The Kara-Khanid Khanate (; ), also known as the Karakhanids, Qarakhanids, Ilek Khanids"Qara-khanids", Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Africa and the Middle East, Vol. 1, Ed. Jamie Stokes, (Infobase Publishing, 2009), p. 578. or the Afrasiabids (), was a Karluk Turkic khanate that ruled Central Asia from the 9th to the early 13th century. The dynastic names of Karakhanids and Ilek Khanids refer to royal titles with Kara Khagan being the most important Turkic title up until the end of the dynasty.
The Khanate conquered Transoxiana in Central Asia and ruled it independently between 999 and 1089. Their arrival in Transoxiana signaled a definitive shift from Iranic to Turkic predominance in Central Asia, yet the Kara-khanids gradually assimilated the Perso-Arab Muslim culture, while retaining some of their native Turkic culture. The Khanate split into the Eastern and Western Khanates in the 1040s. In the late 11th century, they came under the suzerainty of the Seljuk Empire followed by the Qara Khitai (Western Liao dynasty) who defeated the Seljuks in the Battle of Qatwan in 1141. The Eastern Khanate ended in 1211, and the Western Khanate was extinguished by the Khwarazmian Empire in 1212.
The capitals of the Kara-Khanid Khanate included Kashgar, Balasagun, Uzgen, and Samarkand. The history of the Kara-Khanid Khanate is reconstructed from fragmentary and often contradictory written sources, as well as studies on their coinage.
Names The term Karakhanid was derived from Qara Khan or Qara Khaqan (), the foremost title of the rulers of the dynasty. The Old Turkic word "qara" (𐰴𐰺𐰀) means "black, dark, or north" and khan means ruler. The term was devised by European Orientalists in the 19th century to describe both the dynasty and the Turks ruled by it. Arabic Muslim sources called this dynasty al-Khaqaniya ("That of the Khaqans") or al Muluk al-Khaniyya al-Atrak (The Khanal kings of the Turks). In his linguistic treatise Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk, Mahmud al-Kashgari, a native-born Karakhanid, listed two endonyms: "Khāqānī Turks" or just "Turks",Maħmūd al-Kaśġari. (1982) "Dīwān Luğāt al-Turk". Edited & translated by Robert Dankoff in collaboration with James Kelly. In Sources of Oriental Languages and Literature. Part I. pp. 75–76; 82–86 the latter he also used to denote Turkic peoples in general.Golden, P.B. (2015) "The Turkic World in Maḥmûd al Kâshgarî" p. 506. quote: "He appears to waver in his usage, often employing Turk to denote his only Qarakhanids, i.e. Türks and at other times to encompass Turkic-speakers in general" Persian sources often used the term Al-i Afrasiyab () based on a supposed link to the legendary though actually unrelated King Afrasiab of pre-Islamic Transoxania. Kashgari refers to him as Alp Er Tunga. They are also referred to as Ilek Khanids or Ilak Khanids () in Persian. Chinese sources refer to this dynasty as Kalahan () or Heihan (, literally "Black Khan") or Dashi (, a term for Arabs that extends to Muslims in general).
History
Origin
The Kara-Khanid Khanate originated from a confederation formed some time in the 9th century by Karluks, Yagmas, Chigils, Tuhsi, and other peoples living in Zhetysu, Western Tian Shan (modern Kyrgyzstan), and Western Xinjiang around Kashgar. 10th-century Arab historian Al-Masudi listed two "Khagan of Khagans" of the Karluk horde:Al-Masudi Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems vol. 1 pp. 311–312. translated by Aloys Spreger Sanah, a possible rendition of Ashina (compare Śaya (also by al-Masudi), Aś(i)nas (al-Tabari), Ānsa (Hudud al-'Alam), and Śaba (Ibn Khordadbeh)P. B. Golden, "Irano-Turcica: The Khazar sacral kingship revisited," in Acta Orientalia Hungarica 60:2 (2007) pp. 165, 172, n. 33), and Afrasiab,Boris Zhivkov, (2010), Khazaria in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries, p. 46. whom 11th-century Karakhanid scholar Mahmud al-Kashgari identified with Turkic king Alp Er Tunga, the legendary progenitor of the Karakhanid ruling dynasty.Maħmūd al-Kašğari. "Dīwān Luğāt al-Turk". Edited & translated by Robert Dankoff in collaboration with James Kelly. In Sources of Oriental Languages and Literature. (1982) Part I, p. 92 and Part II. pp. 225, 337 Furthermore, Kara-khanid heads of state claimed the title khagan, which indicates that they may have been descended from the Ashina.Carter V. Findley, (2004), The Turks in World History p. 75 Even so, the tribal origin of Bilge Kul Qadir Khan, the first Kara-Khan, is still unknown: if Bilge Kul Qadir descended from the Karluk Yabghus,"Karluk Yabghu State (756–940)" Qazaqstan Tarihy. quote: "In 840, in the Central Asian steppes an important event occurred. The Yenisei Kyrgyz invasion destroyed the Uighur Khaganate, forcing the Uighurs to flee to Turfan oasis and to Gansu [original article mistakenly has Guangzhou]. The Karluk Djabgu and the ruler of Isfijab, Bilge Kul Qadeer-Khan, took advantage of the situation and proclaimed himself as a sovereign ruler and assumed a new title of Khagan." then he indeed belonged to the Ashina dynasty as they did; if Bilge Kul Qadir descended from the Yagma (as suggested by Vasily Bartold),Golden, P.B. (1992) An Introduction to the History of the Turkic peoples. Series: Turcologica 9. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. p. 214 then he did not, considering that the Hudud al-'Alam stated that "Their [Yagmas'] king is from the family of the Toġuzġuz kings",Ḥudūd al'Ālam "§13. Discourse on the country of Yaghmā and its towns". Translated and Explained by V. Minorsky. pp. 95–96 that Ashina tribe was not listed among the Toquz Oghuz (Ch. 九姓 Jĭu Xìng "Nine Surnames") in Chinese-language sourcesTang Huiyao, vol. 98Jiu Tangshu vol. 195 and that early Uyghur khagans belonged to the Yaglakar clan of Toquz OghuzXin Tangshu vol. 217a and later Uyghur khagans belonged to the Ädiz clan. Alternatively, Bilge Kul Qadir might belong to the Eðgiş or Chigils.1940–, Kochnev, Boris Dmitrievich (2006). Numizmaticheskai︠a︡ istorii︠a︡ Karakhanidskogo kaganata, 991–1209 gg. Nastich, V. N. Moskva: Sofii︠a︡.
Early history
The Karluks were a nomadic people from the western Altai Mountains who moved to Jetisu. In 742, the Karluks were part of an alliance led by the Basmyls and the Uyghur Khaganate that rebelled against the Göktürks, leading to the demise of the Second Turkic Khaganate (682–744). In the realignment of power that followed, the Karluks were elevated from a tribe led by an Elteber to one led by a yabghu, which was one of the highest Turkic dignitaries and also implies membership in the Ashina clan in whom the "heaven-mandated" right to rule resided. The Karluks and Uyghurs later allied themselves against the Basmyl, and within two years, they toppled the Basmyl khagan. The Uyghur yabghu became khagan and the Karluk leader yabghu. This arrangement lasted less than a year. Hostilities between the Uyghur and Karluk forced the Karluk to migrate westward into the western Turgesh lands.
By 766, the Karluks had forced the submission of the Turgesh, and they established their capital at Suyab on the Chu. The Karluk confederation, by now, included the Chigil and Tukshi tribes, who may have been Türgesh tribes incorporated into the Karluk union. The Karluks converted to Christianity, specifically the Church of the East, at the end of the 8th century, about 15 years after they established themselves in the Jetisu region. This was the first time the Church of the East received such major sponsorship by an eastern power. Remains of a Nestorian church have been found in the Karluk capital of Suyab, as well as hundreds of tomstones with Syriac inscriptions in the Jetisu region.
By the mid-9th century, the Karluk confederation had gained control of the sacred lands of the Western Türks after the destruction of the Uyghur Khaganate by the Old Kirghiz. Control of sacred lands, together with their affiliation with the Ashina clan, allowed the Khaganate to be passed on to the Karluks along with domination of the steppes after the previous Khagan was killed in a revolt.
During the 9th century, southern Central Asia was ruled by the Samanids, while the Central Asian steppe was dominated by Turkic nomads such as the Pechenegs, the Oghuz Turks, and the Karluks. The domain of the Karluks reached as far north as the Irtysh and the Kimek–Kipchak confederation, with encampments extending to the Chi and Ili rivers, where the Chigil and Tukshi tribes lived, and east to the Ferghana valley and beyond. The area to the south and east of the Karluks was inhabited by the Yagma. The Karluk center in the 9th and 10th centuries appears to have been at Balasagun on the Chu. In the late 9th century, the Samanids marched into the steppes and captured Taraz, one of the headquarters of the Karluk khagan, and a large church was transformed into a mosque.
Formation of the Kara-Khanid Khanate (840 CE)
During the 9th century, the Karluk confederation (including three chief tribes: the Bulaq (Mouluo 謀落 / Moula 謀剌), Taşlïk (Tashili 踏實力), and Sebek (Suofu 娑匐), along with Chigils, Charuks, Barskhans, Khalajes, Azkishi and TuhsisKarluk Yabghu State (756–940) in Qazagstan Tarihy (the last three being possibly remnants of TürgeshGumilyov, L. Searches for an Imaginary Kingdom: The trefoil of the Bird's Eye View Ch. 5: The Shattered Silence (961–1100)Pylypchuk, Ya. "Turks and Muslims: From Confrontation to Conversion to Islam (End of VII century – Beginning of XI Century)" in UDK 94 (4): 95 (4). In UkrainianMinorsky, V. "Commentary" on "§17. The Tukhs" in Ḥudūd al'Ālam. Translated and Explained by V. Minorsky. pp. 300–304.) and the Yaghma, possible descendants of the Toquz Oghuz, joined forces and formed the first Karluk-Karakhanid khaganate. The Chigils appear to have formed the nucleus of the Karakhanid army. The date of its foundation and the name of its first khan is uncertain, but according to one reconstruction, the first Karakhanid ruler was Bilge Kul Qadir Khan.
The rulers of the Karakhanids were likely to be from the Chigil and Yaghma tribes – the Eastern Khagan bore the title Arslan Qara Khaqan (Arslan "lion" was the totem of the Chigil) and the Western Khagan the title Bughra Qara Khaqan (Bughra "male camel" was the totem of the Yaghma). The names of animals were a regular element in the Turkic titles of the Karakhanids: thus Aslan (lion), Bughra (camel), Toghan (falcon), Böri (wolf), and Toghrul or Toghrïl (a bird of prey). Under the Khagans were four rulers with the titles Arslan Ilig, Bughra Ilig, Arslan Tegin and Bughra Tegin. The titles of the members of the dynasty changed with their position, normally upwards, in the dynastic hierarchy.
Conversion to Islam () In the mid-10th century the Kara-Khanids converted to Islam and adopted Muslim names and honorifics, but retained Turkic regnal titles such as Khan, Khagan, Ilek (Ilig) and Tegin. Later they adopted the Arab titles sultan and sultān al-salātīn ("Sultan of Sultans"). According to the Ottoman historian known as Munajjim-bashi, a Karakhanid prince named Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan was the first of the khans to convert. After conversion, he obtained a fatwa which permitted him in effect to kill his presumably-still-pagan father, after which he conquered Kashgar (of the old Shule Kingdom). Later, in 960, according to Muslim historians Ibn Miskawaih and Ibn al-Athir, there was a mass conversion of the Turks (reportedly "200,000 tents of the Turks"), and circumstantial evidence suggests these were the Karakhanids.
Conquest of Transoxiana
The grandson of Satuk Bughra Khan, Hasan b. Sulayman (or Harun) (title: Bughra Khan) attacked the Samanids in the late 10th century. Between 990 and 992, Hasan took Isfijab, Ferghana, Ilaq, Samarkand, and the Samanid capital Bukhara.The Samanids, Richard Nelson Frye, The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 4, ed. R. N. Frye, (Cambridge University Press, 1999), 156–157. However, Hasan Bughra Khan died in 992 due to an illness, and the Samanids returned to Bukhara.