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KASHGAR
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KASHGAR , an important See also:city of See also:Chinese See also:Turkestan, in 39° 24' 26" N. See also:lat., 76° 6' 47" E. See also:long., 4043 ft. above See also:sea-level. It consists of two towns, Kuhna Shahr or " old city," and Yangi Shahr or " new city," about five See also:miles apart, and separated from one another by the Kyzyl Su, a tributary of the See also:Tarim See also:river. It is called Su-See also:leh by the Chinese, which perhaps represents an See also:original Solek or Sorak. This name seems to be older than Kashgar, which is said to mean " variegated houses." Situated at the junction of routes from the valley of the See also:Oxus, from See also:Khokand and See also:Samarkand, Almati, See also:Aksu, and See also:Khotan, the last two leading from See also:China and See also:India, Kashgar has been noted from very See also:early times as a See also:political and commercial centre. Like allother cities of Central See also:Asia, it has changed hands repeatedly, and was from 1864-1887 the seat of See also:government of the See also:Amir Yakub Beg, surnamed the Atalik See also:Ghazi, who established and for a brief See also:period ruled with remarkable success a See also:Mahommedan See also:state comprising the See also:chief cities of the Tarim See also:basin from Turfan See also:round along the skirt of the mountains to Khotan. But the See also:kingdom collapsed with his See also:death and the Chinese retook the See also:country in 1877 and have held it since.
Kuhna Shahr is a small fortified city on high ground over-looking the river Tuman. Its walls are lofty and supported by See also:buttress bastions with loopholed turrets at intervals; the fortifications, however, are but of hard See also:clay and are much out of repair. The city contains about 2500 houses. Beyond the See also:bridge, a little way off, are the ruins of See also:ancient Kashgar, which once covered a large extent of country on both sides of the Tuman, and the walls of which even now are 12 feet wide at the See also:top and twice that in height. This city—Aski Shahr (Old See also:Town) as it is now called—was destroyed in 1514 by Mirza Ababakar (Abubekr) on the approach of See also:Sultan Said See also:Khan's See also:army. About two miles to the See also:north beyond the river is the See also:shrine of Hazrat Afak, the See also:saint See also: It is a handsome See also:mausoleum faced with See also:blue and See also: A curious See also:street sight in Kashgar is presented by the See also:hawkers of See also:meat pies, pastry and sweetmeats, which they trundle about on See also:hand-barrows just as their counterparts do in See also:Europe; while the See also:knife-grinder's See also:cart, and the See also:vegetable seller with his See also:tray or See also:basket on his See also:head, recall exactly similar itinerant traders further See also:west. The earliest See also:authentic mention of Kashgar is during the second period of ascendancy of the Han See also:dynasty, when the Chinese conquered the Hiungnu, Yutien (Khotan), Sulei (Kashgar), and a See also:group of states in the Tarim basin almost up to the See also:foot of the Tian Shan mountains. This happened in 76 B.c. Kashgar does not appear to have been known in the West at this time but See also:Ptolemy speaks of See also:Scythia beyond the Imaus, which is in a Kasia Regio, possibly exhibiting the name whence Kashgar and Kashgaria (often applied to the See also:district) are formed. Next ensues a long See also:epoch of obscurity. The country was converted to See also:Buddhism and probably ruled by Indo-Scythian or Kushan See also:kings. Hsuan Tswang passed through Kashgar (which he calls Ka-sha) on his return See also:journey from India to China. The Buddhist See also:religion, then beginning to decay in India, was working its way to a new growth in China, and contemporaneously the Nestorian Christians were establishing bishoprics at See also:Herat, Mery and Samarkand, whence they subsequently proceeded to Kashgar, and finally to China itself. In the 8th See also:century came the Arab invasion from the west, and we find Kashgar and Turkestan lending assistance to the reigning See also:queen of See also:Bokhara, to enable her to repel the enemy. But although the Mahommedan religion from the very commencement sustained checks, it nevertheless made its See also:weight See also:felt upon the See also:independent states of Turkestan to the north and See also:east, and thus acquired a steadily growing See also:influence. It was not, however, till the loth century that See also:Islam was established at Kashgar, under the See also:Uighur kingdom (see See also:TURKS). The Uighurs appear to have been the descendants of the people called Tolas and to have been one of the many See also:Turkish tribes who migrated westwards from China. Boghra Khan, the most celebrated See also:prince of this See also:line, was converted to Mahommedanism See also:late in the loth century and the Uighur kingdom lasted until 1120 but was distracted by complicated dynastic struggles. The Uighurs employed an See also:alphabet based upon the See also:Syriac and borrowed from the Nestorian missionaries. They spoke a See also:dialect of Turkish preserved in the Kudatku Bilik, a moral See also:treatise composed in 1065. Their kingdom was destroyed by an invasion of the Kara-Kitais, another Turkish tribe pressing west-wards from the Chinese frontier, who in their turn were swept away in 1219 by Jenghiz Khan. His invasion gave a decided check to the progress of the Mahommedan creed, but on his death, and during the rule of the Jagatai Khans, who became converts to that faith, it began to reassert its ascendancy. Marco See also:Polo visited the city, which he calls Cascar, about 1275 and See also:left some notes on it. In 1389–1390 Timur ravaged Kashgar, See also:Andijan and the intervening country. Kashgar passed through a troublous time, and in 1514, on the invasion of the Khan Sultan Said, was destroyed by Mirza Ababakar, who with the aid of ten thousand men built the new fort with massive defences higher up on the See also:banks of the Tuman. The dynasty of the Jagatai Khans collapsed in 1572 by the dismemberment of the country between See also:rival representatives; and soon after two powerful Khoja factions, the White and See also:Black Mountaineers (Ak and Kara Taghluk), arose, whose dissensions and warfares, with the intervention of the Kalmucks of See also:Dzungaria, fill up the See also:history till 1759, when a Chinese army from See also:Ili (See also:Kulja) invaded the country, and, after perpetrating wholesale massacres, finally consolidated their authority by settling therein Chinese emigrants, together with a Manchu garrison. The Chinese had thoughts of pushing their See also:con-quests towards western Turkestan and Samarkand, the chiefs of which sent to ask assistance of the Afghan king Ahmed Shah. This monarch despatched an See also:embassy to See also:Peking to demand the restitution of the Mahommedan states of Central Asia, but the embassy was not well received, and Ahmed Shah was too much engaged with the Sikhs to See also:attempt to enforce his demands by arms. The Chinese continued to hold Kashgar, with sundry interruptions from Mahommedan revolts—one of the most serious occurring in 1827, when the territory was invaded and the city taken by Jahanghir Khoja; Chang-See also:lung, however, the Chinese See also:general of Ili, recovered See also:possession of Kashgar and the other revolted cities in 1828. A revolt in 1829 under Mahommed See also:Ali Khan and Yusuf, See also:brother of Jahanghir, was more successful, and resulted in the concession of several important See also:trade privileges to the Mahommedans of the district of Alty Shahr (the six cities "), as it was then named. Until 1846 the country enjoyed See also:peace under the just and liberal rule of Zahir-ud-din, the Chinese governor, but in that See also:year a fresh Khoja revolt under Kath Tora led to his making himself See also:master of the city, with circumstances of unbridled See also:licence and oppression. His reign was, however, brief, for at the end of seventy-five days, on the approach of the Chinese, he fled back to Khokand amid the jeers of the inhabitants. The last of the Khoja revolts (1857) was of about equal duration with the previous one, and took See also:place under Wali-Khan,a degraded debauchee, and the murderer of the lamented traveller Adolf Schlaglntweit. The See also:great Tungani (Dungani) revolt, or insurrection of the Chinese Mahommedans, which See also:broke out in 1862 in Kansuh, spread rapidly to Dzungaria and through the line of towns in the Tarim basin. The Tungani troops in Yarkand See also:rose, and(loth of See also:August 1863)massacred some seven thousand Chinese, while the inhabitants of Kashgar, rising in their turn against their masters, invoked the aid of Sadik Beg, a See also:Kirghiz chief, who was reinforced by Buzurg Khan, the See also:heir of Jahanghir, and Yakub Beg, his general, these being despatched at Sadik's See also:request by the ruler of Khokand to raise what troops they could to aid his Mahommedan See also:friends in Kashgar. Sadik Beg soon repented of having asked for a Khoja, and eventually marched against Kashgar, which by this time had succumbed to Buzurg Khan and Yakub Beg, but was defeated and driven back to Khokand. Buzurg Khan delivered himself up to indolence and debauchery, but Yakub Beg, with singular See also:energy and perseverance, made himself master of Yangi Shahr, Yangi-See also:Hissar, Yarkand and other towns, and eventually became See also:sole master of the country, Buzurg Khan proving himself totally unfitted for the See also:post of ruler. Kashgar and the other cities of the Tarim basin remained under Yakub Beg's rule until 1877, when the Chinese regained possession of their ancient dominion. (C. E. D. B.; C. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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