National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

( 174 )

He banished all his brothers and uncles, and his father's wives, and beggared the T. R. whole family. He allied with the Uzbak, and gave his sisters in marriage to their nobles. During his reign (of thirty-three years) he annexed Andijâ.n on the one side, and Turfân on the other. In his time the Uzbak gained domination over the Moghol, who were in two great divisions called Moghol and Chagbtâ.y. The Moghol are the same as the Jattah and Kirghiz, and they number thirty thousand families in Turfân and Kâshghar; they are mostly pagans, and the meanest of mankind. They call the Chaghtây by way of derision Caradânâs.

According to the Târikhi Khânân Chaghtâya (a book I have not had an oppor- T.K.C. tunity of examining), Rashid left two sons, Abdul Karim and Muhammad Khan, each of whom succeeded to a divided government in turn. In the reign of the latter the Kirghiz invaded the country, and the dynasty of Chaghtây Khans collapsed 980 H.=1572 A:D. by the dismemberment of the country between rival representatives of the family ; having endured two hundred and twelve years under varying fortunes since its first establishment 761 H.=1360 A.D. by Toghhic Tymnr.

During the two centuries of rule under the Chaghtây Khans, Islam in Mogho- P. listan recovered the check it had suffered under the invasion by Changiz, and the government of his immediate successors. And with the influx of Muhammadan divines during the reigns of the first rulers of that dynasty, soon acquired a more fanatic influence amongst the people than it had ever before exhibited. This was due to the proselitizing zeal and activity of the Musalmân merchant priests who traversed the country in all directions, and spread their doctrine more by example and persuasive devices than by force.

The graves of the early champions of the Faith, who fell martyrs to the cause of its propagation in this region, were everywhere diligently sought out, their occupants canonized as saints, and their tombs converted into sacred shrines endowed with all sorts of beneficent virtues. Rich grants of land were apportioned by successive Khans for the support of their establishments, whose presiding elders in return dispensed, in the name of their patron saint, endless favors and bounties to an illiterate and superstitious peasantry—by means of magic charms for the cure of disease, by professed miraculous aversions of calamity, and by promised attainment of desires. By methods such as these the priesthood gradually acquired an overwhelming influence over the minds of the people, and soon exerted it to control their domestic life, and finally to usurp the direction of their political conduct and relations.

In the reign of Rashid Sultan, the great saint and divine of the age, the celebrated Maulânâ Syad Khoja Kâsâni, more commonly known as the Makhdiimi A.zam=" The Great Master," the metropolitan of Samarcand, visited Kâshghar. He was received with the most profound reverence and devotion by the citizens, and was granted rich estates by the Khan. Whilst here he married a lady of the place, Bibi Chiya, and she bore him a son, the Khoja Ishâc.

Some of the Makhdûm's sons settled at Kâshghar, and by virtue of their exalted parentage, which they traced up to the Prophet, enjoyed a reverential deference from all classes, and were with it accorded by the rulers a leading part in the

councils of the government. This liberty they soon turned to the advancement of their personal interests, and, consequently, jealousy and rivalry divided the brotherhood ; and two great factions, which exist to the present day, were formed, each supported by its own adherents and partizans amongst the people.

The party siding with the Imcimi Kalcin, Khoja Muhummad Amin (the eldest

son of the Makhdûm by a daughter of the Syad Yiisuf of Kasân) whose seat was at Artosh, was styled Aktaghluc = " White mountaineer," from the Aktagh or " white mountains " to the north, to which they looked for extraneous support from the Kirghiz there.

The party of the younger son, Khoja Ishâc, was called Karatagkluc = " Black mountaineer," from the Karatâgh or " black mountains" to the west of his seat at Khânaric, to whose Kirghiz they looked for aid.