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National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Report of a Mission to Yarkund in 1873 : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
( 134 )
thousand of their clergy, and demanded a summary recantation of their false R.S. doctrine, and on their refusal to deny their " Pure Prophet," he executed their chief priest, Sheikh Jalaluddin, by suspending him head downwards from the bough of a tree in front of the principal mosque ; whilst he let loose his soldiery amongst the rest to slay and torture, and finished with the destruction of their mosques and desecration of their tombs.
Whilst Koshluk was running this violent career in the south-west of the Uighfir country, another Budhist chief, Aydy Cat, Tartar, had risen to power at Balâsâghan in the north-east of the same region, and with only less violence persecuted the Muhammadans up to the Tâshkand frontier, and destroyed their town of Kâsân belonging to the province of Fargbana. (Aba1
At this time the growing power of Changiz had made itself felt on the Uighur border, and Aydy Cat, alive to his own interests, tendered an early submission to the rising conqueror. He was in consequence highly favoured, and Changiz gave him one of his daughters to wife. Koshluk, on the other hand, mistrustful, and continuing the old antipathy, did not so submit. Changiz, consequently, sent a strong force of his Moghol, under Jattah Noyân, to exterminate him and his Nâymân.
The Moghol invaders fell upon and slew all the Naymân troops they could lay hands on at Kâshghar, where they found them scattered amongst the peasantry, from whom they had taken forcible possession of their houses ; and then followed in the track of Koshluk to Khutan, subjugating and settling the country as they went
on.
Koshluk, on hearing of the destruction of his army and the approach of his dread enemies, abandoned Khutan, and fled in haste with only a few attendants into the mountains of Badakhshâ.n, and the Moghol, pursuing, got some Wâkhi or Wakhân huntsmen, amongst whom he was concealed, to deliver him up to them. They straightway killed him, and sent his head to Changiz, who then annexed Kâshghar and Khutan, and the country up to the Syhon.
This brings us to the period of the Moghol invasion under Changiz, and that P. occupation of the country which has given to it the name of Mogholistan ; just as in anterior ages a similar irruption from the north, under Ayghar Khan, gave to it, and the adjoining region to the west, the name of Turkistan, from the designation of the main division of the great Tartar invaders of that period, after whom the whole of the Central Asian plateau takes the general name of Tartary. To understand this it is necessary to go back to the early history of these peoples. The oriental version as given by Mir Khâwind Shah, the Mirkhond or Khondemir of European authors, whose opportunities of acquiring reliable information on the traditions of the country were, from his position at Herat during the glorious reign of the great Sultan Husen Mirth in the latter half of the fifteenth century, probably as good as those of other historians, may be briefly summarized much as follows :-
Yâfath or Japhet, which signifies " ancestor," was the forefather of the Turk race. R.S. When the ark rested on the mountain Jadi, Noah sent forth Japhet to the countries of the east, and gave him the Dada-trash =jade stone, which signifies " rainstone," for by its possession was secured a timely rain for the crops in their seasons. From him sprung the following peoples :-
Chin. He was the inventor of painting, silk culture, the art of weaving, and many other useful arts.
Sclr'b. He warred with Ras, and Kharz, and Kama,ri for the possession of the land, and finally settled in the country bearing his name. It is in 64° N. Lat. and beyond the haft iclim, where, owing to the intensity of the cold, the houses are sunk underground.
Kharz or Khazar. He settled on the River Amil = Volga, and built the city of Khazar there, and cultivated the soil.
J?'$. He settled on the tracts adjoining Khazar ; introduced punishment by fine and confiscation, and heritage by daughters, the sons receiving only their fathers' weapons of war.
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