In the religious war between the Qarakhanids and the Khotanese Kingdom, relations with the Qarakhanids gradually deteriorated because the Gaochang Uighurs supported Khotan, and the Qarakhanids hated the Buddhist Gaochang Uighurs to the bone. Mahmud. In his Turkic Dictionary, Kashgari called the Gaochang Uighurs, who did not believe in Islam, "the fiercest enemy." Therefore, soon after the Qarakhanid Dynasty fell to the Khotanese Kingdom, it launched a "holy war" against the Uighurs of Gaochang.
The religious war against the Uighurs in Gaochang was personally organized and waged by the Great Khan of the Qarakhanid Dynasty, Ahmadi Togan Khan. He led his army from Balasagun, crossed the Ili River, and attacked Turpan. The Uighurs of Gaochang fought back tenaciously and repelled the invading enemy.
The ruins of the ancient city of Gaochang are located in present-day Turpan
In 1017, an army of 300,000 Gaochang Uighurs followed and pursued to Kashgar and advanced all the way to a place only eight days away from Balasagun. Ahmad Togan Khan, who was ill, had to take the sick to organize a counterattack and defeat the Uighur army of Gaochang.
Ahmadi Togan Khan personally led his army in pursuit, attacked Turpan again, and engaged in a fierce battle with the Uighurs of Gaochang. The Qarakhanid army carried out brutal killings of the Uighurs in Gaochang and wreaked havoc on Buddhist culture. A poem in the Turkic Dictionary describes this as follows: We came like a tide, attacked large and small cities, destroyed all the Temples of Buddha, and gave the Bodhisattva and urine.
Due to the aggravation of Ahmadi Togan Khan's illness and the stubborn counterattack of the Uighurs of Gaochang, the Qarakhanids had to withdraw their troops and strike. This "holy war" between the Qarakhanids against the Uighurs of Gaochang ended in vain. Since then, the Qarakhanid dynasty has been mired in endless internal strife and has no time to carry out military missions.
After the death of Ahmad Togan Khan, the Khanship passed to his cousin Yusupu Kadir Khan.
In 1032, Yusupu Qadir Khan died, and the internal contradictions of the khanate intensified due to the khanate's struggle for the throne
In 1041 AD, the Qarakhanid dynasty was divided in two
The Eastern Qarakhanid Dynasty with Kashgar as its capital The Western Qarakhanid Dynasty, with Samarkand as its capital
The Eastern and Western Qarakhanid dynasties, as well as between the ruling groups of the two regimes, were embroiled in endless internal strife and were unable to wage another external Jihad in Islan. The first upsurge of Islamic islam in Xinjiang came to an end.
At this time, the Uighur kingdom of Gaochang, which "stretched from Hami in the east to the Ili River in the north, to the Bingdapan in Aksu in the west, and to Khotan in the south", was still prevalent in Buddhism. The Qarakhanid Dynasty, which believed in Islam, and the Uighur Kingdom of Gaochang, which believed in Buddhism, stood side by side, unveiling a pattern of coexistence of multiple religions in the northern part of Xinjiang with Buddhism as the mainstay and Islam as the mainstay in the southern region. This pattern lasted for about 600 years.
In 1089, the Seljuks conquered Bukhara, and the Western Qarakhanids became political vassals of the Seljuks.
In 1124, the Liao state fell, the Liao nobleman Yelü Dashi led a small number of people to flee to the Eastern Qarakhan khanate to ask for refuge, but at this time the Khan Dynasty was too busy to take care of itself, and Yelü Dashi united with the 30,000 "pagan nomadic tribes", stationed in Yemili, and began to develop its own power.
In 1134, Ibrahim, the Great Khan of the Eastern Qarakhanid Dynasty, clashed with the gelug and Khamri chiefs and asked Yerushalayim to send troops to support. Yelü Dashi took the opportunity to launch a coup d'état, occupy Balshagun as his capital, and reduce the eastern Qarakhanid dynasty to vassalage, and from then on the eastern Qarakhanid dynasty had only Kashgar, Aksu and Hotan regions.
In 1137 the Western Liao defeated the armies of the Western Qarakhanids at Hezhu. On September 9, 1141, the Seljuks and the Western Liao Dynasty fought a historic battle on the Katwan Steppe. The Great Stone of Yelü won more with less, the Seljuks suffered a crushing defeat, and as a result withdrew from the river region, and the western Qarakhanid Dynasty changed its suzerainty and remained in the form of vassals.
Jeroboam stepped onto the stage of history as the new hegemon of Central Asia
In 1211, the Prince of Naiman replaced the rule of the late Western Liao emperor Zhilugu, and the Eastern Qarakhanid dynasty collapsed.
In 1212, the people of Hezhong, dissatisfied with the exploitation of the Khwarazm Dynasty, staged an uprising, which the Ottoman Khan supported. Mahama led an army to suppress it, attacked the city of Samarkand, executed the Ottoman Khan, and the Western Qarakhanid dynasty collapsed.
The Qarakhanid dynasty (840 AD to 1212 AD) ended its journey in such a way that it lasted 372 years
However, the wheel of history keeps moving forward,
A new strong man is about to appear
A new generation is coming
For the aftermath,
Stay tuned for the next issue of The Journey of the Mongols