In 1200 the tables were turned on the Gur Khan by Mohamed of Khwarazm, who was joined by Guchluk son of the Naiman chief whose defeat by Chengiz is recounted in the next chapter. Escaping from the field, he arrived, after great privations, at the court of the Gur Khan, where he was treated kindly, received a daughter of the monarch in marriage, and was converted to Buddhism. But, with base ingratitude, he gradually collected a force of his tribesmen, and with Mohamed of Khwarazm and the Prince of Samarcand formed a plot against his benefactor. The nefarious scheme was successful, and by 1212 the Gur Khan was a prisoner, and the usurper ruled over the Tarim basin. During the few years of his power he persecuted the followers of Islam and massacred the mullas at Khotan, hanging their leader head downwards from a tree in front of the chief mosque. But the reign of this detestable traitor was short, and the avenger of the Gur Khan was at hand.
CHAPTER XIV
AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF CHINESE TURKESTAN:
THE MEDIAEVAL AND LATER PERIOD
Cascar constituted a Kingdom in former days, but now is subject to the Great Kaan. The people worship Mohamed. There are a good number of towns and villages, but the greatest and finest is Cascar itself. The inhabitants live by trade and handicrafts; they have beautiful gardens and vineyards, and fine estates, and grow a great deal of cotton.... There are in this country many Nestorian Christians, who have churches of their own.—Marco Polo.
The rise of the Mongols from the position of despised tributaries of the Kin dynasty to that of lords of Asia and Eastern Europe is among the greatest events in history. Chengiz Khan, the organizing genius who welded tribes, with their constant feuds, raids and petty wars, into a single vast, obedient army, was born in 1162. When a boy of thirteen he succeeded to the confederacy built up by his father Yissugay, and for many years he suffered the vicissitudes of fortune that were usual in those times and circumstances; among them being capture by his enemies. After these early difficulties, we hear of the youthful chieftain serving the Kin Emperor and attacking with success the Buyr Nur Tartars who had killed his father.
Among his allies were the Keraits, a Nestorian Christian tribe whose chief, Toghril, better known as the Wang Khan, was probably the original subject of the stories associated with Prester John, the fabulous monarch renowned in mediaeval Europe. In 1199 the two chiefs attacked the powerful Naiman tribe of Christians which occupied the country to the north of the Tian Shan, but the campaign was unsuccessful owing to the treachery of the Kerait leader, who drew off his troops at a critical moment. Three years later Wang Khan actually attacked and worsted the Mongols, but this defeat was avenged by Chengiz, who surprised him by a night attack. Wang Khan fled to the Naiman, by whom he was put to death. The results of this encounter were important, since it gave Chengiz control of the southern part of the present province of Mongolia.
His next campaign was directed against the Naiman. The two forces met to the north of the Tian Shan, and the result was a decisive victory for Chengiz, who thereby subjugated the Naimans and their allies. The Naiman king was carried out of the battle mortally wounded, but his son Guchluk escaped to Chinese Turkestan and took refuge with the Gur Khan, whose hospitality he abused as mentioned in the previous chapter.
In 1218 Chengiz invaded Chinese Turkestan and detached a force of 20,000 men from the main body to attack Guchluk. The latter fled without attempting to fight for his throne, but was overtaken in the wilds of Badakshan and put to death. The Mongol general proclaimed freedom of worship, which was one of the few benefits conferred by these nomad rulers. Through their influence, too, the position of Moslem women was considerably raised in Central Asia, where it is still relatively high. Later on commerce prospered, owing to the removal of the boundaries of states, and during the second half of the thirteenth century the illustrious Venetian, Marco Polo, traversed the province from the Pamirs to Kashgar, from that city to Yarkand and Khotan, and thence to China.
Chengiz Khan divided his dominions among his four sons. To Chagatai, his second son, was assigned Transoxiana as a centre, with appanages in every direction; Eastern Turkestan, Ili, Tibet, Ladak, Badakshan, Afghanistan, Kashmir and Bokhara being all included in his wide-spreading kingdom. Chagatai was a follower of Buddha, and his rule was both vigorous and tolerant. His capital was at Almaligh, near the modern Kulja, where he led a nomad’s life remote from the great cities of Samarcand and Bokhara. He bestowed Eastern Turkestan on the Dughlat family, and its chiefs became hereditary rulers of the province. Early in the fourteenth century a permanent division was made, Moghulistan[12] being separated from Transoxiana. For the former kingdom a Mongol prince, Isan Bugha, was elected and set on the throne, which he occupied until his death in 1330. His successor, after an interval of anarchy, was his son Tughluk Timur, whose mother, while pregnant with him, had, on account of the jealousy of the head wife, been married to a nobleman and sent away from the Court. Owing to this it was not even known whether a son or a daughter had been born to the Khan until the head of the Dughlat tribe despatched a confidential servant, who ascertained the facts and brought back the youth, then sixteen years of age.
The Tarikh-i-Rashidi, the sole important literary work produced in Eastern Turkestan,[13] opens with the following sentence, which merits quotation: “One day, when Tughluk Timur Khan was feeding his dogs with swine’s flesh, Shaykh Jamal-u-Din was brought into his presence. The Khan said to the Shaykh, ‘Are you better than this dog or is the dog better than you?’ The Shaykh replied, ‘If I have faith I am the better of the two, but if I have no faith, this dog is better than I am.’ The Khan was much impressed by these words, and a great love for Islam took possession of his heart.” His conversion did not take place during the Shaykh’s lifetime, but was accomplished by a Maulana or “Master,” a small, weak man in appearance, who, when challenged, smote the Champion of the Infidels senseless. This seemingly miraculous blow resulted in 160,000 persons becoming Moslems, and by the end of the fourteenth century Islam had supplanted Buddhism generally throughout Eastern Turkestan.