Tughluk Timur’s first capital was Aksu, but later he selected Kashgar, and his chief claim to distinction is his connection with the great Tamerlane. At this period the western division of Chagatai’s kingdom, which was ruled by puppet Khans, had fallen into a state of anarchy. Tughluk Timur accordingly determined to annex it, and in 1360 crossed the frontier at the head of an army. The chief of the Barlas tribe was defeated and fled to Khorasan, but his nephew Timur, destined to become famous as Tamerlane, saved the situation by timely submission, and was received into favour.
On the death of Tughluk Timur in 1363 Tamerlane drove out his son, who died shortly afterwards, and the throne of Kashgar was usurped by Amir Kamar-u-Din, of the Dughlat tribe.
In 1375, hearing that Moghulistan was weakened by disorders, Tamerlane decided to invade it. In the chronicle known as the Zafar Nama an interesting account is given of this campaign. At the outset the weather was terribly severe: “No one ever yet saw so much snow; the world looked like a morsel in the snow’s mouth.” But Jahangir, the invader’s eldest son, defeated the enemy, who had taken refuge in deep ravines. Kamar-u-Din escaped, but his wife and daughter were captured, and Tamerlane married the latter and ended the campaign with festivities. He invaded Moghulistan altogether five times, the valley of the Yulduz being the meeting-place of his armies, and Eastern Turkestan suffered terribly from these raids, in the course of which the country was laid waste.
In 1392 Kamar-u-Din died, and a son of Tughluk Timur, who had been leading a wandering life, hidden by his attendants, at first in the Pamirs, then in the Kuen Lun, and finally in the wild Lob Nor region, was set on the throne, and concluded a peace with Tamerlane.
Tamerlane’s last projected campaign against China would have led across Moghulistan, and the Khan was much perturbed by orders to sow large tracts of land with corn and to collect thousands of head of cattle for the use of the army. But one day “they saw advancing rapidly a man mounted on a black horse and clothed in white robes. The chamberlains ran up from every side to try to stop him in his course, but he did not slacken his speed till he came up to where the Khan was standing. Then he called out in a loud voice, ‘Amir Timur is no more; he has died at Otrar!’ Many horsemen were sent after him, but none could overtake him.” The news announced in this dramatic fashion was confirmed forty-five days later. The “Scourge of God” had died on February 4, 1405, and the country was thereby saved from being eaten up by the vast armies which he would have led on this distant campaign.
It is interesting to note that in 1420 Amir Khudadad, the then ruler, entertained the embassy despatched by Shah Rukh, the celebrated successor of Tamerlane, to the Emperor of China. The outward route of the ambassadors ran by Samarcand and Tashkent and thence to the north of the Tian Shan by Yulduz to Turfan, the return route passing through Khotan and Kashgar. The autograph letters of Shah Rukh are still extant, and the description of the journey given by one of the envoys is delightfully vivid.
We learn a good deal about Eastern Turkestan during the early part of the sixteenth century through Mirza Haidar’s description of the career of Sultan Said, whose service he entered. This ruler, unable to face the Uzbegs, whose power had become formidable, decided in 1514 to forsake Andijan and to attack Aba Bakr, of the Dughlat tribe, who ruled at Kashgar and Yarkand. The expedition was a complete success and re-established the Moghul dynasty, Aba Bakr being murdered while fleeing to Ladak. Sultan Said invaded Badakshan, Ladak and Kashmir during the next two decades, and died from the effects of the rarefication of the atmosphere on his way back from Ladak, near the celebrated Karakoram Pass. Rashid Khan, who gave his name to the history, succeeded to the throne and ruled for some years with much cruelty. After his death his sons divided their heritage, and the country relapsed into anarchy.
TAMERLANE.
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