand
, whence they subsequently proceeded to Kashgar, and finally to China proper itself.
In 646, when the Turkic Kagan asked for the hand of a Chinese princess, the Emperor claimed Kucha, Khotan, Kashgar, Karashahr and Sarikol as a marriage gift, but this was not to happen.
In a series of campaigns between 652 and 658, with the help of the Uyghurs, the Chinese finally defeated the Western Turk tribes and took control of all their domains, including the Tarim Basin kingdoms.
In 662 a rebellion broke out in the Western Regions and a Chinese army sent to control it was badly defeated by the Tibet
ans south of Kashgar.
After another defeat of the Chinese forces in 670, the Tibetans gained control of the whole region and completely subjugated Kashgar in 676-8 and retained possession of it until 692, when China regained control of all their former territories, and retained it for the next fifty years.
In 722 Kashgar sent 4,000 troops to assist the Chinese to force the "Tibetans out of "Little Bolu" or Gilgit
.
In 728, the king of Kashgar was awarded a brevet by the Chinese emperor.
In 739, the Tangshu relates that the governor of the Chinese garrison in Kashgar, with the help of Ferghana, was interfering in the affairs of the Turgash tribes as far as Talas
.
In 751 the Chinese were defeated by an Arab army in Talas
; a blow from which they never fully recovered. The Tibetans cut all communication between China and the West in 766.
Soon after the Chinese pilgrim monk Wukong passed through Kashgar in 753. He again reached Kashgar on his return trip from India in 786 and mentions a Chinese deputy governor as well as the local king.
rule from the west, and Kashgar and Turkestan
lent assistance to the reigning queen of Bokhara, to enable her to repel the enemy. But although the Muslim religion from the very commencement sustained checks, it nevertheless made its weight felt upon the independent states of Turkestan to the north and east, and thus acquired a steadily growing influence. It was not, however, till the 10th century that Islam was established at Kashgar, under the Uyghur kingdom.
The celebrated Old Uyghur prince Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan
converted to Islam late in the 10th century and his Uyghur kingdom lasted until 1120 but was distracted by complicated dynastic struggles. The Uyghurs employed an alphabet based upon the Syriac
and borrowed from the Nestorian, but after converting to Islam widely used also an Arabic script. They spoke a dialect of Turkic preserved in the Kudatku Bilik, a moral treatise composed in 1065.
. On his death, and during the rule of the Chagatai Khans
, who also converted to Islam, Islamic tradition began to reassert its ascendancy.
Marco Polo
visited the city, which he calls Cascar, about 1273-4 and recorded the presence of numerous Nestorian Christians, who had their own churches.
In 1389–1390 Timur
ravaged Kashgar, Andijan
and the intervening country. Kashgar endured a troubled time, and in 1514, on the invasion of the Khan Sultan Said
, was destroyed by Mirza Ababakar, who with the aid of ten thousand men built a new fort with massive defences higher up on the banks of the Tuman river. The dynasty of the Jagatai Khans collapsed in 1572 with the division of the country among rival factions; soon after, two powerful Khoja
factions, the White and Black Mountaineers (Ak Tagh
liq or Afaqi, and Kara Taghliq or Ishaqi), arose whose differences and war-making gestures, with the intermittent episode of the Oirats
of Dzungaria
, make up much of recorded history in Kashgar until 1759.
(Kulja) invaded Xinjiang
and consolidated their authority by settling other ethnics emigrants in the vicinity of a Manchu
garrison.
The Qing had thoughts of pushing their conquests towards Transoxiana
and Samarkand, the chiefs of which sent to ask assistance of the Afghan
king Ahmed Shah Abdali. This monarch dispatched an ambassador to Beijing
to demand the restitution
of the Muslim states of Central Asia
, but the representative was not well received, and Ahmed Shah was too busy fighting off the Sikhs to attempt to enforce his demands by arms.
The Qing continued to hold Kashgar with occasional interruptions from Muslim-centered groups. One of the most serious of these occurred in 1827, when the city was taken by Jahanghir Khoja; Chang-lung, however, the Qing general of Ili, regained possession of Kashgar and the other rebellious cities in 1828. When Jahangir Khoja, with the support of Tajiks, Kirghiz, and White Mountain fighters seized Kashgar in 1826 he captured several hundred Chinese merchants, who were taken to Kokand
. Tajiks bought two Chinese slaves
from Shaanxi
, they enslaved for a year before being returned by the Tajik Beg Ku-bu-te to China. All Chinese captured, both merchants and the 300 soldiers Janhangir captured in Kashgar had their queues
cut off when brought to Kokand and Central Asia as prisoners. It was reported that many of the Chinese captives became slaves, accounts of Chinese slaves in Central Asia increased.
The queues were removed from Chinese prisoners and they were then sold or given to various owners, one of them, Nian, ended up as a slave to Prince Batur Khan of Bukhara, Omar Khan ended up possessing Liu Qifeng and Wu Erqi, the others, Zhu, Tian Li, and Ma Tianxi ended up in various owners but plotted an escape. The Russians record an incident where they rescued these Chinese merchants who escaped, after they were sold by Jahangir's Army in Central Asia, and sent them back to China.
The Kokand
Khanate raided Kashgar several times. A revolt in 1829 under Mahommed Ali Khan and Yusuf, brother of Jahanghir resulted in the concession of several important trade privileges to the Muslims of the district of Alty Shahr (the “six cities”), as it was then called.
The area then enjoyed relative calm until 1846 under the rule of Zahir-ud-din, the local Uyghur governor, but in that year a new Khoja
revolt under Kath Tora led to his accession to rulership of the city as an authoritarian ruler. His reign, however, was brief, for at the end of seventy-five days, on the approach of the Chinese, he fled back to Khokand
amid the jeers of the inhabitants. The last of the Khoja revolts (1857) was of about equal duration, and took place under Wali-Khan
, who murdered the famous traveler Adolf Schlagintweit
.
, spread rapidly to Dzungaria
and through the line of towns in the Tarim Basin
.
The Tungani troops in Yarkand rose, and in August 1864 massacred some seven thousand Chinese and their Manchu commander, while the inhabitants of Kashgar, rising in their turn against their masters, invoked the aid of Sadik Beg, a Kyrgyz chief, who was reinforced by Buzurg Khan, the heir of Jahanghir, and his general Yakub Beg
(surnamed the Atalik Ghazi), these being dispatched at Sadik’s request by the ruler of Khokand
to raise what troops they could to aid his Muslim friends in Kashgar.
Sadik Beg soon repented of having asked for a Khoja, and eventually marched against Kashgar, which by this time had succumbed to Buzurg Khan and Yakub Beg, but was defeated and driven back to Khokand. Buzurg Khan delivered himself up to indolence and debauchery, but Yakub Beg, with singular energy and perseverance, made himself master of Yangi Shahr, Yangi-Hissar, Yarkand and other towns, and eventually became sole master of the country, Buzurg Khan proving himself totally unfit for the post of ruler.
With the overthrow of Chinese rule in 1865 by Yakub Beg (1820–1877), the manufacturing industries of Kashgar are supposed to have declined.
Yaqub Beg entered into relations and signed treaties with the Russian Empire
and Great Britain
, but when he tried to get their support against China, he failed.
Kashgar and the other cities of the Tarim Basin remained under Yakub Beg’s rule until May 1877, when he died at Korla
and Kashgaria was reconquered by the forces of the Qing
general Zuo Zongtang
.
, a Chinese Muslim
, was the Tao-yin of Kashgar, and he fought against Uyghur rebels. He was joined by another Chinese Muslim general, Ma Zhancang
.
, attempted to take the New City of Kashgar from Chinese Muslim troops under General Ma Zhancang
. They were defeated.
Tawfiq Bey, a Syrian Arab traveler, who held the title Sayyid ( descendent of prophet Muhammed) and arrived at Kashgar on August 26, 1933, was shot in the stomach by the Chinese Muslim troops in September. Previously Ma Zhancang arranged to have the Uighur leader Timur Beg
killed and beheaded on August 9, 1933, displaying his head outside of Id Kah Mosque
.
Han chinese
troops commanded by Brigadier Yang were absorbed into Ma Zhancang
's army. A number of Han chinese officers were spotted wearing the green uniforms of Ma Zhancang's unit of the 36th division, presumably they had converted to Islam.
army to storm Kashgar on February 6, 1934, and attacked the Uighur
and Kirghiz rebels of the First East Turkestan Republic. He freed another 36th division general, Ma Zhancang, who was trapped with his Chinese Muslim
and Han chinese troops in Kashgar New City by the Uighurs and Kirghizs since May 22, 1933. In January, 1934, Ma Zhancang's Chinese Muslim troops repulsed six Uighur attacks, launched by Khoja Niyaz
, who arrived at the city on January 13, 1934, inflicting massive casualties on the Uighur forces. From 2,000 to 8,000 Uighur civilians in Kashgar Old City were massacred by Tungans in February, 1934, in revenge for the Kizil massacre
, after retreating of Uighur forces from the city to Yengi Hisar
. The chinese Muslim and 36th division Chief General Ma Zhongying
, who arrived at Kashgar on April 7, 1934, gave a speech at Idgah mosque in April, reminding the Uighurs to be loyal to the Republic of China
government at Nanjing
. Several British citizens at the British consulate were killed by the 36th division.
against police officers. In 2009, development of Kashgar's old town accelerated after the revelations of the deadly role of faulty architecture during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake
. Many of the old houses in the old town were built without regulation, and as a result, officials found them to be overcrowded and non-compliant with fire and earthquake codes. When the plan started, 42% of the city's residents lived in the old town. With compensation, residents of faulty buildings are being counseled to move to newer, safer buildings that will replace the historic structures in the $448 million plan, including high-rise apartments, plazas, and reproductions of ancient Islamic architecture
. The European Parliament
issued a resolution
in 2011 calling for "culture-sensitive methods of renovation." The International Scientific Committee on Earthen Architectural Heritage (ISCEAH) has expressed concern over the demolition and reconstruction of historic buildings. ISCEAH has, additionally, urged the implementation of techniques utilized elsewhere in the world to address earthquake vulnerability. In 2011, a spate of violence
over two days killed dozens of people.
(Köppen
BWk) with hot summers and cold winters, with large temperature differences between those two seasons: The average high in January and July is 0.3 °C (32.5 °F) and 32.1 °C (90 °F). Spring is long and arrives quickly, while fall is somewhat short. The mean annual temperature is 11.9 °C (53.4 °F). Kashgar is one of the driest cities on the planet, averaging only 64 millimetres (2.52 in) of precipitation per year. The city’s wettest month, July, only sees on average 9.1 millimetre (0.358267716535433 in) of rain. Because of the extremely arid conditions, snowfall is rare, despite the cold winters. Records have been as low as -24.4 °C in January and up to 40.1 °C (104.2 °F) in July. The frost-free period averages 215 days.
Kashgar is home to an important Muslim community (Uyghurs). Compared to Ürümqi
, Xinjiang
’s largest city, Kashgar is less industrial and has fewer Han residents.
. Thousands of farmers from the surrounding fertile lands come into the city to sell a wide variety of fruit and vegetables. Kashgar’s livestock
market is also very lively. Silk and carpets made in Hotan are sold at bazaars, as well as local crafts, such as copper teapots and wooden jewellery boxes.
In order to boost the economy in Kashgar region, the government classified the area a Special Economic Zone
, the sixth one in China, in May 2010.
Mahmud al-Kashgari (Mahmut from Kashgar) wrote the first Turkic–Arabic Exemplary Dictionary called Divan-ı Lugat-it Türk
The movie The Kite Runner
was filmed in Kashgar. Kashgar and the surrounding countryside stood in for Kabul
and Afghanistan
, since filming in Afghanistan was not possible due to safety and security reasons.
", although the city is becoming more developed. At present, it is estimated to attract more than one million tourist visitors annually.
Kashgar has the westernmost railway station in China. It is connected to the rest of China's rail network via the Southern Xinjiang Railway
, which was built in December 1999. In December 2010, the 488-km Kashgar-Hotan Railway
opened to freight traffic. It connects Kashgar with cities in the southern Tarim Basin
including Shache (Yarkand), Yecheng (Kargilik)
and Hotan. Passenger train service on this line is expected to begin by June 2011.
The investigation work of a further extension of the railway line to Pakistan
has already begun. In November 2009, Pakistan and China agreed to set up a joint venture to do a feasibility study of the proposed rail link via the Khunjerab Pass
.
Proposals for a rail connection to Osh
in Kyrgyzstan
have also been discussed at various levels since at least 1996.
, Pakistan
with Kashgar over the Khunjerab Pass
. Bus routes exist for passenger travel south into Pakistan. Kyrgyzstan
is also accessible from Kashgar, via the Torugart Pass
and Irkeshtam Pass; as of summer 2007, daily bus service connects Kashgar with Bishkek
’s Western Bus Terminal. Kashgar is also located on China National Highways
G314
and G315
.
with: Gilgit
, Pakistan
from May 2009
Oasis
In geography, an oasis or cienega is an isolated area of vegetation in a desert, typically surrounding a spring or similar water source...
city with approximately 350,000 residents in the western part of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region
Xinjiang
Xinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million km2...
of the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
. Kashgar is the administrative centre of Kashgar Prefecture
Kashgar Prefecture
Kashgar Prefecture or Kashi Prefecture is located in mid-western Xinjiang, China. It has an area of 112,057 km² and 3,979,362 inhabitants at the 2010 cenus with a population density of 36 inhabitants/km² )....
which has an area of 162,000 km² and a population of approximately 3.5 million.
The city covers an area of 15 km². The altitude averages 1,289 m/4,282 ft. above sea level. The city is located in the western extremity of China, near the border with Tajikistan
Tajikistan
Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....
.
Name
The modern ChineseChinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
name is 喀什 (Kāshí), a shortened form of the longer and less-frequently used . Ptolemy
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
(AD 90-168), in his Geography, Chapter 15.3A, refers to Kashgar as “Kasia”. The name is Middle Iranic in its origin, meaning "Kush Mountains" (from gar/ghar, "mountain", and Kush/Kâsh, being the same as the ethnonym of the Kushan Empire and the Hindukush mountains in the neighboring Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
.
An early Chinese name was 疏勒 (now Shule County
Shule County
Shule County is a county situated in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and is under the administrative jurisdiction of the Kashgar Prefecture. It is located to the South of Kashgar City....
), variously romanized as Su-leh, Sulei, Shule, Shu-le, She-le, Shu-lo or Sha-le, which perhaps represents either an original Solek or Sorak.
Alternate historical Romanizations for "Kashgar" include Cascar
and Cashgar.
Variant names include the approved name Shule, the native as well as Jangi-schahr, Kashgar Yangi Shahr, K’o-shih-ka-erh, K’o-shih-ka-erh-hsin-ch’eng, Ko-shih-ka-erh-hui-ch’eng, K’o-shih-ko-erh-hsin-ch’eng, New Kashgar, Sheleh, Shuleh, Shulen, Shu-lo, Su-lo, Su-lo-chen, Su-lo-hsien, Yangi-shaar, Yangi-shahr, Yangishar, Yéngisheher, Yengixəh̨ər and Еңишәһәр.
Han Dynasty
The earliest mention of Kashgar occurs when the Chinese Han DynastyHan Dynasty
The Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms . It was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang...
envoy traveled the Northern Silk Road
Northern Silk Road
The Northern Silk Road is a prehistoric trackway in northern China originating in the early capital of Xi'an and extending north of the Taklamakan Desert to reach the ancient kingdoms of Parthia, Bactria and eventually Persia and Rome. It is the northern-most branch of several Silk Roads providing...
to explore lands to the west.
Another early mention of Kashgar is during the Former Han (also known as the Western Han Dynasty), when in 76 BC the Chinese conquered the Xiongnu
Xiongnu
The Xiongnu were ancient nomadic-based people that formed a state or confederation north of the agriculture-based empire of the Han Dynasty. Most of the information on the Xiongnu comes from Chinese sources...
, Yutian (Khotan
Khotan
Hotan , or Hetian , also spelled Khotan, is the seat of the Hotan Prefecture in Xinjiang, China. It was previously known in Chinese as 于窴/於窴 and to 19th-century European explorers as Ilchi....
), Sulei (Kashgar), and a group of states in the Tarim basin
Tarim Basin
The Tarim Basin is a large endorheic basin occupying an area of about . It is located in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China's far west. Its northern boundary is the Tian Shan mountain range and its southern is the Kunlun Mountains on the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. The...
almost up to the foot of the Tian Shan
Tian Shan
The Tian Shan , also spelled Tien Shan, is a large mountain system located in Central Asia. The highest peak in the Tian Shan is Victory Peak , ....
mountains.
Ptolemy
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
speaks of Scythia
Scythia
In antiquity, Scythian or Scyths were terms used by the Greeks to refer to certain Iranian groups of horse-riding nomadic pastoralists who dwelt on the Pontic-Caspian steppe...
beyond the Imaus, which is in a “Kasia Regio”, probably exhibiting the name from which Kashgar and Kashgaria (often applied to the district) are formed. The country’s people practised Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of prophet Zoroaster and was formerly among the world's largest religions. It was probably founded some time before the 6th century BCE in Greater Iran.In Zoroastrianism, the Creator Ahura Mazda is all good, and no evil...
and Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
before the coming of Islam.
In the Hanshu (Book of the Former Han), which covers the period between 125 BC and 23 AD, it is recorded that there were 1,510 households, 18,647 people and 2,000 persons able to bear arms. By the time covered by the Hou Hanshu (roughly 25 to 170), it had grown to 21,000 households and had 3,000 men able to bear arms.
The Hou Hanshu (Book of the Later Han), provides a wealth of detail on developments in the region:
- "In the period of Emperor Wu [140-87 BC], the Western Regions1 were under the control of the Interior [China]. They numbered thirty-six kingdoms. The Imperial Government established a Colonel [in charge of] Envoys there to direct and protect these countries. Emperor Xuan [73-49 BC] changed this title [in 59 BC] to Protector-General.
- Emperor Yuan [40-33 BC] installed two Wuji Colonels to take charge of the agricultural garrisons on the frontiers of the king of Nearer Jushi [Turpan].
- During the time of Emperor Ai [6 BC-AD 1] and Emperor Ping [AD 1-5], the principalities of the Western Regions split up and formed fifty-five kingdoms. Wang Mang, after he usurped the Throne [in AD 9], demoted and changed their kings and marquises. Following this, the Western Regions became resentful, and rebelled. They, therefore, broke off all relations with the Interior [China] and, all together, submitted to the Xiongnu again.
- The Xiongnu collected oppressively heavy taxes and the kingdoms were not able to support their demands. In the middle of the Jianwu period [AD 25-56], they each [Shanshan and Yarkand in 38, and 18 kingdoms in 45], sent envoys to ask if they could submit to the Interior [China], and to express their desire for a Protector-General. Emperor Guangwu, decided that because the Empire was not yet settled [after a long period of civil war], he had no time for outside affairs, and [therefore] finally refused his consent [in AD 45].
- In the meantime, the Xiongnu became weaker. The king of Suoju [Yarkand], named Xian, wiped out several kingdoms. After Xian’s death [c. AD 62], they began to attack and fight each other. Xiao Yuan [Tura], Jingjue [Cadota], Ronglu [Niya], and Qiemo [Cherchen] were annexed by Shanshan [the Lop Nur region]. Qule [south of Keriya] and Pishan [modern Pishan or Guma] were conquered and fully occupied by Yutian [Khotan]. Yuli [Fukang], Danhuan, Guhu [Dawan Cheng], and Wutanzili were destroyed by Jushi [Turpan and Jimasa]. Later these kingdoms were re-established.
- During the Yongping period [AD 58-75], the Northern Xiongnu forced several countries to help them plunder the commanderies and districts of Hexi. The gates of the towns stayed shut in broad daylight."
And, more particularly in reference to Kashgar itself, is the following record:
"In the sixteenth Yongping year of Emperor Ming 73, Jian, the king of Qiuci (Kucha
KuchaKuchaor Kuche Uyghur , Chinese Simplified: 库车; Traditional: 庫車; pinyin Kùchē; also romanized as Qiuzi, Qiuci, Chiu-tzu, Kiu-che, Kuei-tzu from the traditional Chinese forms 屈支 屈茨; 龜玆; 龟兹, 丘玆, also Po ; Sanskrit: Kueina, Standard Tibetan: Kutsahiyui was an ancient Buddhist kingdom...
), attacked and killed Cheng, the king of Shule (Kashgar). Then he appointed the Qiuci (Kucha) Marquis of the Left, Douti, King of Shule (Kashgar).
In winter 73, the Han sent the Major Ban ChaoBan ChaoBan Chao , courtesy name Zhongsheng , was born in Xianyang, Shaanxi, and the younger brother of the famous historian, Ban Gu who, with his father Ban Biao, and sister, Ban Zhao, wrote the famous Hanshu, or 'History of the Former Han Dynasty'....
who captured and bound Douti. He appointed Zhong, the son of the elder brother of Cheng, to be king of Shule (Kashgar). Zhong later rebelled. (Ban) Chao attacked and beheaded him."
The Kushans
Yuezhi
The Yuezhi, or Rouzhi , also known as the Da Yuezhi or Da Rouzhi , were an ancient Central Asian people....
or Kushan involvement in the Kashgar oasis:
"During the Yuanchu period (114-120) in the reign of Emperor, the king of Shule (Kashgar), exiled his maternal uncle Chenpan to the Yuezhi (Kushans) for some offence. The king of the Yuezhi became very fond of him. Later, Anguo died without leaving a son. His mother directed the government of the kingdom. She agreed with the people of the country to put Yifu (lit. “posthumous child”), who was the son of a full younger brother of Chenpan on the throne as king of Shule (Kashgar). Chenpan heard of this and appealed to the Yuezhi
YuezhiThe Yuezhi, or Rouzhi , also known as the Da Yuezhi or Da Rouzhi , were an ancient Central Asian people....
(Kushan) king, saying:
- "Anguo had no son. His relative (Yifu) is weak. If one wants to put on the throne a member of (Anguo’s) mother’s family, I am Yifu’s paternal uncle, it is I who should be king."
The Yuezhi (Kushans) then sent soldiers to escort him back to Shule (Kashgar). The people had previously respected and been fond of Chenpan. Besides, they dreaded the Yuezhi (Kushans). They immediately took the seal and ribbon from Yifu and went to Chenpan, and made him king. Yifu was given the title of Marquis of the town of Pangao [90 li, or 37 km, from Shule].
Then Suoju (Yarkand) continued to resist Yutian (Khotan), and put themselves under Shule (Kashgar). Thus Shule (Kashgar), became powerful and a rival to Qiuci (Kucha) and Yutian (Khotan)."
However, it was not very long before the Chinese began to reassert their authority in the region:
“In the second Yongjian year (127), during Emperor Shun’s reign, Chenpan sent an envoy to respectfully present offerings. The Emperor bestowed on Chenpan the title of Great Commandant-in-Chief for the Han. Chenxun, who was the son of his elder brother, was appointed Temporary Major of the Kingdom.
In the fifth year (130), Chenpan sent his son to serve the Emperor and, along with envoys from Dayuan (Ferghana) and Suoju (Yarkand), brought tribute and offerings.”
From an earlier part of the same text comes the following addition:
- “In the first Yangjia year (132), Xu You sent the king of Shule (Kashgar), Chenpan, who with 20,000 men, attacked and defeated Yutian (Khotan). He beheaded several hundred people, and released his soldiers to plunder freely. He replaced the king [of Jumi] by installing Chengguo from the family of [the previous king] Xing, and then he returned.”
Then the first passage continues:
“In the second Yangjia year (133), Chenpan again made offerings (including) a lion and zebu cattle.
Then, during Emperor Ling’s reign, in the first Jianning year [168], the king of Shule (Kashgar) and Commandant-in-Chief for the Han (i.e. presumably Chenpan), was shot while hunting by the youngest of his paternal uncles, Hede. Hede named himself king.
In the third year (170), Meng Tuo, the Inspector of Liangzhou, sent the Provincial Officer Ren She, commanding five hundred soldiers from Dunhuang, with the Wuji Major Cao Kuan, and Chief Clerk of the Western Regions, Zhang Yan, brought troops from Yanqi (Karashahr), Qiuci (Kucha), and the Nearer and Further States of Jushi (Turpan and Jimasa), altogether numbering more than 30,000, to punish Shule (Kashgar). They attacked the town of Zhenzhong [Arach – near Maralbashi] but, having stayed for more than forty days without being able to subdue it, they withdrew. Following this, the kings of Shule (Kashgar) killed one another repeatedly while the Imperial Government was unable to prevent it.”
Three Kingdoms to the Sui
These centuries are marked by the general silence on Kashgar and the Tarim Basin in general.The Weilüe, composed in the second third of the 3rd century, mentions a number of states as dependencies of Kashgar: the kingdom of Zhenzhong (Arach?), the kingdom of Suoju (Yarkand), the kingdom of Jieshi, the kingdom of Qusha, the kingdom of Xiye (Khargalik), the kingdom of Yinai (Tashkurghan), the kingdom of Manli (modern Karasul), the kingdom of Yire (Mazar – also known as Tágh Nák and Tokanak), the kingdom of Yuling, the kingdom of Juandu (‘Tax Control’ – near modern Irkeshtam), the kingdom of Xiuxiu (‘Excellent Rest Stop’ – near Karakavak), and the kingdom of Qin.
However, much of the information on the Western Regions contained in the Weilüe seems to have ended roughly about (170), near the end of Han power. So, we can’t be sure that this is a reference to the state of affairs during the Cao Wei (220-265), or whether it refers to the situation before the civil war during the Later Han when China lost touch with most foreign countries and came to be divided into three separate kingdoms.
The Sanguoshi, ch. 30 says that after the beginning of the Wei Dynasty
Cao Wei
Cao Wei was one of the states that competed for control of China during the Three Kingdoms period. With the capital at Luoyang, the state was established by Cao Pi in 220, based upon the foundations that his father Cao Cao laid...
(220) the states of the Western Regions did not arrive as before, except for the larger ones such as Kucha
Kucha
Kuchaor Kuche Uyghur , Chinese Simplified: 库车; Traditional: 庫車; pinyin Kùchē; also romanized as Qiuzi, Qiuci, Chiu-tzu, Kiu-che, Kuei-tzu from the traditional Chinese forms 屈支 屈茨; 龜玆; 龟兹, 丘玆, also Po ; Sanskrit: Kueina, Standard Tibetan: Kutsahiyui was an ancient Buddhist kingdom...
, Khotan
Khotan
Hotan , or Hetian , also spelled Khotan, is the seat of the Hotan Prefecture in Xinjiang, China. It was previously known in Chinese as 于窴/於窴 and to 19th-century European explorers as Ilchi....
, Kangju
Kangju
Kangju was the name of an ancient people and kingdom in Central Asia. It was a nomadic federation of unknown ethnic and linguistic origin which became for a couple of centuries the second greatest power in Transoxiana after the Yuezhi....
, Wusun
Wusun
The Wūsūn were a nomadic steppe people who, according to the Chinese histories, originally lived in western Gansu in northwest China west of the Yuezhi people...
, Kashgar, Yuezhi
Yuezhi
The Yuezhi, or Rouzhi , also known as the Da Yuezhi or Da Rouzhi , were an ancient Central Asian people....
, Shanshan
Shanshan
Shanshan is the Chinese name for a kingdom that existed roughly from 200 BCE-1000 CE at the north-eastern end of the Taklamakan Desert including the great, but now mostly dry, salt lake known as Lop Nur....
and Turpan, who are said to have come to present tribute every year, as in Han times.
In 270, four states from the Western Regions were said to have presented tribute: Karashahr, Turpan, Shanshan
Shanshan
Shanshan is the Chinese name for a kingdom that existed roughly from 200 BCE-1000 CE at the north-eastern end of the Taklamakan Desert including the great, but now mostly dry, salt lake known as Lop Nur....
, and Kucha
Kucha
Kuchaor Kuche Uyghur , Chinese Simplified: 库车; Traditional: 庫車; pinyin Kùchē; also romanized as Qiuzi, Qiuci, Chiu-tzu, Kiu-che, Kuei-tzu from the traditional Chinese forms 屈支 屈茨; 龜玆; 龟兹, 丘玆, also Po ; Sanskrit: Kueina, Standard Tibetan: Kutsahiyui was an ancient Buddhist kingdom...
. Some wooden documents from Niya
Niya
Niya may refer to* Ruins of Niya , a site on the southern edge of the Tarim Basin, in modern-day Xinjiang, China* Niya, county seat of Minfeng County in the Tarim Basin, China...
seem to indicate that contacts were also maintained with Kashgar and Khotan also had contact about this time.
In 422, according to the Songshu, ch. 98, the king of Shanshan, Bilong, came to the court and "the thirty-six states in the Western Regions" all swore their allegiance and presented tribute. It must be assumed that these 36 states included Kashgar.
The "Songji" of the Zizhi Tongjian
Zizhi Tongjian
The Zizhi Tongjian was a pioneering reference work in Chinese historiography, published in 1084, under the form of a chronicles. In 1065 CE, Emperor Yingzong of Song ordered the great historian Sima Guang to lead with other scholars such as his chief assistants Liu Shu, Liu Ban and Fan Zuyu, the...
records that in the 5th month of 435, nine states: Kucha, Kashgar, Wusun, Yueban, Tashkurghan, Shanshan, Karashahr, Turpan and Sute all came to the Wei court.
In 439, according to the Weishu, ch. 4A, Shanshan, Kashgar and Karashahr sent envoys to present tribute.
According to the Weishu, ch. 102, Chapter on the Western Regions, the kingdoms of Kucha, Kashgar, Wusun, Yueban, Tashkurghan, Shanshan, Karashahr, Turpan and Sute all began sending envoys to present tribute in the Taiyuan reign period (435-440).
In 453 Kashgar sent envoys to present tribute (Weishu, ch. 5), and again in 455.
An embassy sent during the reign of Wencheng Di (452-466) from the king of Kashgar presented a supposed sacred relic of the Buddha; a dress which was incombustible.
In 507 Kashgar, is said to have sent envoys in both the 9th and 10th months (Weishu, ch. 8).
In 512, Kashgar sent envoys in the 1st and 5th months. (Weishu, ch. 8).
Early in the 6th century Kashgar is included among the many territories controlled by the Yeda or Hephthalite
Hephthalite
The Hephthalites or Hephthalite is a pre-Islamic Greek term for local Abdali Afghans, who's famous ruler was Nazak Abdali . Hephthalites were a Central Asian nomadic confederation of the AD 5th-6th centuries whose precise origins and composition remain obscure...
Huns, but their empire collapsed at the onslaught of the Western Turks between 563 and 567 who then probably gained control over Kashgar and most of the states in the Tarim Basin
Tarim Basin
The Tarim Basin is a large endorheic basin occupying an area of about . It is located in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China's far west. Its northern boundary is the Tian Shan mountain range and its southern is the Kunlun Mountains on the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. The...
.
The Tang Dynasty
The opening of the Tang DynastyTang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
, in 618, saw the beginning of a prolonged struggle between China and the Western Turks for control of the Tarim Basin.
In 635 the Tang Annals report an embassy from the king of Kashgar. In 639 there was a second embassy bringing products of Kashgar as a token of submission.
Xuan Zang passed through Kashgar (which he refers to as Ka-sha) in 644 on his return journey from India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
to China. The Buddhist religion, then beginning to decay in India, was active in Kashgar. Xuan Zang records that they flattened their babies heads, were ill-favoured, tattooed their bodies and had green eyes. He said they had abundant crops, fruits and flowers, wove fine woollen stuffs and rugs, their writing had been copied from India but their language was different from that of other countries. The inhabitants were sincere believers in Buddhism and there were some hundreds of monasteries with more than 10,000 followers, all members of the Sarvastivadin School.
Contemporaneously, Nestorian Christians were establishing bishoprics at Herat
Herat
Herāt is the capital of Herat province in Afghanistan. It is the third largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of about 397,456 as of 2006. It is situated in the valley of the Hari River, which flows from the mountains of central Afghanistan to the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan...
, Merv
Merv
Merv , formerly Achaemenid Satrapy of Margiana, and later Alexandria and Antiochia in Margiana , was a major oasis-city in Central Asia, on the historical Silk Road, located near today's Mary in Turkmenistan. Several cities have existed on this site, which is significant for the interchange of...
and Samarkand
Samarkand
Although a Persian-speaking region, it was not united politically with Iran most of the times between the disintegration of the Seleucid Empire and the Arab conquest . In the 6th century it was within the domain of the Turkic kingdom of the Göktürks.At the start of the 8th century Samarkand came...
, whence they subsequently proceeded to Kashgar, and finally to China proper itself.
In 646, when the Turkic Kagan asked for the hand of a Chinese princess, the Emperor claimed Kucha, Khotan, Kashgar, Karashahr and Sarikol as a marriage gift, but this was not to happen.
In a series of campaigns between 652 and 658, with the help of the Uyghurs, the Chinese finally defeated the Western Turk tribes and took control of all their domains, including the Tarim Basin kingdoms.
In 662 a rebellion broke out in the Western Regions and a Chinese army sent to control it was badly defeated by the Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
ans south of Kashgar.
After another defeat of the Chinese forces in 670, the Tibetans gained control of the whole region and completely subjugated Kashgar in 676-8 and retained possession of it until 692, when China regained control of all their former territories, and retained it for the next fifty years.
In 722 Kashgar sent 4,000 troops to assist the Chinese to force the "Tibetans out of "Little Bolu" or Gilgit
Gilgit, Pakistan
Gilgit is the capital city of Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. Gilgit City forms a tehsil of Gilgit, within Gilgit District. Its ancient name was Sargin, later to be known as Gilit, and it is still called Gilit or Sargin-Gilit by local people...
.
In 728, the king of Kashgar was awarded a brevet by the Chinese emperor.
In 739, the Tangshu relates that the governor of the Chinese garrison in Kashgar, with the help of Ferghana, was interfering in the affairs of the Turgash tribes as far as Talas
Taraz
Taraz , is a city and a center of the Jambyl Province in Kazakhstan. It is located in the south of Kazakhstan, near the border with Kyrgyzstan, on the Talas River...
.
Battle of Talas
The Battle of Talas in 751 AD was an especially notable conflict between the Arab Abbasid Caliphate and the Chinese Tang Dynasty for control not only of the Syr Darya region, but even more...
; a blow from which they never fully recovered. The Tibetans cut all communication between China and the West in 766.
Soon after the Chinese pilgrim monk Wukong passed through Kashgar in 753. He again reached Kashgar on his return trip from India in 786 and mentions a Chinese deputy governor as well as the local king.
The Arab Caliphate
In the 8th century came the ArabArab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
rule from the west, and Kashgar and Turkestan
Turkestan
Turkestan, spelled also as Turkistan, literally means "Land of the Turks".The term Turkestan is of Persian origin and has never been in use to denote a single nation. It was first used by Persian geographers to describe the place of Turkish peoples...
lent assistance to the reigning queen of Bokhara, to enable her to repel the enemy. But although the Muslim religion from the very commencement sustained checks, it nevertheless made its weight felt upon the independent states of Turkestan to the north and east, and thus acquired a steadily growing influence. It was not, however, till the 10th century that Islam was established at Kashgar, under the Uyghur kingdom.
The Uyghurs
Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan
Satuq Boghra Khan was a Kara-Khanid Khan; in 934, he was one of the first Turks to convert to Islam.According to 12th century historian Jamal Qarshi's History of Kashgar, Satuq was first taught about Islam by Nasr, a wealthy merchant from Bukhara...
converted to Islam late in the 10th century and his Uyghur kingdom lasted until 1120 but was distracted by complicated dynastic struggles. The Uyghurs employed an alphabet based upon the Syriac
Syriac alphabet
The Syriac alphabet is a writing system primarily used to write the Syriac language from around the 2nd century BC . It is one of the Semitic abjads directly descending from the Aramaic alphabet and shares similarities with the Phoenician, Hebrew, Arabic, and the traditional Mongolian alphabets.-...
and borrowed from the Nestorian, but after converting to Islam widely used also an Arabic script. They spoke a dialect of Turkic preserved in the Kudatku Bilik, a moral treatise composed in 1065.
The Mongols
The Uyghur kingdom was destroyed by an invasion of the Kara-Khitai, another Turkic tribe pressing westwards from the Chinese frontier, who in their turn were swept away in 1219 by Genghis KhanGenghis Khan
Genghis Khan , born Temujin and occasionally known by his temple name Taizu , was the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death....
. On his death, and during the rule of the Chagatai Khans
Chagatai Khans
The Chagatai Khans were the heads of the Chagatai ulus from Chagatai Khan's inheritance of the state in 1227 to their removal from power by the Dzungars and their vassals in 1687...
, who also converted to Islam, Islamic tradition began to reassert its ascendancy.
Marco Polo
Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant traveler from the Venetian Republic whose travels are recorded in Il Milione, a book which did much to introduce Europeans to Central Asia and China. He learned about trading whilst his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, travelled through Asia and apparently...
visited the city, which he calls Cascar, about 1273-4 and recorded the presence of numerous Nestorian Christians, who had their own churches.
In 1389–1390 Timur
Timur
Timur , historically known as Tamerlane in English , was a 14th-century conqueror of West, South and Central Asia, and the founder of the Timurid dynasty in Central Asia, and great-great-grandfather of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Dynasty, which survived as the Mughal Empire in India until...
ravaged Kashgar, Andijan
Andijan
Andijan or Andizhan is the fourth-largest city in Uzbekistan, and the capital of the Andijan Province. It is located in the east of the country, at , in the Fergana Valley, near the border with Kyrgyzstan on the Andijan-Say River...
and the intervening country. Kashgar endured a troubled time, and in 1514, on the invasion of the Khan Sultan Said
Sultan Said Khan
Sultan Said Khan ruled the state of Yarkand in Uyghurstan/Eastern Turkestan from September, 1514, to July, 1533. He was born in 1487 in Moghulistan and was a direct descendant of the first Moghul Khan, Tughlugh Timur, who had founded the state of Moghulistan in 1348...
, was destroyed by Mirza Ababakar, who with the aid of ten thousand men built a new fort with massive defences higher up on the banks of the Tuman river. The dynasty of the Jagatai Khans collapsed in 1572 with the division of the country among rival factions; soon after, two powerful Khoja
Khoja (Turkestan)
Khwāja or Khoja, , a Persian word literally meaning 'master', was used in Central Asia as a title of the descendants of the famous Central Asian Naqshbandi Sufi teacher, Ahmad Kasani . The most powerful religious figure in the late Timurid era was the Naqshbandi Shaykh Khoja Ahrar...
factions, the White and Black Mountaineers (Ak Tagh
Ak Tagh
Aq Tagh, literally "White Mountain" in Chagatai Turki, was a faction of Turkestani Naqshbandi Sufism originated in Samarkand. During the Chagatai Yarkand Khanate in modern day Xinjiang, two Naqshbandi factions, the Aq Tagh and the Qara Tagh vied for popularity and political power by allying with...
liq or Afaqi, and Kara Taghliq or Ishaqi), arose whose differences and war-making gestures, with the intermittent episode of the Oirats
Oirats
Oirats are the westernmost group of the Mongols who unified several tribes origin whose ancestral home is in the Altai region of western Mongolia. Although the Oirats originated in the eastern parts of Central Asia, the most prominent group today is located in the Republic of Kalmykia, a federal...
of Dzungaria
Dzungaria
Dzungaria, also called Zungaria, is a geographical region in northwest China corresponding to the northern half of Xinjiang. It covers approximately , lying mostly within Xinjiang, and extending into western Mongolia and eastern Kazakhstan...
, make up much of recorded history in Kashgar until 1759.
Qing Reconquest
In 1759, a Qing army from IliIli
-Acronyms:* ILI: I Laugh Inside* Integrating Lifestyle Innovations, a home automation company specialising in the design and supply of systems in New Zealand to the world.* Irish Life International, part of Irish Life and Permanent...
(Kulja) invaded Xinjiang
Xinjiang
Xinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million km2...
and consolidated their authority by settling other ethnics emigrants in the vicinity of a Manchu
Manchu
The Manchu people or Man are an ethnic minority of China who originated in Manchuria . During their rise in the 17th century, with the help of the Ming dynasty rebels , they came to power in China and founded the Qing Dynasty, which ruled China until the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, which...
garrison.
The Qing had thoughts of pushing their conquests towards Transoxiana
Transoxiana
Transoxiana is the ancient name used for the portion of Central Asia corresponding approximately with modern-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, southern Kyrgystan and southwest Kazakhstan. Geographically, it is the region between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers...
and Samarkand, the chiefs of which sent to ask assistance of the Afghan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
king Ahmed Shah Abdali. This monarch dispatched an ambassador to Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
to demand the restitution
Restitution
The law of restitution is the law of gains-based recovery. It is to be contrasted with the law of compensation, which is the law of loss-based recovery. Obligations to make restitution and obligations to pay compensation are each a type of legal response to events in the real world. When a court...
of the Muslim states of Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
, but the representative was not well received, and Ahmed Shah was too busy fighting off the Sikhs to attempt to enforce his demands by arms.
The Qing continued to hold Kashgar with occasional interruptions from Muslim-centered groups. One of the most serious of these occurred in 1827, when the city was taken by Jahanghir Khoja; Chang-lung, however, the Qing general of Ili, regained possession of Kashgar and the other rebellious cities in 1828. When Jahangir Khoja, with the support of Tajiks, Kirghiz, and White Mountain fighters seized Kashgar in 1826 he captured several hundred Chinese merchants, who were taken to Kokand
Kokand
Kokand is a city in Fergana Province in eastern Uzbekistan, at the southwestern edge of the Fergana Valley. It has a population of 192,500 . Kokand is 228 km southeast of Tashkent, 115 km west of Andijan, and 88 km west of Fergana...
. Tajiks bought two Chinese slaves
Slavery in China
Slavery in China has taken various forms throughout history. Never as absolute as its Muslim or European models, Chinese slavery still often viewed its objects as "half-man, half-thing"...
from Shaanxi
Shaanxi
' is a province in the central part of Mainland China, and it includes portions of the Loess Plateau on the middle reaches of the Yellow River in addition to the Qinling Mountains across the southern part of this province...
, they enslaved for a year before being returned by the Tajik Beg Ku-bu-te to China. All Chinese captured, both merchants and the 300 soldiers Janhangir captured in Kashgar had their queues
Queue (hairstyle)
The queue or cue is a hairstyle in which the hair is worn long and gathered up into a ponytail. It was worn traditionally by certain Native American groups and the Manchu of Manchuria.-Manchu Queue:...
cut off when brought to Kokand and Central Asia as prisoners. It was reported that many of the Chinese captives became slaves, accounts of Chinese slaves in Central Asia increased.
The Kokand
Kokand
Kokand is a city in Fergana Province in eastern Uzbekistan, at the southwestern edge of the Fergana Valley. It has a population of 192,500 . Kokand is 228 km southeast of Tashkent, 115 km west of Andijan, and 88 km west of Fergana...
Khanate raided Kashgar several times. A revolt in 1829 under Mahommed Ali Khan and Yusuf, brother of Jahanghir resulted in the concession of several important trade privileges to the Muslims of the district of Alty Shahr (the “six cities”), as it was then called.
The area then enjoyed relative calm until 1846 under the rule of Zahir-ud-din, the local Uyghur governor, but in that year a new Khoja
Khoja (Turkestan)
Khwāja or Khoja, , a Persian word literally meaning 'master', was used in Central Asia as a title of the descendants of the famous Central Asian Naqshbandi Sufi teacher, Ahmad Kasani . The most powerful religious figure in the late Timurid era was the Naqshbandi Shaykh Khoja Ahrar...
revolt under Kath Tora led to his accession to rulership of the city as an authoritarian ruler. His reign, however, was brief, for at the end of seventy-five days, on the approach of the Chinese, he fled back to Khokand
Khanate of Kokand
The Khanate of Kokand was a state in Central Asia that existed from 1709–1883 within the territory of modern eastern Uzbekistan, southern Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan...
amid the jeers of the inhabitants. The last of the Khoja revolts (1857) was of about equal duration, and took place under Wali-Khan
Wali Khan (khoja)
Wali Khan was a member of the Ak Taghliq clan of East Turkestan Khojas, who invaded Kashgaria fromKokand on several occasions in the 1850s, and succeeded in ruling Kashgar for a short while....
, who murdered the famous traveler Adolf Schlagintweit
Adolf Schlagintweit
Adolf von Schlagintweit was a German botanist and explorer of Central Asia. The standard author abbreviation A.Schlag. is used to indicate this individual as the author when citing a botanical name....
.
The 1862 revolt by Chinese Hui
The great Dungan revolt (1862–1877), or insurrection various Muslim ethnic groups, which broke out in 1862 in GansuGansu
' is a province located in the northwest of the People's Republic of China.It lies between the Tibetan and Huangtu plateaus, and borders Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Ningxia to the north, Xinjiang and Qinghai to the west, Sichuan to the south, and Shaanxi to the east...
, spread rapidly to Dzungaria
Dzungaria
Dzungaria, also called Zungaria, is a geographical region in northwest China corresponding to the northern half of Xinjiang. It covers approximately , lying mostly within Xinjiang, and extending into western Mongolia and eastern Kazakhstan...
and through the line of towns in the Tarim Basin
Tarim Basin
The Tarim Basin is a large endorheic basin occupying an area of about . It is located in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China's far west. Its northern boundary is the Tian Shan mountain range and its southern is the Kunlun Mountains on the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. The...
.
The Tungani troops in Yarkand rose, and in August 1864 massacred some seven thousand Chinese and their Manchu commander, while the inhabitants of Kashgar, rising in their turn against their masters, invoked the aid of Sadik Beg, a Kyrgyz chief, who was reinforced by Buzurg Khan, the heir of Jahanghir, and his general Yakub Beg
Yakub Beg
Muhammad Yaqub Bek was a [Turkic peoples] adventurer who became head of the kingdom of Kashgaria.-Spelling variants:In English-language literature, the name of Yaqub Beg has also been spelt as Yakub Beg , Yakoob Beg , or Ya`qūb Beg...
(surnamed the Atalik Ghazi), these being dispatched at Sadik’s request by the ruler of Khokand
Alimqul
`Alimqul was a warlord in the Kokand Khanate, and its de facto ruler from 1863 to 1865....
to raise what troops they could to aid his Muslim friends in Kashgar.
With the overthrow of Chinese rule in 1865 by Yakub Beg (1820–1877), the manufacturing industries of Kashgar are supposed to have declined.
Yaqub Beg entered into relations and signed treaties with the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
and Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
, but when he tried to get their support against China, he failed.
Kashgar and the other cities of the Tarim Basin remained under Yakub Beg’s rule until May 1877, when he died at Korla
Korla
-Economy:Korla has long been the biggest centre in the region after Karashahr itself, having abundant water and extensive farmlands, as well as controlling the main routes to the south and west of Karashahr. Due to the discovery of oil in the Taklamakan Desert, Korla is now both more populous and...
and Kashgaria was reconquered by the forces of the Qing
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
general Zuo Zongtang
Zuo Zongtang
Zuo Zongtang , spelled Tso Tsung-t'ang in Wade-Giles and known simply as General Tso in the West, was a Chinese statesman and military leader in the late Qing Dynasty....
.
First East Turkestan Republic
Kashgar was the scene of continual battles from 1933–1934. Ma ShaowuMa Shaowu
Ma Shaowu was a Hui born in Yunnan, in Qing dynasty China. He was a member of the Xinjiang clique during the Republic of China.- Family history :...
, a Chinese Muslim
Hui people
The Hui people are an ethnic group in China, defined as Chinese speaking people descended from foreign Muslims. They are typically distinguished by their practice of Islam, however some also practice other religions, and many are direct descendants of Silk Road travelers.In modern People's...
, was the Tao-yin of Kashgar, and he fought against Uyghur rebels. He was joined by another Chinese Muslim general, Ma Zhancang
Ma Zhancang
Ma Zhancang was a Chinese muslim general of the 36th Division , who served under Generals Ma Zhongying and Ma Hushan. At the Battle of Kashgar , he repulsed an attack of Uighurs led by the Syrian Arab Tawfiq Bay, wounding Tawfiq...
.
Battle of Kashgar (1933)
Uighur and Kirghiz forces, led by the Bughra brothers and Tawfiq BayTawfiq Bay
Tawfiq Bay, or Sayyid Ahmad Tawfiq Bay Sharif Efendi , was a Syrian Arab traveler who had been in the service of King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia, eventually traveling to Xinjiang, Republic of China, in 1932. He was deported by the Chinese Muslim Daotai Ma Shaowu. On August 26 he arrived at Kashgar...
, attempted to take the New City of Kashgar from Chinese Muslim troops under General Ma Zhancang
Ma Zhancang
Ma Zhancang was a Chinese muslim general of the 36th Division , who served under Generals Ma Zhongying and Ma Hushan. At the Battle of Kashgar , he repulsed an attack of Uighurs led by the Syrian Arab Tawfiq Bay, wounding Tawfiq...
. They were defeated.
Tawfiq Bey, a Syrian Arab traveler, who held the title Sayyid ( descendent of prophet Muhammed) and arrived at Kashgar on August 26, 1933, was shot in the stomach by the Chinese Muslim troops in September. Previously Ma Zhancang arranged to have the Uighur leader Timur Beg
Timur Beg
Timur Beg , or Timur Sijan was a Uighur rebel military leader in Xinjiang in 1933. He was involved in the 1933 Battle of Kashgar and participated before in Turpan Rebellion . He associated with the Turkic nationalist Young Kashgar Party and appointed himself as 'Timur Shah'. He and other Uighurs...
killed and beheaded on August 9, 1933, displaying his head outside of Id Kah Mosque
Id Kah Mosque
The Id Kah mosque is a mosque located in Kashgar, Xinjiang, in the western People's Republic of China. It is the largest mosque in China. Every Friday, it houses nearly 10,000 worshippers and may accommodate up to 20,000....
.
Han chinese
Han Chinese
Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...
troops commanded by Brigadier Yang were absorbed into Ma Zhancang
Ma Zhancang
Ma Zhancang was a Chinese muslim general of the 36th Division , who served under Generals Ma Zhongying and Ma Hushan. At the Battle of Kashgar , he repulsed an attack of Uighurs led by the Syrian Arab Tawfiq Bay, wounding Tawfiq...
's army. A number of Han chinese officers were spotted wearing the green uniforms of Ma Zhancang's unit of the 36th division, presumably they had converted to Islam.
Battle of Kashgar (1934)
36th division General Ma Fuyuan led a Chinese MuslimHui people
The Hui people are an ethnic group in China, defined as Chinese speaking people descended from foreign Muslims. They are typically distinguished by their practice of Islam, however some also practice other religions, and many are direct descendants of Silk Road travelers.In modern People's...
army to storm Kashgar on February 6, 1934, and attacked the Uighur
Uyghur people
The Uyghur are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today, Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China...
and Kirghiz rebels of the First East Turkestan Republic. He freed another 36th division general, Ma Zhancang, who was trapped with his Chinese Muslim
Hui people
The Hui people are an ethnic group in China, defined as Chinese speaking people descended from foreign Muslims. They are typically distinguished by their practice of Islam, however some also practice other religions, and many are direct descendants of Silk Road travelers.In modern People's...
and Han chinese troops in Kashgar New City by the Uighurs and Kirghizs since May 22, 1933. In January, 1934, Ma Zhancang's Chinese Muslim troops repulsed six Uighur attacks, launched by Khoja Niyaz
Hoja-Niyaz
Hoja Niyaz Haji also Khoja or Xoja Niyaz Haji was a Uyghur independence movement leader who led several rebellions in Xinjiang against the Kumul Khanate, the Chinese governor Jin Shuren, and later the Hui warlord Ma Chung-ying...
, who arrived at the city on January 13, 1934, inflicting massive casualties on the Uighur forces. From 2,000 to 8,000 Uighur civilians in Kashgar Old City were massacred by Tungans in February, 1934, in revenge for the Kizil massacre
Kizil massacre
The Kizil massacre occurred in June 1933, when Uighur and Kirghiz Turkic fighters of the First East Turkestan Republic broke their agreement not to attack a column of retreating Han Chinese and Chinese Muslim soldiers and civilians from Yarkand New City on their way to Kashgar...
, after retreating of Uighur forces from the city to Yengi Hisar
Yengisar County
Yengisar County is a county in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwestern China. It is under the administration of the Kashgar Prefecture. It contains an area of 3,373 km2. As of the 2002 census, it had a population of 230,000....
. The chinese Muslim and 36th division Chief General Ma Zhongying
Ma Zhongying
Ma Zhongying, also Ma Chung-ying was a Tungan Chinese Muslim warlord during the Warlord era of China. Ma Zhongying's birth name was Ma Buying . Zhongying was a warlord of Gansu province in China during the 1930s. He allied himself with the Kuomintang, which gave his soldiers an official...
, who arrived at Kashgar on April 7, 1934, gave a speech at Idgah mosque in April, reminding the Uighurs to be loyal to the Republic of China
Republic of China
The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
government at Nanjing
Nanjing
' is the capital of Jiangsu province in China and has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having been the capital of China on several occasions...
. Several British citizens at the British consulate were killed by the 36th division.
People's Republic of China
In 2008, two Uyghur men carried out a vehicular, IED and knife attack2008 Kashgar attack
The 2008 Kashgar attack was a terrorist attack perpetrated by two men on the morning of August 4, 2008, who attacked a group of police officers while they were jogging near the western city of Kashgar, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China, resulting in the death of sixteen...
against police officers. In 2009, development of Kashgar's old town accelerated after the revelations of the deadly role of faulty architecture during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake
2008 Sichuan earthquake
The 2008 Sichuan earthquake or the Great Sichuan Earthquake was a deadly earthquake that measured at 8.0 Msand 7.9 Mw occurred at 14:28:01 CST...
. Many of the old houses in the old town were built without regulation, and as a result, officials found them to be overcrowded and non-compliant with fire and earthquake codes. When the plan started, 42% of the city's residents lived in the old town. With compensation, residents of faulty buildings are being counseled to move to newer, safer buildings that will replace the historic structures in the $448 million plan, including high-rise apartments, plazas, and reproductions of ancient Islamic architecture
Islamic architecture
Islamic architecture encompasses a wide range of both secular and religious styles from the foundation of Islam to the present day, influencing the design and construction of buildings and structures in Islamic culture....
. The European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
issued a resolution
Resolution (law)
A resolution is a written motion adopted by a deliberative body. The substance of the resolution can be anything that can normally be proposed as a motion. For long or important motions, though, it is often better to have them written out so that discussion is easier or so that it can be...
in 2011 calling for "culture-sensitive methods of renovation." The International Scientific Committee on Earthen Architectural Heritage (ISCEAH) has expressed concern over the demolition and reconstruction of historic buildings. ISCEAH has, additionally, urged the implementation of techniques utilized elsewhere in the world to address earthquake vulnerability. In 2011, a spate of violence
2011 Kashgar attacks
The 2011 Kashgar attacks were a series of knife and bomb attacks in Kashgar, Xinjiang, China on July 30 and 31, 2011. On July 30, two Uyghur men hijacked a truck, killed its driver, and drove into a crowd of pedestrians. They got out of the truck and stabbed six people to death and injured 27...
over two days killed dozens of people.
Climate
Kashgar features a desert climateDesert climate
A desert climate , also known as an arid climate, is a climate that does not meet the criteria to be classified as a polar climate, and in which precipitation is too low to sustain any vegetation at all, or at most a very scanty scrub.An area that features this climate usually experiences less than...
(Köppen
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by Crimea German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen himself, notably in 1918 and 1936...
BWk) with hot summers and cold winters, with large temperature differences between those two seasons: The average high in January and July is 0.3 °C (32.5 °F) and 32.1 °C (90 °F). Spring is long and arrives quickly, while fall is somewhat short. The mean annual temperature is 11.9 °C (53.4 °F). Kashgar is one of the driest cities on the planet, averaging only 64 millimetres (2.52 in) of precipitation per year. The city’s wettest month, July, only sees on average 9.1 millimetre (0.358267716535433 in) of rain. Because of the extremely arid conditions, snowfall is rare, despite the cold winters. Records have been as low as -24.4 °C in January and up to 40.1 °C (104.2 °F) in July. The frost-free period averages 215 days.
Demographics
Ürümqi
Ürümqi , formerly Tihwa , is the capital of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, in the northwest of the country....
, Xinjiang
Xinjiang
Xinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million km2...
’s largest city, Kashgar is less industrial and has fewer Han residents.
Economics and society
The city has a very important Sunday marketMarket
A market is one of many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange. While parties may exchange goods and services by barter, most markets rely on sellers offering their goods or services in exchange for money from buyers...
. Thousands of farmers from the surrounding fertile lands come into the city to sell a wide variety of fruit and vegetables. Kashgar’s livestock
Livestock
Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...
market is also very lively. Silk and carpets made in Hotan are sold at bazaars, as well as local crafts, such as copper teapots and wooden jewellery boxes.
In order to boost the economy in Kashgar region, the government classified the area a Special Economic Zone
Special Economic Zone
A Special Economic Zone is a geographical region that has economic and other laws that are more free-market-oriented than a country's typical or national laws...
, the sixth one in China, in May 2010.
Mahmud al-Kashgari (Mahmut from Kashgar) wrote the first Turkic–Arabic Exemplary Dictionary called Divan-ı Lugat-it Türk
The movie The Kite Runner
The Kite Runner (film)
The Kite Runner is a 2007 drama film directed by Marc Forster based on the novel of the same name by Khaled Hosseini. It tells the story of Amir, a well-to-do boy from the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul, who is tormented by the guilt of abandoning his friend Hassan, the son of his father's...
was filmed in Kashgar. Kashgar and the surrounding countryside stood in for Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
and Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, since filming in Afghanistan was not possible due to safety and security reasons.
Sights
Kashgar’s Old City has been called "the best-preserved example of a traditional Islamic city to be found anywhere in Central AsiaCentral Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
", although the city is becoming more developed. At present, it is estimated to attract more than one million tourist visitors annually.
- The huge Id Kah MosqueId Kah MosqueThe Id Kah mosque is a mosque located in Kashgar, Xinjiang, in the western People's Republic of China. It is the largest mosque in China. Every Friday, it houses nearly 10,000 worshippers and may accommodate up to 20,000....
, the largest mosqueMosqueA mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
in China, is located in the heart of the city. - An 18-m (59 ft) high statueStatueA statue is a sculpture in the round representing a person or persons, an animal, an idea or an event, normally full-length, as opposed to a bust, and at least close to life-size, or larger...
of former Chinese leaderLeadershipLeadership has been described as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task". Other in-depth definitions of leadership have also emerged.-Theories:...
Mao ZedongMao ZedongMao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
in Kashgar is one of the few large-scale statues of Mao remaining in China. - The tomb of Abakh KhojaAbakh KhojaAbakh Khoja , born Hidayat al-Lah, a.k.a Apaq Xoja, or more properly Āfāq Khwāja was a religious and political leader with the title of Khoja in Kashgaria...
in Kashgar is considered the holiest MuslimMuslimA Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
site in Xinjiang. Built in the 17th century, the tiled mausoleum 5 km (3.1 mi) northeast of the city centre also contains the tombs of five generationGenerationGeneration , also known as procreation in biological sciences, is the act of producing offspring....
s of his family. Abakh was a powerful rulerRulerA ruler, sometimes called a rule or line gauge, is an instrument used in geometry, technical drawing, printing and engineering/building to measure distances and/or to rule straight lines...
, controlling KhotanKhotanHotan , or Hetian , also spelled Khotan, is the seat of the Hotan Prefecture in Xinjiang, China. It was previously known in Chinese as 于窴/於窴 and to 19th-century European explorers as Ilchi....
, Yarkand, KorlaKorla-Economy:Korla has long been the biggest centre in the region after Karashahr itself, having abundant water and extensive farmlands, as well as controlling the main routes to the south and west of Karashahr. Due to the discovery of oil in the Taklamakan Desert, Korla is now both more populous and...
, KuchaKuchaKuchaor Kuche Uyghur , Chinese Simplified: 库车; Traditional: 庫車; pinyin Kùchē; also romanized as Qiuzi, Qiuci, Chiu-tzu, Kiu-che, Kuei-tzu from the traditional Chinese forms 屈支 屈茨; 龜玆; 龟兹, 丘玆, also Po ; Sanskrit: Kueina, Standard Tibetan: Kutsahiyui was an ancient Buddhist kingdom...
and Aksu as well as Kashgar. Among some Uyghur Muslims, he was considered a prophetProphets of IslamMuslims identify the Prophets of Islam as those humans chosen by God and given revelation to deliver to mankind. Muslims believe that every prophet was given a belief to worship God and their respective followers believed it as well...
, second only to Mohammed in importance.
Rail
Southern Xinjiang Railway
The Southern Xinjiang Railway or Nanjiang Railway is a railway between Turpan and Kashgar in Xinjiang, China. The railway is 1,446 km in length and runs along the southern slope of the Tian Shan mountain range, connecting all major cities and towns of the northern Tarim Basin, including Turpan,...
, which was built in December 1999. In December 2010, the 488-km Kashgar-Hotan Railway
Kashgar-Hotan Railway
The Kashgar-Hotan Railway or Kahe Railway is a single-track, non-electrified, railway in Xinjiang, China between Kashgar and Hotan...
opened to freight traffic. It connects Kashgar with cities in the southern Tarim Basin
Tarim Basin
The Tarim Basin is a large endorheic basin occupying an area of about . It is located in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China's far west. Its northern boundary is the Tian Shan mountain range and its southern is the Kunlun Mountains on the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. The...
including Shache (Yarkand), Yecheng (Kargilik)
Yecheng
Yecheng, Karghilik or Karghalik, also known as Chokkuka, is a city in Xinjiang, China. It is 249 km by road northwest to Kashgar, and 249 km south to Mazar....
and Hotan. Passenger train service on this line is expected to begin by June 2011.
The investigation work of a further extension of the railway line to Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
has already begun. In November 2009, Pakistan and China agreed to set up a joint venture to do a feasibility study of the proposed rail link via the Khunjerab Pass
Khunjerab Pass
Khunjerab Pass is a high mountain pass in the Karakoram Mountains in a strategic position on the northern border of Pakistan's Gilgit-Baltistan region within the disputed region of Kashmir and on the southwest border of the Xinjiang region of China...
.
Proposals for a rail connection to Osh
Osh
Osh is the second largest city in Kyrgyzstan, located in the Fergana Valley in the south of the country and often referred to as the "capital of the south". The city is at least 3,000 years old, and has served as the administrative center of Osh Province since 1939...
in Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic is one of the world's six independent Turkic states . Located in Central Asia, landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east...
have also been discussed at various levels since at least 1996.
Road
The Karakorum highway (KKH) links IslamabadIslamabad
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...
, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
with Kashgar over the Khunjerab Pass
Khunjerab Pass
Khunjerab Pass is a high mountain pass in the Karakoram Mountains in a strategic position on the northern border of Pakistan's Gilgit-Baltistan region within the disputed region of Kashmir and on the southwest border of the Xinjiang region of China...
. Bus routes exist for passenger travel south into Pakistan. Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic is one of the world's six independent Turkic states . Located in Central Asia, landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east...
is also accessible from Kashgar, via the Torugart Pass
Torugart Pass
Torugart Pass is a pass in the Tian Shan mountain range on the border between the Naryn Province of Kyrgyzstan and the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China.The scenic Lake of Chatyr-Kul lies near the pass on the Kyrgyz side...
and Irkeshtam Pass; as of summer 2007, daily bus service connects Kashgar with Bishkek
Bishkek
Bishkek , formerly Pishpek and Frunze, is the capital and the largest city of Kyrgyzstan.Bishkek is also the administrative centre of Chuy Province which surrounds the city, even though the city itself is not part of the province but rather a province-level unit of Kyrgyzstan.The name is thought to...
’s Western Bus Terminal. Kashgar is also located on China National Highways
China National Highways
The China National Highways are a series of trunk roads throughout all of mainland China. Although they are called highways , they are not necessarily expressways...
G314
China National Highway 314
China National Highway 314 runs southwest from Urumqi, Xinjiang towards Khunjerab Pass, which is the on the northern border of Pakistan and the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China. It is 1948 kilometres in length....
and G315
China National Highway 315
China National Highway 315 is a highway in China that runs west from Xining, Qinghai towards Kashi, Xinjiang. It is 3063 kilometres in length.- Route and distance:...
.
Twin towns – Sister cities
Kashgar is twinnedTown twinning
Twin towns and sister cities are two of many terms used to describe the cooperative agreements between towns, cities, and even counties in geographically and politically distinct areas to promote cultural and commercial ties.- Terminology :...
with: Gilgit
Gilgit
Gilgit is a city in northern PakistanGilgit may refer to other terms related with the area of the city:* Gilgit River* Gilgit Valley* Gilgit District* Gilgit Agency * Gilgit Airport...
, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
from May 2009
External links
- Interactive Maps and Slide Shows comparing Old and New Kashgar
- Explore Kashgar's Old Town on Global Heritage Network (GHN)
- Kashgar City government website
- Photos of Kashi dheera.net
- Kashgar berclo.net
- T. Digby, Nests of the Great Game spies Shanghai StarShanghai StarShanghai Star was a weekly English-language newspaper published in Shanghai, China between 1992 and 2006. It was owned and run by its parent, the Beijing-based China Daily....
, 9 May 2002. - Images and travel impressions along the Silk Road – Kashgar