Yarkent served as the capital of the Yarkent Khanate, which was also known as the Yarkent State (Mamlakati Yarkand), from the establishment of the Khanate (1514 AD) to its fall (1705 AD). The previous Dughlat state of Mirza Abu Bakr Dughlat (1465–1514) of Kashgaria also used Yarkent as the capital of state.
In the first half of the 14th century the Chagatai Khanate had collapsed; on the western part of the collapsed Chagatai Khanate, the Empire of Timur emerged in 1370, and became the dominant power in the region until its conquest in 1508 by the Shaybanids. Its eastern part became Moghulistan, which was created by Tughluk Timur Khan in 1347 with the capital centered in Almalik, around the Ili River Valley. It comprised all the settled lands of Eastern Kashgaria, as well as regions of Turpan and Kumul which were known at the time as Uyghurstan, according to Balkh and Indian sources of the 16th and 17th centuries. The reigning dynasty of the Yarkent Khanate originated from this state, which existed for more than a century.
In 1509 the Dughlats, vassal rulers of the Tarim basin, rebelled against the Moghulistan and broke away. Five years later Sultan Said Khan, a brother of the Khan of Eastern Moghulistan or Turpan Khanate, conquered the Dughlats but established his own Yarkent khanate instead.[3][2]
This put an end to the dominance in the cities of Kashgaria of the Dughlat emirs, who had controlled them since 1220, when most of Kashgaria had been granted to the Dughlat by Chagatai Khan himself. The conquest of the Dughlats allowed the Yarkent state to become the foremost power in the region.
The reign of Sultan Said Khan was heavily influenced by the khojas.[4] Said Khan also had a close relationship with Babur, his cousin and founder of the Mughal Empire across the Himalayas and Karakoram Range from the Yarkent Khanate.[2]
Said Khan's reign included a campaign in Bolor in 1527–1528,[5][6] a raid into Badakhshan in 1529, and looting expeditions into Ladakh and Kashmir in 1532.[7] Sultan Said Khan purportedly died in 1533 at Daulat Beg Oldi of a high-altitude pulmonary edema while returning to Yarkent from an expedition into Ladakh and Kashmir.[7][8][9][10]
Sultan Said Khan was succeeded by Abdurashid Khan (1533–1565), who began his reign by executing a member of the Dughlat family. Abdurrashid Khan also fought for control of (western) Moghulistan against the Kirghiz and the Kazakhs, but (western) Moghulistan was ultimately lost; thereafter the Moghuls were largely restricted to possession of the Tarim Basin.[11]
^According to M.Kutlukov, Altishahr historically was a union of 6 cities: four cities in Western Kashgaria-Hotan, Yarkand, Kashgar, Yengihisar and two cities in Eastern Kashgaria: Uchturpan and Aksu. Cities that were located east of Aksu, such as Kucha, Karashar, Turpan and Kumul, were not included in Altishahr. This division first appeared in the 15th century during the struggle between Mirza Abu Bakr Dughlat and the Moghul Khans of Moghulistan, when Mirza Abu Bakr managed to separate Altishahr into an independent state called Mamlakati Yarkand with its capital in Yarkand that he ruled for 48 years from 1465 till 1514. The Moghul khans then managed to establish control of the most of former Uyghuria (856–1389), mediaval state of Buddhist/ Nestorian/ Manichaenian Kingdom, that included Kucha, Karashar, Turpan, Kumul and Beshbaliq. That state submitted to Chengiz Khan in 1211 under Idikut Baurchuk Art Tekin and joined Mongol Empire as its 5th Ulus and this way retained independence till 1389, when was conquered by Khizr Khoja, son of Tughluk Timur Khan ( founder of Moghul Dynasty (1347–1930), last ruler of which Maqsud ShahofKumul Khanate died in 1930), who spread Islam among population of Uyghuria. In 1462 Moghul Khan Dost Muhammad managed to wrest Aksu from Dughlat Amirs, later Yunus Khan (1462–1487) spread influence of Moghul Khans till Turpan and Kumul and the settled part of the country south of Tengri Tagh under Moghul Khans became known at this time as Uyghurstan as opposite to the nomadic Moghulistan north of Tengri Tagh. In 1514 Sultan Said Khan put an end to this division and united all territory south of Tengri Tagh from Kashgar to Kumul in one centralized state, known in different sources as Kashgar and Uyghurstan (Mahmud ibn Wali, Balkh, 1640), Saidiyya, Kashgar Khanate or more properly Yarkand Khanate, that existed under dominance of Yarkand Khans till 1706 and under dominance of Khojas till 1759 when it was conquered by Qing China.
^Cacopardo, Alberto M.; Cacopardo, Augusto S. (2001). Gates of Peristan: History, Religion and Society in the Hindu Kush. Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente. p. 47. ISBN9788863231496. Mirza Haidar who led in 934/1527-28 an Islamic incursion into "Balur", describing it as "an infidel country (Kafiristan)" inhabited by "mountaineers" without any "religion or a creed" (Mirza Haidar 1895: 384), located "between Badakhshan and Kashmir" (ibid.: 136).
^Howard, Neil; Howard, Kath (2014), "Historic Ruins in the Gya Valley, Eastern Ladakh, and a Consideration of Their Relationship to the History of Ladakh and Maryul", in Lo Bue, Erberto; Bray, John (eds.), Art and Architecture in Ladakh: Cross-cultural Transmissions in the Himalayas and Karakoram, BRILL, pp. 68–99, ISBN9789004271807: "When his Khan decided to return home because of ill health, leaving Mirza Haidar to destroy "the idol temple of Ursang (i.e. Lhasa)", he "set out from Maryul in Tibet, for Yarkand". He "crossed the pass of Sakri", which must be that above Sakti (not the Kardung pass as Elias and Ross suggest), descended to Nubra and died at a camping place named Daulat Beg Uldi which is two-and-a-half hours below the Karakoram Pass."
^Bhattacharji, Romesh (7 June 2012). Ladakh – Changing, yet Unchanged. Rupa Publications Pvt Ltd. ISBN978-8129117618. Some 400 years earlier, in ad 1527, a Yarkandi invader, Sultan Saiad Khan Ghazi (also known as Daulat Beg) of Yarkand, briefly conquered Kashmir after fighting a battle along this pass. He died in 1531 at Daulat Beg Oldi (meaning, where Daulat Beg died) at the foot of the Karakoram pass, after he was returning from an unsuccessful attempt to invade Tibet.
Ahmad Alaq (1487–1503) Mansur Khan (1503–1548) Shah Khan (1543–1560)
Muhammad Khan ibn Mansur Khan (1570) Koraish Sultan (1570–1588) Muhammad Sultan (1588–1591)
Abduraim Khan (1591-1636)
Abu'l Muhammad Khan (1636-1653)
Ibrahim Sultan (1653–1655)
Sultan Said Baba Khan (1655–1680)
1These are traditional areas of settlement; the Turkic group has been living in the listed country/region for centuries and should not be confused with modern diasporas. 2State with limited international recognition.
