Through deserts and oases of central Asia

by Ella Sykes; Sir Percy Sykes

Under the later Chagatai Khans, Islam recovered from the set-back it had received from the invasions of Chengiz Khan and his immediate successors, thanks mainly to the influence of Bokhara and Samarcand, which had become important centres of Moslem learning. During the reign of Rashid Khan, the celebrated saint Sayyid Khoja Hasan, more generally known as Makhdum-i-Azam or “The Great Master,” visited Kashgar from Samarcand and was received with extraordinary honours. The saint’s sons settled at Kashgar, where their father had married a wife and had received rich estates, and gradually established a theocracy, laying upon the necks of the submissive, apathetic people a heavy yoke which they still bear. In course of time two parties were formed whose influence on the subsequent history of the country has been profound. The supporters of the elder son were termed Ak Taulin or “White Mountaineers,” from the name of the range behind Artush, their headquarters, whereas the supporters of the younger were known as Kara Taulin or “Black Mountaineers,” from the hills near Khan Arik. Both parties of Khojas, as they were termed, aimed at political supremacy and intrigued with any external power that appeared likely to favour their ambitions.

In 1603 the famous Portuguese monk Benedict Goez reached Yarkand and was honourably received by its ruler, to whose mother he had lent money at Kabul. The Prince repaid the debt in jade, which the traveller sold to great advantage during his onward journey.

We now come to the rise of the Zungars or Kalmuks, a Mongol race which then dwelt in Ili and the surrounding districts. Under Khan Haldan Bokosha, one of the outstanding figures of the period, their power stretched northwards to Siberia and southwards to Kucha, Karashahr and Kunya-Turfan; but Haldan rebelled against the Chinese and was decisively beaten.

His nephew and successor, Tse Wang Rabdan, ruled from Hami on the east to Khokand on the west, and, until his murder in 1727, was the most powerful of Zungarian rulers. The Torgut Mongols from fear of him fled to the banks of the Volga. Sir Henry Howorth gives an interesting account of the relations between Tse Wang and the Russians, from which it appears that Peter the Great, attracted by rumours of gold in Eastern Turkestan, despatched a body of 3000 men up the Irtish with Yarkand as their objective; but the Zungars assailed the column and forced it to retire.

To return to the Khoja family, its most celebrated member was Hidayat Ulla, known as Hazrat Apak or “His Highness the Presence,” head of the Ak Taulins, who was regarded as a Prophet second only to Mohamed. Expelled from Kashgar he took refuge at Lhassa, where the Dalai Lama befriended him and advised him to seek the aid of the Zungars. In 1678 the latter seized Kashgar, which remained in their power for many years, and Hazrat Apak ruled as the deputy of the Khan, paying tribute equivalent to £62,000 per annum. In his old age the saint retired from the world to end his days among his disciples.

Some years later internal disorders enabled Amursana, one of the Zungar chiefs, to declare himself and his tribe Chinese subjects, and to persuade other tribes to follow his example; he also induced Kashgar to tender allegiance to the Chinese. It was the policy of the Emperor Keen Lung to reconquer Ili and Eastern Turkestan for the Celestial Empire; and in 1755 he despatched an army 150,000 strong, which met with little resistance and enabled him to consolidate the allegiance tendered through Amursana, who was appointed Paramount Chief. The Zungar soon tired of Chinese rule and massacred a detachment of the Celestial forces; but the Chinese reoccupied Zungaria in 1757, and in the following year crushed the tribe. Kulja was founded on the site of the Zungarian capital, and the modern name of Hsin-Chiang or the “New Province” was formally bestowed on the reconquered countries.

The Chinese, realizing their numerical weakness, settled soldiers and landless men in the fertile districts of the “New Province,” to which they also deported criminals and political prisoners, among the latter being Tunganis deported from Kansu and Shensi. Chinese rule was evidently less harsh than Russian; for in 1771 the Torgut Mongols to the number of 100,000 families fled back to the Ili valley from the banks of the Volga, as narrated in dramatic fashion by De Quincey.

The prestige of China after her splendid successes was naturally very high and led to further acquisitions. First the Middle and then the Little Horde of Kirghiz, in spite of their connection with Russia, offered their submission; it was accepted, and the rulers of Khokand, Baltistan, and Badakshan followed suit.

The Khans of Central Asia were alarmed by this display of Chinese power, and formed a confederacy, headed by Ahmad Khan, the Amir of Afghanistan, who despatched an embassy to Peking to demand the surrender of Chinese Turkestan on the ground that it was inhabited by Moslems. Receiving an unsatisfactory reply, the Afghan Amir was careful not to attack the Chinese, but contented himself with holding Badakshan in force; and soon afterwards the confederacy broke up.

Chinese exactions both in taxation and in forced labour for the erection of cantonments now became very heavy, and many of the oppressed peasants fled to Andijan, where they formed a party of malcontents, who awaited their opportunity.