Indian Antiquary Vol 10

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 24

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(JANUARY, 1881.
of the Lord Jesus came to them, and they adopted south of the Desert, from Sha-chan to the borders his faith. Von Hammer, in describing Dokuz of the province of Pehchehli, was occupied by Khatun the wife of Khulagu Khân, who was the Uighurs, and among the places specially a grand-daughter of Tughrul, the chief of the mentioned as so oocu pied are Tiente and Ta-tung. Kirais, says, "As the Kerait had for a long So extensive was this occupation that it will time been Christians, Dokuz Kbatun was much be remembered in the famous polemic that took attached to the Christians, who during her life- place between Schmidt and Klaproth about the time were in a flourishing condition. . . nationality of the Uighurs, the former relied At the gate of the Ordu of Dokuz Khatun was a almost entirely for his case on a passage in a chapel where bells were constantly rung. Again, Mongol work on the origin of writing, in which in speaking of Siurkukteni the mother of it is stated that at one time the people of Khulagu, who was a niece of Tughrul's, he says, | Tangut were called Uighurs. " Although she was a Christian yet she favoured The evidence therefore points conclusively the Moslem Imams," etc.
to the Kirais having been & section of the The phrase Southern Turks in the East, ap- Uighurs." plied to the Krit or Kerait by Abn'l-faraj, can
Tughrul under his title of Wang Khân menn assuredly nothing else than that they was, as we have shewn in the first volume of the were Uighurs.
History of the Mongols," the Prester John of Again, the old Uighur country was Kara- medieval romance, and Prester John's country koram and its neighbourhood. It was there is called Tenduc by Marco Polo, whose the Uighurs were attacked and broken to pieces description enables us to fix it with tolerable by the Hakas in the 9th century. When accuracy. He tells us that on leaving Calathis happened a large portion of the race went chan" he proceeded eastward, and entered the southward and settled on the Chinese fron- land of Prester John, wbich be calls tier. Further, we are expressly told by Visdelou Tenduo, whose capital was also named Tenduc. that they attacked the town of Tiente," where He tells us it had been the capital of Prester they were defeated by a Chinese General, and that John, and that his heirs still ruled there." After one section of them submitted to the Emperor. leaving this province he proceeded eastwards for The other section with the Khân asked permission three days, and then arrived at Chaghari Nur." to settle at Chin-vu, which being refused, it Colonel Yule identifies the place thus described attacked the Chinese borders in the following with "the extensive and well cultivated plain year, committed great ravages, and eventually oc- which stretches from the Yellow River past the cupied the country between Tiente and Chin-vu. city of Koko Khotan which still abounds in the A third section encamped south of Ta-tung-fu remains of cities attributed to the Mongol in the mountains Liu-men-shan. Several of the era," and he goes on to suggest that the Uighur grandees submitted to the Emperor, and city of Koko Khotana is on the site of Prester were rewarded with titles, and many of their John's capital.” Pauthier identifies Tendue with followers seem to have become Chinese subjects. Ta-tung, the name of a city and fu in Northern The Chinese fought several engagements with Shan-si, south of the wall and not very far their main body, which are detailed by Visdelou." from Koko Khotan. We may take it therefore At this time other hordes of them overran that the country of Prester John as understood severnl provinces of Tangut, and settled there, by Marco Polo included the district now held especially in the districts of Sha-chau and Kua- by the Tumed of Koko Khotan and its neighchaa and as far south as the river Chaidam. It bourhood. Rashidu'd-dîn in describing the would seem in fact that the whole of the north- country of the Kirais tells us that they lived ern frontier of the present Chinese empire on the borders of Khitai" as well as in outer 15 Von Hammer, Ilkhans, vol. I, p. 11, note 1.
plexioned, whence their name from Kara, black, --Erdmann, 10 Quatremère's Rashidu'd-din, pp. 94 and 95.
Teinwischin, p. 231. 11 Puuthier, Marco Polo, tom. I, p. 214 note.
39 Pp. 533-515. 15 Tendue.
i Alushan, a little west of the Yellow river, Yulo's 19 Op. cit. pp. 153-5.
Marco Polo, vol. I, p. 273. 90 Klaproth, Beleuchtung, ete. p. 61.
** Id. vol. I, pp. 275 6. 11 In regard to the name Kirai, Rashidu'd-din derives 25 d. p. 286. it more suo from the fact that once they were ruled by 6 Called Tsingchau in medieval times. chief who had eight sons, all of whom were dark com. 27 Id. p. 277.
15 i.e. China.