Moghulistan

Central Asia at the beginning of 1450 AD. The Moghuls controlled Moghulistan, Alti-Shahr, and Uyghurstan.

Moghulistan or Mughalistan (Persian: مغولستان) is a historical geographic unit in Central Asia that included parts of modern-day Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and the Chinese Autonomous Region of Xinjiang (Eastern Turkestan). An independent khanate existed in the area from the mid-14th century until the late 17th century.

Etymology

"Moghul" envoys seen in Beijing in 1656 by Johan Nieuhof, who took them for representatives of the Moghuls of India. However, Luciano Petech later thinks they are visitors from Turfan in Moghulistan.^[1]

"Moghulistan" simply means "Land of the Moghuls," or Mongols (the term Mughal is Persian for Mongol) in reference to the eastern branch of the Turco-Mongolian Chagatai Khans who ruled it.

When the Mongols conquered most of Asia and Russia in the 13th century (for details see Mongol Empire), they were minorities in many of the regions they had subdued, such as Iran and China. As a result, the Mongols in these regions quickly adopted the local culture. For example, in the Persian Ilkhanate the Mongol khans adopted Islam after less than half a century, while the khans of the Yuan Dynasty embraced Chinese court customs. In contrast, the Mongols and their subordinates who settled in what came to be known as Moghulistan were in origin the steppe nomads from Mongolia.^[2] Because of this, they were much more resistant to changing their way of life; they retained their primarily nomadic lifestyle for several centuries and were among the last of the Mongols that converted to Islam to do so. During the 14th century its inhabitants were known as "Jats" and the area they occupied was called "Jatah." This term is also used by numerous people in South Asia in Pakistan and parts of western India.

Geography

Since the Moghuls were nomads of the steppe, the boundaries of their territories seldom stayed the same for long. Still, Moghulistan in the strictest sense was centered in the Ili region. It was bounded on the west by the province of Shash and the Karatau Mountains, while the southern area of Lake Balkhash marked the northern limit of Moghul influence. From there the border gradually sloped in a southeastern direction until it reached the eastern portion of the Tian Shan Mountains. The Tian Shan then served as the southern border of Moghulistan. This region was primarily steppe country and was where the Moghuls usually resided. Because of the Moghuls' nomadic nature, the towns of Moghulistan fell into decline during their rule, if they managed to remain occupied at all.

Besides Moghulistan proper, the Moghuls also almost always controlled these other provinces:

• Alti-Shahr: Alti-Shahr, meaning "Six Cities" in reference to the western, then Muslim Uyghur cities of Yarkand, Kashgar, Khotan, Aksu, Uch-Turpan, and Yangi Hisar. The borders of Alti-Shahr were better defined than those of Moghulistan, with the Tien Shan marking the northern boundary, the Pamirs the western, and the Kunlun Shan the southern. The eastern border usually was slightly to the east of Kucha.
  
  Aside from the towns which were at the foot of the mountains, nearly all of the Tarim Basin was desert. As a result, the Moghuls generally stayed out of the region and it was a poor source of manpower. The Dughlat amirs administered these towns in the name of the Moghul khans until 1514. After that the Moghuls directly governed Alti-Shahr and, when they lost Moghulistan itself shortly after, it formed the bulk of the remainder of their possessions. The capital city of Alti-Shahr was usually Yarkand or Kashgar.

• Uyghurstan: This region was named after the Uyghurs, who maintained a mainly Buddhist kingdom there separate from the Muslim Uyghurs up until almost the 15th century. The Uyghur khans had voluntarily become Mongol vassals during the reign of Genghis Khan and as a result were allowed to retain their territories. As the Mongol Empire was split up in the middle of the 13th century, Uyghurstan was assigned to the Chagatayids. The power of the Uyghur khans slowly declined under the Mongol yoke until the last recorded khan was forcibly converted to Islam in the 1380s or 90s. After that it seems to have been subjected to direct Moghul rule, and a separate Moghul Khanate was established there in mid-15th century.

Uyghurstan was bordered by Alti-Shahr to the west, the Tien Shan to the north, the Kunlun Shan to the south, and the principality of Hami to the east. The primary town of Uyghurstan was Turpan. In 1513 Hami became a dependency of Uyghurstan and remained so until the end of Moghul rule. As a result, the Moghuls became direct neighbors of Ming China.

Besides Moghulistan, Alti-Shahr and Uyghurstan, several other regions were also temporarily subjected to Moghul rule at one time or another, such as Tashkent, Ferghana and parts of Badakhshan.

History

Main article: Chagatai Khanate

Buddhist, Christian and Shamanist nomads of the Issyk Kul and Isi areas rebelled against the Chagatai Khan Tarmashirin and shifted allegiance from his realm to a new Borjigin Khan, Changshi, in the 1330's upon his conversion to Islam. This Khan ruled a region of nomadic tribesmen and oasis-dwellers from the 14th to the 17th century.

Moghulistan, which had formed the eastern portion of the Chagatai Khanate, became independent in 1347 under the Chagatayid named Tughlugh Timur. Tughlugh Timur also later converted to Islam but conversion amongst the general population was slow to follow. In the late 14th century Timur invaded Moghulistan at least five times but was unable to completely subjugate the Moghuls. During the 15th century the Moghuls had to deal with several enemy incursions by the Oirats, Timurids and Uzbeks. Yunus Khan (1462-1487) profited from the weakness of his neighbors and took Tashkent in 1482. Towards the end of Yunus' reign, his son Ahmad Alaq founded a breakaway Khanate in Uyghuristan.

In the mid-16th century Moghulistan came under increasing pressure from the Kyrgyz and Kazakhs. Although the Moghul Khans did their best to maintain order, eventually the Kyrgyz and Kazakhs became the dominant forces in the region. Henceforth the Moghul khans were mostly restricted to the Tarim basin. In the late 16th and 17th centuries power in the Moghul states gradually shifted from the Khans to the khojas, who were influential religious leaders in the 16th century of the Sufi Naqshbandi order. At the same time the Kyrgyz began to penetrate into Alti-Shahr as well. The Khans were finally overthrown in the late 17th century, bringing an end to Chagatayid rule in Central Asia, and by the time Moghulistan was overrun by the Dzungar Mongol wave they had also become fully Muslim.

See also

• Chagatai Khanate
• Turpan Prefecture
• East Turkestan
• Moghul
• Moghol

Notes

1. ^ Lach, Donald F.; Van Kley, Edwin J. (1994), Asia in the Making of Europe, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, ISBN 978-0226467344 . Volume III, "A Century of Advance", Book Four, "East Asia", Plate 315. Lach and van Kley's source is Luciano Petech, "La pretesa ambascita di Shah Jahan alla Cina", Revista degli studi orientali, XXVI (1951), 124-127
2. ^ Uighurs ruled Uighur Khaganate of Mongolia in 8-9th centuries. The nomadic Mekrin or Bekrin are considered Turco-Mongols.

References

• S. Frederick Starr, "Xinjiang: China's Muslim Borderland", M.E. Sharpe, Apr 1, 2004 ISBN 0-7656-1317-4 pg. 46-48
• Millward, James A. Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007; London: C. Hurst, 2007.
• Mirza Muhammad Haidar. The Tarikh-i-Rashidi: A History of the Moghuls of Central Asia. Trans. Edward Denison Ross. ISBN 81-86787-02-X