- Jahangir Khoja
Jahanghir Khoja [
Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition , article onKashgar ] , Jāhangīr Khwāja [Kim (2003)] , or Jihangir Khoja ( _zh. 张格尔, Zhangge'er) was a member of the influentialEast Turkestan Āfāqī khoja clan, who managed to wrestKashgaria from the Qing Empire's power for a few years in the 1820s.Career
Before a
rebellion had broken out in May, 1826, Jahangir Khoja managed to flee toKashgar fromKokand (where he had been held in prison in accordance with a secret agreement, concluded between theKhanate of Kokand and Qing dynasty China, concerning descendants of Appak khoja) [ This agreement, according to M. Kutlukov, was concluded first by the Kokand rulerIrdana Biy (1751-1770) as soon as the Qings became aware ofKhoja Sarymsak (anAk Tagh lik who was the only person among Appak Khoja's descendants to survive the 1757-1759 Qing invasion of Kashgaria), who, viaKabul andBadakhshan , had arrived in Kokand and had settled there. The agreement was confirmed later by the following Kokand rulers:Narbuta Biy (1770-1798), Alim Khan (1798-1810),Omar Khan (1810-1822), and Muhammad Ali Khan (1822-1842). The rulers of Kokand promised in the agreement to hold all Appak Khoja descendants under observation, restrict their activities, and not let them leave Kokand. In exchange, Kokand received every year a definite amount of silver (quantities varied from 250 up to 1000ingot s ("yamboos ") and tea. Kokand traders were also granted trade privileges in Kashgaria. Jahangir Khoja (1788-1828) was a son of Khoja Sarymsak.] , taking the opportunity offered by an earthquake that destroyed most towns in theFerghana Valley . After appearing in Kashgar with only several hundreds of his followers he then quickly increased his force by volunteers, and within several months he collected under his banner about 200,000 troops [ Among volunteers in Jahangir's Army were a lot of "ghalchas" (mountainTajiks ), whose tight black costume gave rise to the rumours inSiberia about presence of Europeans among Jahangir's troops, those rumours were also contributed byRussia n Foreign Intelligence Service, that being upset of the opportunity, might have gained by British forces inIndia due to this rebellion, reported of 13 BritishBody Guard s of Jahangir Khoja, 7 of them followed him wherever he goes all the time. Last fact was not confirmed by the local sources. According Russian sources, Jahangir's uprising was completely quelled by China by the summer of 1828. ] , with which he had overthrown Qing power in Kashgar,Yarkand ,Khotan , and Yangihissar, having Qinggarrison s annihilated in these cities. Nevertheless, Qing China managed to mobilize "all forces of Empire, that were put into motion" and by September, 1827, collected in Aksu an army of 70,000, under command of military governor ofIli Chang Ling, that in January, 1828, moved against Jahangir Khoja. His forces were defeated within one month, he was captured, and delivered toBeijing . There he was exposed to the attention of China's capital's population, being carried for several weeks in a mobile iron cage through the main streets of Beijing. Finally he was brought to theDaoguang Emperor forinterrogation , but, having gone mad due to bad treatment, he couldn't answer any questions. Immediately after the interrogation was completed he was executed. Jahangir Khoja's body was cut into numerous pieces and his bones were thrown to dogs. His portrait was buried in the hill near Beijing. He was forty years old at the time of his death.References
Kutlukov, M. "Relations between
Khanate of Kokand andQing China ".Moscow ,Nauka , 1982Footnotes
Literature
* Kim Hodong, "Holy War in China: The Muslim Rebellion and State in Chinese Central Asia, 1864-1877". Stanford University Press (March 2004). ISBN 0804748845. (Searchable text available on Amazon.com)
* G. Grum-Grzimajlo, [http://www.cultinfo.ru/fulltext/1/001/007/023/23409.htm Eastern Turkestan] ru icon inBrockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.