Khoja (Turkestan)
Overview
 
Khwāja or Khoja, a Persian word literally meaning 'master', was used in Central Asia as a title of the descendants of the famous 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...

n Naqshbandi
Naqshbandi
Naqshbandi is one of the major Sufi spiritual orders of Sufi Islam. It is considered to be a "Potent" order.The Naqshbandi order is over 1,300 years old, and is active today...

 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 communities
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...

 of 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...

.

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 Kazakh
Kazakhs
The Kazakhs are a Turkic people of the northern parts of Central Asia ....

 people traditionally consists of tore (direct descendants of Genghis Khan
Genghis 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....

) and khoja.
Ahmad Kasani's second son, Muhammad Ishāq Walī (? - 1599) spent several years in East Turkestan.
 
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