Kara-Khanid Khanate

The Kara-Khanids were a Turkic dynasty that ruled much of Central Asia from the late tenth century to the early thirteenth. They were the first Turkic dynasty to adopt Islam as a state religion, and under them the eastern part of Central Asia, around Kashgar and the Tarim basin, began to become Muslim.

The Kara-Khanids probably came from the Karluks, Yaghmas and Chigils, Turkic peoples of the region between Lake Balkhash and the Tarim basin, who had been part of the Turkic and Uyghur khaganates. The name, meaning "black khans", was given by modern historians; they called themselves the Khaqani dynasty, and Muslim writers sometimes called them the Afrasiyabids, after a legendary Turanian king. They are also called Ilek Khanids after a royal title.

According to tradition, around the mid-tenth century, the Kara-Khanid ruler Satuq Bughra Khan converted to Islam under the influence of a Samanid exile or merchants. His tomb near Kashgar, at Artush, is a pilgrimage site. In 960, according to the historian Ibn al-Athir, 200,000 tents of Turks converted to Islam, probably referring to the Kara-Khanids.

The Kara-Khanids attacked the declining Samanid Empire, taking Bukhara briefly in 992 and permanently in 999. They took Transoxiana, with Samarkand and Bukhara, while the Ghaznavids took Khurasan. The Oxus river became the border between them. In the east, the Kara-Khanids conquered the Buddhist kingdom of Khotan around 1006, after a long war, spreading Islam in the Tarim basin.

The Kara-Khanid realm was divided among members of the ruling family, with a senior khan and junior khans. Around 1040 it split into an eastern khanate, with its capital at Balasagun, in today's Kyrgyzstan, and Kashgar, and a western khanate, with its capital at Samarkand. In the west, Ibrahim Tamghach Khan, who ruled from 1052 to 1068, was famous for his justice, built hospitals and madrasas in Samarkand and set prices in markets.

The Kara-Khanid period was important for the development of Turkic literature in an Islamic context. In 1069 Yusuf Khass Hajib of Balasagun completed the Kutadgu Bilig, "Wisdom of Royal Glory", a long poem in Turkic, presenting dialogues on good government, ethics and religion. Around 1072–1077, Mahmud al-Kashgari wrote the Diwan Lughat al-Turk, a dictionary of the Turkic languages in Arabic, for the Abbasid caliph, with poems, proverbs and a circular map of the Turkic world. Kara-Khanid architecture included the Burana tower near Balasagun and the mausoleums of Uzgen, in Kyrgyzstan.

In 1089 the Seljuk sultan Malik Shah made the western khanate his vassal. In the 1130s the Qara Khitai, Khitan refugees from northern China led by Yelü Dashi, took Balasagun and made the eastern khanate their vassal. In 1141, at Qatwan near Samarkand, they defeated the Seljuk sultan Sanjar and the western Kara-Khanids, who also became Qara Khitai vassals.

The Kara-Khanids continued as vassal rulers. In the early thirteenth century, Muhammad II, the Khwarazm Shah, took Samarkand and executed the last western Kara-Khanid ruler, Uthman, in 1212. In the east, Kuchlug, a Naiman prince who seized power in the Qara Khitai, ended the eastern khanate around 1211.

Our maps show the Kara-Khanids on the 1100 map, with an outline of about 1.7 million square kilometres. The largest share is in today's China, in western Xinjiang, followed by Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Samarkand, Tashkent and Kashgar lie inside it. On the 1200 map the region belongs to the Qara Khitai.