Ancient Khotan : vol.1 / Page 196 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

0196	Ancient Khotan : vol.1

spoken by the contemporary inhabitants ¹³. Since this fact fully accords with the ethnic
relationship which the Chinese records just quoted indicate between the Khotanese and the
Galchas of the same and the immediately preceding periods, it is clear that the prevalence of
Homo Alpinus in the anthropological composition of the present Khotan people must be
attributed to direct inheritance from the pre-Muhammadan population.

Admixture
of Turkī
blood. It is different with the admixture of Turkī blood. That this admixture has taken place
only since Khotan was converted to Islām is clearly shown by historical and philological
evidence. We know that until the close of the tenth century, when that conversion took place,
Khotan under its Buddhist rulers remained independent of the Karluk Turk dominion
established in the north-west of the Tārim Basin. During the prolonged struggle which preceded
the introduction of Islām, an appreciable influx of Turkī people into Khotan is highly improbable.
The same observation applies to the ninth century, when Khotan with a great portion of
Eastern Turkestān was under Tibetan control, while the total absence of Turkī words in the
Brāhmī documents of Dandān-Uiliq, already mentioned, excludes the possibility of the population
of Khotan having received any Turkī element down to the close of the eighth century.

Restriction
of Turkī
element. The admixture of Turkī blood, which must thus be ascribed to the period since the conquest
of Khotan by Satok Boghra Khān's family, is shown by Mr. Joyce's analysis to have been
relatively small ¹⁴. This may appear surprising, in view of the universal adoption of the Turkī
language in Khotan, as throughout the oases of the Tārim Basin, but it is in reality easily
accounted for. In this region, as in other Central-Asian territories where subsistence is possible
solely by the laborious cultivation of irrigated lands, or else by industries and commerce, the
Turks, nomads by origin and habits, appeared primarily only as soldiers. By their superior
military qualities and organization they were able even in small numbers to place their chiefs
in undisputed sway over the far more civilized but peace-loving people of the ancient oases.
They likewise succeeded, by a peculiar faculty for ethnic attraction, often illustrated in the case
of Turkish conquests, in making subject populations rapidly adopt their own language and
willingly accept their political predominance. On their own part these Turks could not escape
gradual amalgamation with the people of the oases whom they ruled and protected, and in the
end they became wholly absorbed in them ¹⁵. But their numbers were far too small to affect
fundamentally the racial character of the population.

The latter remark applies probably with even greater force to the Kara-Khitai, Moghuls
and Kalmaks or Oirat (Eleuths), all tribes of Mongolo-Turkī race, who during subsequent
periods exercised political predominance in Eastern Turkestān. Retaining their nomadic habits
longer than the Turks, these nations had their main seats of power to the north of the T'ien-shan,
in the country known after them as Moghulistān or Zungaria. In view of what we know of
the manner in which their temporary power was exercised in the settled portions of Turkestān,
they could but slightly have strengthened the Turkī element in so distant an oasis as Khotan ¹⁶.

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

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