Khwāja or
Khoja, a Persian word literally meaning 'master', was used in Central Asia as a title of the descendants of the famous
Central AsiaAsia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south. It is also sometimes known as Middle Asia or Inner Asia, and is within the scope of the wider Eurasian continent.Various definitions of its...
n
NaqshbandiNaqshbandi is one of the major tasawwuf orders of Islam. The order is considered to be a "sober" order as many following the Naqshbandi Sufi way have chosen the silent dhikr of the Heart, rather than the vocalized forms of dhikr common in other orders.The Naqshbandi Order is the only Sufi order...
Sufi teacher, Ahmad Kasani (1461-1542). The most powerful religious figure in the late Timurid era was the Naqshbandi Shaykh Khoja Ahrar . The khojas often played, or aspired to play, ruling roles in the
Turkic communitiesThe 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....
of
XinjiangXinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China and also claimed by the territory of the Republic of China.-Names:Older English-language reference works often refer to the area as Chinese Turkestan, Sinkiang, East...
.
Although Ahmad Kasani himself, known as Makhdūm-i`Azam ("Great Master") to his followers, never visited East Turkestan (today's Xinjiang), many of his descendants, known as
Makhdūmzādas, and bearing the title of
khwāja (
khoja) played important parts in the region's politics during 17th through 19th century.
In Kazakhstan the highest nobility of
KazakhThe Kazakhs are a Turkic people of the northern parts of Central Asia ....
people traditionally consists of
tore (direct descendants of
Genghis KhanGenghis Khan , ; 1162–1227), born , was the founder, Khan and Khagan of the Mongol Empire, the largest contiguous empire in history....
) and
khoja.
Ahmad Kasani's second son, Muhammad Ishāq Walī (? - 1599) spent several years in East Turkestan.
Discussion
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Khwāja or
Khoja, a Persian word literally meaning 'master', was used in Central Asia as a title of the descendants of the famous
Central AsiaAsia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south. It is also sometimes known as Middle Asia or Inner Asia, and is within the scope of the wider Eurasian continent.Various definitions of its...
n
NaqshbandiNaqshbandi is one of the major tasawwuf orders of Islam. The order is considered to be a "sober" order as many following the Naqshbandi Sufi way have chosen the silent dhikr of the Heart, rather than the vocalized forms of dhikr common in other orders.The Naqshbandi Order is the only Sufi order...
Sufi teacher, Ahmad Kasani (1461-1542). The most powerful religious figure in the late Timurid era was the Naqshbandi Shaykh Khoja Ahrar . The khojas often played, or aspired to play, ruling roles in the
Turkic communitiesThe 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....
of
XinjiangXinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China and also claimed by the territory of the Republic of China.-Names:Older English-language reference works often refer to the area as Chinese Turkestan, Sinkiang, East...
.
Although Ahmad Kasani himself, known as Makhdūm-i`Azam ("Great Master") to his followers, never visited East Turkestan (today's Xinjiang), many of his descendants, known as
Makhdūmzādas, and bearing the title of
khwāja (
khoja) played important parts in the region's politics during 17th through 19th century.
In Kazakhstan the highest nobility of
KazakhThe Kazakhs are a Turkic people of the northern parts of Central Asia ....
people traditionally consists of
tore (direct descendants of
Genghis KhanGenghis Khan , ; 1162–1227), born , was the founder, Khan and Khagan of the Mongol Empire, the largest contiguous empire in history....
) and
khoja.
Ishaqīs (Qara Taghliqs)
Ahmad Kasani's second son, Muhammad Ishāq Walī (? - 1599) spent several years in East Turkestan. His followers were known as
Qara Taghliqs, i.e. 'those of the Black Mountains'. The main city of influence of Qara Taghliks was
YarkandYarkant County , is a county in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China, located on the southern rim of the Taklamakan desert in the Tarim Basin. It is one of 11 counties administered under Kashgar Prefecture...
.
Āfāqīs (Aq Taghliqs)
Another line of khojas descends from Muhammad Amīn (also known as Ishān-i Kalān), the eldest son of Ahmad Kasan. The first of them to come to East Turkestan was Muḥammad Amīn's son, Khoja Yūsuf (? - 1652/53). This branch of Makhdūmzādas established themselves in
KashgarKashgar 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...
, and became known as Āfāqīs (after Khoja Hidāyat Allāh, also known as Khoja Āfāq (? - 1693/94), the son of Khoja Yūsuf), or
Aq Taghliqs, i.e. the 'those of the White Mountains'.
See also
- Central Asian Arabic
Central Asian Arabic is a variety of Arabic spoken in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and currently facing extinction. It was once spoken among Central Asia's numerous settled and nomadic Arab communities, which inhabited areas in Samarqand, Bukhara, Qashqadarya, Surkhandarya , and Khatlon , as well as...
- History of Arabs in Afghanistan
The history of Arabs in Afghanistan spans over one millennium, from the 7th century Islamic conquest when ethnic Arab fighters battled or migrated to the area till the recent Soviet-Afghan War when they assisted fellow Muslims in fighting the Soviets and pro-Soviet Afghans...
- Khwaja Ahmad Yasavi (a Sufi Shaykh who is greatly appreciated Among Central Asian Turkic peoples)
- Turkistan
*Türkistan is the local name for Turkestan, a region of Central Asia.*Türkistan, Kazakhstan is a historic city and place of pilgrimage in southern Kazakhstan...
or Yasi, birthplace of Yasavi, in present-day Kazakhstan
- Khoja Nasreddin
Nasrudin Nasrudin Nasrudin (Persian ملا نصرالدین, Turkish "Nasrettin Hoca", Kurdish "Mella Nasredîn", Arabic: جحا juḥā, نصرالدين naṣr ad-dīn meaning "Victory of the Faith", transl.: Malai Mash-hoor, Albanian "Nastradin Hoxha" or just "Nastradini", Azeri"Molla Nəsrəddin" Bosnian "Nasruddin...
Literature