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

( 185 )

M.V.   During the period of this invasion, Western China was disturbed by the revolt

in Shensi and the capture and massacre of Barki11 by the Musalmaus, and consequently the Chinese troops did not concentrate at Ghûlja or Ila till the following January, after the Khokand army had retired from Kâshghar.

In the spring of this year (1831), whilst they were re-occupying the evacuated towns, Muhammad Ali Khan, who had staved off his difficulty with Bukhara, sent Hacc Cull Beg with an army of 7,000 men to subjugate the Kara Kirghiz who, during the recent troubles, had been raiding his border. He dispersed the Sayak camps on the Upper Narin, and took prisoners their chiefs Atantai and Tailac; whilst the Koshbegi of Tashkand at the same time pursued the Boghu tribes and penetrated beyond Ila to the military post of Sibo.

These suecesses of the Khocand Khan altered the policy of the Chinese Governor, who now sent four envoys to treat with Muhammad Ali Khan. He detained three of them as hostages, and with the fourth sent Alim Padshah, a rich merchant, as his agent to Pekin, with certain demands for the government of the Musalman population of the towns of Eastern Turkistan. He secured the following concessions for the Khan : first, dues as per ekariat on all merchandise brought by Musalman traders to the towns of Acsti, Ush Turfan, Kâshghar, Yangi Hissar, Yarkand and Khutan to go to the Khan of Khocand ; second, the power to appoint in each of these towns an Aksakal,=" white-beard" or " elder" as commercial agent to collect these dues under a Khocand inspector to reside at Kashghar as political representative ; and third, that all foreign Musalmans residing in these towns were to be under the entire control of these agents. In return the Khokand Khan agreed to restrain the Khoja party and to prevent their invading the country, and to imprison any member attempting to do so.

The envoy on his return from Pekin, in 1882, was appointed Inspector at Kâshghar on the part of Khokand, and, according to the Andijan custom, held the post on lease. His authority extended over the " six cities " to which the treaty regulations applied, and hence the country was called by the Andijan people Alty Skahr, or by a different reckoning (in which Marâlbashi belonging to Yarkand was counted separately) Yatty Sliahr " seven cities." And this was the region in which Khokand influence was greatest, its effects being as yet barely perceptible in the eastern cities.

Thus were established trade and political relations between Western China and Khokand. Through them the Khokandi acquired an increasing influence in the country, and a firmer grasp on the sympathies of the people, in opposition to the rule of the Chinese, to whose prestige the revolts of Jahingir in 1826, and of Ytisuf in 1830, coupled with the influence exercised by the proximity of the Russians, proved serious blows.

After reducing the Kara Kirghiz Muhammad All Khan extended his frontiers, and in 1832 built the Kurtka Fort on the Navin and that of Tashkorghan on the Pamir border, and he held besides nearly a fourth of the population of these towns under the rule of his agents. To keep this power, it was his interest to restrain the Khojas, and he consequently strictly watched their movements.

Until 1846 the country enjoyed peace under the just and liberal rule of Zuhizrud-

din, the Governor on the part of the Chinese. He appears to have been a native of Kashghar, and to have emigrated to Khokand in 1830. From this he went to Petropawlovsk and Kazan, and returned thence by Semipalatinsk to Ghûlja

where he represented to the Chinese Governor that he had escaped from prison at

Khokand. He was, in consequence, taken into favour and appointed Ishikagha, or " Mayor " of Kashghar, and gradually rose to the post of. Hakim Beg, or Sol Ambczn as he is styled in the inscription over the gate of Kashghar, of which, in 1255 H.

(1839 A.D.), he restored the fortifications and built the palace. During his rule were erected the new Chinese forts, called Mangshin or Yangishahr, outside each of the towns of this country, for the accommodation of the Chinese garrisons and arsenals, instead of the former citadels, called Gulbagli, which were destroyed by the rebels.