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| Report of a Mission to Yarkund in 1873 : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
( 131 )
Y.C. According to D'Ohsson, as quoted by Yule, the Kara Khitây Empire was
its by a Prince of the Leao dynasty, who, on ts fall before the Kin, in the beginning of the twelfth century, escaped from North China. He is the Ye lin Tashi of the Chinese, and the Fushi Taifu of Rash£duddin. He was well received by the Uighur and others, subjects of the Khita Empire to the west of the desert, and ultimately, acquiring power and strength, conquered all the country up to Khwahrizm, and in 1125 A.D. took the title of Gorkhan. His capital was Balrasaghûn, and his religion was Budhist.
He was succeeded in turn by a son and grandson, and the latter was reigning, when in 1208 A.D. the son of the last Khan of the Christian Nayman sought refuge at the Court of Kara Khitay, and married the daughter of Gorkhan. He plotted against.his benefactor, ultimately captured him, and took possession of most of his country. He abandoned Christianity at the bid of his wife, and in the end was slain in the mountains of Badakhshan. by the Moghol under Changiz in 1218A.D.
According to the French Monk William de Rubruquis, who was sent to Tatary on a mission to Bata Khan by Louis IX of France when that sovereign was in Palestine, and who extended his travels to the Court of Mangû Khan, and the city of Karakoram, as quoted by the same author, Kara Khitay was a name used in distinction
from the proper Khitay. They dwelt in an alpine country north of Khita, where in a plain amongst the mountains dwelt the Nayman tribe of Nestorian Christians. Their Chief, on the death of Gorkhan, the Kara Khitay Ruler, rose to be King in his place, and was called by the Nestorians " King John," the Prester John of Europe. He was known by this name but to few in the time of Rubruquis when Kin Khan held the country.
This King John had a brother, who, like himself, was a great shepherd, and
dwelt three weeks journey off on the other side of the Kara Khitay mountains, where his capital was the small town of Karakoram. His name was Aong Khan, and his people the Karait and Makrit, who were also Christians, though their Lord became an idolator. Beyond his pastures, at from ten to fifteen days' journey, were the Moghol tribe, a poor people without a leader or religion, except that of soothsayers and sorcerers. Beyond the Moghol or Moal was another poor tribe, the Tartar.
This Aong Khan, or Unc Cham, the Chief of the Karait of Karakoram, is the
Tuli of the Chinese writers, and the Toghrul of the Persian. He got the title Tine, or Aong, or Wing, as it appears in different authors, and which is equivalent to Khan = "Chief," " Lord" from Kin, the sovereign of North China. Aong Khan, on the death of his brother, King John, became Khan, and his flocks spread over the country to the Moghol borders. At this time there was amongst the Moghol tribes a blacksmith, Tamiijin or Tamûrchi, who used to lift the cattle of Aong Khan's people; and they complaining to him, he invaded the Moghol lands, and drove Tamûjin to refuge amongst the Tatar.
T.N. According to the Tabcati Nasiri, written by Minhajuddin 'Uthman, Jauzjani
in 658H. = 1259 A.D., Tamûrchi Tartar, Chief of the Moghol tribe, was the father of Changiz. One day out a hunting he got a togkrul or " crane" or " crested heron," and stuck its plumes in his cap by way of ornament. From this circumstance he was named Toghrultakin = " Toghrul by name." The Turk tribe had a separate Chief, but both Turk and Moghol were the subjects of Altan Khan of Tamghaj. They were a thieving, adulterous, and reprobate people and altogether wicked.
Such in brief is what is known of the antecedents of Gorkhan, who now, on the decline of the Sanjar rule, appears upon the scene.
R. S. About this period there was at Balasaghûn, the Kûbaligh of the Moghol, a Khan
or Ruler of Afrasyab descent. His power was declining, and he was constantly harassed by the incursions of the neighbouring predatory tribes of Carligh, Canculf, and Kapchak. And in his distress he turned for aid to the Gorkhan of the Kara
Khitay.
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